I think we have enough copies for everyone.
We only have it in English.
So we shall try to have it in French,
German,
and so on later on.
And there may be friends who would like to help translate.
Three kinds of approach to the problem of ethics.
And the first one is
the standpoint of religion,
theistic traditions.
The second is the so-called scientific approach.
And the third one is the
Buddhist approach.
First is the theistic traditions,
Judaism and Christianity.
Judaism and Christianity teach that the world was created by a loving,
all-powerful God
to provide a home for us.
We in turn were created in his image to be his children.
Thus the world is not devoid of meaning and purpose.
It is instead the arena in which God's plans and purposes are realized.
What could be more natural than to think that morality is a part of a just view of the world?
Whereas the artistic world has no place for values.
In the major theistic traditions, including Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam,
God is conceived as a lawgiver who has let down rules that we are to obey.
He does not compel us to obey them.
But we were created as free agents,
so we may choose to accept or to reject his commandments.
But if we are to live as we should,
we must follow God's law.
This conception has been elaborated by some theologians into a theory about the nature of right and wrong,
known as the divine command theory.
Essentially,
this theory says that morally right is a matter of being commanded by God.
And morally wrong is a matter of being forbidden by God.
That is the theistic approach.
And then we have Bertrand Russell's scientific approach.
This was written in 1902,
more than 100 years ago,
in his book A Free Man's Worship.
That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving.
That his origin,
his growth, his hopes and fears,
his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.
That no fire,
no heroism,
no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.
That all the labors of all the ages,
all the devotion,
all the inspiration,
all the noonday brightness of human genius
are destined to extinction in the vast depth of the solar system.
And that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried
beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.
All these things,
if not quite beyond dispute,
are yet so nearly certain
that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.
Only within the scaffolding of this truth,
only on the firm foundation of the unyielding despair,
can the soul habitation henceforth be safely built.
Very strong.
So,
according to him,
coincidence
and
annihilation of man
after his appearance
is the opposite with the religious view.
Because in the religious view the soul is
immortal,
permanent.
So,
one is the view of
of permanence,
immortality.
And the other is the view of annihilation.
The opposite views.
And one
is the view of
there's a
purpose,
a plan,
a project.
And the other
view is that just pure coincidence,
the collocation of atoms,
we are the product of
coincidence.
So it's
opposite views.
And there is another scientific view that is more recent.
The universe is some
15 billion years old.
That is the time elapsed since the Big Bang.
And the earth itself was formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
The evolution of life on the planet was a slow process,
guided largely by natural selection.
The evolution of life,
the first humans appeared quite recently.
The extinction of great dinosaurs 65 million years ago
left ecological room for the evolution of the few little mammals
that were about.
And after 63 or 64 million more years,
one line of that evolution finally produced us.
In geological time,
we,
man,
arrived only yesterday.
But no sooner did our ancestors arrive,
then they began to think of themselves as the most important things in all creation.
Some of them even imagined that the whole universe had been made for their benefit.
Thus, when they began to develop theories of right and wrong,
they held that the protection of their own interests had a kind of ultimate and objective value.
The rest of creation,
the reason was intended for their use.
We know now better.
We now know better.
We now know that we exist by
evolutionary accident.
As one species among many
on a small and insignificant world
in one little corner of the cosmos.
The details of this picture are revised each year
as more is discovered,
but the main outline seems well established.
So the idea of coincidence still remains
in the so-called scientific world.
I think there are a few scientists who do not agree.
with that
coincidence.
And finally, we have the Buddhist approach in just a few lines.
And this is what we
these few lines we use during the winter
the last winter retreat.
Both subject and object of perception
manifest from consciousness
according to the principle of inter-being.
Man is present in all things and all things are present in man.
On the phenomenal level
there seem to be birth,
death, being and non-being.
But ontologically these notions cannot be applied to reality.
The dynamic consciousness is called karma energy.
Everything evolves according to the principle of interdependence,
but there is free will
and the possibility to transform.
There is probability.
The one affects the all and all affects the one.
Interbeing also means impermanence, non-self, emptiness,
karma and countless world systems.
Right view allows right action
leading to the reduction of suffering and the increase of happiness.
Happiness and suffering inter-are.
The ultimate reality transcends notions of good and evil,
right and wrong.
So it's only
seven or eight lines.
Good morning,
dear Sangha.
Today is Sunday,
June the 7th, the year 2009.
And we are in the Assembly of Stars Meditation Hall,
Lower Hamlet during our 21-day retreat.
Yesterday we began with
right view.
We have heard that right view
is the absence of all views.
As far as you are still caught in one view,
you don't have right view.
And it is possible for us to
reveal all kinds of views
and to transcend all of them.
And
the noble
path consists of right view and
then right
thinking.
Right thinking
has
the connotation of right intention in it.
When you think,
you express also somehow your intention.
And then we have right speech,
right action.
Right action means right physical action,
bodily action.
Because thinking is a kind of action already.
Speaking is also a kind of action.
So right action here means right physical bodily action.
Right...
Please help me.
Livelihood.
Diligence.
And then right mindfulness.
And then right
concentration.
And right view.
1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8.
Complete.
We know that the
thinking,
the speaking,
and the acting is
what we
perform every day,
every moment of our daily life.
The value of our life depends on the value of our thinking,
of our
speech and our
action.
And
in Buddhism
this is called triple action.
Triple action.
Because thinking
is the first kind of action.
Because thinking can affect the world.
If you think wrongly,
the world will be destroyed.
The world will suffer and you will suffer.
So that is why you have to practice right thinking.
And when you produce a thought in the line of right thinking,
a thought that has no discrimination,
a thought that goes along with
non-discrimination,
that goes along with interbeing,
understanding, forgiveness,
compassion,
that thought will have
an effect right away on yourself,
on your health,
and
on your mind,
and on the world.
And this is true.
Producing right thinking can heal yourself,
your body,
and your mind.
And if you think in the wrong way,
that destroys your body,
that destroys your mind.
So it's very important to learn how to produce a thought of compassion,
a thought of
forgiveness,
a thought of understanding,
a thought of (non)discrimination.
And that is right thinking.
Right thinking can heal you and heal the world.
And good practitioners are capable of producing
right thoughts
at every moment.
And because we have right view,
that is why it's so easy,
it's so natural that our thinking will be right.
And right view does not have discrimination.
Right view is
the
insight of non-duality,
interbeing,
non-discrimination.
And that is why
thinking
can change the world.
We have to learn
the art of
right thinking.
Speaking also can change the world.
If
we are capable of saying something,
of writing something,
in the line of compassion, understanding,
non-discrimination,
all-embracing,
we feel wonderful in our body, in our mind.
And that kind of
right speech will have a healing effect.
After you have been able to say something kind,
forgiving,
compassionate,
you feel much better.
When you write such a letter full of compassion and forgiveness,
you are feeling very well
within yourself,
although the other person has not read it.
You have not posted the letter,
you have not sent the email,
but you feel liberated,
you feel wonderful already.
So right speech also can heal,
can liberate.
And healing yourself, liberate yourself,
and help to heal other people in the world.
That is the second form of action.
And the third form of action is a bodily
action.
If you are able to do something in the line of
saving,
supporting,
protecting,
comforting,
rescuing, saving,
you feel wonderful within yourself.
And you get the effect right away.
And that is a triple action.
It comprises
the body,
involves the body,
it involves the mouth,
the speech,
and it involves
your mind consciousness.
And this kind of action,
we call it karma.
Karma means action.
When it is action,
we call it karma hetu,
karma cause.
And when it is the fruit,
we call it karmaphala,
the fruit of the consequence,
the fruit of your action.
There's a French philosopher called Jean-Paul Sartre.
He said that
man is the sum of all his actions.
L'homme est la somme de ses actes.
He's very close to this.
And if we understand act,
action,
as a triple action,
the way we think,
the way we speak,
and the way
we do things.
When we observe
an orange tree,
we see that
the orange tree wants to propagate beautiful leaves, beautiful blossoms,
and beautiful oranges.
Yes.
If the orange tree is healthy,
then she can produce these kind of things.
Very beautiful leaves,
very beautiful orange blossoms,
and very delicious oranges.
And we humans,
what we can offer
is our thinking,
our speech, and our action.
It is possible to offer the best kind of thinking,
the best kind of
speech,
and the best kind of action,
because that is our continuation.
When we think,
when we speak, when we do things, we produce.
That is the outcome of our being.
That's our product.
And they will not be lost,
they will continue in the cosmos.
The effect of our thinking,
the effect of our speech,
and the effect of our action will continue.
Whether this body is still there,
or it has
disintegrated,
our action continues.
Karma continues.
Karma as
energy,
karma cause, karma effect,
continues.
When you produce a thought,
that thought you have produced
bears your signature.
It's you who have produced that thought.
You are responsible for that thought.
If it is a thought of compassion,
forgiveness,
non-discrimination,
you will continue beautifully,
because it has your signature in it.
You are the author
of the action.
If you say something in the line of
forgiveness,
compassion,
non-discrimination,
and what you say has your signature in it.
You cannot say that,
"No, I have not said that."
You have said that.
There's a signature, your signature in it.
You cannot deny that.
And action, the same.
Whatever you have done bears your signatures.
And they have
gone to the cosmos.
They are always there.
So even if this body is no longer there,
you continue.
So to say that when this body disintegrates,
you are no longer there,
is a wrong view.
So the so-called scientific view that there's nothing left after the
disintegration of the body,
that's a wrong view.
According to
Buddhist wisdom,
the view of immortality,
impermanence,
is a wrong view.
Because
according to our
observation,
everything is impermanent,
everything is changing.
Nothing can be the same
forever.
So permanence,
is not the truth.
But to say that
when we die, there is nothing left,
is also a wrong view.
And that is also a pair of opposites.
Permanence,
immortality,
and annihilation.
Immortality is a wrong view.
Because so far,
we have not seen anything
like that.
Everything you observe is impermanent,
always changing.
But annihilation is also
a wrong view.
Suppose we speak of the death of a cloud.
You look up in the sky and you don't see your beloved cloud anymore.
And you cry, "Oh my beloved cloud,
you are no longer there.
How can I survive without you?"
And you cry.
You are thinking of the cloud as
having passed from
being into non-being,
from existence
into non-existence.
But in fact, it is impossible for a cloud to die.
To die means from something you suddenly become nothing at all.
To die means from someone
you suddenly become no one.
But this is not the case of the cloud.
A cloud cannot become nothing.
It is possible for a cloud to become rain, or snow,
or fog,
or vapor,
water vapor.
But it's not possible for a cloud to become nothing.
And that is why the view of annihilation is a wrong view.
If you are a scientist,
and if you think that
after the disintegration
of this body, you are no longer there, you become nothing,
you have passed from being to non-being,
you are not a very good scientist.
Because that is against evidence.
There is a French scientist who said that nothing
can die.
His name is Lavoisier.
Rien ne se crée,
rien ne se perd.
And you know that he's not a Buddhist.
Rien ne se crée, [ Nothing is created ]
rien ne se perd. [ Nothing can die ]
Nothing
is created,
is born.
Nothing can die.
And that is the nature of everything.
No birth, no death.
Because birth and death again is a pair of notions.
The cloud in the sky
is a new manifestation
before assuming the form of a cloud.
The cloud had been
water vapor.
The cloud had been water in the ocean
and
the heat
of the sun created by the sunshine,
the sunlight.
So that is, you can call it her previous life.
In her previous life the cloud had been
the water in the ocean,
the heat and so on.
So being a cloud is only a continuation.
A cloud has not come from nothing.
A cloud always
comes from something.
So there's no birth,
there's only a continuation.
And that is why
when we celebrate the birthday of someone instead of
singing happy birthday to you,
it may be better to sing happy continuation day to you.
That's not your beginning.
Your birth is not your beginning.
That's only your continuation.
Because you have been before that.
You have been there before your birth
in other forms.
Like this piece of paper.
Before
this piece of paper appeared in this form, before
it had been something else.
It has not come from nothing,
because from nothing
you cannot become something.
And looking as a meditator,
we can look into the sheet of paper and we see the forest, the trees,
the earth, the soil,
the rain,
the cloud that nourish the trees.
So the previous life
of the sheet of paper you can see.
Looking into a sheet of paper you can see
the cloud,
the earth,
the trees,
the paper mill.
And that is where
the sheet of paper comes.
So the sheet of paper has not come from nothing.
And the manifestation as a sheet of paper is only a new manifestation.
Not really a birth.
Because to be born means
from nothing you suddenly become something.
From no one you suddenly become someone.
So the nature of this sheet of paper is the nature of no birth.
And it is impossible for the sheet of paper to die.
When you
burn this sheet of paper
and you observe,
you see that the sheet of paper will be transformed into smoke,
vapor,
and ash,
and heat.
And that heat is energy.
There's smoke coming up, water,
and
the ash
going down.
The sheet of paper will continue.
So to say that
after the disintegration of the body,
there is nothing more.
There's nothing left.
It is a wrong view called
the view of annihilation.
So right thinking is a kind of
thinking that is based on right view.
And right thinking
is
free from fear,
from discrimination,
and so on.
We know that with the
insight of interbeing,
the insight of no self,
the insight of
non-duality,
the thinking
will have a chance to be right thinking.
The speaking will have the
chance to be right speech.
And the action will have the right,
the chance to be right action.
And
every thought, every speech,
every act of ours bear our signature.
And it will continue.
It will continue with our karma.
And that is why
the notion of immortality and the notion of annihilation
are just notions.
And they have to...
The view of permanence and the view of annihilation should be transcended
in order for
us to have the right view.
Right view is the absence of views,
including the views of permanence and the views of annihilation.
We have lost someone who is very close to us.
We are grieving his or her
death.
We have to look again.
And that person still continues
somehow.
And we can do something in order to help him or her to continue more beautifully.
He or she is still alive in us and around us.
With the new way of looking,
we can still recognize him or her around very well.
The way we recognize
our beloved
cloud in the cup of tea.
When you drink your cup of tea
with mindfulness and concentration,
you can get the insight
that the cloud is your tea.
Very close.
You have never lost him or her.
She is still alive.
Very close.
And maybe in a more beautiful form
or different forms than
in the past.
So that is the kind of vision,
that is the kind of
insight that we should have in order to overcome grief.
Because we think that we have lost him,
we have lost her.
But that person has not died, has not disappeared.
She continues, he continues
in her new forms.
And you have to practice looking deeply in order to recognize
her continuation, his continuation,
and support that.
And by producing right thought,
right speech, and right thinking,
we can support him or her.
Darling, I know you are there somehow.
Very real to me.
I'm breathing for you.
I'm looking around for you.
I enjoy life for you.
And I know that
you are there, still there.
You are very close to me,
and you are in me.
And we can transform our suffering.
We can feel much better.
We want to have right view.
When we come to right mindfulness,
samyak-smṛti,
chánh niệm,
we know that
together with
right concentration,
mindfulness can help bring right view.
When you practice right mindfulness,
you bring about
good concentration.
And with good concentration,
you can break through,
you can understand reality as it is.
You overcome all wrong views,
and you get right view,
which is insight.
And it is that insight that liberates you from fear,
and despair,
and anger.
In Buddhism, we speak of liberation,
salvation,
in terms of understanding.
It is understanding,
right understanding.
It is right view that liberates us.
And we know that insight, understanding,
is possible only with
the energy of mindfulness and concentration.
And that is why
practitioners
of Buddhist meditation are those who
generate the energy of mindfulness in their daily life,
and practice,
concentrated on the object of their mind.
And then
by doing so, they get the right view that will
help them to transform,
to be liberated from their fear,
their anger.
Suppose you have the fear of dying,
and if
you touch the nature of no birth and no death,
you can remove that fear.
And that is why
your savior
is right view,
is insight.
And that is the outcome of your practice of mindfulness and concentration.
In the beginning of our retreat,
we have
defined what mindfulness is,
and we said that mindfulness is
the kind of energy that can help bring
our mind back to our body,
so that we can be established
well in the present moment,
so that we can
get in touch with life and the wonders of life deeply,
so that we can live truly
our life.
Mindfulness
allowed us to be aware of what is going on
in the present moment, in our body,
in our feelings,
in our perceptions,
in the world.
And that is mindfulness.
But why there is the word right mindfulness?
Right mindfulness is there because there is wrong mindfulness.
You keep thinking of the things that
can bring you sorrow and fear.
You have suffered in the past.
And the memories of your suffering
in the past
continue to be there.
And you tend to go back to the past.
You review, you watch the film of the past.
And every time you get in touch with pictures and films of the past, you suffer again.
Suppose you were abused as a child at the age of five or ten.
And you suffered so much.
You felt that
you were helpless.
You had no means to defend yourself.
They abused you.
You are fragile.
You are vulnerable.
You were so afraid you did not know how to protect yourself.
And that kind of suffering
was created.
And then you have a memory of it.
There is a film,
there is a picture
stored in your consciousness.
In your store consciousness.
And every time you go home to the past
and look at that picture or watch that film, you suffer again.
You continue to be abused again, even when
you have grown up.
You have grown up to be an adult.
You are now capable of defending yourself.
You are capable of using telephone.
You are capable of calling the police.
You know that.
You are no longer that child that was fragile.
And
vulnerable.
Without means to defend yourself.
You are no longer that little child.
And yet you continue to suffer the suffering of the child.
Because
you practice wrong mindfulness.
You always go back to the memories of the past.
You feel more comfortable going
home to the past.
While right mindfulness wants you to be in the here and the now.
Forget the past.
Get rid of the past in order to live your life in the present moment.
And there must be ways for you to stick to the present moment.
For you not to
slide back into the past and suffer.
Suppose someone slapped you on the face
20 years ago.
And that was recorded as a picture.
And our subconsciousness,
our store consciousness stores a lot of films and pictures of the past.
And pictures are,
films are always projected there.
And pictures are stored there.
And you have the tendency to go back
and watch them.
And continue to suffer.
Every time you saw that picture you are slapped again, and slapped again, slapped again.
But that
that is only the past.
You are no longer
in the past.
You are in the present moment.
That is why right mindfulness
is the practice that helps you
to be in the present moment.
That did happen in the past.
But the past is already gone.
It's only pictures and memories.
And if you keep going to the past
and touch that, that is wrong mindfulness.
We have to talk about the original fear,
original suffering,
and the original desire.
When we were a little
baby,
when we were still in
the womb of our mother,
we felt so comfortable.
The weather is perfect.
And we did not have to do anything.
Our mother breathed for us,
eat for us,
think for us.
We don't have to do anything.
And we were in a very soft cushion,
water.
Water is the best kind of cushion.
And that is a period of no worries.
It lasts about nine months.
That's paradise.
But the moment when we have to be born,
that's a very difficult moment.
The situation changed completely.
You touch the hardship.
They cut the umbilical cord.
Now you have to breathe for yourself.
Your mommy cannot breathe for you anymore.
And you try your first in-breath.
It's so difficult because there was liquid in your lungs.
You have to
spit out.
You have to make an effort
to expel
that liquid from your lung in order to be able to
breathe in for the first time.
It's very difficult.
It's very dangerous.
You risk to die.
And you were able to overcome that.
And you breathe your first.
And you are full of fear.
Your concern is how to survive.
You are so alone.
You are so fragile.
You are so vulnerable.
Nobody can help you.
And that is what we call the original fear.
And you continue to grow up as a baby
with that kind of fear.
"I cannot survive by myself.
There must be someone to help me."
So you lie there waiting for someone to come.
And that someone may be your mommy,
your nurse,
or your big sister.
And you do everything you can in order to attract that person to come to you.
And your belief is that without another person
around you cannot survive.
You need a person in order to survive.
That person
may be mommy
or someone else.
So you have a desire.
You desire
the presence of that person
because there is a belief that without him,
without her, that person,
you cannot survive.
The feeling is very clear.
I am fragile.
I am vulnerable.
I have no means to defend myself.
Without you, I cannot survive.
That is our original fear and our original desire.
Our desire is that there must be someone.
And as you grow up,
you learn to manipulate
in order to attract that person to come.
Sometimes you are given something to hold.
Sometimes they take it from you and
one of your weapons is to cry.
You try to manipulate yourself.
You try to manipulate the situation.
And sometimes you smile.
But that is to please that person in order for her to come.
So you learn a diplomatic smile even when you are a little infant.
That's the problem of survival.
You learn without knowing that you are learning.
And that feeling that you are
fragile,
vulnerable, vulnerable,
without means to defend yourself,
you always need another person to be with you, is always there.
That kind of fear,
that kind of desire
called original fear,
original desire,
is always there.
The infant is always alive in us with that kind of desire and fear.
And in our present days,
all our desire and fear are linked to that original fear and desire.
If we work non-stop,
accumulating more money,
that's because of fear, original fear,
that I cannot survive.
We look for someone to love,
to support us,
look for a lover, a lover,
a man or a woman.
That is also the continuation of your desire.
When you were infant,
you looked for mommy.
Now you look for another person to be your mommy,
whether that is a young man or a young woman.
So the new desire is only a continuation of the old desire.
The new fear is only a continuation of the old fear.
And there is a tendency for you to go back to being that child
and suffer the suffering of that desire and suffer the suffering of that fear.
That those of us who have a depression,
those of us who suffer, continue to suffer,
even if in the present condition everything looks
all right,
because there is a tendency for us to go home to the past.
We feel more comfortable with that home,
even if in that home there is a lot of suffering.
That home is deep down
in the store consciousness,
where the films of the past are always projected.
And every night you go home and watch the films and suffer.
And the future is only a projection of the past,
but fear and desire.
Suppose you come to a cinema,
to a movie,
and down there you look up here on the screen,
and there is a story,
there are people in the screen,
they are interacting with each other,
and down there
you cry.
You believe that
what is happening on the screen is real,
and that is why you shed a real tear,
and you have real emotion.
The suffering is real,
the tear is real.
But when you come up
and you touch the screen,
you don't see any person.
It's only light, flickering light.
You cannot talk to people,
you cannot invite them to
have tea, you cannot stop them,
you cannot ask a question,
because this is not real,
this is only a movie.
Something not real and yet can create real suffering.
The memories of the past are not real,
not reality, they are only pictures,
and every time you watch the picture,
you suffer.
And that is why we are advised not to go back to the past,
and live in the past,
get caught in the past.
And that is part of the practice of living in the present moment.
Mindfulness
is to learn to live in the present moment,
not to allow ourselves to slip back
to the past in order to relive
the past one time,
two times, three times.
If you have suffered in the past,
and if you continue to to suffer,
if we go back to
to watch the film,
we suffer again and again and again.
Suppose you are a boat person,
you have crossed the ocean and arrived safely and accepted into
a third country.
And you are now safe,
you have a job.
But you still have a picture
of the ocean where
you navigated as a boat person.
Every time you see the ocean,
you suffer,
because
at that time you risk
to sink at any time and devoured by
the fish.
Because crossing
the ocean is very risky,
and hundreds of thousands of boat people have died in the sea.
So you still have that memory,
you still have that picture taken.
And that picture, every time you look,
you feel the suffering again.
But in fact,
it is only a picture.
You can get drowned,
you can die in the ocean,
but you cannot die in a picture.
So something not real can create real suffering.
And that is why we should tell ourselves,
we should tell the child, the suffering,
the wounded child in us,
that she should not suffer anymore.
We should
take her hand
and invite her to come to the present moment,
and to witness to all the wonders of life that are available in the present moment.
Come with me, dear one.
We have grown up.
We are no longer afraid.
We can defend ourselves.
We are no longer vulnerable.
We are no longer
fragile.
Don't be afraid anymore.
You have to teach
the child in you.
You have to invite him or her to come with you and live your life in the present moment.
That is the practice.
That is mindfulness.
Mindfulness
is not to allow ourselves
to get lost,
to be caught
in the memories of the past.
Of course, we can study the past,
but we are grounded in the present moment.
We are grounded, well grounded in the present moment.
We can study the past without being
sucked
and overwhelmed by the past.
The same thing is true with the future.
We can bring the future back to the present moment and study the future and make plans for the future.
But we don't have to get lost
in the fear,
in the uncertainty concerning the future.
Because the future has not yet come.
It's only a ghost.
And the past is already gone.
It's also a ghost.
Why,
to live with ghosts?
We have to live with reality. And that is right mindfulness.
So if you have a friend
who suffers,
who sheds tears, who has strong emotions,
when situations are unsafe,
you have to help him, to help her.
My dear friend,
you are on safe ground.
Everything is okay now.
Why do you continue to suffer?
Don't go back to the past.
It's only a phantom.
It's unreal.
And
every time we are aware
that these are only
movies and pictures,
not reality,
we are free.
And that is the practice of mindfulness.
Yesterday we spoke about
many
pairs of opposites as views,
like the views of being
and the views of
non-being,
the view of birth
and of death.
This morning when we speak about
the cloud
and the sheet of paper,
we learned that the nature of the cloud as well as the nature of
the sheet of paper is the nature of no birth and no death.
Overcoming
the notion of birth and death
and you have non-fear.
The notion of being
and the notion of non-being also can create a lot of fear.
Right view consists in overcoming
both notions, being and non-being.
And it is possible to observe,
to meditate in order to overcome.
Suppose
we speak about
a little flame.
We speak about the little flame that the
match can produce.
And we can do a little meditation on the flame
about the notion of being and non-being.
We know that it's possible to help the flame to manifest.
There are conditions
so that the flame
can manifest as a flame.
Before the sheet of paper appeared,
we know that the sheet of paper has been there in its condition.
So we know that the flame is hidden somewhere in the matchbox.
And we know that the flame is hidden also outside of the matchbox.
Because out here there is
oxygen.
And oxygen is a very important condition for the flame to
manifest.
Without oxygen
the flame cannot manifest.
And my finger may serve as one of the causes,
one of the conditions to help the flame manifest.
So we can already talk to the flame.
My dear little flame,
I know you are there somewhere.
Manifest yourself so that I can see.
We know that you are already there,
even if you don't perceive you in the form of a flame.
So before the manifestation of the flame,
should we
qualify it as
non-existing,
non-being?
With our
practice of looking deeply,
we see that everything
manifests
based on conditions.
Conditions.
This flower,
she comes from a seed,
from a cutting,
from the soil, from the sunshine,
from
from the cloud,
from the gardener,
etc.
And she is made of non-flower elements.
If we send back
the cloud to the sky,
if we send back
the soil to the earth,
if we send back
the seed,
there is no flower left.
So a flower is made only of non-flower elements.
And looking into the flower you can see
all the conditions that have come together and help the flower
to manifest.
A flower cannot exist
outside of her conditions.
So the flame is the same.
When conditions are sufficient,
the flame manifests.
So it is possible for a meditator to already see the flame
before its manifestation.
That is why I say,
my dear flame, I know you are somewhere there already.
So please manifest.
And the flame tells us
it's okay.
Thay,
the sangha, if you help me with the last
condition, I will manifest.
And then we are providing the last condition,
which is a movement of my fingers.
And
the flame is manifested.
So you have the tendency to call the flame existing now.
No,
the flame is in the realm of being.
But we tend to think also that before manifesting,
the flame belongs to the realm of non-being.
But reality transcends both
notion of being and non-being.
Because we already know that before manifesting in its form,
the flame already is there in its condition.
So it is very important
to see,
to recognize the wrong view.
Suppose this is representing time.
And this point represents birth.
And this point represents death.
When someone is born
from B,
we believe that the segment before B
belongs to non-being
of that person.
That person did not exist
before B.
And when that person is born,
we make a birth certificate.
We certify that this person existed.
So this person
entered the realm of being.
And 100 years later,
hopefully, hopefully,
when that person comes to D,
then she passes from being to non-being
once again.
So that's our idea of
lifespan.
We only exist from B and D.
Before that, it was non-being.
So our idea is that from non-being,
we can pass into being.
And from being, we can pass into non-being again.
But when we meditate on the cloud,
we see that it's wrong.
A cloud has never passed from non-being to being.
And when the cloud disappears in the sky,
it does not pass from being to non-being.
It continues always.
So the nature of the cloud is the nature of no birth and no death.
So the nature of your beloved one is like that.
And you are like that also.
And when you transcend the notion,
the view of being and non-being,
you get the right view.
You get the right view.
And that is why we have said
that right view is the absence of all views,
including the view of birth and death,
being and non-being,
permanence and annihilation.
Suppose I want
to light this candle
using another candle, and I produce another flame.
And I would like to ask you, my dear friends,
this question.
As
whether this flame,
second flame,
is the same flame with the other or a totally different flame.
That is meditation.
When you take the family album and
look for your picture when you were five years old,
you see that
the young,
the little boy or the little girl
is so different from you now.
Are you the same with that little girl?
Or are you a different person?
You look so different.
As far as form is concerned,
feelings, you have very different feelings,
perception, mental formation and consciousness.
You are quite different from that little girl, that little boy.
So are you the same with that little girl,
or you are a totally different person?
So that is another set of notions
called
sameness, otherness.
In Chinese, Chinese
Not one,
not a different one.
Not the same,
not a different,
totally different one.
The other day we spoke about the seed of corn
and the young plant of corn.
And we can ask the young plant of corn,
are you the same
with the seed of corn
that I planted before?
Or are you a totally different entity?
The answer must be
you are neither the same
nor a different one.
You are
neither the same with that little girl in the picture,
but you are not entirely a different person.
So the notion of
sameness and otherness
is also a couple of notions that you have to transcend in order to get the right view.
The other day we spoke about the father and the son.
The son might believe that he is a totally different person.
It's like the plant of corn does not believe that he has come from a seed of corn.
But the hard fact is the son is the continuation of the father.
And he is his father.
It's like the plant of corn is the continuation of the seed of corn.
He is the seed of corn.
And the fact is that
the notion of
sameness and otherness should be transcended for you to see the truth.
Now we come to a
pair of notions that is so
so crucial
in our studies of
right view,
subject and object.
When we speak of a perception,
in fact,
in the Sutra of Mindful Breathing,
there are four exercises of mindful breathing to help with our perception.
To correct a perception,
to transcend all wrong perceptions so that you can get the right view.
That's the last four exercises of mindful breathing.
Hopefully we have the time to treat these four last exercises.
We usually believe that there is a consciousness,
which is the subject of perception.
And the world out there
as the object of our perception.
And these two things are different.
There is consciousness in here,
and there is
the world out there
as object of our consciousness.
And science,
philosophy and science begin by that.
And in the Buddha's teaching,
that is
the basic error.
That is the basic error.
This is very important
in the teaching of the Buddha.
When you practice mindful breathing,
breathing in,
I'm aware
of my in-breath.
You practice in such a way that you are no longer
an observer.
You practice in such a way that you calm your in-breath.
You become a participant,
no longer
an
outside observer.
In the teaching of the Buddha,
you see that there are six
sense organs, which are eyes,
ears,
nose,
tongue,
body,
and mind.
Mind is also
an organ,
mental,
our mental consciousness.
These five are rather physiological,
and this is mental.
Mental.
And the object of eyes is form,
sound,
smell,
taste,
touch.
And,
please help,
dharma.
In Buddhism, Dharma with
capital D means the teaching of the Buddha.
And dharma with the little d means object of
the mind.
Object of the mind.
Not an objective reality.
The world is just an object of mind.
So the twelve
include everything.
In fact,
we are taught that
eyes and form bring about eyes consciousness,
ears consciousness,
nose consciousness,
tongue
consciousness,
body consciousness,
and mind consciousness.
Mind consciousness includes
object and
subject.
When we perceive something,
that something is the object of our consciousness.
This is a subject,
this is object,
and subject and object,
they manifest at the same time and together.
So,
in the Buddhist literature,
when you hear the word dharma,
you have to understand right away that it is the object of mind,
and not
an objective reality outside.
When you see a mountain,
that mountain is the object of your perception,
of your mind.
Not something
separate from your consciousness.
This is very important.
Because to see always,
to see something,
always means to see something.
To hear
means always to hear something.
You cannot hear nothing.
You have to hear something,
you have to see something,
you have to think of something.
And the mind,
the object of mind,
can be form, sound, smell, taste, touch,
whatever,
an idea,
an image,
and so on.
So if you believe
that there is a subjective consciousness that exists separately from
the object of your consciousness,
if you believe that there is an external world that exists
separately from your consciousness,
you are caught
in a kind of error called double
grasping,
double
grasping.
[ Nhị thủ, 二取 ]
Because you are caught by this and by this as two different things.
So right view is the possibility,
is possible only when you overcome
the view of subject and object as two separate
entities.
I think modern science is on the verge of touching this truth.
Many scientists began to speak about
you can no longer
remain an observer standing outside.
You have to go in,
you have to become
a participant in order to hope,
to understand something.
And the world you think that is something that is not you,
the world that you observe is yourself.
The mountain, the river, the sky, the stars,
everything is the object of your consciousness,
is your consciousness.
They say that sometimes
appear like a wave,
and sometimes else appear
like a particle.
According to our way of inquiry, inquiry,
if we inquire in such a way
and then
in terms of particle,
it appears to us as a particle.
But we inquire in terms of wave and then the particle,
that particle will appear to us as a wave.
So it is possible
to call it whether a wave or a particle.
And that particle
can be everywhere at the same time.
It's like your mind.
There is a well-known British
astronomer,
physicist,
Arthur Stanley Eddington.
He said something like this.
We are on a trip to discover
and we come to a shore.
We are able to reach a shore of the unknown.
A place where nobody has been there.
And we are very surprised to see the footprints of someone left there.
Before that,
we didn't believe that anyone has come here,
because
this is the territory of the unknown.
And yet someone has left his footprints there.
So surprising.
So we come to have a deep look.
And we discover
how strange, it is our own footprints.
It's our own footprints.
As in the way a modern physicist said,
the world,
the so-called objective world,
it is our mind.
It's the object of our mind.
And the Buddha said it in the very beginning.
Dharma is the object of mind.
In the Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness,
you study four realms.
Body,
feelings,
mind,
and object of mind.
Not reality.
Not
objective reality.
And scientists
of our time are making
an effort in order to overcome what we call
double grasping.
And if scientists can overcome the double grasping,
no longer,
if they no longer discriminate between the
consciousness in here
and the reality of the world
out there,
and then they have a chance.
There's a very beautiful
chapter
in this book I would like to read to you.
We need a Pooh
on this subject.
I'd like to invite a volunteer to come and read.
One of you has a good British accent.
Please.
Because Pooh bear discovered also some footprints.
In which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a woozle.
The piglet lived in a very grand house in the middle of a beech tree.
And the beech tree was in the middle of the forest.
And the piglet lived in the middle of the house.
Next to his house was a piece of broken board which had
Trespasses W on it.
When Christopher Robin asked the piglet what it meant,
he said it was his grandfather's name and had been in the family for a long time.
Christopher Robin said,
you couldn't be called Trespasses W.
And piglet said,
yes,
you could.
Because his grandfather was and it was short for Trespasses Will.
Which was short for Trespasses William.
And his grandfather had two names in a case in case he lost one.
Trespasses after an uncle, and William after Trespasses.
I've got two names,
said Christopher Robin carelessly.
Well,
there you are.
That proves it,
said Piglet.
One fine winter's day when Piglet was brushing away the snow in front of his house.
He happened to look up.
And there was Winnie the Pooh.
Pooh was walking round and round in a circle.
Thinking of something else.
And when Piglet called to him,
he just went on walking.
Hello,
said Piglet.
What are you doing?
Hunting,
said Pooh.
Hunting what?
Tracking something, said Winnie the Pooh, very mysteriously.
Tracking what?
Said Piglet coming closer.
That's just, that's just what I ask myself.
I ask myself what?
What do you think you will answer?
I shall have to wait until I catch up with it,
said Winnie the Pooh.
Now, look there.
He pointed to the ground in front of him.
What do you see?
Tracks,
said Piglet.
Paw marks.
He gave a little squeak of excitement.
Oh,
Pooh,
do you think it's a woozle?
It may be,
said Pooh.
Sometimes it is.
And sometimes it isn't.
You can never tell with paw marks.
With these few words,
he went on tracking.
And Piglet, after watching him for a minute or two, ran after him.
Winnie the Pooh had come to a sudden stop
and was bending over the tracks in a puzzled sort of way.
What's the matter?
asked Piglet.
It's a very funny thing, said Bear.
But there seem to be two animals now.
This is whatever it was,
has been joined by whatever it is.
And the two of them are now proceeding in company.
Would you mind coming with me,
Piglet, in case they turn out to be hostile animals?
Piglet scratched his ear in a nice sort of way
and said that he had nothing to do until Friday
and would be delighted to come in case it really was a woozle.
You mean,
in case it really is two woozles,
said Winnie the Pooh.
And Piglet said that,
anyhow, he had nothing to do until Friday.
And so off they went together.
There was a small spinny of larch trees just here
and it seemed as if the two woozles,
if that is what they were,
had been going round this spinny.
So round this spinny went Pooh and Piglet after them.
Piglet, passing the time by telling Pooh
what his grandfather Trespasses W had done
to remove stiffness after tracking,
and how his grandfather Trespasses W
had suffered in his later years from shortness of breath
and other matters of interest.
And Pooh wondering what a grandfather was like
and if perhaps this was two grandfathers they were after now and if so,
whether he would be allowed to take one home and keep it
and what Christopher Robin would say.
And still the tracks went on in front of them.
Suddenly,
Winnie the Pooh stopped and pointed excitedly in front of him.
Look!
What?
said Piglet with a jump.
And then, to show he hadn't been frightened,
he jumped up and down once more,
once or twice more
in an exercising sort of way.
The tracks, said Pooh.
A third animal has joined the other two.
Pooh! cried Piglet.
Do you think it's another woozle?
No,
said Pooh,
because it makes different marks.
It's either two woozles,
one as it might be whizzle
or two as it might be whizzles and one if it is woozle.
Let's continue to follow them.
So they went on feeling just a little anxious now
in case the three animals in front of them were of hostile intent.
And Piglet wished very much that his grandfather T.W.
were there instead of elsewhere.
And Pooh thought how nice it would be
if they met Christopher Robin suddenly but quite accidentally
and only because he liked Christopher Robin so much.
And then all of a sudden,
Winnie the Pooh stopped again
and licked the tip of his nose in a cooling manner
for he was feeling more hot and anxious than ever in his life before.
There were four animals in front of them.
Do you see, Piglet?
Look at their tracks,
three as it were woozles
and one as it were whizzle,
another woozle has joined them.
And so it seemed to be.
There were the tracks crossing over each other.
Here, getting quite muddled up with each other there
but quite plainly every now and then
the tracks of four sets of paw marks.
I think, said Piglet when he licked the tip of his nose too
and found it brought very little comfort.
I think that I've just remembered something.
I have just remembered something that I forgot to do yesterday
and shan't be able to do tomorrow.
So I suppose I really ought to go back and do it now.
Well, do it this afternoon and I'll come with you, said Pooh.
It is the sort of thing you can't do in the afternoon, said Piglet quickly.
It's a very particular morning thing that has to be done in the morning.
And if possible between the hours of...
What would you say the time was?
About 12, said Winnie the Pooh,
looking at the sun.
Between, as I was saying,
the hours of 12 and 12.05.
So really, dear old Pooh, if you'll excuse me.
What's that?
Pooh looked up at the sky and then as he heard the whistle again
he looked up into the branches of a big oak tree
and then he saw a friend of his.
It's Christopher Robin, he said.
Ah, then you'll be all right, said Piglet.
You'll be quite safe with him.
Goodbye.
And he trotted off home as quickly as he could,
very glad to be out of all danger again.
Christopher Robin came slowly down his tree.
Silly old bear, he said.
What were you doing?
First you went round the spinny twice by yourself
and then Piglet ran after you
and you went round again together
and then you were just going round a fourth time.
Wait a moment, said Winnie the Pooh,
holding up his paw.
He sat down and thought in the most thoughtful way he could think.
Then he fitted his paw into one of the tracks
and then he scratched his nose twice and stood up.
Yes,
said Winnie the Pooh.
I see now,
said Winnie the Pooh.
I have been foolish and deluded, he said,
and I'm a bear of no brain at all.
You're the best bear in all the world,
said Christopher Robin soothingly.
Am I, said Pooh, hopefully.
And then he brightened up suddenly.
Anyhow, he said,
it's nearly luncheon time.
So he went home for it.
When we meet the terrorist,
we see that he has the intention to punish,
to kill.
And we tell him that it's not good,
killing.
But he doesn't listen to us.
There must be a way of helping him
to see that killing is not right.
So the first mindfulness training is to protect life.
And not to kill.
But if we just advise people not to kill,
that may not be enough.
We have to inspire them.
We have to help them to understand
that killing someone is killing yourself.
If you are inhabited by the insight of interbeing,
you know that killing someone is killing yourself.
And that is why the first mindfulness training, not to kill,
to always protect life,
should not be just a commandment.
Someone tells you that it's a good thing to do.
But you have to understand why you shouldn't do it.
Because if you touch the insight of interbeing,
if you are free of the double grasping,
and you see very clearly that killing him is to kill yourself,
and the intention to kill is no longer there.
Until you help the terrorist to see that,
you cannot transform his anger,
his suffering.
Because he thinks that killing and destroying
is the only way to get a relief.
You have to punish,
because that is your enemy.
That is the enemy of mankind.
That is the enemy of your civilization,
and so on.
So that is why we have to present
the first mindfulness training in such a way
that helps people to see that fanaticism,
to be caught in a view,
to be caught in an ideology or an idea.
You can be a killer,
because you believe that killing is good.
Killing is something you need.
And a person who is free from all views,
a person who is capable of seeing that
everything is everything else,
will never have the desire to kill anymore.
So you don't have to enforce.
And that is why the mindfulness trainings
have to be presented in such a way
that can help the people to get the insight of interbeing.
They can help the people to see that,
to be caught in a view,
whether that is a doctrine,
an ideology,
or a dogma.
You are still caught in the double grasping.
You are not free,
and your action cannot be right.
Otherwise, the person will continue to think,
to believe that his action is right,
in the name of God,
in the name of the best of ideologies,
in the name of best view.
And in the Buddhist tradition,
as we have seen it,
right view is the absence,
is the removal of all views.
So our work,
our working together for a global ethic,
should be in the line of thinking that
our ethic should be an ethic without dogmas, without views.
And the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra is the beacon.
It's the light that shines on it.
We have to transcend all kinds of views
in order to have the real insight.
And with that insight,
there will be non-discrimination,
tolerance,
brotherhood, sisterhood.
And then the practice of the five mindfulness trainings
will be true practice.
Because there is no one imposing the trainings on us,
asking us to practice.
Because we see that that is our path,
that is our joy,
that is our compassion,
that is our love.
So please help with this.
Sister Pine has been joined with her brother,
Michelle,
brother,
sister Anh Huong.
And we need those of you who
have the talent of editing
in order to work on a revised version of the five mindfulness trainings.
Where is she?
In Upper Hamlet.
Here is Sister Pine.
Michelle, please come.
Anh Huong, come.
And Sister Kinh Nghiem proposed a sister in the Lower Hamlet.
Her name is
Tri
Nghiem.
Tri Nghiem, come.
Anh Huong, come.
We need some more volunteers.
You know that during the winter retreat we have already worked during three months on this.
And during the French retreat we have continued.
And we continue with this retreat,
collective meditation,
collective insight,
in order to offer a new version of the five trainings that can be used by non-Buddhists.
Is sister Anh Huong here? Please come.
And we have actually a working version
of the five trainings,
so that we can have the input from everyone.
So the first training and all the other trainings also should include the practice of
we should not be caught in views,
in the dualistic way of seeing things,
so that we can remove all discrimination and fear.
And that is the foundation of the practice of the training.
So the training becomes a joy.
The training becomes our love, our life,
our happiness.
And not something we have to do.
It's like when we refrain from polluting
the planet,
when we refrain from eating much
of the flesh of animals,
we don't feel that we have to suffer.
In fact we feel that we are very happy to be able to consume and to live in such a way
that makes the future for the planet to be possible.
So that is our love, our joy.
And the five mindfulness trainings should be presented in such a way.
Sister Tung Nghiem, you may say something.
Dear respected teacher,
dear noble community,
we enjoyed very much during this past winter retreat,
listening to Dharma talks of Thay about the global ethic
and the cream of the Buddhist teaching
and what we can contribute to a
to a direction that everyone can say,
yes, this is the way I want to go.
And we also had the chance to do the same during the French retreat.
After the winter retreat we made one draft,
a new revision in February,
and then after the French retreat we had a group of monastic and lay practitioners
who sat together and made a revision in French.
And very recently, just before this retreat started,
we made another draft in English.
So I think this is the working draft that Thay is speaking of now.
But we are very happy to have so many deep looking friends
and brothers and sisters here right now who can sit together again
and find the most inspiring possible words
for a world that is suffering and looking for a way out.
Thank you.
Is
it possible for your group to report to us from time to time during the retreat?
Yes, of course, dear Thay.
And ask for inputs.
Yes.
And we also have...
I heard that there were some other friends in Lower Hamlet, Miriam,
and I heard Peggy also.
And I think there were at least one or two other people that I've heard about
and there may be others.
Yes. Feel free to invite them.
So of course, yes, we will be very happy to share our progress with Thay.
And you are planning to meet when?
Yes, that's the question.
When we can meet from the three hamlets.
I don't know if Thay has an idea for us.
Thay has also already many ideas.
I will try to come up with an approach,
a proposal, and I will send to the other Hamlets for their announcements this evening.
Okay.