Good morning my dear friends
Today is Thursday, September 29, in the year of 2011
We are on our second day of the retreat
Cultivating the Mind of Love
And this practice center is called Magnolia Grove Meditation Practice Center
When you love someone, you want to offer him or her something
Something beautiful, something that you are sure he will like or she will like
And what is the best thing you can offer him or her, when we love him or her so much
That is my question
Maybe you think that you can go to the supermarket and buy something
But that might not be the best thing you can offer him or her
We should think a little bit more about that what is the most precious thing
That you can offer him or her, the person you love so much
I know a young man of 11, he's not happy
His father is very rich
His father is a businessman
Having a lot of money
And yet
Everything that his father gave him did not make him happy
His father is extremely rich, and he could afford to buy anything for his son
But the young men did not seem to need anything at all
He was unhappy because his father is so busy
When you are a businessman like that
You do not have the time for yourself, for your wife, for your children
And that is why the young man was unhappy
His father did not have the time for him, for his mother
That is why that morning the father, the gentleman asked him
My son, tomorrow will be your birthday that's right?
What do you want? I will buy it for you
But the young man didn't know what to answer, because he did not need anything
Even an electric train, or a scooter, motorbike
But after some reflection, he found out the answer
Daddy, it's you that I want
Because his father is so busy, he is caught up with his business
He thinks too much about the stock markets and things like that
And he could not have enough time for himself, for his wife and his son
Daddy, that's you that I want, I want your presence
Though he has a father, but he does not feel that he has a father
because his father is not available to him
So if his father has gone and practiced mindfulness he would know what to do
He would go back to his breathing
and breathing in mindfully, breathing out mindfully
Bringing his mind home to his body and become fully present
And then his father would look
Into the eyes of his son and say, " Darling my son, I'm here for you" and that is the best kind of gift
that's
the best kind of present that you can make to your beloved one
So according to this practice
The best present you can make to your beloved one is your true presence
You have to be there
I'd like to ask you a question, how can you love if you are not there?
To love means
to be there
And
The practice of mindfulness can help you to be truly there in the here and the now
for your beloved one
And It's not difficult
you need only to breathe in mindfully
And bring your mind home to your body and stop all your thinking and suddenly you are there, mind and body together
And you have something very precious to offer him or her
And that is why the first mantra that we practice in Plum Village is, " Darling, I'm here for you"
And you do not have to practice it in Sanskrit, or Tibetan, you can practice it in English
Darling, I'm here for you
But in order to be there
You have to practice
Just stop your thinking about the past or the future
You have to stop
your projects
your worries
your anger
You have to ride on your in-breath to go home to yourself
And that may take only three or four seconds
For you to stop
Your thinking and bring your mind home to your body and become fully present
And you can go to him or to her and look into his eyes or her eyes
and pronounce that first manga
Darling
I'm here for you
Because you are truly there that is why the mantra is real, if you are not there the mantra will not work
But if you truly there, mind and body together, I assure you that the mantra will work
And that will make the other person happy
And the most wonderful thing is that
Even if that person is not physically in front of you
You can still practice you can use your mobile telephone
And breathing in and out mindfully, you compose on the number, and when you hear his voice
And you practice the mantra
Daddy, I know you are there
I am here for you
And truly here for you
Or mommy or anyone that you love
and the first mantra is
Darling I'm here for you, and we should all
memorize that mantra in order to practice
If we are a lover,
if we truly love someone you have to be there for him, and that is not too difficult. That is meditation
That's not difficult
It does not take time, it does not take money
We need only one thing - mindfulness, because mindfulness help you
To be there fully alive, fully present
And with that true presence we can offer to our beloved one
About 30 years ago
in a retreat organized for children in Santa Barbara, Northern California
We began to teach children pebble meditation
And children love it, pebble meditation and adult love it too
And in order to practice pebble meditation
you should go and pick up four pebbles and clean them
And dry them and put into a small bag like this
Pebble meditation is designed for children, but adult they love it many of them practice
and the practice of pebble meditation make us
Fresh, peaceful, beautiful, pleasant
So that we can offer our freshness,
our beauty, our peace to the person we love
Because the practice of mindfulness
help us to be fresh, help us to be peaceful
Help us to be stable, solid
Help us to be free
And if we are fresh, we are solid, we are calm, and then our presence has a value
And we can offer that beautiful presence to our beloved one
When a group of children sit in a circle
to begin pebble meditation
They take the pebble out
and they put it on
the left
And with the right hand I pick up the first pebble
And they look at for one or two seconds the first pebble represents a flower
It takes only one or two seconds in order to recognize the first pebble
Representing the flower and you put it on the palm of your left hand
And you put your left hand on your right hand and you begin to practice
Breathing in
I see myself as a flower
Breathing out I feel fresh
Flower, fresh
Three times
And this morning we practice that during sitting meditation led by Brother Phap Hoi
We need to breathe in and out three times in order to
Restore our freshness, our flowerness,
Because each of us is born as a flower,
a flower in the garden of humanity.
Every child is beautiful as a flower. I like to sit with the children.
I'd like to do walking meditation with children
they offer me a lot of freshness and beauty
And we adult
We were born also as flowers
and a number of us know how to
preserve our flowerness
If we know the practice and then we can preserve our flowerness, our freshness for a long time
And with that flowerness and freshness we can offer it to the person we love
But some of us do not know how to preserve our freshness, our flowerness
And that is why we don't have much to offer to our beloved one
That is why meditation
The practice of mindfulness can help us restore our flowerness
Our beauty, our freshness
Breathing in, I see myself as a flower. You don't have to imagine that you are a flower
You are a real flower, a kind of flower
A human being is beautiful
Look at a child
her face is a real flower, very pleasant to look at
His hand is a real flower, his tiny hand is a real flower
And his small foot is a real flower,
And when the small child sleeps, he's beautiful
And when the child plays, she is beautiful. She's really a flower
And we adult, we want to preserve our flowerness, our freshness, our innocence
Because that makes us more beautiful, more pleasant
So that we can offer it to our beloved one
If you have cried a little bit too much
Your eyes may be less than flowers now
But with the practice you can restore your flowerness
And your eyes will shine again, refresh again. It takes a few days
And then we have something to offer to the person we love, yes, you know
People who are above 80 like myself
We can still preserve our freshness, our flowerness
And then we can smile with our eyes also
And we still can have a lot in order to offer to the people we love
And that is the value, the function of the practice of mindfulness
Breathing in, I see myself as a flower
I don't imagine. I don't have to imagine
I was a flower and I can still be a flower with the practice
Breathing in I enjoy my in-breath, like I restore my flowerness, my freshness
I don't allow my tension, my worry to overwhelm me
I release my tension, I release my worry, and I become a flower again
That is the miracle of the practice of mindfulness
And I'm sure that after having breathed in and out three times,
and restore your freshness, you become
you feel much better, and you become more pleasant
And then after that, you take the pebble flower and you put on your right
And then you pick up the second one
that represents a mountain
Believe it or not, there is a mountain in every one of us
We can be solid
If we know how to sit and to walk
And this second pebble helps us to cultivate our stability, our solidlity
That is the element mountain in us, we are
beautiful fresh like a flower, but it can be
stable and solid like a mountain
If we know how to walk, how to sit in the present moment
People who are not stable, you can we cannot count on them
And that is why you have to be solid, you have to be stable
and your presence will be a gift to him or to her
And that's why practicing the second pebble helps you to be more stable, more solid
A person who is not stable
cannot be a happy person
And that's why cultivating stability is very important
Helping the mountain in us to manifest
You know sitting in the lotus position can make you feel stable and solid
And walking meditation, you feel much more solid
And if you know how to combine your breathing and your sitting
you become more stable and more solid
And then you have something precious to offer to him or to her, your beloved one
Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain
Breathing out, I'm solid...I feel solid, three times
And then the next pebble represents still water
Water... A lake that is completely still can reflect the sky, the mountain, the trees, the cloud
As they are and you can aim your camera
at the water, you take a picture of the sky
And people who are calm, people who are peaceful, they are happy people
If you are not calm, you cannot be a happy person
That's why practicing, to practice in order to become more calm, calmer
More peaceful is possible. Sitting meditation, walking meditation, breathing in and out
can help you to restore your peace, your calm
And then you can offer that to your beloved one
Breathing in, I see myself as still water
Breathing out, I reflect things as they truly are
Because if you are not calm, you don't see things as they are
You have a lot of wrong perceptions that give you a lot of anger, fear
That is why
we should cultivate our peace, our calm
If we are calm and peaceful, we reflect things as they are, we don't imagine
We do not become victims of our wrong perceptions
And we know that anger, fear, despair, violence, hate ...
All these things are born from wrong perceptions
The terrorists, they have a lot of wrong perceptions, that is why they want to kill, want to destroy
And we have to help them to remove
the wrong perceptions in them, help them to be calm, to be more peaceful
Last pebble represents space
You look at it for one or two seconds, and recognize it as representing space
Breathing in I see myself as space, breathing out I feel free
This meditation helps you to get a lot of space into your heart
If you have too much worries
too much fear, too much craving, there is hardly no space in your heart
You cannot be a happy person
that is why you have to put a lot of space into your heart
When you look up at the sky, and contemplate the full moon
You see the full moon, sailing across the sky, very beautiful
Because the full moon has a lot of space around her
A happy person is like that, she has a lot of space in her heart, and lot of space around her
And when you have a lot of space like that you are a happy person
and you can offer that spaceness, that freedom to the person you love
If you really love someone, offer him some space
offer her some space in her heart and around her
Do not impose your ideas
on him or on her
To offer freedom, that's true love
And that can be cultivated by the practice of mindfulness
Breathing in, I see myself as space
There is an immensity within myself
If we do not have space, freedom, we cannot be a happy person
And when we have a lot of freedom we can make our beloved one happy also
By offering him or her space and freedom
And after having practiced three times breathing in and out
and having more space, you put in on your right, and you have finished your pebble meditation
and a boy, or a little girl can very well lead a session of pebble meditation
you sit in a circle of five or six and one of you will take care
Take charge of the Bell, inviting the Bell
You begin the session with three sounds of the Bell, and everyone enjoy breathing in and out three times
and then you
will begin to practice pebble meditation
So today you might like to select to go out
and find out your four pebbles, and you may like to make a small bag like this
Before that you can keep them in your pocket
And tomorrow you may like to show us how to do it, right, how to invite the bell
and how to sing the song
I am fresh as a flower, I am solid as a mountain
so when you hear the small bell, please stand up
I mean the young ones
And bow to the Sangha before you go out
and continue your learning and practice outside with young monks and nuns
(sound of small bell)
Turn around and bow to the Sangha, have a good day
(One sound of bell)
This morning the you practice
guided meditation
And we tried
The first four exercises
Recommended by the Buddha
In a Sutra in the text of Anapanasati Sutra
the Buddha proposed sixteen exercises of mindful breathing
And the first four have to do with our body
And the first exercise is breathing in, I know this is my in-breath
Breathing out, I know that is my out-breath
So the first exercise is to recognize
your in-breath and your out-breath
To identify our in-breath as an in-breathe, our out-breath as an out-breath
to recognize
to identify
the in-breath and out-breath
Exercise number one : to identify
Our in-breath and our out-breath
The exercise is very simple, but the effect might be great
Because when you when you focus your attention on your in-breath
And you really focus your attention on it you release the past, you release the future
You might have regret, or sorrow concerning the past
And the past may have become a kind of prison
and you like to go back to that prison and suffer
And those of us who are not capable of living in the present moment
We always think of the past and we suffer
And there are those of us who are prisoners of the future
We are not capable of living in the present moment
We continue to worry, to be fearful about the future
The future become a kind of prison
We are not free
And that is why we have to cultivate the capacity to
Be free in order to live
every moment of our daily life more deeply
And in order to do that we have to go back to the present moment
And breathing in and focusing your attention on your in-breath
help you to release the past, release the future, release your projects
and bring your mind home to your body
And you, you are there
establish in the here and now
So just breathing in mindfully
set you free
free from the past, from the future
A person without freedom cannot be a happy person
And freedom can be brought
Just by breathing in, you release the past, you release the future
You are in the here and now
And you can touch the wonders of life in you and around you
So the exercise looks very simple
And yet, if you are a good practitioner
That exercise can bring you a lot of freedom, of happiness
The second exercise proposed by the Buddha is
Breathing in, I follow my in-breath from the beginning to the end
Breathing in, I follow my in-breath all the way through
And the time for your in-breath may last three, four, five, six seconds
But during that time there is no interruption
Even for one millisecond
You follow your in-breath you focus totally your mind on your in-breath
From the beginning to the end
Half the in-breath, you don't stop and say : oh, I forgot to turn off the light in my room
You don't allow that kind of interaction to happen
You are aware of your in-breath from the beginning to the end
and during the time of breathing in
you cultivate concentration
There is some concentration in mindfulness already, but if you are very mindful, truly mindful
And then concentration will be built up
And concentration helps mindfulness to be deeper
Mindfulness brings concentration, and concentration helps mindfulness to be deeper
Breathing in, I follow my in-breath from the very beginning to the end
Breathing out, I follow my out-breath from the beginning to the end
Suppose the marker is my in-breath, and this finger is my mind
I begin to breathe in, and my mind is fully, is with my in-breath all the way through
so that is the way you cultivate mindfulness and concentration
And you enjoy more your in-breath and out-breath
and your freedom becomes more long-lasting
And you can enjoy also this breathing in and breathing out
And to follow your in-breath out-breath is not hard labor
You don't have to suffer breathing in or breathing out, in fact you might enjoy
Breathing in
I enjoy my in-breath from the beginning to the end
And breathing like that
very healing and nourishing
And that is why although it looks simple, but effect can be very great
And we can practice like that in a sitting position
in the walking position, in the lying position, in a standing position
Holding your plate
Standing in line to serve breakfast
You enjoy your in-breath and out-breath
That's time to enjoy the practice
You don't need to go to the meditation hall and sit down in order to breathe
So the second exercise of mindful breathing is : to follow
Your in-breath and out-breath
The third :
Breathing in I'm aware of my body, so this is awareness of body
In a state of distraction, mind and body are not together
Our body is here, but our mind is elsewhere
In the past, in the future, in our projects, caught by anger, caught by fear
So mind and body are not together, we are not truly there. We are not living our life truly
So this exercise is to bring the mind home to the body
And to restore your ownness of body and mind
The mind become the embodied mind
And make you alive
And it can help you to get in touch with your body
Your body is a wonder
And when your mind is back to your body and recognize your body
You are truly there, and you can begin to live truly your life
Many of us live in a virtual life
Suppose you work, you are with your computer
You may get lost completely in the virtual world of the computer
You forget that you have a body
You forget that the planet Earth is there with all the wonders
You do not live in reality
And many of us have to spend so many hours in that world
And the 14th of September, our Sangha went to Northern California
and practiced one day with the people at the Google Center
All the Googlers came together
And we practice guided meditation, sitting meditation, mindful eating
and total relaxation also
And many Googlers tried for the first time
live with a, deeply with the body, with the breath
And become aware of every breath every step
Most of them work more than 15 hours a day with their computer
And they don't have a lot of chance to go back to the body
to be with their body
and to feel the presence of their body
and the presence of the environment around them
So the third exercise is to come home to the body and feel the presence of the body
And to be, to become truly alive
You cannot be truly alive without your body
So, this is a kind of reconciliation between the mind and the body
you go home and be with your body and take good care of your body
And when you come home to your body, you might notice that your body suffers
there may be a lot of tension and pain in your body
In fact, many of us have allowed tension to be accumulated into our body
and the pain continues to grow to become chronic pain
and that is why the Buddha proposed the fourth exercise
Breathing in, I release the tension from my body
Release tension in body
So this teaching, this practice is still very relevant to our time
Riding on our in-breath, we come home to our body
We feel the presence of our body, and we release, we allow our body to release the tension
And when tension can be released
We can reduce the amount of pain in our body
Because pain in the body is in function of attention
And when the body is relaxed
It has the capacity of healing itself
The body has a natural capacity to heal itself
If we allow our body to rest and to release the tension
Many of us count only on medicines
And we don't know that the basic practice to heal is to allow our body to relax
Let us think about the animals living in the mountain, they still have that wisdom
when an animal is deeply wounded
She knows how to
What to do
That animal look for a quiet place and lie down
Does not think of getting something to eat
Does not think of running after another animal
That is the wisdom they still have, they look for a quiet place, and sit down, and lie down
And they know that, that's the only way to heal
They don't have a doctor, they don't have a pharmacist
And they know that's the best way
and three or four days later, they get healed
and they begin to stand up and go and look for some food
We humans we used to have that kind of wisdom also
but now we have lost them
We now only count on medicines
we don't know that helping the body to relax and to rest
is giving the body the capacity to heal itself
Even if we have vacation, holidays, we don't know how to rest anymore
And after the vacation, after the holidays, we get more tired
So we have to relearn how to rest , and this practice helps us
We should learn how to rest again
(One sound of bell)
There's a text on " The contemplation of the body in the body"
It's sutra on the contemplation of the body
And the buddha gave an example
A farmer goes up to the attic
And bring down bag of seeds
And he open one end of the bag and allow all the seeds in the bag to flow on the floor
on the wooden floor. And with eyes still in good condition he recognized
every kind of seeds. This is his kidney beans, this is corn, this is mung beans, etc
So the practitionerr does exactly like that. She may lie down and she began to breathe in and recognize
eyes, nose, tongue, body, lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, feet.. and so on
So you practice mindfulness of breathing and you revisit
All parts of your body
Breathing in I'm aware of my eyes, breathing out I smile to my eyes. I recognize the presence of my eyes
Breathing in mindfully, I generate the energy of mindfulness
and with that energy, I recognize my eyes as existing
I embrace my eyes with the energy of mindfulness
and I may get the insight that my eyes are true conditions of happiness
And I might notice that my eyes are still in good condition
And I get insight that I need only to open my eyes
In order to get in touch with the paradise of forms and colors
that is available in the here and the now
Because of the fact that my eyes are still in good condition
The kingdom of God is available
A paradise of forms and colors is available
And I recognize one of the many conditions of happiness that I am having
So breathing in, I'm aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I smile to my eyes
And you go down, you become aware of your ears, your nose, your tongue
and you visit all parts of your body
With the practice of mindful breathing, it's like scanning the body, not with a scanner, x-rays
but with the ray of mindfulness
You recognize the presence of every part of your body, breathing in, and you smile to it with compassion
You might have not been
You might have not been very kind to that part of your body
Breathing in, I'm aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my heart
And compassion might arise from that kind of exercise
Compassion and great gratitude because my heart
she functions day and night non-stop to nourish all the cells in my body
And yet, I have not supported her
Smoking, drinking alcohol
Staying late in the night are things that are not very friendly to our heart
And when you recognize your heart
And you smile to your heart, compassion, understanding may arise and you know
how to behave, in order not to give your heart a hard time
And you might notice that your heart still functions normally
And that is something great because there are those of us who do not have a heart like that
and our deepest desire is to have a normal heart
And yet we have a heart like that, but we don't enjoy, we don't appreciate
We are giving our heart a difficult time by smoking, by drinking alcohol and so on
And the same thing is true with our liver
Breathing in, I am aware of my liver
Breathing out, I smile to my liver
My liver might be sending me a message : S.O.S....S.O.S.
But I continue to drink alcohol, I continue to eat a lot of fat
So listening to your body with compassion
visiting all parts of your body
That is the practice
recommended by the Buddha
And when you come to a place, to an organ that is ailing
You may like to stay longer with it
Embracing it tenderly
With your breathing in and out mindfully
You will help that part to heal more quickly
Let us not count only on medicines
With this practice recommended by the Buddha
we can help, we can allow our body to heal itself
We hold that ailing part of the body like holding a wounded cat
the compassion... that will help with the healing
The fifth exercise is to generate, to bring in a feeling of joy
Generating joy
The sixth is generating happiness
The seventh is to recognize a painful feeling
and the eighth is to embrace a painful feeling
So we are now in the domain, in the realm of feelings
And the four exercises are to handle, are to help us to handle our feelings
Of course, there are painful feelings, there are painful emotions
and we as practitioner, we should learn how to handle a painful feeling
If you don't know how to handle a painful feeling, you are not a good practitioner yet
If there is a strong emotion, painful emotion, we should know how to handle
that emotion, like fear, anger, despair
And this can be done with the practice of mindful breathing
But before teaching us how to handle pain,
the Buddha proposed that we learn how to generate a pleasant feeling
A joyful feeling, a happy feeling
And this practice helps us. Because as a good practitioner, you are supposed to be able
To bring in a joyful feeling whenever you like
And this, with the practice of mindful breathing
When we focus our attention on our in-breath and breathe in
We bring our mind home to our body
and we establish ourselves in the here and now
And in the here and now, we might recognize the many conditions of happiness that are already available
These conditions of happiness are in us and around us
more than enough for us to be joyful and happy
In fact, we are very lucky
We still have many conditions of joy and happiness available
But because we get lost in the past, in the future, in our worries, in our fear
That is why we do not recognize them
We believe that it is impossible to be happy now
We have to go to the future and look for some more conditions of happiness, that's the way we think
But the Buddha said very clearly, that if you go home to the here and the now
You recognize that conditions for your happiness are plenty already
And you can be happy right here, right now
That is the teaching called Drsta-Dharma-Sukkha-Vihara
Living happily in the present moment
drstadharmasukkhavihara
現法樂住
Vihara means dwelling, living. Sukkha, happy and happiness
Drstadharma, present moment
You can dwell, you can live happily right in the present moment
This expression Drstadharma-Sukkha-Vihara is found four times in a discourse
that the Buddha gave to a group of businessmen
You know that at the time of Buddha, there was a very well known businessman
whose name is Anadapindaka
He is very appreciated by the people in his country, the country of Shravasti
because he
Devote a lot of his time and money
to help the poor
Lonely people in the city
And that is why people in the city of Shravasti gave him the beautiful name Anadapindaka
the one who take care of the destitute people
or the lonely people
orphans
widows and so on. His real name is Sudatta
During one of his visit to the city of Rajagriha he discovered the Buddha and Sangha and became a student of the Buddha
He invited the Buddha to come to his country to teach
and when the Buddha agreed he went home and bought a park
with intention to offer it to the Buddha as a practice centre
It's like Magnolia
There was one time when Anadapindaka went bankruptcy
but he did not suffer because he had so many friends that came to help him restore his business
And he had a great deal of pleasure
Happiness serving the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha
So one day he brought many hundreds of his colleague
all businessmen
to come to the Buddha and the Buddha gave them that Discourse
And in that Discourse the expression
Living happily in the here and the now was repeated
five times
I think the Buddha knew that businessmen thing a little bit too much about the future
about their success. They don't have enough time to enjoy the here and the now
They overlook the present moment, they think they need more
success in order to be happy
And therefore
he gave that Discourse: gentlemen, you can be happy right here and right now and
with the practice of mindfulness you can go home
to the here and now and recognize the fact that you are very lucky, you have more than enough condition to be happy
There is a French song
Guest conductor pour it over
Why do you have to wait? You can be happy right now and every
every time we have a retreat French-speaking, for french-speaking people we always sing that song
So if we take a piece of paper
and write down the conditions of happiness that we already have
We'll find out that one page is not enough, two pages are not enough
three pages are not enough. We have a lot of conditions of happiness
beginning with our eyes
Since we have eyes still in good condition
the paradise of forms and colors is available. we just sit on the grass and enjoy the paradise
Why do we have to run into the future looking for more conditions of happiness?We had more than enough
and that is why
to generate a feeling of joy
to generate the feeling of happiness is always possible at any time
and a good practitioner by going home to the here and the now can recognize the many conditions of happiness
And she can be happy all day long and make people happy all day long also
because as a practitioner, we can remind people that
this is the time to be happy
and this civilization many people are looking for happiness in the future
elsewhere
and that is why this practice will help our society
So mindfulness, mindfulness written in Chinese is like this 念
This is the present moment 今
and this is the mind 心
Present moment, mind
The mind going home to the present moment means mindfulness
Smrti In Sanskrit
and sati in Pali
And mindfulness is the kind of energy that help us to go home to the here and the now and recognize
conditions of joy and happiness that are available
And in the Sutra there is a expression that mindfulness
is the source
give birth to joy and to happiness
念生喜樂
The joy and the happiness
born
from mindfulness
And that is why as a practitioner we can say
with confidence that mindfulness is a source of joy and happiness and
mindfulness can be generated by our practice
Mindfulness is not something you can buy in a supermarket and
when we have the collective energy of mindfulness
we can nourish ourselves, our family, our community
There is another factor that can bring happiness and joy - that is concentration
When you drink a cup of tea
you may choose to drink it with concentration, mindfulness and concentration
When you are mindful
your mind is with your body
You are truly there
you are real, you become real and
when you become real and true, something else will become real and true
that is life
Otherwise life will be only a ghost, a phantom
And you are a phantom if your mind is not with your body
If you are real in life, become real
so the cup of tea
part of life become with you, and you drink the tea in concentration
And you appreciate the tea
You enjoy the tea.
If you are not concentrated, if you look at the television
If you listen to the music and then the tea is lost
So concentration can be an element, a condition of happiness
And when we practice walking meditation
If you are really concentrated on every step
we touch the kingdom of God with every step and happiness become possible
So mindfulness and concentration are the two sources of happiness
And you can afford
to draw from happiness from these sources
And we can generate
The energy of mindfulness and concentration with our practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking
The Buddha recommend another, another method
of generating joy and happiness, that is the practice of letting go
releasing
The things that we used to
see as essential to our happiness, to our well-being
to our security
we cannot let them go
and maybe they are obstacles for our happiness
If we have the courage to let go, and then happiness and joy will come naturally
And we had to learn how to release these things
And you may like to take a
piece of paper and write down these
the things that you can let go
One time the Buddha was sitting with his monks having lunch together
And a farmer came by very unhappy
He asked
Monks did you see my cows passing over here?
and the Buddha said: what cows
I have three cows
and I don't know why this morning they all
they have all run away
And I have two acres of sesame seed, and this year the insect ate them all
Dear Venerable, I think I am going to kill myself
I have nothing left
The Buddha said: dear friend we have not seen your cows
crossing over here, maybe you should go and look for them on
the other direction
And when the farmer is gone, the Buddha turned to his monks and smiled
And he said: dear friends, you are very lucky because you don't have any cow to lose
So if you have cows you know that maybe these cows are an obstacle for our happiness
We had to write down the name of our cows on a sheet of paper and
see whether we can release them or not
Because they may be, you know what,
the obstacle of happiness
maybe a cow
we may believe that happiness is impossible until I get that
Our happiness is not possible until I get rid of this
You might have ideas like that
and that idea maybe the main obstacle for your happiness
You know the Soviet Union was caught by an idea
during 17 years
The only way to make the country strong
is communism, is Marxism and
anyone who voiced
an idea that is contradicted to that will be put in prison and
you might entertain an idea of happiness for 17 years
And wait, to wait 17 years to release an idea is too long
So you might have been, you may have entertained your idea of happiness for more than three years
It might be the obstacle of, of your happiness
so look at it again
to see whether it is a cow that you can let it go
And if you can let go of that idea of happiness, happiness will come right away
Please call your cows by there true names
and have the courage
to let them go
so letting go is a good practice
It's not because we
acquire more and more that we can be happy. It is by letting go that you become happier and happier
Living in a crowded and polluted city
Ten, ten million people you suffer because of the noise
of the dust
of the pollution
but you don't have the courage to get out of the city for a weekend to go to the countryside
Because you think that you, you have so many important things to do
But if you can get out of the city, and then after one hour you come in touch with the rolling hills
the full moon, the blue sky, the beach, the river and your happiness
the happiness you are experiencing now is
true due to the fact that you have had the courage to leave the city behind
So to let go
is one of the ways to
generate joy and happiness
and this is the teaching of the Buddha, and the teaching is still
relevant to our time
And then when we have enough joy and happiness, maybe we are stronger in
order to handle the block of pain, sorrow, feeling in us
I think this
this
Is a very scientific way
of approaching feelings
Because if a doctor judges that a patient is too weak
He would not allow surgery to take place right away
The patient should acquire some kind of
strength in order to undergo a surgery
And this is the same here, maybe we need some nourishment
with joy and happiness before we can handle the block of pain and sorrow in us
That is why the fifth and the sixth
exercise go first and then the seventh come later
Many of us are afraid of going home and get in touch with the pain inside
We are afraid of being overwhelmed by the pain, that is why our practice is to run away from our pain
but the Buddha recommend the opposite, go home and take care of your pain and
you can do that without fear
because now you have
you know how to generate the energy of mindfulness
and concentration
And you are strong enough to go home to yourself
to recognize
the pain in yourself and listen to it
and transform it
Hello my little pain, hello my little anger, I know you are there
I'm home to take care of you
I do not want to cover you up with
consumption any more
We consume not because we need to consume
We eat, we watch television
We have a conversation
not because we need to do them
because we don't want to go home and touch the suffering inside
So even if the television program is not interesting enough
we do not have the courage to turn it off because you are afraid
we had to get in touch the suffering
So the practice of mindful breathing, the practice of mindful walking
can help generate the energy of mindfulness so that we can go home to us
recognize and embrace our feeling and heal, that is the teaching of the Buddha
The basic practice is mindful breathing, mindful walking
And if we are a beginner in the practice, we can also rely on the collective
energy of mindfulness
generated by the Sangha
You sit among your brothers and sisters in the practice
You allow yourself to be embraced
like a drop of water
allow yourself to be embraced and transported by the river
Dear brothers dear sisters, here is my pain. here is my despair
please help recognize
embrace it
My own mindfulness and concentration
Is not strong enough for me to do that
So that is why practicing with the Sangha is very important when your mindfulness is not solid enough
And that is why
taking refuge in the Sangha is not a
declaration of faith
it is a practice
You belong to a Sangha. You know how to make good use of the collective energy of mindfulness in order to embrace
your pain and sorrow
And those of us who know that you have pain and sorrow, we sit there, we breathe we help embrace,
your pain and sorrow because you are a Dharma sister, a Dharma brother to us
So when the plane manifest
As a source of energy
and block of energy
a good practitioner
begin to recognize
begin to practice mindful breathing, mindful walking to generate the second source of energy
That is
the energy of mindfulness and concentration
And with that second source of energy the practitioner recognize
the first source of initial pain, sorrow, fear
My dear little fear, I know you are there. I will not run away. I am back to take care of you
That is the seventh exercise
Recognizing the painful feeling, the painful emotion, and the eighth is to embrace
Because you have enough of that energy to
embrace the pain, the sorrow
When a mother
hear the cries of the baby
she put anything she's holding down
she goes to the baby's room and
pick the baby up and hold the baby like this tenderly
So as a practitioner we do exactly the same thing
The pain, the sorrow in us is our baby. We should not try to run away from it. We have to be there
for our baby
We have to recognize it
And the mother does not know what is wrong with the baby yet
But the fact that she's holding the baby tenderly like that can already make the baby suffer less
So holding your pain with mindfulness
You don't know what is the root of
your suffering yet and yet holding it like that can bring already some relief
And you feel better
That is why generating
mindfulness and concentration and holding your pain is very important
You can suffer less especially when you are surrounded by brothers and sisters in the Dharma who can help you
to do the same
And after having hold maybe for a few minutes the mother can discover what is wrong with the baby
And she can fix the situation very easily
After having hold our pain, our sorrow
our mindfulness and concentration may bring about some insight
as what is the roots of this sorrow and fear
And we began to understand the nature of our pain our sorrow
Understanding will bring compassion
and will show us the way
In order to transform, and that is the object of other exercises that follow
Before the seven and eight
exercise is only to recognize the pain, the sorrow and
embrace tenderly with the energy of mindfulness and concentration
We shall continue tomorrow