WEBVTT

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(Half bell)

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(Bell)

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Nowadays, in Korea, many people feel 
lonely or sad,

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so I want to do something for them.

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I don't know: What can I do for them?

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I wonder: In my country, in Korea,

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there are people who have a lot of sadness

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and loneliness in their heart,

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and how can I bring healing to them?

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The first thing to do is to heal yourself.

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Because if society is sick,

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we are sick at the same time.

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Because we are in society

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and the collective suffering of society

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has influenced us.

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And that is why we have to recognize that

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we need the healing for ourselves.

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If we can not heal ourself,

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we can not help heal other people.

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And the first thing is to organise our life

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in such a way that we can protect ourself

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from the kind of energies

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that make you sick.

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Like when you watch television.

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The film may be full of violence
and fear and hate

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and if you allow yourself 
to watch that film,

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you are getting more violence and fear,

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and craving and hate in you,

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and you are not helping you to heal,

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but you are making yourself more sick.

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When you eat,

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if you practice mindfulness of eating,

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and then you will not bring into your body

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toxins and poisons.

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And that is to protect yourself.

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When you go to the market,

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you buy only the things 


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that will not bring toxins into you

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– into your body and your mind.

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You will not buy the kind of magazine

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that has articles full of fear, anger,
hate and craving.

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So, the problem is how to

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practice the fifth mindfulness training

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– mindful consumption.

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Because our society is a society of consumption.

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We believe that the more (we) consume

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the happier we become.

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We need money to buy,

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but people are consuming a lot more,

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and suffer a lot more,

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because they don't practice mindful consumption.

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You consume food,

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you consume magazines, music, feelings,

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books, conversation ... .

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Conversation is consumption.

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What the other person says

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might be full of toxins –

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may be full of hate and despair.

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And if you listen to her for one hour,

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you consume.

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And if the other person says things

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that have a lot of compassion and joy,

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then you consume good things.

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So, conversation is also consumption.

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The Internet is consumption.

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There are many good things, but

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there are also many toxins ... poisons.

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So, the first thing we're going to do

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is to protect us from allowing these toxins

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and poisons to enter our body

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and our mind.

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And by doing so, we heal ourselves.

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And we are happy, compassionate, fresh

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and we are in a situation to help people

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of our generation, and other people.

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And one person cannot do it.

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You need friends –

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you need another friend, two other friends,

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three other friends.

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You need a group of people – a group

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of dedicated people who live in such a way

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that can preserve health

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and joy and compassion.

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And as a sangha, you have more hope

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of changing society.

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And there are still many Buddhist

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practitioners in Korea.

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And many of them practice only devotion

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– the Buddhism of devotion: to pray

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to the Buddha, and ask Buddha to give us

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health and wealth and things like that.

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And many Buddhists ask for these things --

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the things that the Buddha

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has left behind – like fame, power –

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political power, sex, good food.

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And Siddhartha has left all that behind

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in order to become a monk

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and search for true happiness.

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And now we are praying the Buddha

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to give us exactly these things that

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he had rejected.

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There are those who ask the Buddha that

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their son, their daughter will be successful

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in their examination ...

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asking the Buddha for these things.

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And one teaching of the Buddha

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is to help us to take care of our body,

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to take care of our feelings,

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to transform our suffering,

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and to have true joy ... true happiness.

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True happiness is not made of power,

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fame, wealth and sex.

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True happiness is made of understanding

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and love and compassion.

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So we need a community of people

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who practice according to this

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teaching of the Buddha – to become

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a healthy and joyful community.

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And as we have brothers and sisters

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who are healthy, who are compassionate,

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who are in harmony

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– we can help.

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We can help people to heal.

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One person, even a buddha, is not enough.

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The Buddha knows that, knew that.

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And that's why after enlightenment

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he began to search for a sangha.

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Without a sangha, the Buddha cannot

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achieve his career of a teacher.

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So we, if we want to help society

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to suffer less, to heal – we need a sangha.

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And we should consider ourselves

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as the first element of the sangha.

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And then, we look for another person

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that lives in harmony and compassion

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and happiness. We do exactly what

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the Buddha did after enlightenment

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– build a sangha. Without a sangha,

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you cannot hope to achieve

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something important.

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Even a buddha is not enough.

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– We need many buddhas.

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We need many bodhisattvas.

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And when we build a sangha

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with brothers and sisters who are dedicated

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to the practice, there are many

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bodhisattvas in our sangha.

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And, then, we can effectively help society

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to change.

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So, you may like to go home

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and look around – to recognize

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people, maybe of your age, first,

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who have the same kind of intention,

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aspiration, and sit down, and discuss

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about how to set up, how to build

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a community of practitioners who are

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happy, harmonious, compassionate,

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healthy – and then there is hope.

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So our hope is in the sangha.

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Without a sangha, we cannot do much.

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And we know that the Buddha was

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an excellent sangha builder.

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We have to learn from him.

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It's not very easy to build a sangha.

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We have to get a lot of love,

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understanding, patience, in order

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to build a sangha.

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When I met Pastor Martin Luther King,

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we discussed about sangha building.

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I said that without a strong sangha

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we cannot succeed.

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And after King was assassinated

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I was very sad, because he

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could not continue the work

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of sangha building.

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So I doubled my efforts

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and I tried to build a sangha in Europe

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and in America – because at that time

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I was in exile – because I had dared

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to call out for peace, for the cessation

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of hostility in Vietnam.

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And that is why the warring parties, they

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did not allow me to go home.

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And I had to spend 40 years in exile

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in the West.

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I left my sangha in Vietnam, and I knew

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that if I wanted to do something,

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I had to build a sangha here, in Europe

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and in America

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– because I knew that without a sangha,

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we cannot do much.

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And here is my sangha!

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My sangha is (living?) everywhere –

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Europe, and in America and Asia also.

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So, sangha is our hope.

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If you want to be a bodhisattva,

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to help the Buddha,

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you need a sangha.

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Sangha building is a very crucial thing to do.

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And everyone of us should be a sangha builder.

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After the retreat, when we go back to our city,

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we have to look around and identify

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elements of our sangha and build

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a group of people practicing

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walking meditation, sitting meditation,

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dharma sharing and so on

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that help us to continue the practice --

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not to lose our practice – and that help us

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to have a place for other people to come

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and take refuge, and learn the practice.

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So, sangha building is very important.

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So that is what you are going to do

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when you go back to your country.

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(Half bell)

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(Bell)