Good morning, dear friends,
Today is the 7th of October
in the year 2012
and we are in the
Still Water Meditation Hall, Upper Hamlet.
Today is the first day of the Fall Retreat
the second day of the Fall Retreat.
I hope you slept well last night.
46 years ago,
I was invited by Cornell University
in Ithaca New York
to come and give a series of lectures
on the situation in Vietnam.
The war in Vietnam was ravaging...
very destructive,
and many of us in Vietnam did not want
the war to go on,
but we did not have the right
to say so.
The majority did not want that war to go on.
The Vietnamese were fighting each other,
using foreign ideologies
and foreign weapons.
One side is Marxism/Leninism
and the other side is capitalism,
anti-communism.
So we imported ideologies from the outside,
and we also imported weapons
- deadly weapons - from outside.
You were not allowed
to voice your desire for peace,
because both warring parties
wanted to go on with the war
and destroy the other side.
The communist side was backed
by the Soviet Union and China
and the anti-communist side
was backed by America
and other allies.
So we were caught.
There was a peace movement in Vietnam,
but under ground.
Because you risked your life
if you speak out about peace.
Thay was in Vietnam
working with a group of young people,
trying to diffuse peace literature.
Thay wrote anti-war poetry
that was not allowed to be published,
but a young group of students
that followed Thay
tried to publish them anyway.
The title of the book of poetry is
"Let us joins our palms and pray
so the dove - the white dove... peace
will appear in our country."
And...
The book of poetry is sold very well...
... underground...
and you risk
being arrested if you have one copy.
And also Thay wrote a book
calling for the cessation of the hostilities.
And the title of the book is
"A Lotus in a Sea of Fire"
That book was also published by Hill & Wang
in New York.
Sister Chân Không (True Emptiness),
who is here today with us,
she was arrested in Hue
because she had one copy of that book.
We just wanted to say that we do not want
the war to go on.
We want reconciliation.
At that time Thay already set up
an institute of higher buddhist studies
also a buddhist university,
called Van Hanh University,
and the School of Youth for Social Service
is to train young workers to help rebuild
villages that have been destroyed
by the bombing.
and organize / setup refugee camps
new villages in order to help people
to reorganise their lives.
We trained many young social workers to do the work,
to care for the wounded people,
to take care of the orphans.
And we also organised pilot villages
where we taught peasants how to organise themselves
in matters of health, education,
and so on.
So we trained young social workers,
among them young monks and nuns,
and lay people,
very dedicated to the work of peace and
reconstruction.
And many of our workers,
during the time of service
were kidnapped,
eliminated by the warring parties.
So many disciples of mine disappeared
during service. Missing in Action...
They carried with themselves not a gun,
but a heart of love and service.
And they assassinated many of our social workers.
We only worked for reconciliation
but they did not like us.
In a situation of war like that,
if you want to be safe,
you have to belong
to one of the warring parties.
You have to take sides.
If you take sides,
then you'll be protected
at least by one side.
But if you do not take sides,
then you are exposed to the persecution
of both sides.
The peace movement that we initiated in Vietnam
was in that kind of danger.
We were persecuted by both sides.
And there was a lot of suspicion
that we are working for the other side.
One day they came
to the School of Youth for Social Service
and attacked us.
We are only social workers
trying to help the peasants
to rebuild their destroyed villages,
and yet they suspect us
to be with the other side.
Fanatical catholics,
fanatical communists,
they came and they killed
a number of our social workers
in the School of Youth for Social Service,
and they threw a grenade into my room.
Because they had made research before,
they knew where I slept.
That was at Pháp Vân temple.
The temple is like a chapel for the whole
School of Youth for Social Service.
The School of Youth for Social Service
was built by ourselves -
by social workers.
We made bricks,
we built our classrooms,
we built our living quarters,
we did everything.
And we did not dare to ask
for the support from any government,
because if we did,
we would have belonged to one warring party.
So we based on the grassroots people
in order to have materials,
and food and other things,
in order to organise
the School of Youth for Social Service.
So that night they threw a grenade into my room.
Fortunately I was not there.
I had left one day before
for the United States of America
to give a series of lectures
in Cornell University.
Otherwise I would not be here today.
And you know that since I was
trying to tell the United States of America,
and Europe,
that we did not want the war
- Trying to speak for the majority -
that is why the government
did not allow me to go home
after the tour.
And I began my exile in the West.
40 years of exile.
It's very difficult.
All my friends were in Vietnam,
all my work was in Vietnam,
and suddenly I found myself alone here,
not being able to continue.
So with my practice,
I tried to survive,
tried to make new friends,
and try to share my practice of meditation.
After the tour,
speaking tour,
I came to Paris trying to seek
political asylum in France,
and set up a peace delegation
in order to speak the voice of the people
in Vietnam, who did not have a chance
to express themselves.
We didn't have a place large enough
in order to do sitting meditation,
so we asked our quaker friends
to allow us a place to practice
sitting meditation.
There's a Quaker Centre in Paris
Rue Vaugirard
And we know that working for peace
we may burn out if we do not maintain
a spiritual practice
that is why to continue
the practice of meditation
is very crucial for you to continue
with your peace work or social work.
In the School for Youth of Social Service also
we know that if you want to serve
for a long time, we have to
get a spiritual dimension
in our daily lives.
If you do not have a spiritual practice,
you can lose yourself in despair
or anger or frustration,
and you can't continue very long.
So in Paris,
I did the same,
trying my best to convince the people
to help end the war in Vietnam
and we tried to
follow a practice that can sustain us
as a peace worker.
Professor George Kahin
is a professor of government, politics,
it was he who wrote the letter,
invited me to come and give a series of lectures
in Cornell University
And thanks to that letter I could get
a passport and a visa.
But when they gave me the passport,
they said "Don't say anything about peace!"
And my purpose is to go and talk about this.
I didn't say anything, I just smiled.
That's 1966. Many of you hadn't been born...
and I was still a young monk.
A little bit more than 40.
And professor Kahin offered me hospitality.
I stayed in their house -
a very beautiful house.
And one day he asked me
"Thay, what do you do when
you practice sitting meditation?"
This is a very good question.
He saw me practice sitting every day,
and he was curious!
"What do you do
when you practice sitting meditation?"
It means that sitting meditation is "doing things".
But in fact,
sitting meditation is not doing things.
Sitting is a kind of being -
and not doing.
You sit in such a way that peace
is possible...
harmony is possible...
joy is possible...
and healing is possible.
And you don't have to strive,
to fight,
in order to do that.
So sitting is an art.
Sitting should not be hard work,
hard labor.
Sitting must be a pleasure.
It's like walking.
Or breathing.
If you suffer when you practice
mindful breathing,
if you suffer while you practice
mindful walking,
your practice is not good.
Your practice should be pleasant,
your practice should bring healing
transformation and nourishment
not in the future,
but right during the time you practice.
So sitting,
if you know how to sit,
you get the healing during
the sitting.
you get the nourishment
during the sitting.
And sitting like that
is a privilege,
because many of us do not have
the privilege of sitting.
Remember Nelson Mandela,
the ex-president of South Africa,
when he came to Paris,
for the first time visiting the French President,
Francois Mitterrand,
the press asked him many questions.
He had been in prison for a long time.
So they asked him:
"Mr. President, what do you want to do the most now?"
And he said:
"What I want to do the most now
is to sit down and do nothing."
He felt the need to sit.
"Since the time I was released from prison,
I was so busy... so many things to do..
and I feel the need... my deepest desire
is to have the time to sit down
and not to worry about anything,
not to do anything."
And it was reported in Le Monde -
the French Newspaper.
And when Thay read that interview,
Thay had some reflection.
All of us need the time to sit down
and do nothing.
But sitting down and doing nothing
is not that easy.
When you are used to be doing something,
always.
Without doing something, you cannot stand it,
you cannot bear it. It has become a habit.
So sitting and doing nothing is a challenge.
And that is sitting meditation.
So sitting is an art.
You sit in such a way that you feel relaxed,
happy, peaceful.
There is no need to do anything at all.
You are not pulled away by a project,
a desire to do something.
So I tried to explain to George Kahin
about sitting meditation.
It's not much... it should not be described
in terms of doing something when you sit...
but being... how to be.
And you do that not only with your mind,
but also with your body.
Because mind and body are
connected to each other in such a way
that you cannot take mind out of body
and body out of mind.
And you do not need to make an effort.
You don't have to fight or to strive.
It is an art rather than a labor.
If you happen to become aware that you have a body,
that is not something so difficult.
In the third exercise of mindful breathing,
the Buddha proposed:
"Breathing in, I know I have a body."
So the body becomes the object of your mind.
You are aware of your body.
In our modern times,
sometimes we spend two hours or three
with our computer. We are completely lost,
and we completely forget that we have a body.
We are pulled away,
there is no awareness that the body is there.
Many of our brothers and sisters
here in Plum Village.
they programmed a bell of mindfulness
on their computers.
Every quarter of an hour,
the bell sounds.
And when the bell of mindfulness is heard,
you stop working,
you stop thinking,
you go back to your inbreath
you breathe in and you get in touch
with your body.
When mind is not with body,
you are not truly there
to live your life.
And in our daily lives,
very often our mind is not with our body.
Our mind might be caught in the past,
we are drowned in our regrets or sorrows
concerning the past.
the past becomes a prison for you,
you cannot get out.
Many of us are not free from the past.
We are caught by our regret and sorrow.
We are not able to live our lives
because we are in prison.
So breathing in mindfully
might pull us out of the past
so that we can be free to be with our body.
Because when mind and body are together,
you can be established in the present moment.
If mind and body are not together,
you are not in the present moment,
in the here and in the now.
And life - real life - is available
only in the present moment.
Because the past is no longer there
and the future is not yet there.
Life, and all the wonders of life,
can be found only in the present moment.
So... one mindful inbreath
may be enough
to pull you out of the prison
of the past
and bring your mind back to your body
so that you can come home to the here and the now
where life is available.
and you can touch the blue sky,
touch the rain,
touch the clouds, touch the trees,
touch the songs of the birds.
And the first thing you touch is your body.
And the third exercise of mindful breathing
proposed by the Buddha is
"Breathing in, I am aware of my body."
of the existence of my body.
It's so simple. And you don't have
to strive, to fight in order to do so.
And it can be very pleasant too
because breathing in can be very pleasant.
When you do not have asthma,
when your nose is not stuffed,
then breathing in the fresh air can be very pleasant.
Breathing in, I enjoy breathing in...
Breathing in, I am aware that I have a body.
So that is not hard work.
And then many of us...
if we are not caught in the prison of the past,
then we are caught in the prison of the future.
Many of us worry about the future.
We don't know what will happen to our future.
So we spend our time to worry about the future.
and there is fear about the future,
there is anxiety, uncertainty about the future,
these kinds of negative energies
are not nourishing and healing.
and most of us
sacrifice the present moment
for the sake of the future.
Many of us are good to prepare for the future,
but are not got to live the present moment.
We can prepare for the future,
but we are not capable
of enjoying the present moment.
and you are caught in the fear,
in the uncertainty about the future -
and the future becomes a prison.
We are not truly living our lives.
Because we do not have freedom.
And we know that freedom is the foundation
of true happiness.
Not political freedom,
but freedom vis a vis the past,
vis a vis the future,
the sorrow, the regret,
the complex, the fear,
the anxiety,
we are slaves,
we are bounded by these kinds of energies.
We are not free.
That is why joy and happiness is not possible.
Happy life is not possible.
So sitting is a way in order to be free.
And you may like to handle your body,
your breath, your mind in such a way
that you can restore freedom.
Because one inbreath made mindfully
can pull you out from the prison
of the past and the future.
Just to become aware that you have a body.
and you smile to your body.
it helps you to be fully present
in the here and now.
so that you can live you life deeply.
And when you are in touch with your body,
you might get the insight:
mindfulness and concentration
directed to your body.
Your body becomes the object of your mindfulness,
because mindfulness is always
mindfulness of something.
When you breathe, that's
mindfulness of breathing.
When you drink:
mindfulness of drinking
When you walk:
mindfulness of walking
When you're angry - and you know you're angry:
mindfulness of anger.
So mindfulness is always
mindfulness of something.
So this is mindfulness of body.
Breathing in, first of all,
the object of mindfulness is your inbreath.
And your inbreath brings you home to your body,
and becomes mindfulness of body.
And if you are very mindful of your body,
then you are concentrated also,
Because mindfulness and concentration
they go together,
When you are mindful of something,
and very mindful of that something,
you are concentrated somehow on that.
Concentrated means that
you only pay attention to that,
and not to other things.
You release everything else,
and just retain one object.
And that object might be your inbreath,
maybe the tea you are drinking,
or maybe your body -
mindfulness of body.
And the Buddha gave us
one whole sutra on the practice of
mindfulness of body -
the contemplation of the body.
And when you are mindful of your body,
and you are truly concentrated on your body,
you may find out
- easily and very quickly -
that your body is a wonder,
is a mystery.
I think biologists, many of them,
are capable to see that our body is a wonder.
It's so well organized.
Biology tries to understand the body,
but our understanding of the body
is not enough, is not complete yet.
It's a wonder.
And you possess a wonder.
Your body is a wonder.
Yesterday, during a conversation
between Thay and brother David,
I said that "that flower, that you see,
on your path,
is a wonder.
It is a mystery.
the presence of that tiny flower is a wonder.
And you may say that this flower
belongs to the kingdom of God.
You cannot explain with your human mind
how that flower is there.
If that flower
does not belong to the kingdom of God,
Where should it belong to?
And if you put mindfulness and concentration
you can get in touch with that flower,
and you may get right away the insight
that this is something that belongs
to the kingdom of God... that it is part
of the kingdom of God.
And if you can really touch that flower,
you touch the kingdom
in the here and the now.
You don't have to die in order to
touch the kingdom of God.
And if the kingdom of God is available
because not only that flower
belongs to the kingdom,
but this plant also
belongs to the kingdom.
And your body also
belongs to the kingdom.
Do not have any complex.
Your body is a wonder.
It is a mystery.
You cannot explain with your speculative mind.
So everything that you touch,
in you and around you, that all
belongs to the kingdom of god,
they are wonders.
not only the lotus flower is a wonder,
but the mud that helps
to produce the lotus
is also a wonder.
Without the mud, there would not be a lotus.
So it is possible,
with the practice of mindfulness,
to get in touch with the Kingdom of God -
every moment of your daily life.
In the Buddhist tradition, we do not use
the phrase "kingdom of God"
We use the term "dharmakaya"
the body of the cosmos.
Or we use the word "suchness"
Suchness
Tathātā
It means reality as it is.
the ultimate reality.
reality as it is.
You cannot describe reality as it is
in terms of being or non-being,
good or evil, birth and death,
because these are notions
these are mental categories
that are not capable of describing
the ultimate.
You cannot use notions and concepts
to describe God.
And we have the word "dharmabody":
the body of the cosmos.
And sometimes we use the word "Nirvana".
Sometimes we use "bhutakoti, that té" -
there are many words.
We do not use the words "God"
or "kingdom of God"
but they are equivalent.
So the flower, the cloud, the rain,
your body, are expressions, are manifestions
of the wonderful suchness,
of the wonderful dharma body,
of the wonderful Nirvana.
So Westerners, many of them belong
to the Christian tradition, are using the term
"kingdom of God." It is easier.
If the kingdom of God is available
in the here and the now, then God is
available also in the here and now.
If you can touch the kingdom,
you can touch God.
So during walking meditation,
I picked up one tiny flower
and offered it to brother David,
I offered him the kingdom of God.
And with the energy of mindfulness,
concentration powerful enough,
you can touch the kingdom of God
in everything. Not only in the lotus,
but also in the mud,
because in the kingdom of God,
there is no discrimination.
And yesterday we spoke about the relationship
between suffering and happiness.
Suffering is a kind of mud,
happiness is a kind of lotus,
and if we know how to make
good use of suffering, we can produce
the beautiful lotus of happiness.
So everything inside of you and around you
can be seen as a manifestation
of the kingdom.
The kingdom is available 24 hours a day.
The problem is whether you are
available to the kingdom.
You are caught
in the prison of the past,
in the prison of the future,
of your worries,
so you cannot touch the kingdom.
It is not that the kingdom is not available -
It is you who are not available to the kingdom
because you do not have freedom.
And the practice of mindfulness and concentration
helps you to get out of the prison
in order to touch the kingdom.
if the kingdom is available 24 hours a day,
and God is available 24 hours a day, now,
you don't have to die in order to see God.
It may be too late.
We have to be very alive
in order to get in touch with God,
and to be alive,
you should have that energy in you,
energy of awareness, mindfulness, concentration,
and these energies are in you.
You can generate energy of mindfulness,
concentration and insight.
When you drink the tea, you can choose
to drink it in mindfulness.
It means that
with mindfulness and concentration,
when you breathe in mindfully
and bring your mind home to your body,
and then you are established in the here and the now.
And you become fully present in the here and the now,
and you become fully alive in the here and the now.
Just one inbreath.
No hard labor.
And when you're really fully present
then the tea you hold in your hand
becomes also real.
And drinking tea in that way,
you are drinking in the kingdom of God.
And you can do everything in your daily life in that way.
And the kingdom of God,
the ultimate truth, reality,
can be available to you at every moment.
Sometimes we despise our body,
we hate our body.
It means we hate the kingdom of God,
we despise the kingdom of God,
because our body is a wonder.
We are thinking of our body
in terms of good and evil,
we are caught
by the complex of superiority and inferiority.
All these are created by your mind.
They prevent you to touch the kingdom of God,
to the suchness.
Suchness translated into French is "ainsité":
Things are, what they are.
And your idea about it might be wrong.
It is your way of seeing
that allows it to reveal itself to you.
So the first exercise of mindful breathing is
"Breathing in, I know I am breathing in."
Breathing in, I know that this is an inbreath
that I produce, I enjoy.
We breathe all the time, but not mindfully.
But when you bring your attention
to your inbreath,
that's called mindful breathing.
And your inbreath becomes the object of your mind -
the ONLY object of your mind.
You forget everything else -
you release everything: worries, projects,
regrets, everything.
So just breathe in mindfully,
and you become a free person.
It takes three seconds or four.
Just breathe in and focus your attention
only on your inbreath.
And you release the past, the future,
your worries, your projects.
It's a one-minded mind, one minded thing.
Ekaggata - one-pointed mind.
And we use to think too much.
So breathing in is not thinking.
The words "breathing in, I know I am breathing in"
is not a thought, it is a practice.
And you don-t have to use the words.
You just focus the attention on your inbreath
and you breathe in and you focus all
your attention on your breathing.
And it may be pleasant too.
and if you enjoy your inbreath,
and you feel wonderful,
and you touch the wonder of life.
And one inbreath, even if it is short,
as short as two or three seconds,
can produce a miracle,
can bring you insight, understanding.
Breathing in mindfully,
you might discover
the truth that you are there,
you are alive
because someone who is already dead
does not breathe in anymore.
And seeing that you are breathing in,
you know that you have a body,
you are alive.
And that is already insight,
that is already awakening, enlightenment!
Please do not think of enlightenment
as something far away,
that you get after ten years of practice. No.
Enlightenment can be immediate.
Because the energy of mindfulness
carries within itself the energies of
concentration and enlightenment.
Look at this logo:
"Smrti, Samadhi, and Prajna"
Smrti is mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the energy that allows you
to be there in the here and the now,
allows you to know what is going on
in the here and the now.
And everyone of us
is capable of generating that energy.
That's a holy energy.
When you breathe in mindfully,
you are a holy person
and I can call you "your holiness."
And if you are truly very mindful,
you are concentrated on that object
of mindfulness. And that is "samadhi."
Samadhi means concentration.
Samadhi also means calm, peace.
And when the energy
of smrti and samadhi are there,
the energy of prajna, which is wisdom,
enlightenment, deep vision, insight,
is available also.
It can just happen like this.
Breathing in, you get enlightened.
And to know that you are there, still alive,
is already an enlightenment.
It's not something far away.
It's not wishful thinking, hope for the future.
Enlightenment is available
- may be available -
in the here and the now,
if smrti and samadhi are there.
So breathing in three seconds mindfully,
you enjoy breathing in.
And the energy of mindfulness allows you to get
the insight that "Ah! I'm there, I'm alive!
the fact that I'm here, sitting here,
making steps on this beautiful planet
is a wonder!"
And you touch the kingdom of God.
And breathing in mindfully can set you free.
Freedom. Freedom is possible.
You know, if you are to make a decision,
you are forced to make a decision,
and sometimes you have to make it quickly...
there is a deadline...
the other person calling you on the telephone
and asks you,
or expects you to make a decision.
And if you are caught by the regret, or
or the sorrow about the future,
if you are caught by the
energy of fear and uncertainty,
then you are not free.
And in that situation your decision
cannot be a good decision.
Because your decision is conditioned,
influenced by your fear, your anger,
your uncertainty, your sorrow.
This is not a good decision.
So don't make a decision.
Breathe in first.
Breathe in, and you release all this
past and future, and you become freer,
and there will be a variety of decisions
available to you.
and you can make a better decision.
Breathing in, releasing all these feelings
that can infringe you, you become free,
and any decision you make
is a better decision.
It makes a big difference
with mindfulness, concentration and insight.
Your decision will be more compassionate,
intelligent, beneficial for you and for him.
And if you make a decision under the pressure
of anger, fear, worries,
that's not good for you and for her.
The practice recommended by the Buddha
may look very simple,
he tried to make it simple, so that we can
put it into practice.
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.
That is mindful breathing.
And you can do it at any time.
You don't have to go to the meditation hall
and sit down in order to do that.
While you are washing the dishes,
you may like to enjoy
breathing in and out mindfully,
and be yourself, and enjoy dishwashing.
When you drive your car, why don't you practice
mindful breathing, mindful smiling,
and make the driving pleasant.
When you take a shower,
when you cook your breakfast,
and it can only bring you more joy,
and happiness and life, true life,
because if you are really there,
then life is real.
Why cooking breakfast
if you are caught by your worries,
your planning.
That's not the best way of making breakfast.
Eating breakfast also.
Mindfulness and concentration help you
to enjoy every moment of breakfast making.
When you open the water tap,
mindfulness tells you that water
has come from high up in the mountain.
Water has come from the depth of the earth
to your kitchen. That is a wonder.
So you enjoy water.
When you wash your face, your hand,
allow your fingers to be in touch with the cool,
refreshing water.
The feeling is very pleasant.
And when you wash your eyes with that
fresh, cold, water, it can be very pleasant!
You cherish the fresh water
and you cherish your eyes.
You have two eyes still in good conditions.
So many wonderful things.
And that is possible thanks to mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a source of happiness.
You recognize that so many
conditions of happiness,
so many wonders of life
are available, refreshing and healing.
And mindfulness is not something
you have to ask from a God.
Mindfulness is something you can generate
by just walking, breathing,
or doing anything.
Mindful driving, mindful dishwashing,
mindful walking,
generating energy of mindfulness.
So the first exercise,
"Breathing in, I know I am breathing in"
an inbreath is happening.
What is happiness?
Mindfulness is the energy that allows you to...
to be aware of what is happening.
What is happening is: you are breathing in.
What is happening is that you have a body.
What is happening is that
there is fresh air available.
And everyone is capable of being mindful.
The second exercise is:
"Breathing in, I follow my inbreath
from the beginning to the end."
Suppose this is the length of your inbreath.
Three, four, five, six seconds.
There was a time when I would enjoy
a very looong inbreath.
It may last 12 seconds!
And when your inbreath lasts 12 seconds,
your whole breath can last 18 seconds,
So in one minute,
there are only two inbreaths and two outbreaths.
Deep breathing, with your belly,
it helps bring a lot of oxygen
into your body,
it helps bring out the...
the polluted air from your lungs.
But we don't need to try
to make our inbreaths and outbreaths longer.
We just breathe in such a way that
makes us... that can be pleasant.
Two seconds / three seconds is ok.
three seconds / five seconds,
four seconds / six seconds, it depends
the essential is that you feel pleasant,
you feel happy while breathing in and out.
So the second exercise is
"Breathing in, I follow my breathing
from the beginning to the end."
No interruption. Continued mindfulness.
No thinking, no planning interfere.
So breathing like that,
you allow your concentration
to become stronger.
And as your concentration becomes strong,
you get insights... more insight.
And so the practice is just to generate
these three kinds of energies
that can transform our suffering
and bring happiness.
This is not an act of devotion,
this is not prayer, this is practice.
And the third exercise you already know.
"Breathing in, I know I have a body."
If you want to put the bell of mindfulness
in your computer,
Thay Phap Nguyen will tell you how.
You know in Plum Village,
every time the clock plays music,
every quarter of an hour,
we stop talking, we stop thinking,
we stop eating, and we just go back to our body,
and we enjoy.
The present moment becomes alive again.
If we have lost our awareness
during the time of eating lunch,
mindfulness helps us
to be aware of two things:
the food that we eat,
which is a gift from the cosmos.
In the christian tradition, the bread is
is the body of Jesus Christ.
In this tradition,
the bread you hold in your hand
is the body of the cosmos.
Everything in the cosmos is in there.
Wind, rain, cloud, sunshine -
everything has come together
to produce that piece of bread you are eating.
And if you chew your bread in mindfulness,
you are in touch with the whole cosmos.
You are not alienated,
you are not isolated anymore.
So it's very important that you come back
to your body
and you touch
that wonder of life which is your body.
You are more than your body.
And the fourth exercise
is also a play and not a hard labor.
It's to release the tension in your body.
"Breathing in, I calm my body
I release the tension in my body."
And these are the things we enjoy doing
during sitting meditation. Just the beginning.
Learn how to handle our respiration,
how to handle our body,
how to handle our mind.
You don't have to do anything,
just handle them skillfully, with art.
And you have peace, pleasure,
healing, nourishment.
That's the first four exercises of mindful breathing,
dealing with the body.
And the next four is the four exercises
on how to handle our feelings and emotions.
So the first exercise is to be
with your inbreath and your outbreath.
To recognize, to be aware.
And while breathing in,
you identify yourself
with your inbreath.
The one who breathes and the breath
that is being breathed, are one.
And you enjoy. You are your own breathing.
There is no distinction anymore between
you, the breather, and the breath.
You cannot take the breather out of the breath,
and you cannot take the breath
out of the breather.
And that may be also another insight
that can happen during your practice
of mindful breathing.
This is me doing something like a breathing.
That is not be best way of saying it.
The best way is:
"There is a breathing going on."
So the first exercise is to be aware
of your inbreath and outbreath,
to be one with your inbreath and oubreath.
No discrimination.
The second one is to follow
your inbreath and outbreath
all the way through.
And that is pleasant also.
So let us learn the habit of being happy
while breathing in and breathing out.
Whether you are sitting on the grass,
or driving your car,
or washing your dishes:
enjoy your inbreath.
The reason why you can enjoy your inbreath
is that you are alive.
You have enough conditions of happiness,
and dishwashing is something wonderful
Also:
Washing dishes is not only
to have clean dishes -
washing dishes is to ENJOY washing dishes -
it's not dirty work.
And you wash your dishes in such a way
that the kingdom of God is available
during the whole time of dishwashing.
It is possible.
You can enjoy.
During the time I was a novice,
in the temple there was no soap,
no detergent, no hot water,
no running water, no electricity.
And sometimes we had to wash dishes
for one hundred monks.
And you use kitchen ash,
because we cooked with wood,
and we use the ash in order
to clean the dishes.
Every time the novices
prepared to wash the dishes,
they had to heat water,
especially in winter,
so that they would have warm water
to wash the dishes.
And they used ash, and then the coconut,
you know, the coconut fruit,
there is a skin outside,
we used it to scratch
and make the pan and the pot clean.
We also did not have toothbrushes;
we cleaned our teeth with Areca fruit.
Areca fruit and betle. Many of us chewed.
It's good for
keeping your teeth strong and healthy.
Now still there are who chew betel,
a kind of leaf,
together with a kind of nut,
and when they spit it is red.
And it is equivalent to chewing gum.
You chew and chew and chew
and you exercise.
So at that time when I was a novice
we did not have hot water,
we didn't have detergent, soap,
and yet three, four novices washing dishes very joyfully.
There was brotherhood in that.
I remember we did not have enough wood to cook.
So we brought some rakes
to the hills with pine trees,
and we gathered the pine needles
and made a big heap.
And we can cook a pot of rice with pine needles.
I can do it very well.
Sometimes you bring pine needles,
and I will make a demonstration to cook.
So happiness does not depend on the outside,
it depends on our way of looking at things.
You suffer because of your way of thinking,
your way of seeing.
So if you just lost your job,
you know that you can still be happy.
These are the ways of living.
We can live more simply,
if we know how to look at things
in such a way
that can help us recognize
the many conditions of happiness
that are still available.
You know, in the world,
there are so many areas
where there is no water.
They have to go 5 km
in order to fetch some water.
And that is not the best kind of water.
And we are very lucky,
we have many good things,
and yet we suffer...
we suffer much more than these people
who are poor,
who do not have enough resources.
So to follow your inbreath and outbreath
can be very pleasant.
It develops your concentration.
Concentration: samadhi.
Mindfulness...
the word mindfulness written in Chinese
is very interesting.
The upper part means
"the present moment."
And the lower part means "mind."
Your mind goes home to the present moment.
And you get free from the past and the future.
So that you can live that moment of your life deeply.
And touch the wonders of life that
that can heal, that can nourish.
It's so simple.
The third exercise: aware of body -
which is a wonder.
And maybe you have accumulated
tension, stress, and pain in your body.
You may have worked your body too hard.
You run after something else,
and you do not take care of your body.
You have not been kind,
compassionate with your body.
So it's time to go back and reconcile,
and have compassion with your body.
So if you go back to your body,
you may get the insight
that there is a tension and pain.
And that is why we need the fourth exercise:
Releasing tension in the body.
And this is a direct teaching from the Buddha.
The sixteen exercises of mindful breathing
begin with the four dealing with the body.
If you allow the tensions to be accumulated,
the healing will be difficult,
and peace will be difficult also.
So we have to take care of ourselves,
we have to love ourselves,
we have to feel
ease and lightness in ourselves.
So in a sitting position,
or even in a walking position,
you are capable of releasing tensions.
There's a worry in you,
you are attached to your project,
you have been carried away by your project,
your anger, your fear,
so you are not free,
and these continue to put more tension
in your body.
So from the parking lot
to the office where you work,
walk in such a way that every step
helps release tension.
Walk like a Buddha.
Enjoy every step.
Because you have a body.
And you know that the miracle is not
to walk on thin air. Or on burning charcoal.
The miracle is to walk on earth.
To be still alive
and to be walking on this planet
is a wonder.
And if you don't enjoy every step,
that is a waste. We waste our lives.
So learn to walk in such a way
that pleasure and freedom
and healing and nourishment
is possible with every step.
You don't have to set aside some time
to do the practice.
From your tent to the meditation hall,
every step is a pleasure,
every step is the kingdom of God,
every step is peace,
every step is release.
This is possible,
and if your mind chooses to do it,
you can do it,
And if you live in a community
where there are many people
who know how to do it,
then you can profit
from the collective energy,
and you can do it easily.
Looking at a brother walking:
he is in the kingdom of God.
Every step should keep us
in the kingdom of God.
Every step should help us
touch the wonders of life.
Otherwise we waste our lives.
What have we done with our lives?
How have we used the past years or months?
We have been wasting our lives.
We allow anger and fear
and hate and worries to take over.
We did not truly live our lives.
And every moment given to us to live,
we don't cherish, we don't treasure.
So mindfulness helps us to treasure
every moment that is left for us to live.
And that can be done here and now.
No matter what, how
economic and social conditions are,
you can still do it.
Walk in such a way that you become aware
of the contact between your foot
and the ground.
Mother Earth. Mother Earth is holding you.
Mother Earth is in you.
You can surrender to her.
She has the power to heal you.
Have trust in Mother Earth.
She is not oustide of you. She is in you.
Why don't you pray to mother Earth.
Mother Earth is not the environment only.
Mother Earth is the mother of all Buddhas,
all the saints, all the bodhisattvas.
And you are a child of Mother Earth.
Trust her, surrender yourself to her,
allow her to heal you.
And walking meditation is
one of the good ways to heal.
And every step can be healing.
Your body is a formation.
"Formation" is a buddhist technical term.
Samskara.
Formation.
Samskara may be translated by
"phenomena, things"
This marker is a formation.
It is made by many things.
It is a formation.
A flower is a formation.
When you look into a flower,
you see that a flower is made of many things:
the earth, the seed, the rain, the sunshine.
Something that is being formed by many things
is called a formation.
A table is a formation.
A curtain is a formation.
Conditioned thing.
Your anger is a formation.
Your anger is made of wrong perceptions
and things like that.
It's called a mental formation.
And your body is a physical formation.
This marker is a physical formation.
Your body is a physiological formation.
So your body is called "Tang Han."
Body formation.
A formation that is called body.
So... calming the body formation.
Kaya samskara.
So the fourth is to calm down
the formation called body.
In the original Chinese,
it is called tang han tuc,
"the formation called body."
Tuc means to calm down, to stop,
to give it a chance to rest.
Tuc also has the meaning of resting, of calming,
and interestingly enough,
tuc also means breathing.
This is the classical Chinese
of the 3rd, 4th century.
This is the old translation.
Tang han tuc means
calming the formation called body.
So breathing in, you allow the tension
to be released.
This is relaxation.
So relaxation is possible in the sitting position.
So while sitting,
you breathe in such a way
that you release the tension in your body,
in the muscles.
There are hundreds of muscles on your face.
And when you are afraid,
when you are angry,
there is a lot of tension in your face.
When you look into the mirror,
you can see the tension in your face.
But if you know how to breathe in
and smile,
you release all the three hundred
or more muscles on your face,
and you look much better, more beautiful.
So in the car, there is something
that can hide the sunshine.
Behind that, there is a mirror,
and you look into that to see
whether your face is relaxed or not.
And you smile to yourself.
Every time you wash your face,
you brush your teeth,
look into the mirror,
to see whether there is a tension
on your face.
Look at your face, with compassion,
and breathe in and smile.
And the other person will appreciate
your presence more.
Your presence now is more fresh,
more pleasant, more beautiful.
Release the tension.
So in sitting meditation, you allow
the muscles on your face to be released
and your shoulder
- especially on your shoulder -
when you make so much concentration,
it is stiff... here...
So allow it to release.
And there are many Dharma teachers,
especially sister True Emptiness, who can
offer you a session of total, deep relaxation.
In the lying position.
And the Buddha also suggests that.
In the sutra called
"Contemplation of the body in the body"
he talks about the farmer
who went up to the cellar
and brought down a bag of seeds,
and he opened one end of the bag
and allowed all the seeds in the bag
to flow on the floor.
And with eyes in good condition,
he recognized each kind of seed.
This is a seed of corn,
this is a seed of mung beans,
this is seed of kidney beans and so on.
And he recognized all kinds of seeds
that are on the floor.
So the practitioner is like that...
does like that.
In a sitting position or lying position,
she recognizes different parts of her body.
Breathing in, I am aware of my eyes.
Breathing out,
I smile to my eyes with compassion.
Recognizing eyes,
like mung beans and kidney beans.
And you go from the hair on your head
to your toes, to your heels.
And you pass in review all parts of your body.
You go down to the heart, to the lungs,
kidneys, small intestine and so on,
you go dooown.
It's like scanning the body -
not with the X-ray,
but with the ray of mindfulness.
And you need 20, 15 minutes
in order to go through your body,
and you recognize and smile
to every part of your body
with compassion and allow them to relax.
And when you come to a place
that seems to not be working very well -
suppose you have some trouble with your liver -
and then you can stay longer.
Breathing in, I am aware of my liver.
My liver has some difficulty.
And you use the energy of mindfulness,
generated by mindful breathing,
to recognize and embrace your liver,
send compassion to your liver,
and stay longer with your liver.
And it helps the healing.
Of course you can continue
your medicine, but you can help greatly
with using mindfulness
to release tension in your body
and facilitate, make it easier
for your body to heal.
You have to trust mother Earth,
you have to trust nature,
not only the medicine.
And that is why the fourth exercise
is very necessary for healing.
It favors, it gives conditions for,
it allows the body to heal more quickly.
And all these things are not hard labor,
they can be very pleasant.
So while we are together as a sangha,
let us support each other
with the practice.
And we can, right here and right now -
the healing, the transformation,
the nourishment can be possible
with every step, with every breath.
Our time is very precious,
and we can enjoy the practice.
We do not say:
"I practice in order to heal...
to get the healing in a week or so."
Because the healing should take place
right during the practice -
not one week later.
The moment when you breathe in mindfully,
and enjoy your inbreath,
the healing already begins.
And let us support each other...
we do not use our time to talk
about politics and other things like that.
But to be aware of the many conditions
of nourishment and healing
that are available in the here and in the now.
This is a very good environment
for us to do so.
So the teaching of the Buddha
is not to abandon the present moment
and hope for something in the future
like Nirvana, like enlightenment.
The Buddha said:
"Happiness is possible. Here and now."
That teaching is ignored by many buddhists.
drstadharmasukhavihara
"Vihara" means to dwell, to live.
translated as "kuh" or "toh":
"to live, to dwell."
"Sukha:" happy, happily.
You know "dukha" is suffereing,
but "sukha" is happiness.
"drstadharma" is what is happening
in the present moment.
"Drsta" means "right there, you can see"
"Hien Phap" means the present moment.
"You can live happily in the present moment."
And this expression is used in many sutras,
especially in a sutra the Buddha gave
to a group of businessmen.
At the time of the Buddha,
there was a businessman
who was a disciple of the Buddha.
One time he brought
a few hundred businessmen to the Buddha.
And the Buddha knew that businessmen
think too much about the future,
the success in the future,
they sacrifice the present moment for the future,
so the Buddha said:
"Gentlemen, happiness is possible
here and now, if you practice
the five mindfulness trainings
and mindfulness.
So the phrase:
"living happily in the present moment"
is repeated several times in that discourse.
So we are not sacrificing the present moment
for the sake of a nirvana or enlightenment
in the future.
Because enlightenment and nirvana
is available right here,
in the present moment.
And when we practice together,
we support each other.
We create a collective energy of mindfulness,
that can penetrate into
the body and mind of everyone.
Every time you hear the bell,
everyone stops thinking,
everyone begins to enjoy
breathing in and out.
And that simple practice
generates a very powerful energy
of mindfulness and peace and healing
that can be healing, transforming.
And that is the advantage of practicing together:
you profit from the collective energy -
because there are many of us in the sangha
who know how to breathe in happily
and to feel happy in the here and the now
just by breathing and sitting there.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community