[The Plum Village Online Monastery]

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Good morning dear friends,
today is the fifth of September 2015,

and we are on the last day
of our retreat in Blue Cliff Monastery,

in a beautiful hall, all together.

With the children we already saw
the nature of interbeing of all that is.

We looked into the cookie,

and we saw all the non-cookie elements
that are the cookie.

The cookie is made up
of non-cookie elements,

and this is true for all that is.

During this retreat we have been looking
at the 16 exercises of breathing.

We already looked into 12, and today
we're going to look into the last four.

I'll write them on the board.

I hope somebody took
a picture, for the records.

(Laughing)

This is us, eating the cookie.
In case you didn't know.

(Laughing)

The cookie manifested itself as joy,
right here on the board.

Contemplating impermanence.

Contemplating throwing away.

Contemplating non-desire.

Contemplating cessation.

I'd like to start with 'Throwing away'.

This contemplation has also been called:
'Contemplating letting go',

and I like 'throwing away',
which we use also,

because throwing away, for me
clearly indicates an insight.

The things you throw away
are the things you don't need,

they are of no use to us,
that is what we throw away.

Once we have the insight, 'I really
don't need this, this is of no use to me',

it's easy to just throw it away.

And we have been talking
about multitasking at this retreat.

I find myself sometimes
multitasking during my walking;

my body is walking but my mind is doing
something else: I am multitasking.

Then I stop; we have a practice
of stopping the NST radio station:

the Non Stop Thinking channel.

So when I'm walking
and I find myself thinking,

I look for a moment into the thought
to see whether it is useful at all,

and I can tell you, most of my thoughts
are utterly useless.

(Laughing)

And once I see this: throw it away.

It's fun, you may like to try it, if you
find yourself multitasking in that way.

Just throw it away.

It makes us light and it allows us
to be present for what is,

to touch the wonders of life,
and see more of this earth.

We all have drawers,
cabinets, we have a fridge,

and in there we keep things.

From time to time we clean up.

We open the fridge and we look
at everything that's in the fridge:

'This is outdated, sorry,
kept it too long'.

We open our file cabinet,
we go through all the drawers,

we go through all the documents,
some dating from 1964,

'Is this still applicable?'

OK, shall I archive it for history's sake
or shall I throw it away?

We go and we create space
for other things to be possible.

We also have a mental filing cabinet,

a mental archive, where we
keep a lot of things.

In this cabinet there is this one drawer
that is called 'perceptions'.

Another one is called 'Notions'.

Another one, 'views'.

And they are filled with perceptions,
with views, with notions.

It's good from time to time
to stop to look into them,

and to see: are they really useful?

Are they out of date?
Have they ever been useful?

Have they served myself?
Others? The world?

Have they caused suffering?

And throw them away.

So we're free to look at what
is there, right on front of us,

and to see what is needed to respond
appropriately to the situation,

be it ourselves, others, or the world.

So throwing away is a wonderful practice.

We look at something, we ask ourselves,
'Am I sure that I still need this?'

If not, we throw it away.

And for the just-in-case people among us:

you can always check it again,
and then you throw it away.

(Laughing)

So throwing away is a daily practice,

and it will contribute greatly
to our well being,

and the well being of others,
and everything that is.

When we speak of throwing away
in this context here,

we speak of throwing away our views
and our notions that we hold onto,

that have not served us, that have not served anybody,

in fact they have caused a lot
of suffering to ourselves and others.

Together, we would like
to look a little bit into that.

To do that we're going to look
into the Three Doors of Liberation,

together with the Three Dharma Seals.

For people taking notes,
something to put in you archive,

(Laughing)

I'll write it on the board.

I'll try to write big enough for you to read:

- Emptiness;

- Signlessness;

- and Aimlessness.

We combine them with
the Three Dharma Seals:

- Emptiness is non-self;

- Signlessness is Impermanence;

- and Aimlessness is Nirvana.

Any teaching that reflects
the Three Dharma Seals

is an authentic teaching of the Buddha.

That is how we can see this.

So these Three Doors of Liberation

(Caughing)

-- I'm sorry, I can't turn away
from the microphone --

these Three Doors of Liberation

are what we turn to in our daily life
for support and also for healing.

We have already looked
at the non-self nature of the cookie,

and we know that the cookie is empty
of a separate individual self,

all the elements that it is made up of,
we would classify as non-cookie.

We call this interbeing:

everything needs everything else
in order to manifest.

A few days ago, you practiced
the Five Touchings of the Earth?

Looking deeply into yourself?

When we practice
the Five Touchings of the Earth

and we look deeply into ourselves,
we see our parents, our ancestors,

spiritual and blood ancestors,
we see our land ancestors,

and we also see the earth.

We see all our non-self ancestors,
all non-self elements.

When we really, really touch
our interbeing nature,

when we really touch this insight,
when we have this insight of non-self,

we will take good care of ourselves
by taking care of our non-self elements,

and we will take good care
of the non-self elements

by taking good care of ourselves.

We know that the earth
is hurting right now.

When we look into ourselves,
we will see that we are the earth:

the cookie, where did it come from?

We eat the cookie, we become the cookie,
we eat the carrot, we become the carrot,

we breathe the air, we are the air.

The earth ís our body, we don't have
a body outside of the earth.

This insight, we need to take
some time to look into this.

The earth is out body.

We take care of our body in many ways,
we go to the hairdresser

-- well, we don't

(Laughing)

but most people do --

well in sòme way we take care of our hair,
we wash our bodies, we clean it, feed it,

when it hurts, we do something
to relieve the pain,

we go and see a doctor,
we keep ourselves healthy --

Can we do the same thing with the earth?

It is our body.

This insight will make it very easy,

to live a in way that reflects
that the earth is our body.

How often do we use our car?

Or an airplane?

What do we eat?

Is what we eat healthy for our earth?

Does it make our earth healthy?

What we eat, does it contribute
to the health of the earth?

Since the earth is our body.

In Plum Village, the last few years
we have been vegan.

Also in that light: the earth is our body.

So, you may like to look
into the earthbody.

We all need to look into the body
of the earth being our body.

We have no body outside of the earthbody.

When we have a difficulty, we can
take refuge in all our non-self elements,

like our ancestors, our blood ancestors,
our spiritual ancestors,

they are in us.

When we look at our hand 
-- let's look at our hand --

our hand has been
transmitted to us by our parents.

They have transmitted
their whole being to us.

So, looking at our hand, we know it's made
of the cells of the body of our parents:

it is our parents' hand.

Our parents' hand is the hand
of our ancestors, of our grandparents,

our great-grandparents,
of all our ancestors;

all our blood ancestors
are present in our hand.

Somewhere along that line of ancestors,
there are those who are compassionate,

who are loving, who are caring,
they are in our hands.

When we look into our hand,
we also see our spiritual teachers.

Our spiritual teachers
who are transmitting to us

their understanding, their love
and their compassion.

It's in our hand.

It's in our mind, it's in our hand.

It's right here.

So, let us just look
at our hand a little bit,

and become aware
of the ancestors present in us.

We are the continuation of our ancestors,
blood as well as spiritual ancestors.

Now, if there is a moment 
where there's a storm raging in our mind,

when we are sad or angry or in despair,
we can call on our ancestors in our hand,

their care, their understanding,
their compassion.

So, we can close our eyes and call
on our ancestors in our hand,

and allow our ancestors
to put their hand on our head,

gently, lovingly and caring.

We can feel the energy of understanding
and compassion flow into our bodies,

we can hear their breathing,
steady and calm.

This is also Thay's hand on our head.

After a few moments, we will calm,
the storm has calmed.

We could hear them say,

'Breathe, my dear,
it will be okay, it will be okay.'

As the storm has calmed, we can see
more clearly what is happening,

and we know what to do and what not to do.

Let us enjoy the sound of the bell,

and just enjoy that energy we just received
from our blood and spiritual ancestors.

(Bell rings)

We are much larger than we think we are.

We are our ancestors, we can call
on them any time we need support.

Everything is impermanent, nothing remains
the same for two consecutive moments.

Impermanence, we can bring to mind
when we are in a difficulty,

like when there is a storm
raging in our mind:

that storm is impermanent, as we just saw.

I like to say, 'this too will pass.'

'This too will pass.' It's impermanent.

On the other hand, when we're
looking at impermanence,

we become aware
of the preciousness of all that is:

the preciousness of life,
the preciousness of our beloved ones,

the preciousness
of the flower, of everything,

and we will enjoy it and treasure it.

We do not know,

how long we will be able to enjoy them.

We treasure, and while we treasure
their presence we are nourished.

We are nourished by it,

and we will do everything we can today
to make them happy,

to make the flower happy,
the earth, our beloved ones.

To make ourselves happy,

so that we will not have regrets later.

But is we do have regrets
there is a way to heal them,

and I will come to that later.

Thanks to impermanence, life is possible.

We have a seed,
and the seed becomes a flower.

If it weren't for impermanence,
the seed would never become a flower.

The flower becomes a seed again,
and the seed becomes more flowers.

The seed is a seed, but when I look deeply
into the seed, we will see the flower.

When I look deeply
into the flower, I see the seed.

So the seed is a seed,
and the flower is a flower:

they inter-are.

In Zen terms they call this: 'not two'.

Not two.

If you've ever visited
Zen temples in China,

they have a gate, and it's
kind of a tradition that on the gate

there is a character, a Chinese character,
that means: not two.

It is the heart of the practice,
to touch this 'not two'.

Not two.

We already have had guided meditations,

we have looked into ourselves
as a five year old child.

Is the five year old child
the same as we are now, an adult?

Yes? No?

Neither the same, nor different.

Not two.

We've looked into our mother,
our father, as five year old children,

We've looked into ourselves,
are we the same or different?

Not two.

Look at anything, it is not two.

When we really look deeply
into impermanence,

we touch the signlessness,
the nature of signlessness of all that is,

and when we touch that, we can
overcome our grief and our fear.

You may or may not know most of monastics
like hiking in the mountains.

I'm one of the monastics that likes
to go hiking with other monastics.

On one of our hiking trips
in the Alps a few years ago,

I was lying on my back, having a nap
after lunch, and then I woke up.

We were in a valley, high up
in the mountains,

so there is a valley
and there are just some peaks,

very sharp high peaks that you need to --

what would you call it, mountain-climb,
you need an axe or something

and ropes and things to get up,
we decided not to go that day

(Laughing)

we just enjoyed the valley,
high up in the mountain --

and I opened my eyes and I was
looking at this clear blue sky.

The peaks on one side, a wide open valley,
and some more peaks there,

and then, just at the edge
of the peak of the mountain,

I saw something whitish, but very vaguely,

and kept looking and it became
whiter and whiter and whiter

and whiter and --
a white cloud manifested.

Out of the blue.

(Laughing)

-- Maybe that's where
the expression comes from? --

That white cloud just manifested itself,

and as I was looking at this wonder
of this white cloud manifesting itself,

all of a sudden a thought came,

ooh, what if it gets denser and denser
and it will rain and no shelter.

There's another way of looking at this.

If it gets denser and denser,
what will become of that cloud?

Rain.

The cloud will continue
to manifest itself as rain,

like we've seen in the cookie.

As rain, good.

It's time for tea anyway, so the rain,
the cloud as rain will become my tea,

and I will drink my cloud as tea,
and then I will probably have to pee --

(Laughing)

in a while.

Pee my cloud;

in fact I will be returning the cloud
to where it originally came from, partly.

Return the cloud to the earth, which will
be turning to vapor at a certain point.

The vapor will rise up again into the air,

the atmospheric conditions,
weather conditions,

it will come together,
and there will be another cloud.

A cloud never dies.

A cloud never dies, and this
is the same with everything.

Things manifest, or stop to manifest,

according to causes and conditions.

The French scientist and chemist
Antoine Lavoisier said:

"Nothing is created and nothing is lost,
everything transforms."

A cloud never dies.

And we know also of the law of
conservation of matter and energy,

that we cannot create matter,
we cannot create energy.

We cannot destroy:
matter can become matter,

matter can become energy, energy energy, 
energy can manifest as matter,

matter as matter as energy --

It's a journey with
no beginning and no end.

So, what we tend to call birth or death
are moments of continuation.

That is the nature of
no birth and no death:

moments of continuation.

Just because we do not see something

in the form, in the sign that we're
used to, doesn't mean it's not there.

It's difficult to see vapor,
but the vapor is there,

we will see it in water form, right?

In our breath.

In fact, the cloud,
we're breathing in and out clouds.

Are you aware of that? Nice. We don't
just drink it, we also breathe our cloud.

I like that.

So this is signlessness.

Signlessness is not a theory, it is a practice.

I ordained first
in a Japanese tradition in Japan,

in a temple tucked away in the mountains
on the northern shore of Japan.

Shortly after I ordained, about six weeks,

I received a telephone call
from one of my siblings

telling me my mother
had been taken to hospital.

I had asked her,

"If anything happens to you or mother,
please let me know as soon as possible.

Don't ring me to tell me
when the cremation will be.

If possible, let me know beforehand.

So, I was only there for six weeks

and I went to my master
and shared this with him, and he asked me,

"Would you like to go home,
to be with your mother?"

And I said, "Yes."

And within two days I was back in Europe.

All our siblings were there,

we were all at our mother's 
bedside when she passed away,

and I realized what a privilege that was
for our mother and for us.

She was very peaceful,
breathing, no sign of fear.

We asked her whether she would like us
to recite her favorite prayers;

she was Catholic.

She nodded, and we did.

We sang, and she passed away.

Just like that.

Outside was a beautiful day,
blue sky and snow on the ground.

We stayed there telling her
how beautiful it was outside.

So beautiful, so peaceful, so calm.

I was only there for a very short time,
and then I was back in Japan.

It was not until I was sitting in my room,

I sat down and thought,
'oh, I'm going to write a letter to mom.'

Then I thought, wait a minute,
no, she just passed away.

At that time I was just recently ordained,

and I didn't really know much about
the teaching of no birth and death.

I didn't know it very well.

I sat down -- well I was sitting down --
but I continued to think,

where is mom now? Where is she?

What happened to her? I know her body --
I know what happened to her body,

it was cremated, ashes were distributed
over the ocean as she has wished,

but where --

you know, mom is more than her body.

What happened?

I couldn't figure it out.

But I wanted a reply.

I thought, well, what was mom,
besides a physical body?

What did I call mom? Not just
her body, other things.

And this is how I quite naturally,
without knowing --

just about anything about
the teachings of no birth and no death --

What was mom?

Immediately came to my mind:
love for nature.

Everything she liked: love for nature,
poetry, music, dance.

Her sense of humor.

Her total acceptance
of her children, as we were.

We didn't need to be different.

She loved us as we were.

Her capacity to face difficulties,

even what we saw, being blown away
at sometimes by a difficulty,

to fall over, to get back onto her feet,
and to continue her perseverance.

Friends were always welcome,
there was always a bed in the house.

There was always a bed
for us in the house,

even long after we had
built our own life, if you like.

In cases we needed it, it was there.

She was Irish, a Quak woman, spirited.

I looked into 'what was my mother' and saw

all her strengths and all her weaknesses.

Then I thought,
but all that is still there.

Nature is there, and the love
for nature is still there,

in me, in my siblings, in others.

Poetry is there,

dance, music, sense of music is there,

perseverance is there,
it is all still there.

It's just not all together
in one form as I am used to

have seen it in that
particular manifestation.

But all my non-mom elements
were all still there.

I had always been close to my mom,

I take after her if you like,
we had many things in common,

but when I saw this --
I found my mother inside.

I thought, everything she was, still is.

And it brought me
great relief of my grief.

I still missed her presence,
physical, if you like, in some way.

But the grief, was not there.

Just gratitude, gratitude,

and joy of having found my mother inside.

And we enjoyed poetry together, music,

was not supposed to dance
in that Zen temple,

(Laughing)

but I know it was there.

I recognized her strengths in me.

It took me a little bit more time
to recognize and say,

"Yes, the weaknesses are also in me."

And now we practice together, we nourish
together and we transform together.

So it became very clear:
my mother is still there.

I am my mother's continuation,
my siblings are my mother's continuation,

my mother continues in many, many ways.

Now I think, how about my continuation,
I don't have children, how about that?

I think I need to breathe a little bit.

(Laughing)

Let's enjoy the sound of the bell.

(Bell rings)

Nothing is ever lost.

A little over ten years ago,
a group of us visited Israel.

In Jerusalem we visited the wall.

Very powerful energy
in the whole of Israel, everywhere.

It calls for presence.

As I was standing in front of the wall,
I put my hands against the wall.

The stones were warm,
and I stood there breathing.

Then inside of me, came this thought,
kind of this voice saying,

nothing is ever lost,
no thought is ever lost.

I thought, all my thoughts,
they don't disappear?

There're not lost?

Thay tells us that our thoughts
wear our signature,

and that our thoughts
are our continuation.

When I was standing there at the wall,

I thought, nothing ever lost, no thoughts,
no words, no action ever lost,

it only transforms.

I wondered about the unskillful thoughts
I had, the unwholesome thoughts I've had,

the unskillful words I've spoken,
the unskillful actions I've committed.

They're not lost? I found it scary.

Thay teaches us, if we've had
a thought, our continuation,

and we're not so happy about that thought,

we can think another thought,
to balance it out, to neutralize it.

If we've said something, we arere not
happy about, say something else,

that you are happy about, that makes
you happy, that makes others happy,

that contributes to the well-being.

We have an action we're not happy about,
do something you'll be happy about,

for your benefit, the benefit of all,
the benefit of the cosmos.

I thought, wow, this is what I call
empowerment, this is empowerment.

It was so healing to hear that,
so healing, it was just what I needed.

This is an empowerment.

The five mindfulness trainings
we looked at together,

and the fourteen mindfulness trainings
we looked at together

and heard being recited yesterday,

they are a very good guideline for that.

To think, to speak, to act,
in order to balance, to neutralize,

to unwholesome thoughts, words and actions

that are there in the cosmos,
either produced by us or by others.

When we think, speak or act wholesomely, 
we neutralize any unwholesome thought,

any unwholesome word,
any unwholesome action that is there.

Not just our own.

This is hope.

This is the practice we can do,
any moment, anywhere.

Maybe, we have another bell.

We can breathe, breathe
and come back to ourselves,

find our stability, our freedom,

and we will send out stability and freedom
as our continuation into the cosmos.

(Bell rings)

Our path is a path --

into happiness, into well-being,
from ill-being to well-being.

If we have many desires --

all those things that we think
we need in order to be happy,

I call them the 'ifs' and the 'whens'.

If this were only different,
I would be happy.

One of our sisters
shared with me many years ago,

that part of her body was sick,
and she felt very sad.

Then she decided to look into her body,
and look into all the parts of her body.

She then said, "You know what,

I realized, one part of my body is sick,
and the other parts are still healthy.

Then I asked my healthy parts, to send
their love and energy to my sick part,

and I felt much better."

I thanked her for her sharing.
Not the 'if', but what can I do,

how can I respond to the situation?

The 'ifs' and the 'whens':

When I have this, when I'm wealthy,
when I'm famous,

when I will be more powerful,
then I will be happy.

So if we can throw away
the 'whens' and the 'ifs'

and stop running after all those things,
when we come back to the present moment,

we will see we already have
enough conditions to be happy.

There are enough conditions to be happy.

We may see that, thát moment we are
waiting for, is actually this moment.

This moment ís the moment
we are waiting for.

It is that moment.

We will see that 'this' is 'it'.

(Laughing)

No need to run after anything anymore.

There is nothing lacking,
as our brother said.

When we touch non-self
and impermanence deeply,

we touch our true nature,
which is Nirvana.

No coming, no going, no birth, no death,

not same, not different,
no being, no non-being.

We find Nirvana
in impermanence and non-self.

I didn't write it on the board,
but you can imagine,

impermanence and non-self on the top,
line underneath: Nirvana.

Simple equation
-- to write on the board, I mean --

(Laughing)

and then we have time to practice.

We've been here over one week together,

and this retreat was scheduled to happen
in the physical presence of Thay.

Was Thay here, was Thay not here?
Is Thay here, is Thay not here?

I see -- means yes? Here?

OK, yes, here.

All together, we've made manifest Thay.

Thay is: breathing in, breathing out.
Enjoying our breathing.

Thay is: enjoying our steps.
Thay is: mindful eating.

Thay is: deep listening.
Thay is: loving speech.

Thay is: compassion.
Thay is understanding.

We cannot find Thay outside of that.

Thay is nothing other than that,

so together we have made manifest Thay.

Thay is here, and we can touch Thay.

Thay is in us.

We are in each other.

We have shared, whoever
we have touched, we are in them.

By whomever we have been touched,
in our education for instance, at school,

they are in us.

So we are in each other.

We are in you, you are in us.

And we can nourish
each other in each other.

We can enhance
each other in each other.

We can transform
each other in each other.

We cannot take each other
out of each other.

We inter-are.

You may like to study

the sixteen exercises of breathing,
full awareness of breathing,

in the light of the practice
of the five mindfulness trainings

and the fourteen mindfulness trainings.

You will see, they inter-are.

It will help you
to concretely practice them.

So study the sixteen in the light
of the five and the fourteen,

study the five and the fourteen
in the light of the sixteen exercises.

They inter-are.

Dear friends, we know you are there,
and we are so happy.

Happy continuation.

(Bell rings)

(Bell rings)

(Bell rings)

(Bell rings)

[The Plum Village Online Monastery]

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