WEBVTT

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There is a text called
'Mindfulness of Breathing'

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in which the Buddha proposes
16 exercises on mindful breathing.

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It's very practical.

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And everyone can do it.
Not complicated.

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You can already notice the effect
of the practice after one or two hours.

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The first exercise is so simple.

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To be aware of your in-breath
and out-breath.

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This is what we practiced this morning.

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Breathing in,
I know this is an in-breath.

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To identify the in-breath as in-breath,

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and to identify the out-breath
as an out-breath.

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Breathing in, I know
I am breathing in. So simple.

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And yet the effect can be great.

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Aware of...

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Aware of in-breath and out-breath.

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[1. aware of I + O]

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As you breathe in, you pay attention
to your in-breath only.

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Your in-breath becomes
the only object of your mind.

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And if you are truly focused,
mindful of your in-breath,

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you release everything else.

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You release the past, you release
the future, your projects, your fear,

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your anger, because the mind
has only one object at a time.

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And the object of the mind now
is the in-breath.

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Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.

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So you focus your mind on your in-breath
and you release everything else

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and you become free.

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There is regret concerning the past,
sorrow concerning the past.

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There is fear and uncertainty
concerning the future.

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All of that you release in just 1 or 2
seconds because you are focusing

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all your mind into your in-breath.

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So breathing in mindfully sets you free.
You have freedom.

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If you are to make a decision, it's better
you have enough freedom to make it.

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You are not under the influence
of anger or fear,

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and your decision is much better
than if you are not free.

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So just breathing in makes you free.

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And it is pleasant also,
it's pleasant to breathe in.

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So the exercise is so simple
but the effect can be great.

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The second exercise is to follow
your in-breath all the way through

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and to follow your out-breath
all the way through.

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And you may enjoy these two exercises
at any time and anywhere.

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Breathing in, I follow my in-breath
from the beginning to the end.

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Suppose this marker represents
my in-breath.

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It begins here
and this finger is my mind.

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Breathing in, I follow my in-breath
all the way through.

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There is no interruption at all,
not a millisecond of interruption.

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So during the time you breathe in mindfully,
you cultivate concentration.

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You are not only mindful of your in-breath
but you concentrate on your in-breath.

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The energy of mindfulness carries
within herself the energy of concentration.

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And it is also pleasant,

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because to be mindful and to concentrate
on your in-breath can be very pleasant.

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You don't have to suffer.

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In fact you can feel wonderful,
just breathing in,

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especially when the air is fresh
and if the nose is free.

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So the second exercise is...

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[2. follow I + O]

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to follow your in-breath and
your out-breath all the way through.

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We know we can do these two exercises

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anytime we like.

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The third exercise is
to be aware of your body.

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[3. aware of body]

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Breathing in, I'm aware of my body.
You bring your mind home to your body.

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And your mind becomes an embodied mind.

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That will help you to be established
in the here and the now,

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you are fully present,
you are fully alive.

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And you can live that moment
of your daily life more deeply

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if body and mind are together.

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The oneness of body and mind is
what you realize with the third exercise.

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When you spend 2 hours with your computer,

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you forget entirely that you have a body.

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You are not truly alive in that moment.

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You are truly alive only
when the mind is with the body.

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You are fully in the here and the now
and you touch the wonders of life

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in you and around you.

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Many of our brothers
and sisters in Plum Village

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program a bell of mindfulness
in their computer.

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And every fifteen minutes,
they hear the bell, they stop working,

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they go back and enjoy
their in-breath and out-breath,

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smile and enjoy their body.

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And release the tension in their body.

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That is what the Buddha recommended
2600 years ago.

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There's the fourth exercise.

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Breathing in, I calm my body,
I release the tension...

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in my body.

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[4. calm body]

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When you come back to your body,

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you may notice that
there is a lot of tension in your body.

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Then you may like to do something
to help your body to have more peace,

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to suffer less, and with your out-breath
you allow the tension to be released.

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That's the first four exercises of mindful breathing

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recommended by the Buddha

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so that we can take good care of our body.

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And with the fifth exercise
we go to the realm of the feelings.

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The fifth exercise is to generate
a feeling of joy. Generating joy.

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[5. Generating Joy]

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A good practitioner knows
how to generate a feeling of joy,

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because she knows that
mindfulness allows her to recognize

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all the conditions of happiness
that are already available.

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We can remind ourselves and we can remind
our beloved ones that we are very lucky.

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We can be happy right here and right now,

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we don't have to run into the future
to look for happiness.

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There is a teaching given by the Buddha.

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That is the teaching of
"living happily in the present moment."

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Life is available only
in the present moment.

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And if you go back to the present moment

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you will notice that there are
so many conditions of happiness

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already available.

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That is why joy and happiness
can be born right away.

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The expression living happily
in the present moment

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was found in a sutra...

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five times.

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The Buddha was teaching Anathapindika,

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a businessman, in the city of Sravasti.

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That day Anathapindika, the businessman,

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came with many hundreds
of businessmen to visit the Buddha.

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And the Buddha gave them that teaching.

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"Gentlemen", he said, "you can be happy
right here and right now.

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You don't have to run into the future,

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you don't have to look for success
in the future in order to be happy."

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I think the Buddha knew very well
that businessmen,

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they think a little bit too much
about the future and their successes.

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And that is why
the expression living deeply,

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"living happily in the present moment"
was used by the Buddha five times

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in the same sutra, the same scripture.

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Drstādharmasukhavihara.

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[drstādharmasukhavihara]

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"Vihara" means to dwell or to live,
"sukha" means happily,

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and "drstā-dharma"
is the present moment.

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(Chinese: 現法樂住)

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So a good practitioner
does not look for happiness in the future.

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He knows how to go home
to the present moment

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and recognize all the conditions
for happiness that are available

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and make joy and happiness
available right away.

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And she does that for herself
and she does that for the other person.

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Creating happiness is an art.
The art of happiness.

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So the fifth exercise is to generate joy
and the sixth is to generate happiness.

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[6. Generating Happiness]

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The seventh is...

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to be aware
of a painful feeling or emotion.

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Breathing in, I know there is
a painful feeling, a painful emotion

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that is coming up in me.

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[7. Aware of Pain]

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The practitioner does not try to fight
the pain, to cover up the pain inside

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or to try to run away from the pain.

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In fact, because she is a practitioner

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she knows how to generate
the energy of mindfulness.

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With that energy she recognizes the pain
and she embraces the pain tenderly.

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'Hello my little pain. I know you are
there. I will take good care of you.'

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Whether that is anger or fear
or jealousy or despair.

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We have to be there for our pain.

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There is no fighting.

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There is no violence
done to our suffering.

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Yesterday we spoke about a mother
holding the crying baby.

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Our pain, our suffering is our baby

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and the energy of mindfulness generated
by our practice is the loving mother.

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And the mother has to recognize
that the baby suffers.

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She takes the baby up and holds
the baby tenderly into her arms.

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That is exactly
what a good practitioner will do

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when a painful feeling arises.

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You have to be there
for your painful feeling or emotion.

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You continue to breathe
and to walk in such a way,

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that the energy of mindfulness
continues to be produced.

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With that energy of mindfulness
you recognize the pain

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and you embrace the pain tenderly.

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In Buddhism we speak of consciousness
in terms of "store" and "mind."

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There are at least
two layers of consciousness.

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The lower layer
is called "store consciousness."

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Our fear, our anger, our despair are
there in the bottom of our consciousness

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in the form of seeds.

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There is a seed of anger here

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and if the seed of anger
accepts to sleep quietly down there,

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we are okay.

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We can laugh, we can have a good time.

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But if someone comes and says something
or does something

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and touches off that seed of anger,
it will come up as a source of energy.

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Down here it is called a seed.

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[seed]

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(Chinese: 種子)

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Bija.

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[bija]

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And when it comes up here
on the level of "mind consciousness,"

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it will become a kind of energy
called mental formation.

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[mental formation]

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And this is the mental formation
called anger.

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[M.F.]

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So when the practitioner notices
when anger is coming up,

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she, right away, breathes

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and invites the seed of mindfulness
to come up as energy.

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Mindfulness is another seed that is here.

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If we are a good practitioner,
the seed of mindfulness in us has grown

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to become a very important seed.

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It needs a touch lightly,

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then there will be a lot of that energy
coming up for us to use.

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If we are not a practitioner, the seed
of mindfulness is there but very tiny.

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If you practice mindful breathing,
mindful walking everyday,

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the seed continues to grow.

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Whenever you need that energy,
you just touch it,

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and you have a powerful source of energy

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to help you to deal with
whatever is happening up there.

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So the practitioner begins
to breathe or to walk mindfully.

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The second mental formation
is manifested on this level.

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Another mental formation...
And this one is mindfulness.

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So it is the energy of mindfulness that
will take care of the energy of anger.

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There is no fighting.

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Mindfulness does at least two things.
First of all to recognize,

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a simple recognition of the pain.

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And that is the seventh exercise.
Breathing in, I know anger is in me.

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Or despair is in me or jealousy is in me.

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Recognize simply, not fighting.

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The second thing mindfulness will do
is to embrace.

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And that is seen in the eighth exercise
is to calm down the pain

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[Calm Pain]

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like a mother holding the baby.

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The mother does not know
what is wrong with the baby.

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But the fact that
she's holding the baby gently

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can help the baby suffer less right away.

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The same thing is true
with the practitioner.

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She does not know what is the cause
of that kind of anger or fear.

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But the fact that she is recognizing
and holding that energy of fear and anger

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can help her suffer less right away,
after one or two minutes.

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So this is...

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the art of suffering.

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This is the art of happiness.

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How to generate a feeling
of joy and happiness.

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How to take care
of a painful feeling and emotion.

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How to calm it down, how to get a relief.

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And with the exercises that follow
you can go further

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and you can transform pain, sorrow, fear
into something more positive,

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like making good use of the mud
in order to grow lotus flowers.

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So a good practitioner
is not afraid of pain.

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She does not try
to run away from the pain.

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In fact, she tries to be with the pain.

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She knows how to handle
a feeling of pain,

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a strong emotion.

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And she knows how to make
good use of that mud

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in order to create
understanding and compassion

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which are factors of true happiness.

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So with global ethics,
with the practice of mindfulness,

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with a spiritual dimension
in our daily lives,

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we know how to overcome difficulties
that present themselves in our daily life.

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And that is why each one of us
should bring a spiritual dimension

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to our daily life.

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Without that kind of practice, we
don't know how to handle the difficulties

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that come everyday.

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The image of a mother holding a baby
is very helpful.

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If your mindfulness is powerful enough,

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you embrace your pain, your sorrow,
you continue to breathe

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or to practice walking meditation.

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It's like giving your fear,
your anger a mindfulness bath.

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Maybe 3 minutes, maybe 5, 10 minutes.

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After that, she will lose
some of her strength

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and go back to the original place,
down there in the store consciousness.

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After having taken a mindfulness bath,

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she goes down into the store and
goes back to where she had been before.

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Losing some of her strength.
That is the power of mindfulness.

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In the Buddhist tradition,

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we speak about 51 categories
of mental formations.

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As a novice monk, I had to know by heart
all these mental formations,

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so that every time one of them came up,

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I should be able
to call it by its true name,

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'Hello my fear, I know your name,
I am going to take good care of you.'

00:27:13.257 --> 00:27:18.143
Recognizing and embracing.
That's the first step of the practice.

00:27:22.398 --> 00:27:28.387
There are wholesome, positive seeds
down here, we mentioned mindfulness.

00:27:29.265 --> 00:27:32.853
We mentioned concentration,
we mentioned insight,

00:27:34.464 --> 00:27:40.231
we mentioned non-violence,
we mentioned joy, we mentioned compassion.

00:27:41.141 --> 00:27:44.310
There are many good things down there.

00:27:45.581 --> 00:27:49.126
And as a good practitioner,
we know how to recognize them

00:27:49.305 --> 00:27:54.574
and help them to come up
as frequently as possible,

00:27:55.638 --> 00:28:00.345
because they will make the landscape
of the mind consciousness beautiful.

00:28:01.333 --> 00:28:03.601
We are happy if we know

00:28:03.768 --> 00:28:10.992
how to invite them to manifest
as mental formations up here.

00:28:12.064 --> 00:28:18.287
As for the negative, unwholesome mental
formations like fear, anger, despair,

00:28:19.482 --> 00:28:23.722
we better keep them down there,
do not give them a chance to come up.

00:28:23.837 --> 00:28:28.062
And they will grow weaker
and weaker and weaker.

00:28:28.448 --> 00:28:34.214
We do that for ourselves and we do that
to help our beloved ones to do the same.

00:28:42.549 --> 00:28:44.253
(Bell)

00:28:48.925 --> 00:28:54.843
(Bell)

00:29:37.283 --> 00:29:40.732
If we speak about
the life of a school teacher,

00:29:42.164 --> 00:29:48.035
we know that there is suffering
inside of the teacher,

00:29:49.548 --> 00:29:54.354
and there is also suffering
inside of the students.

00:29:56.431 --> 00:30:04.930
That is why if school teachers know
how to handle their own suffering,

00:30:06.485 --> 00:30:10.678
if teachers know how to generate
joy and happiness

00:30:13.427 --> 00:30:15.709
they will become happy teachers,

00:30:16.503 --> 00:30:18.408
they will suffer less,

00:30:19.539 --> 00:30:25.049
and when they go to their class, they can
help their students to do the same.

00:30:31.057 --> 00:30:34.176
During the last two decades
of the last century,

00:30:34.382 --> 00:30:38.130
there was a professor of mathematics here,
in Toronto.

00:30:38.591 --> 00:30:45.715
He taught at the French Toronto School.

00:30:47.486 --> 00:30:52.321
He came to a retreat
organized in Montreal.

00:30:53.312 --> 00:30:56.588
He came back
and tried to put into practice

00:30:57.932 --> 00:31:00.993
the practice of mindful breathing
and walking.

00:31:02.423 --> 00:31:05.397
His name is Henry Keekoo

00:31:06.042 --> 00:31:12.359
and he is director
of the program of mathematics

00:31:12.791 --> 00:31:16.443
in the Toronto French School.

00:31:23.439 --> 00:31:27.795
Two journalist from The Globe and The Mail

00:31:29.311 --> 00:31:32.427
came to his class to interview him

00:31:33.911 --> 00:31:40.118
about why he wanted to introduce
Buddhism into his class.

00:31:40.232 --> 00:31:43.375
This is forbidden here in Canada.

00:31:43.663 --> 00:31:48.184
And then he invited the two journalist
to come to his class

00:31:48.990 --> 00:31:54.313
and see how he taught his students.

00:31:58.746 --> 00:32:04.456
The day he came home from the retreat
and resumed his class

00:32:04.750 --> 00:32:09.980
he walked in mindfully,
slowly and mindfully.

00:32:11.570 --> 00:32:17.361
And he came up to the blackboard
and he erased things mindfully,

00:32:18.338 --> 00:32:21.785
and the students asked him,
'Papa, are you sick?'

00:32:22.399 --> 00:32:24.957
(French) 'Papa, es tu malade?'

00:32:25.244 --> 00:32:28.339
'No, I am not sick,
I am practicing mindfulness.'

00:32:28.484 --> 00:32:30.675
(Laughter)

00:32:31.062 --> 00:32:40.294
So he told the students about
what he has learned in the retreat.

00:32:41.139 --> 00:32:46.169
Breathing, walking, easing,
calming and so on.

00:32:47.384 --> 00:32:53.551
And he proposed that
every half an hour, 15 minutes

00:32:54.540 --> 00:33:01.078
a boy would clap his hands three times,
replacing the bell of mindfulness

00:33:01.308 --> 00:33:06.714
and everyone practice mindful breathing
in and out to calm themselves.

00:33:11.627 --> 00:33:14.991
And the class made a lot of progress.

00:33:15.372 --> 00:33:19.914
there's a lot of joy
and progress in his class.

00:33:20.773 --> 00:33:27.150
And he taught in many classes
of mathematics in that way.

00:33:28.312 --> 00:33:32.348
So when the two journalist came,
they witnessed that,

00:33:37.287 --> 00:33:41.942
teacher and students sit down
and enjoy breathing together,

00:33:42.847 --> 00:33:45.926
breath out laughing together.

00:33:46.368 --> 00:33:49.543
And every time they hear that (clapping),

00:33:50.031 --> 00:33:56.224
everyone stopped teaching, learning,
and enjoyed breathing in and out.

00:33:56.375 --> 00:34:01.399
That had a good impact on the learning
and the teaching of the school.

00:34:02.381 --> 00:34:09.344
So when the time for retirement came, they
asked him to stay for another three years.

00:34:10.503 --> 00:34:17.867
And other classes have adopted
his way of teaching.

00:34:30.515 --> 00:34:32.529
So for a teacher,

00:34:35.229 --> 00:34:37.188
or school teachers,

00:34:37.379 --> 00:34:41.119
the first thing to do
is to come home to himself or herself.

00:34:46.929 --> 00:34:49.801
The way out is in.

00:34:53.871 --> 00:35:01.571
Go back to oneself
and take care of oneself.

00:35:03.403 --> 00:35:06.774
Learning how to generate a feeling of joy,

00:35:06.893 --> 00:35:10.706
learning how to generate
a feeling of happiness,

00:35:10.824 --> 00:35:18.664
learning how to handle
a painful feeling, a painful emotion.

00:35:19.816 --> 00:35:22.255
Listening to the suffering

00:35:22.360 --> 00:35:27.956
allow understanding and compassion
to be born and suffer less.

00:35:29.189 --> 00:35:35.189
This is the first step and he or she
has to do that. That is the first step.

00:35:37.459 --> 00:35:42.630
A sangha, a community of practice
in the neighborhood can help him,

00:35:43.531 --> 00:35:47.011
can help her to deepen their practice.

00:35:47.113 --> 00:35:49.981
You have to begin with yourself.

00:35:54.042 --> 00:36:02.273
And the school teacher also
has members of his family;

00:36:07.794 --> 00:36:13.685
a partner, children. So like that.

00:36:14.035 --> 00:36:21.524
So after he has done it for himself,
he can help the other to do the same.

00:36:22.527 --> 00:36:26.355
It's much easier. When you
have not changed yourself,

00:36:26.545 --> 00:36:30.105
it's very difficult to help
change the other person.

00:36:30.266 --> 00:36:32.975
To help him or her suffer less.

00:36:33.207 --> 00:36:39.587
So with loving speech and deep listening,
with more peace and gentleness in yourself

00:36:39.857 --> 00:36:42.127
you become more pleasant.

00:36:42.257 --> 00:36:46.299
That is why you can help
the other person much more easily,

00:36:46.477 --> 00:36:52.118
and she or he will be able
to do the same thing.

00:36:53.228 --> 00:36:56.758
And we become co-practitioners.

00:36:57.739 --> 00:37:02.139
We share the same values,
we share the same spiritual practice.

00:37:02.640 --> 00:37:07.580
Because we know that each day
the situation improves;

00:37:08.469 --> 00:37:12.860
there's more peace, less suffering,
more joy, more happiness

00:37:13.460 --> 00:37:17.400
and the children will profit from that.

00:37:21.882 --> 00:37:26.192
Because the children
can practice very well also.

00:37:26.721 --> 00:37:31.309
And when you have
a united harmonious family,

00:37:32.163 --> 00:37:36.294
then you can bring that
into your workplace.

00:37:38.653 --> 00:37:46.794
Then maybe first you have your class
and you transform your class.

00:37:47.854 --> 00:37:50.905
Your class becomes a happier place.

00:37:51.095 --> 00:37:54.455
Your class can become a family

00:37:54.795 --> 00:37:58.735
because there are many children
who are unfortunate.

00:38:00.674 --> 00:38:04.675
Their parents are not in good terms
with each other. They fight,

00:38:04.815 --> 00:38:06.995
they make each other suffer

00:38:07.243 --> 00:38:12.354
and the child has had no chance
to learn what love is.

00:38:18.234 --> 00:38:24.294
The class may be the second chance
for the child.

00:38:24.696 --> 00:38:29.165
And the school teacher can play
the role of the father or of the mother

00:38:29.547 --> 00:38:35.425
and can teach the young person
how to love, what is love.

00:38:36.566 --> 00:38:38.867
It's something real.

00:38:40.207 --> 00:38:44.147
I remember this summer opening
in Plum Village

00:38:47.537 --> 00:38:55.938
there was a child that
came up for questions and answers

00:38:57.808 --> 00:39:01.629
and she made the whole sangha cry.

00:39:02.929 --> 00:39:07.579
She said that her parents are divorced.
They fight each other,

00:39:08.189 --> 00:39:11.320
they make each other suffer

00:39:11.570 --> 00:39:17.841
and when they come, they still fight
each other in front of the child.

00:39:18.405 --> 00:39:26.364
And the child asked, 'What is love?
I don't know, what is love?

00:39:26.664 --> 00:39:31.245
Why do they fight so much,
even in front of us?'

00:39:31.425 --> 00:39:35.796
Many people cried. Very disturbing.

00:39:37.866 --> 00:39:46.786
So it is possible to give children
like that one a second chance

00:39:47.022 --> 00:39:51.894
by transforming the classroom
into a family,

00:39:52.604 --> 00:39:55.862
and Henry Keekoo was able to do so.

00:40:01.822 --> 00:40:08.393
There are other classes in the school
and there is the administration,

00:40:09.323 --> 00:40:16.196
and of course they will do everything
in order to improve the quality of life,

00:40:16.524 --> 00:40:20.014
the quality of teaching and learning
in the whole school.

00:40:29.519 --> 00:40:31.955
We continue tomorrow.

00:40:39.167 --> 00:40:40.535
(Bell)

00:40:43.977 --> 00:40:49.838
(Bell)

00:41:01.749 --> 00:41:07.549
(Bell)

00:41:47.096 --> 00:41:49.435
(Bell)