M’CHIGEENG—So how does a young boy from Ice Lake grow up to travel to distant Asian countries steeped in eastern mysticism and eventually come to embrace Buddhism? That was a question that easily came to mind as Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu, the man formerly known as Noah Greenspoon, came to deliver a talk to the students of Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) on the topic of ‘mindfulness’ as a path to personal wellbeing, but it would have to wait until later.
The monk was delivering the keynote address at the Tuesday, May 16 Wellness Day celebrations at the high school. It was to be a day filled with a wide range of teachings that included ‘Eagle Feather Teachings,’ ‘Intro to Meditation,’ ‘Mindfulness Apps,’ ‘Physical Mindfulness,’ ‘Prayer and Mindfulness,’ ‘Therapeutic Writing,’ ‘Traditional Indigenous Teachings,’ ‘Walking in Balance,’ ‘Mindful Gardening,’ ‘Indigenous Games’ and ‘Indigenous Crafts.’ Students could either sign up online for the sessions that appealed to them or write their names on a large set of paper sheets set up in the foyer of the school.
Yuttadhammo’s mission (Bhikkhu is an honorific meaning a Theravada Buddhist monk) in addressing the students at MSS was “not to convert you,” as he explained to them at the beginning of his talk, but to offer up some simple tools of meditation with a focus on mindfulness that might help them deal with the challenges of youth and life.
This talk would be a bit of a challenge, admitted Yuttadhammo. “I have been teaching for some time, but this is the first time to non-Buddhist kids,” he said. “I do a lot of online teaching, a lot of videos and have met a diverse number of people.” He also works on peace studies with McMaster University. Getting to know Yuttadhammo, his personal journey to Buddhism and lessons in the various aspects of his faith are very accessible. He has posted some 1,500-odd videos on YouTube. A search on the site for either Noah Greenspoon or Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu will bring up a host of examples. His video ‘Ask a Monk: How I Became a Buddhist Monk’ had 241,689 views as of Monday evening.
Despite his usual student cadre, Yuttadhammo is hardly a stranger to the halls of MSS, having been a student there in the mid-1990s, graduating in 1997. “It has been a 20-year journey back to this school,” he said. The techniques he was sharing were a gift that he hoped “you can use in your life when things get difficult.”
Yuttadhammo referenced memes in his talk, connecting that as a mutual reference point. He noted that life is often difficult and fraught with challenges that can beset our sense of inner peace. The mind, he noted, is a very elastic and malleable organ and it is very possible to change.
He noted that we are largely defined by the people we hang out with. “You pick up their habits,” he noted.
Habits are simply that and so much of what besets us in life are simply habits. “There is nothing magical about it,” he said. “Worrying about things is a habit, anxiety is just a habit.” Yuttadhammo is familiar with these habits and their destructive power.
“I was an insomniac when I was in Grade 13 (OAC),” he said, “that was back when there was a Grade 13.” He would rise at 3 am and stress himself as he worried to the morning light.
“I would like to share an example of cultivating a habit,” he said, asking the students to put down their cell phones, close their eyes and think about a themselves. “Make a wish,” he said. “May I be happy. Just say that. Think about the people around you. May they be free from suffering, find peace, be well.” This is simply about finding a state of mind that is peaceful, harmonious, happy.
“This is mediation,” he said. “May they be happy, may all of us be happy. Expand it out. To all of M’Chigeeng, all of their spirits, may they all be well. Everyone on Manitoulin, may they all be healthy, may they all be well.”
As he guided the students assembled in the cafeteria audience through the process of focussing on the phrases wishing everyone well, Yuttadhammo’s voice was calm and soothing, lulling in cadence, yet focused on the message. In an audience noted for often producing a substantial undertone of whispered conversation, the audience was almost eerily silent as they sat, eyes closed and listening respectfully, lending a spiritual air to the cafeteria as the cadence of Yuttadhammo’s voice overlay the silence. This was a demonstration of the first of two types of meditation. “A simple example of calming.”
Yuttadhammo explained that the students had just experienced the basic tenets of mindfulness meditation. The phrases he had the students repeating in their minds, Yuttadhammo noted, are a mantra. A mantra is essentially a repeated phrase that helps focus the mind.
There are so many things that assail our lives, he noted, and most of them are things that we cannot change, such as physical pain. All one can control is “how we react.”
“With mindfulness, you are not judging anything,” he said.
Dealing with pain can be highly effective through meditation, counterintuitively by focussing on the pain. “Pain, pain, pain,” repeats Yuttadhammo. “It is yelling at you. Why does it work? You are reminding yourself, it is just pain. It’s pain, but yeah, so what?” Instead of running from it, embracing the pain takes away its power over your mind and body.
Yuttadhammo gave an example of a woman he met on a plane who was terrified of flying. He induced her to repeat in her mind, “afraid, afraid, afraid.” When the plane had landed she confided in him that this was the first time she had experienced a landing without being paralyzed with fear.
There were a number of examples, including dealing with stage four cancer and its associated pain. Meditation had helped people through the experience without resorting to pills. “It didn’t take away the cancer,” he cautioned. “This is just a skill, something you can learn to help you deal with the trials and tribulations of life and get through it.”
