(Bell)
So, dear respected Thay, dear sangha, dear friends,
I'm very happy we are together again on this eighth day of November,
in the year 2018.
There is a Day of Mindfulness for us,
you have a Day of Mindfulness to be together
with lay practitioners from many, many countries.
We are very grateful to Thay
because he has always made it possible for the lay practitioners to join us
at Plum Village for the three month Rain Retreat,
which in some countries is not open for lay practitioners to come
and practice with the monastics.
So, since the very beginning of Plum Village,
this has been our way of practicing as a fourfold sangha.
And that means that
the monks and nuns, male and female,
and then the lay practitioners, male and female.
That is meant by four fourfold sangha.
During this Rains Retreat, we have been offering
our understanding and ways of practicing the 14 mindfulness trainings every Sunday,
and then, on Thursdays, there has been a variety of teachings.
So far, we've shared the basic Plum Village practices,
some of the Dharma Doors,
I believe, such as Beginning Anew, Shining Light, guided meditations,
reconciliation within families and relationships.
In the coming weeks, we will be offering our understanding and how we can practice
some of the sutras.
This morning, today we will look at the Discourse on Love.
We remember that the Dharma talk on Sunday ended with a line from one of Thay's poems
and it said: Let us accept one another.
Let us share the vision for Great Love to arise.
Maybe we're wondering, what is this Great Love?
Buddha had some wonderful teachings on Great Love.
And Thay has also offered many deep teachings on what he has called True Love.
So we know there are four expressions of this Great Love, of this True Love.
We know them as loving kindness,
it is also known as maitri or metta,
compassion,
or also known as karuna, in Pali or Sanskrit.
Joy, mudita,
and then equanimity, upeksha.
The Buddha has offered an explanation of these four expressions of love
in the Discourse on Love.
This discourse is available in all of our chanting books,
Chanting from the Heart and all of the translations in the Chanting Book.
And it's found in the session on Monday, Monday morning.
This text or this sutra is very important and really well loved and practiced
in the Theravada traditions in Buddhism.
So, we think of the countries where 'source Buddhism', as Thay calls it,
or 'original Buddhism' is practiced.
And that is the country of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia,
Sri Lanka, India and Myanmar.
Primarily the countries in Southeast Asia.
The text is in Pali language, and it's part of their daily practice
to chant this discourse, this sutra.
I discovered that there are
20 translations of this text into English.
19 are available on the Internet,
and then the 20th is the one that Thay and sister Chan Duc did,
or sister True Virtue, sister Annabel. And to me, it's the most beautiful.
If you have an interest in scholarship,
you can look at the other translations which are very accurate, I believe,
I don't read Pali. But in reading the translation
that is available to us everyday, I see that it is very, very beautiful,
the one that we have.
So, why don't we listen to this Discourse on Love.
And, I'll read it.
And I believe many of you have already heard it,
but it's nice to hear it again.
Because I've found that it waters my seeds of happiness and goodness.
It is a wonderful text to nourish the wholesome qualities in ourselves.
So, Discourse on Love. And this is Thay's translation with sister Annabel.
“He or she who wants to attain peace
should practice being upright, humble, and capable of using loving speech.
He or she will know how to live simply and happily, with senses calmed,
without being covetous and carried away by the emotions of the majority.
Let him or her not do anything that will be disapproved of by the wise ones.
And this is what he or she contemplates:
May everyone be happy and safe, and may all hearts be filled with joy.
May all beings live in security and in peace –
beings who are frail or strong, tall or short, big or small, visible or invisible,
near or faraway, already born, or yet to be born.
May all of them dwell in perfect tranquility.
Let no one do harm to anyone.
Let no one put the life of anyone in danger.
Let no one, out of anger or ill will, wish anyone any harm.
Just as a mother loves and protects her only child at the risk of her own life,
cultivate boundless love to offer to all living beings in the entire cosmos.
Let our boundless love pervade the whole universe, above, below, and across.
Our love will know no obstacles.
Our heart will be absolutely free from enmity and hatred.
Whether standing or walking, sitting or lying, as long as we are awake,
we should cultivate this love within our heart.
This is the noblest way of living.
Free from wrong views, greed, and sensual desires,
living in beauty and realizing Perfect Understanding,
those who practice boundless love will certainly transcend birth and death.”
I discovered that this sutra grew within me.
I heard it the first time and I thought,
"It's very lovely, very nice, but how can I practice it?"
It seemed to be a real challenge, to have all these qualities,
and to be able to practice boundless love.
So what I did is I read it, I read it very often.
And I simply waited.
And I didn't expect myself to be able to practice it.
It was simply enough to read it.
And I still do this everyday. I read the sutra.
It's very interesting to know that this sutra has a history.
It has an origin. An origin story.
But before I share the origin story of how this sutra was offered by the Buddha,
I want to say a few words about what do we mean by origin stories.
When we
study or hear some of the Buddhist teachings.
Do you know that the lay people
in the time of the Buddha
were the source of many of the mindfulness trainings?
Or the precepts, as they were called in those days.
Both for the lay people and for the monastics.
And how was that possible?
For example, the 5 mindfulness trainings
were created by the Buddha
in response to the request or the mother and father, the parents,
of a monk who had just ordained.
His parents went to the Buddha and said,
"World Honored One, do you have some guidelines for us,
the lay people living in the world, so we could have more happiness and peace?"
So the Buddha thought and he agreed,
he said, "Yes, I will create some guidelines."
And these guidelines, in those days, were offered with the phrase,
"I will refrain from killing. I will abstain from stealing." Et cetera.
So the Buddha used words that were appropriate for the time and culture
in ancient India.
I think if we continue to use those words in our modern era,
perhaps the mindfulness trainings will not be so easily accepted.
So Thay, with his great understanding and wisdom of our era and culture,
renamed them to call them 'mindfulness trainings',
which is truly what they are about. We'll develop our mindfulness,
and train our mind to think and act in wholesome ways.
So Thay called them mindfulness trainings,
and then, instead of beginning each training with the word
"I will abstain from", or "I will refrain from",
because in our era, it's more a culture of consummation rather than abstaining from.
So Thay chose to use the words, "Aware of suffering caused by" killing,
or stealing.
If we know that such actions are going to create suffering,
or our ways of speaking, or thinking will create suffering,
then we think, "Oh, sure! I'm willing to learn more and practice."
Practice the trainings.
So then Thay gives us ways to understand within the training how to practice.
I am committed to do this. I'm determined
to do something else in order to not cause suffering to myself or others.
The precepts for the monks and nuns were also created by the Buddha
after a situation occurred where there was a mistake
or after an event.
The Buddha did not make precepts, or mindfulness trainings,
we say "a priori", in advance.
The Buddha wanted the monastics to have a way of life
that would make it easy for the lay people to be able to ask questions,
and learn from the monastics, and respect them.
So all of the precepts for the monastics
were made after a specific situation occurred.
And how did the Buddha learn about situations that occurred?
Or behavior on the part of the monastics?
It was from the lay people.
The lay people, when they observed or heard
how the monks and nuns were speaking or acting,
if they were not pleased with the - If they were not happy,
they would go to the Buddha and tell him.
"This is what we saw, this is what happened."
And then the Buddha decided that he didn't want his monastics
to make the same mistake.
So he made precepts for them.
We have to understand, in the beginning, the monastic sangha was forming.
It was brand new. So -
But they didn't know too much about how to be monastics,
so, gradually,
they learned, Buddha learned, and the monastics learned
about what would be the most appropriate way of life for them.
And the Buddha created mindful manners as appropriate codes of behavior.
We are all very grateful to the lay sangha.
In those days they were helping the Buddha and the other monastics
know what they thought would be appropriate behavior.
Let us enjoy just a moment
to come back to ourselves. We'll listen to one sound of the bell
for a moment of mindful breathing.
(Bell)
So I've shared a little bit about origin, origin stories.
The precepts for the monastics, they all have an origin story.
We learn about what happened
and it was a source of maybe some misunderstanding,
a source of
people not being happy,
and so, a guideline was created. An origin story.
And I've used the example of the mindfulness trainings for the lay sangha,
and then, monastic mindful manners and precepts for the monastics.
And also, I've, with great appreciation and gratitude, let all of you know
how important you are for our practice.
And you were instrumental in the time of the Buddha
for helping formulate the appropriate code of behavior for monastics.
I want to add that other monastics also went to the Buddha
to share what they saw other monastics do.
So it wasn't just the lay people going,
it was monastics also letting the Buddha know.
I think the Buddha was very busy, wasn't he?
Not only teaching, but receiving all of these reports
on how people were acting, and speaking, and thinking, et cetera.
So the Buddha listened, I'm sure, very deeply and then reflected.
So from the time of the Buddha
he established the fourfold sangha
of the monastics and the lay people practicing together
and supporting one another in their practice.
So now I'd like to share with you the origin story
of this sutra.
It is said that on one occasion,
some 500 bhikkhus, meaning fully ordained monks,
after receiving some instruction on meditation,
such as awareness of the breathing,
which is what Thay has chosen for our basic meditation practice,
the Anapanasati sutra, they practiced that daily,
aware of our in-breath and our out-breath, aware of our body, relaxing our body.
So the Buddha gave them some topics for their meditation.
Then, they went to a forest in the Himalayas
to practice this meditation.
In those days, they didn't have a practice center such as we know today.
They went to the foot of a tree, or they went into the forest
to a quite, secluded area to practice.
Mostly sitting meditation, and slow walking meditation.
But we know that they also ate mindfully.
But there were some devas.
Maybe a deva would be someone comparable to an angel
in the Christian tradition.
Devas lived in the forest, in nature, where there were trees
and bushes, a lot of natural flora and fauna.
But there was some devas already living there.
Initially, the devas, devas are like
beings that are not in a body form,
but they have already developed some certain amount of consciousness.
But there were devas already living there.
In the beginning, the devas tolerated the presence of the monks.
But they saw
that the bhikkhus were planning to stay there and practice meditation.
And they had no intention to leave.
So the devas realized that and became upset and annoyed with the bhikkhus
for taking their space, for moving in occupying their territory.
So what did they do?
The devas made fearful sighs and horrible sounds
that agitated the six sense organs of the monks.
And they did this at night
to frighten the monks, so they would go away.
The bhikkhus were so disturbed,
that they got sick
and they couldn't make any progress in their meditation.
So they decided to leave the forest to return to the Buddha.
And they reported their experiences of what happened.
So the Buddha received this report,
and in his meditation,
he surveyed the area to find an alternative forest
where the monks could practice in silence.
But he found no other suitable forest in that area.
So what he told them was to return to that forest.
However, before returning to the forest
the Buddha gave them, his monks, this metta meditation.
The Metta Sutra for them to chant as a daily practice
and then to offer as a meditation
to make the devas more peaceful, to appease them,
and as well for the protection of the monks.
So the monks went back to the same forest where the devas were,
I imagine they were a little bit anxious,
wondering if the Buddha's teachings would be enough
to make the devas calm.
Because they had experienced a lot of agitation from these beings.
So the monks went back, and daily chanted the Metta Sutra,
and the metta meditation throughout the day.
And I believe throughout the night.
They had brief periods of sleep.
The result was transformative.
By receiving this metta energy from the monks,
this energy of loving kindness and compassion from the monks,
the devas developed trust and confidence in the monks.
They welcomed them.
They then had goodwill towards the monks and even looked after them,
making sure they had enough food, and whatever they needed.
And the monks were also able to develop these qualities in themselves,
and offer to the devas their friendliness, their good wishes,
their kindness and their peaceful presence.
That helped calm and watered the best seeds in themselves,
but also
in the hearts and minds of the devas.
So everybody benefited from this practice.
And it is said, that
after this three months period of rains retreat,
that the bhikkhus spent with this meditation in the forest with the devas,
it is said that all 500 bhikkhus became arhats.
And in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism,
an arhat is a person who has purified all of their afflictions,
such as greed, hatred, ignorance.
He has developed to the highest extent possible.
Becoming arhat, you have no more afflictions.
I believe it's just before becoming a buddha.
Being an arhat is pretty good.
So the good fruits of their practice of this metta meditation.
As practitioners in our daily life, wherever we are living,
in the forest,
where there are trees.
And incidentally, you know there are
Greenpeace and organizations that want to protect the life of trees,
and not let people cut down the ancient forests,
which is happening in many countries.
To cut down the ancient forests, and then, what do they do?
In some cases, they plant grass to bring in the cattle.
To grow - They make pasture land.
But the ancient forests provide beautiful fresh oxygen.
The leaves of the trees give us oxygen and they absorb the carbon dioxide
in the process of photosynthesis.
So, the ancient forests are precious.
So whether we live in the ancient forest or in the cities,
there are practices that we can do related to this metta sutra.
I reflected on how I could share this sutra this morning.
And the only thing I could think of
was to do what Thay did.
Because during the winter retreat, the three month rain retreat,
Thay would chose a sutra.
And them he would take short sections of the sutra
and then, share some commentary on each section.
So I hope that's alright with you if I simply do what Thay did.
We'll listen to some commentary on this sutra,
and then we'll learn about this meditation
that is based on the sutra, the metta meditation.
Let us take a moment to stretch or change your sitting position
if you wish, or sit in a chair if that will be more comfortable.
We'll have a sound of the bell to reconnect us
with ourselves and with one another. Because when we all breathe together,
at the same time, we're creating a collective energy of mindfulness,
a collective energy of concentration that is shared.
It's an interbeing experience.
(Bell)
So what we share on the sutra
is a different kind of sharing sometimes.
I appreciate
just your willingness to listen, and whatever results is also okay.
It begins with: "He or she who wants to attain peace
should practice being upright, humble, and capable of using loving speech."
So the beginning of the sutra gives us an opportunity
to think about how we can live simply and happily.
How to speak lovingly.
We know we have the mindfulness trainings to help us speak lovingly.
We have also the practice of Beginning Anew,
where we learn how to speak lovingly
by sharing our appreciations of others,
how much we have a lot of gratitude for people in our life.
When we are upright, what does that mean?
It means that we have some ethical values.
We live by our values.
So, this person is upright,
that suggests this person is reliable, has ethical values.
We can take refuge in this person because of their honesty,
their capacity to understand.
And not do anything that would be disappointing.
We want not perfect, okay?
But someone who is upright is someone who practices, maybe we put it simply.
Someone who loves the practice and does it wholeheartedly.
But we don't speak of perfect uprightness.
There isn't perfect uprightness.
But just human uprightness. Okay? It is good enough.
We don't covet or want what others have in this simple lifestyle.
We have enough. There is the Sanskrit word 'samtusta'.
We are content with what we have.
It says: We know how to live simply and happily, with senses calmed,
without being covetous and carried away by the emotions of the majority.
So if we are in an environment where there is a majority of people
and we find that right now what I need is to feel peaceful and calm,
and maybe the environment is such that
the majority of the people are
a little bit agitated, not so peaceful and calm,
we can choose
to not be carried away by the emotions that are there.
But we are not going to judge at all the emotions of the majority.
We simply observe.
And that is bare attention. We observe what is there,
what are the emotions being expressed.
We observe. We don't judge. And if we wish to not be carried away
by whatever the majority of the emotions are,
that we don't wish to experience,
then we come back to ourselves
and we can practice mindful breathing, mindful walking.
Sometimes, we feel that we have to step outside.
And that is certainly okay,
to not be carried away in certain environments,
we can choose to find temporarily another environment.
We step outside and enjoy mindful walking,
mindful breathing. We learned about protecting our six sense organs.
The sutra says, with senses calmed.
That means that whatever we see, hear,
taste or touch, if it has the effect on us of creating
agitation, or making us feel upset, we are no longer peaceful,
then we want to think of how can I protect my eyes, or my ears,
so they are not going to continually receive this stimulation.
And we learn how to do this gradually.
We learn about the environment, and how I'm feeling,
and to do this, we become aware of our body.
And if we are having emotions come up in us,
such as worry, anxiety, anger or fear.
We can keep our stability. We can keep our peace.
And that is, in a sense,
the practice of keeping our six senses calm.
We keep our stability and we keep our peace.
In a situation where I am the minority,
and I am in an environment where others are the majority,
I accept being minority. Okay?
In our daily lives, you may be a minority at work.
Or at school.
And you are invited to join your colleagues on Friday, for -
They call it happiness hour or something like that.
It means going to the bar. Yes.
(Laughter)
And you are a practitioner. And you practice the five trainings.
Oh!, What do you do?
You say: Okay, I'm a minority. What do I do?
So, if you know you - If your practice is solid enough,
and you won't be carried away by spending some time in the bar,
or a bistro, or wherever it is, if you have confidence in your practice,
then you can go. It's alright.
But the big challenge is: what do you order to drink?
(Laughter)
This is the challenge. Okay?
I leave that to you.
(Laughter)
To find ways to be a minority with the majority of your friends, or colleagues,
or family members,
when you share Christmas or New Year with them.
And maybe that would be something to share in a Dharma sharing group at some point.
How to be a minority and still take refuge in our practice?
But it's fine to be a minority.
Don't feel upset,
or feel that if I'm a minority, I can't succeed in my practice. You can.
It is just your experience of yourself practicing
mindful breathing and mindful walking
that gives you the assurance that my practice is there, in me.
And we don't have to speak,
for example while eating.
Suppose you are invited to join everyone, the majority group, for a lunch or dinner.
And you say, how can I practice mindful eating? I'm a minority.
You can. You can chew mindfully, gently, taste the food, and smile.
But you can keep your silence for a little bit.
And we know we are flexible in our practice.
You may say a few words.
But I've learned, while practicing mindful eating with a group,
and they may not be practitioners, I've learned not to ask questions.
That means I'm going to be talking, and then, they may want,
Please, tell us, clarify your question.
And then I'm caught. I'm talking more during a mindful meal with friends,
or with people who may not know the practice so well.
So, we know that we can live simply and happily
with a lifestyle of a practitioner.
And you can keep your religious tradition, if you are not Buddhist,
you don't have to be Buddhist.
Thay encourages everyone to keep their root tradition,
whatever it is, you can continue.
And just add your mindfulness practices. That's it.
So, without being covetous.
That means without wanting what you see other people have.
Maybe someone has a new pair of shoes, or they are nice,
but you know they cost 150 euros, so we let go of wanting that.
Or a new car, or whatever that is new.
Or old.
So we don't covet, we are not envious. Envious of wanting what other people have.
And then, not being carried away by the emotions of the majority.
We take refuge in our practice.
Okay. It continues:
May everyone be happy and safe, and may all hearts be filled with joy.
So we want everyone to experience joy.
You know, we can say these words even if we don't feel the joy in our heart.
Because as we continue to repeat these words,
we are opening a neural pathway in our brain.
And we are going to let joy walk down the pathway.
We are going to let loving kindness walk down the neural pathway.
We are going to let compassion, joy and equanimity
walk down this new neural pathway that we are creating when we say words.
When we repeat them.
So our heart and mind are in a beautiful state of awareness
when we repeat these words and we wish to share this energy,
our wish, our volition, with all beings. May everyone be happy and safe.
So how can we help contribute to the happiness and safety of everyone?
One of the practices I do to protect the safety
of small beings.
It doesn't have to be this big act that is going to protect the whole world.
But of course, we do it when we are protecting Mother Earth.
If I see a snail, something so tiny, or a slug,
we know what the slugs are, the 'limaces',
sometimes I see them trying to cross the road.
And they're slow.
(Laughter)
So,
what I do? I really try to do this.
I look for a leaf, because I -
You know, they are cold and slimy, so I try to find a leaf or a twig.
Or a worm. We can see worms trying to cross the road.
I pick them up with my hand, no problem,
but I pick them up and I take them to the other side.
To the other shore.
(Laughter)
Shore of non suffering.
The shore of the grass is greener on the other side.
They usually try to go to the other side of the road where there is grass.
And when I see them, they're walking slowly on the pavement.
So I pick up the snails, the slugs, and the worms.
And take them to the other side.
That is helping something be safe. And happy.
We know when we live in the present moment we have many opportunities
to see what is really there.
We've let go of the past, where maybe there wasn't too much happiness,
and we come back to what is in front of us,
what is so beautiful. We have the autumn leaves.
This morning there was the beautiful fog,
when we came from.
There was mist and everything was so soft.
There was greatness and softness,
and the mist was very beautiful.
So it brings a lot of happiness when we are able to simply be there.
To be there in the present moment.
And for that, we let go of our thinking. I've discovered that helps a lot
to not think. Instead of thinking, I breathe in and out.
When I notice a thought arising, I think: Oh! A thought is there.
Hello, my thought. Hello, my worry about the future.
Hello, my regret about the past. Because all of this comes up naturally.
The store consciousness continually sends these messengers up to our mind.
These little messengers from the past
if something waters that seed.
The store consciousness, the deepest level, alaya,
will always let a seed manifest if we've watered it.
So, to help protect us, to be happy and safe,
we can be aware of what kind of seeds in my environment are being watered
by what people say,
what I listen to, what I hear, what I see, okay?
So to be happy, I really enjoy the practice of living in the present moment.
I see the beautiful orchid.
The orchid is there, just being an orchid.
He or she doesn't have to do anything else but be, be present.
And the orchid is there for all of us.
So life is available for all of us.
Thay would quote André Gide, the French writer,
who said that God is available 24 hours a day.
The question is, are we available to God?
And Thay would then say: "Life is available to us.
The beauties, the wonders.
The happiness is available to us 24 hours a day. But are we available to life?"
And Thay would often begin his talks by saying: "Breathing in, I know I'm alive.
Breathing out, I smile to life in me and around me."
So our practice can be, let us smile to life in us and around us.
Life is all forms of life. All forms of life.
One of the practices I love to do to be happy,
to water my seeds of happiness and feel at peace,
is whenever I come to Upper Hamlet, if time permits,
I enjoy walking around the lotus pond you have here.
It's so beautiful in all seasons.
And,
I love to look in the water and see the fish.
There are fish there.
Gold fish you call them? Carp? Carp.
They travel together, they are a sangha.
You usually don't see one alone. They're together.
There is a nice history of the fish in that pond.
There was a time when after breakfast
the residents here
would give them some of the bread.
So there was a time when we would see pieces of bread floating
everywhere in the pond. But that stopped.
And I enjoy looking how the fish grow, you know? They grow, and I wondered,
how do they grow? What is their nutriment? What is feeding them?
But apparently they don't need much to eat.
So we want all beings, their hearts to be filled with joy.
And we send out this energy.
May you be happy and safe, and may your heart be filled with joy.
It continues: May all beings live in security and in peace.
So we want this for everybody.
We want our children to experience security and peace in society.
Of course, at home, and at school.
We want our sanghas,
our family, our friends.
So we discover with our practice of being peaceful,
and knowing how to transform our strong emotions
into peace and happiness
we can contribute to the security and peace of all beings.
We want to contribute to the peace and happiness of Mother Earth,
because we know that Mother Earth is in us, all the elements
that are in the food we eat, that's Mother Earth.
And we are in Mother Earth, of course. We're living on Mother Earth.
So there is a real, deep connection that we have,
an interbeing connection with Mother Earth.
And we want to live in security and in peace,
and provide this for Mother Earth.
Beings who are frail or strong, tall or short, big or small, visible or invisible,
near or faraway, already born, or yet to be born.
May all of them dwell in perfect tranquility.
Nothing is left out. That's everything.
All forms of life, everywhere.
Whether they're frail, poor health, good health, tall, short, big, tiny,
visible, we can see them, or we can't see them,
like the 'aoûtats' in August, if you have been here.
Do we know about these little
harvest mites, in other countries their live in the grass,
and when it's hot, they love us. They bite.
And then we itch.
Okay, whether we can see them, or can't see them,
like the flu virus. Has it arrived yet? We can't see it, but we see the effects.
Visible or not visible, near or faraway,
already born or yet to be born. They are on their way to manifesting.
May everyone dwell in perfect tranquility.
That means tranquility to be
free of fear, anxiety, worry,
related to being discriminated against.
That is, there is discrimination in the world,
discriminated against based on their size, or other characteristics,
such as race, nationality, religion, or gender.
Discrimination can take many forms and expressions.
So, we are bodhisattvas, awakened beings.
We want to wish everyone well-being.
No harm.
And we send this energy of love and well-being to everyone,
near or far, already born, visible, not visible, the whole cosmos.
I want to mention something that -
There are bodhisattvas everywhere now.
So, it's very encouraging.
We know there have been many refugees worldwide.
And the United Nation's High Commission on Refugees
has published the figures that now there are 68.5 million people around the world
who are refugees.
25.4 million have had to settle in different countries.
And more than half of them are now under 18.
And we've learned that the United Nation's High Commission on Refugees has a staff
of 11,517 people, and I've called them bodhisattvas.
But they are out there, helping. They are rescue at sea,
in boats out there rescuing people.
We know during the War in Vietnam Thay and su co Chan Khong,
perhaps were the first to start the rescue at sea,
hiring big boats to go out at sea and save the refugees.
So this bodhisattva practice continues.
And you know, some of these bodhisattvas, we have the honor to meet at Plum Village.
You may be those bodhisattvas already. You are there, you are bodhisattvas.
It's just we don't know it.
But during the summer retreat, we had the honor of meeting some of them.
They are ordinary human beings, but, they have a great heart.
There was one retreatant, she and her family adopted
a family of four refugees from a war torn country,
from a war devastated country. The family fled
and she and her husband and family adopted them.
And, believe it or not, this summer two dogs arrived at New Hamlet.
It seems to be in the summer, the cats, the dogs, they arrive.
So,
two dogs were abandoned, they arrived to the New Hamlet
and you know what? She drove home with one of these dogs,
and her daughter, in a small car.
That's -
That's metta. That's this love.
We learned there is a water company, a mineral water company,
in the Auvergne region of France.
And they have been in partnership with UNESCO for more than 12 years
to make clean, drinkable water available to the children and families in Africa.
And the drought ridden areas of Africa.
And they say, for every 1 liter of their water that we buy,
they provide 10 liters of fresh drinkable water in Africa.
So this is metta.
Making it possible for everyone to be happy and safe,
and to protect their lives.
Just as a mother loves and protects her only child at the risk of her own life,
let us cultivate boundless love to offer to all living beings in the entire cosmos.
We learn from the neuroscientists there is a region in the brain
where compassion is located, so to speak.
And this area of the brain
that they identified as compassion
is very, very close to the center for maternal love.
That's interesting.
So just as a mother will protect her only child, this is the love
that can be instinctual perhaps.
I've seen pictures of lionesses protecting their cubs,
mother dogs protecting their puppies, et cetera.
And in my own personal experience,
in listening to consultations, when retreatants want to share
about something in their life, how to practice with it,
I have listened to many mothers and also fathers.
And I've learned that they really love their daughters and their sons.
There is really love there.
No matter what age their children are,
or no matter what their children are up to or have done,
or if their children haven't talked to them for 5 years, 10 years, whatever.
There can be suffering, of course, but I've had heard
and learned there is love, there, there is this maternal and paternal love.
But the difficulty is
that sometimes the parents' suffering is just too great.
The mother's suffering has just been too great over a long period of time,
or she received this suffering from her parents,
an ancestor's suffering has been transmitted.
So that is why they haven't learned how to express their love.
And their sons and daughters may believe
that their mother doesn't love them, or their father doesn't love them.
But it's my belief
the parental love is there.
And that deep down inside of us we can learn to forgive, if necessary,
and love our parents when we understand and learn more.
So this love, this boundless love is developing now
to the point where the Buddha said:
Let our boundless love pervade this whole universe,
in all directions, above, below, and across.
In the ten directions.
That is northwest, southwest, you know,
northeast, southeast, you know that, okay.
All the directions let this boundless love.
We can have this thought and this intention, and this volition,
even if it hasn't been developed yet in us. Okay?
So, please, believe me. It's enough to say the words.
This love is perhaps like the love that is described in the New Testament,
the King James version.
The love that Jesus offered and spoke of.
When the new Testament was translated into the Greek language,
the word used was 'agape', 'agape'.
So this was the word used to describe this spiritual love.
And we know there are many kinds of love.
You have many relationships,
and you can reflect on the nature of the love in your relationships.
But the boundless love is like
the love that we read about in the Bible, the 'agape',
and in the Old Testament there is a word from the Hebrew language called
'chesed', I don't know if I pronounce it correctly,
c-h-e-s-e-d.
[xesed]?
Yes, [xesed], we have a resource here.
Good. And that means for love, goodness and kindness, like metta.
So this kind of love, this boundless love is found
in other spiritual traditions, it has its counterpart in other spiritual traditions.
So, there are no obstacles to this love.
Even if in our mind we have anger, and hatred arising.
Okay, they are just mental formations.
Don't be -
Don't water them.
Don't be too attached to all of this,
these mental formations called anger, and hatred, and all that.
They are mental formations, and they will arise.
They are there, in the depth of our consciousness, okay.
They arise when conditions are favorable.
And then, we let them go back.
But now we want to help arise this metta, this boundless love.
So what is this boundless love? How can we help it arise?
He said there are no obstacles, really.
The first thing we want to do is to convince our mind
that there is boundless love.
Because the mind consciousness sometimes says: "No, there is no love in the world.
Read the news, look at all of that. No love."
We want to convince our mind. Yes, there is love.
All right. So, as I've hinted to so far,
there is this boundless love and what will help is
reciting the sutra.
There is a poem Thay wrote called 'Alone Again'.
It's a beautiful poem.
Some of the words towards the end are: "Knowing the immortality of love,
those who love you will behold you,
will continue to behold you across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying."
Bodhisattvas never abandon anyone. We keep this love in our heart
no matter what is happening.
No matter what we see, or what we hear.
We cultivate this love, the immortality of love.
You know, people loving, practicing love,
we are impermanent. People come and go, right?
But love has continued. It continues to manifest.
People playing the guitar,
their hands come and go. Different hands play the guitar.
But guitars stay.
So love stays.
People breathe in and out.
The lungs come and go. They are different lungs, right?
But breath has continued. Mindful breathing has continued.
Mindful walking has continued. The feet change,
people doing the mindful walking, their feet change, right?
But mindful walking has continued.
So: "Living in beauty and realizing Perfect Understanding,
those who practice boundless love will certainly transcend birth and death."
Living in beauty and realizing Perfect Understanding.
How can we live in beauty?
There is a Native American song, Now I Walk in Beauty.
Beauty is before me, beauty is above me,
beauty is around me, above and below me.
So there is beauty in the ten directions.
We can live in beauty, as I mentioned, by living in the present moment.
And the Perfect Understanding.
To understand, we want to be able to stop for a minute,
to practice stopping with each step. It's vipassana, okay?
In the southern tradition we stop,
come back to ourselves with mindful breathing,
and then, we look deeply.
And this is the understanding that will come
when we have mindfulness, concentration, and then
that will lead to insight.
So let us practice now the first vipassana, the stopping.
We will stop for a minute and breathe.
And we will hear a sound of the bell.
The bell is always this voice inviting us to come back to ourselves.
(Bell)
So -
And now we are ready for the shorter version of this sutra.
It has been written on the board. It is the metta meditation.
The monks practiced the longer sutra, every single sentence of that sutra,
and then it was shortened.
The shortened version actually was first
created by Buddhaghosa. He was
a commentator, he was a monk who lived in the 5th century in Sri Lanka,
more that 1,500 years ago.
He was a scholar who wrote commentaries on the Buddhist teachings.
He wrote a book called the Visuddhimagga, which is The Path of Purification.
And it is the most important manual of Buddhist meditation
for the Theravada school of Buddhism.
That is the Buddhism that is practiced in the southeast Asian countries
that I mentioned.
Buddhaghosa,
he gave this teaching on the four Brahmaviharas,
the four unlimited minds.
And it's in the part two in the section on concentration,
because it helps us concentrate.
And Thay has based this metta meditation that we have written for you,
it's Thay's version
of the meditation that was offered by the Buddhaghosa
on the four unlimited minds,
which are loving kindness, as I mentioned, compassion, equanimity - Excuse me,
loving kindness, compassion, joy, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.
We use all four of these expressions of love
when we practice this meditation.
I want to share from my personal experience
why I offer this meditation to you.
Because it has been a practice I do every morning
for about a year and a half.
And I share this very often.
Because I've experienced that I had a lot to transform.
With seeds of anger, ill-will, or irritation, getting upset easily,
all of that.
Maybe you have some of that too. I don't know.
But I decided,
after hearing I think our lay friends and some monastics say
that first of all they begin by reading this sutra every morning.
So I started doing that. I woke up a little bit earlier,
I read this sutra to myself, that was very good,
and then, I got our of bed.
So I do this practice before getting out of bed.
It's my first action.
My first thoughts of the day.
For me,
the firsts moments of every day are so important.
Before I brush my teeth.
Because usually I have to wait.
Many people share the bathroom, so we wait.
I start my practice before that.
Sit up in bed, I started by reading this sutra.
And then I noticed, how can I help my mind?
Because reading the sutra was helpful.
So, then I decided to try
this guided meditation: May I be happy, may I be peaceful.
Very good. I was sending this good energy to myself before starting the day.
That was very nice. I was giving myself
a good start before the mental formations were watered.
So that unwholesome mental formations would manifest.
So I would start by watering the good mental formations,
bringing up the wholesome thoughts.
And then I noticed that sometimes in the sangha
there were situations where there was
disharmony, or two people were having difficulty in their relationship.
Or another sister wasn't happy with me.
And I knew by the way she acted,
she would turn away when she saw me, she would run away.
And I knew that doing Beginning Anew was not the right time.
Because words were not acceptable, were not possible.
Sometimes people's suffering is so great,
that whatever you say can water their suffering.
You have the intention of helping,
and you speak lovingly and with good words.
However, how people receive is based on how they perceive. Okay?
How they hear what you say is based on their perception.
And what determines our perception?
Past experiences.
So we have past experiences,
with the tone of voice people have used,
or what words they have used.
And all of these past experiences are in store consciousness.
They are sleeping.
So even if approach someone who runs away, and I say with kind words and gentle voice,
she may hear it differently.
Because in her past, people spoke with a loud voice and angrily.
So I cannot control how people perceive.
I have my intention, my motivation, but how people will perceive it,
I don't know.
But I observe.
And if I see that words are not the best thing at this moment,
what I started to do is this meditation.
In the morning I would say, I would have this person,
I would see her, whatever.
You can do this for family members, for roommates,
for politicians.
Anyone.
You think of this person, you have this person.
And then you send this energy. So there is a part of this meditation that says:
May you be happy, may you be peaceful.
And you say every single line.
May you be safe and free from accidents.
May you be free from your anger, your fear, your anxiety.
And you can specify whatever it is you wish for this person
that they can transform.
May you learn to look at yourself with the eyes of understanding and love.
Very often we don't know how to look at ourselves with understanding and love.
So we send this wish for this person:
May you be able to begin to look at yourself with understanding and compassion.
May you be able to look at whatever is causing your suffering,
begin to look at it. Because sometimes we can't. It's too scary.
We can say: When the time is right for you,
may you begin to look at your source of what makes you upset.
And then we send the wish:
May you learn how to recognize what will bring you happiness and joy.
And may you learn how to nourish
and be in contact with what brings you happiness and joy.
When you are able to do this, then you may continue to live
with freshness, solidity and freedom.
You feel fresh, more fresh, when you wake up.
You have more solidity,
in terms of doing your practice and knowing the practice is helping.
And you are more free from these moments of suffering.
So I started to do this, with a particular situation,
and I continued even though the present moment was difficult.
I did not go out of my way to have contact, I respected.
I gave distance and space.
And, you know? After 21 days, one day she came up to me, and she said:
"Good morning."
So it has proven to be effective.
There was this one situation that was really -
Brought me a lot of confirmation that the practice helps.
And I've seen it how it helps in general.
So, if you don't know what to do,
and really there is nothing to be done for the moment in a situation,
there is something you can do. There is this practice of metta meditation.
So it's just offered as a possibility. You don't have to.
You can take it step by step or read just one sentence of the sutra.
You can choose what sentence.
Or you don't read the sutra at all, you don't have to.
And if you want to choose one sentence
from the meditation,
that's possible.
Remember we don't have to do everything all at once.
Like the 5 mindfulness trainings.
We don't have to practice everything all at once.
We can choose that which resonates in us.
And we remember that this sutra and this metta meditation of universal love,
sending our love everywhere,
made it possible for the monks to go back to the forest
and continue their practice for three months.
It calmed that negative energy.
We can offer this metta meditation in many situations.
Any difficult relationship.
It doesn't have to be that you are in a difficult relationship.
It can be our parents, your brothers and sisters, whatever.
It's possible. People who are ill.
It is possible to apply this.
I mentioned also a metta practice of the four mantras of love
that Thay has created. You may also know these.
We say: I am here for you. You say that to someone.
And that is your bringing happiness to the other.
That is the first, that's loving kindness.
You say this to someone who likes you.
You doesn't say it to someone who doesn't like you. They won't be happy.
Someone that you love, it's the mantra of love, four love mantras. Okay.
Second one: I know you are there and I am happy. Okay?
So this is the joy, and the loving kindness.
I know you are there, and I am joyful, I am happy.
Your presence brings me joy and happiness.
Third mantra:
I know you suffer, and that is why I am here for you.
So now we are going to practice compassion
of the four unlimited minds of love, compassion. I see you are suffering.
Compassion is wanting to relieve the suffering of others.
You want to and you are capable.
Loving kindness is wanting to bring happiness to others.
You want to bring happiness, and you are capable.
So the third mantra of love is: I know you suffer,
that is why I am here for you.
You have compassion, you want to relieve their suffering,
and you offer enough of your happiness to be able to relieve their suffering.
I can be there for you. I have enough happiness and compassion.
I want to relieve your suffering, that is why I come to be with you,
or I call you, or whatever.
The fourth mantra of love is: I suffer, please help. Please, help me.
This is when we are suffering and we need other's compassion to help us.
But we want to ask people who like us. Okay? Alright.
We call on others, our sangha, our friends, our loved ones.
We let them know. I'm in a difficult situation.
You can help me by doing the following.
So we call on not only compassion,
but their loving kindness.
And their joy at being able to help us.
So loving kindness, compassion, joy, the equanimity is
the practice of non discrimination. Not taking sides, and including everyone.
That's the fourth aspect of unbounded love,
is that our heart is wide and big, it includes everyone, no discrimination.
We don't take sides, we have a balanced attitude.
We have equanimity, which is balance.
We've heard about the beginning a new practice
and that is also practicing.
Loving kindness, bringing happiness with our words, with listening.
Being able to say: "I'm sorry".
We are practicing compassion by apologizing for mistakes,
so we can relieve their suffering at our mistake.
We have compassion enough to apologize.
And we share our difficulties so that gives them a possibility of understanding
and opening their heart of equanimity.
They will understand and have a better possibility of accepting our difficulty.
Share our suffering, our hurts,
so we call on their compassion for that.
And their understanding and equanimity.
So loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity
are seeds that we have, all of us. They are in the store consciousness.
We just want to be able to water them daily,
if you wish, so that they will manifest and become stronger and stronger.
We know when a seed manifests, because it has been watered in store consciousness
when it manifests it becomes stronger, well-developed.
So instead of letting our anger and resentment, and
judgementalness, fear, all of that
come up so often so that it gets so strong and big,
we want to let those seeds of suffering go back and invite other seeds to come up.
We know now that the metta meditation, the Discourse on Love is one way
to do selective watering of the most wholesome and beneficial seeds
in our store consciousness,
so they will manifest in our mind consciousness
and become stronger and more solid.
And the result will be happier.
We will have more peace.
And we will be able to transcend our fear of birth and death.
That means we will have so much confidence and trust in this metta meditation,
that we will see that everything is just manifesting.
Our love, our peace, our joy.
Everything just manifests, and then ceases to manifest.
The love, and the boundless love and the four aspects
will become our experience of life.
We will understand that birth and death are just ideas.
They are just concepts.
I read that Thay said that birth and death exist
only because we think they exist.
That is very deep.
Just because we think they exist.
What is there instead of birth and death there is manifestation
and ceasing to manifest because the causes are no longer there for manifestation.
But I do want to honor the translations,
the 19 other translations that have been made of this sutra.
And they say: Those who practice boundless love
will no longer be born again in a womb.
So that is how the traditional translation of the Pali words means
you won't have rebirth.
Okay? You will not be subject to coming to remanifesting in the world.
But Thay and sister Chan Duc translated, instead of saying:
"You won't be reborn in a womb", they said:
If you practice boundless love, you will certainly transcend birth and death.
That is very beautiful.
Dear friends, I thank you for your patience,
which is a sign of love.
I must say you have to love me, it's been long.
Thank you for your patience and for your listening.
I have provided for each hamlet CTC
some copies of the sutra, both in French, and English,
and also the guided meditation that we wrote on the board.
Maybe the CTCs can make more copies available to our friends
who are here for another five weeks.
And if you won't be here for another five weeks, you may be able
to take a picture of that, because everyone has devices now,
or write it down.
Now we will listen to three sounds of the bell,
and maybe there are some announcements. Thank you, dear friends.
It's been my happiness and joy to be with you.
(Bell)