By Richard
A monk asked, “It is so hot. How is it possible to escape from the heat?”
The master said, “Why don’t you go to a place where it is neither cold nor hot?”
The monk said, “Is there a place where it is neither cold nor hot?”
The master said, “When it is cold, you should be cold buddha. When it is hot, you should be hot buddha.”
Recently my wife and I took a trip out to a mineral spa complex, spending a simple day resting in many warm pools – whilst carefully avoiding the expensive rejuvenation therapies and exfoliation packages.
One of the smaller pools is in a particularly nice setting, being under a covered outdoor area, looking out over a flowing creek and gully of birch trees.
Just next to this is a wooden sauna. The practice here, after spending time inside, is to rush out of the door and head straight into a nearby cold plunge pool. This is repeated over again: back to the sauna, then again into the plunge pool.
The shock to the system this creates has many stated health benefits, including for the lymphatic system, arthritis relief, and providing a general sense of well-being. What’s especially noticeable though, is a sudden sense of being intensely alive: of sharp awareness, as through being jolted awake from a slumber.
In wellbeing circles this might be known as the latest fad, however the practice actually originates from Finland, where it is known as Avanto. After a sauna, people may swim inside a hole cut through a frozen lake, or even roll around in the snow. Finland incidentally, is ranked in international surveys as being the happiest country on earth. Exactly how much the practice of swimming in a frozen lake assists in these rankings, is yet to be known.
This all reminds me of Tozan’s words mentioned earlier, which are from Case 43 of the Blue Cliff Record.
There are many cycles of hot and cold, and throughout this process it is interesting to observe the direct pain response of the body.
At first: the initial fear of entering the cold plunge pool, which is experienced by some slightly panicked thoughts, and a tightening of muscles. This is a reminder of the “double arrow” lesson by Buddha: the thought of pain being worse than the actual physical pain in of itself. So the practice here is to just relax, enter the water and accept the coldness, letting it envelope you.
Then there is the raw physical pain that comes with the shock to the system. What becomes very clear at this point, is that this pain is at its worst when the rate of temperature change is greatest.
After that, the body slowly adapts, and the initial pain subsides. The main practice then, is to lie in the water and feel the coldness, rather than trying to ignore it away.
Heading back to the sauna, the experience is a little reversed: after an initial blast of warm air, things settle down nicely. But after a while, a fogginess builds up with all the heat. The practice in the sauna, is to sit and keep focussed amidst all the steam and discomfort.
This is all of course, a reminder of the lessons in life. There are many circumstances of heat and cold: summer and winter, excitement and quietness, health and sickness, gain and loss.
Many of these events may bring annoyances and discomfort that we wish weren’t there. Others may be nice at first, but ultimately bring fogginess and lack of clarity. And then there is the pain that occurs when the rate of change is greatest.
There are also limits to how much temperature is safe. Too much heat can scald, too much cold can freeze. Taking reasonable steps to control dangerous extremes is an important part of reducing unnecessary suffering. However, some extremes may be unavoidable, and back within safe limits there is still discomfort with the inevitable fluctuations of hot and cold.
So our meditation practice is to just feel the heat and coldness as they occur: feeling the discomfort and appreciating the circumstances in life, to give us a sense of being fully awake and alive.
But also not forgetting that from time to time, it is alright just to sit in the warm pool, and look out over the creek.