Everything breaks! Sooner or later. What a great way to start this first reflection, right? But we’ve all had something treasured break. In her book, How To Be Sick, Toni Bernhard writes about a broken-glass practice inspired by the Thai Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah.
“Can you prevent something that’s breakable from breaking? It will break sooner or later. If you don’t break it someone else will. . . the Buddha saw the broken glass within the unbroken one. Whenever you use this glass, you should reflect that it’s already broken. Whenever its time is up, it will break. Use the glass, look after it, until the day when it slips out of your hand and shatters. No problem. Why not? Because you saw its brokenness before it broke!”
-Ajahn Chah
This is an interesting thought – thinking of things as already broken. Thinking of every piece on my work shelf – greenware, bisqueware, and completed pots – as already broken. Will that help make it easier when a favorite piece cracks in the kiln or someone drops and shatters a piece I spent hours making? Maybe, maybe not always. But the idea of seeing something’s brokenness before it breaks helps to uncurl the grip of attachment even if just a bit. So I’ll keep enjoying my favorite handmade donut plate and when it breaks, I’ll remind myself, “It was already broken”. Or I’ll be sad for a moment. We’ll have to wait and see:)
