WEBVTT 00:00:06.118 --> 00:00:07.893 (Bell) 00:00:10.591 --> 00:00:16.240 (Bell) 00:00:33.418 --> 00:00:39.449 (Bell) 00:00:53.873 --> 00:00:59.605 (Bell) 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:10.015 Dear respected Thay, dear noble sangha, 00:01:16.490 --> 00:01:19.654 today is the 11th 00:01:20.720 --> 00:01:23.875 of November in the year 2018 00:01:24.825 --> 00:01:26.682 and we are in the 00:01:28.507 --> 00:01:32.593 Loving Kindness temple, in New Hamlet, 00:01:33.545 --> 00:01:36.998 in our Rains Retreat. 00:01:38.371 --> 00:01:41.565 There is an interesting topic today. 00:01:44.304 --> 00:01:46.798 True love. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:51.289 Uh oh! 00:01:51.632 --> 00:01:54.306 (Laughter) 00:01:57.145 --> 00:01:59.490 I've been asked 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:05.529 to share about the 14th mindfulness training. 00:02:07.429 --> 00:02:11.977 We've been studying the 14 mindfulness trainings during this Rains Retreat. 00:02:17.083 --> 00:02:19.007 We know that 00:02:20.938 --> 00:02:24.039 the order of the trainings is not so important, 00:02:24.187 --> 00:02:29.068 but how we practice them in our lives is very important. 00:02:35.065 --> 00:02:38.164 I was not there, at the meeting, 00:02:38.332 --> 00:02:41.851 when I was assigned to share about this mindfulness training. 00:02:42.697 --> 00:02:44.571 (Laughter) 00:02:44.735 --> 00:02:47.292 So I tried to look deeply and see 00:02:47.465 --> 00:02:50.845 what my older brothers and sisters have in mind. 00:02:55.305 --> 00:02:58.795 And what do I have to share about this topic 00:02:59.540 --> 00:03:02.033 of true love. 00:03:05.067 --> 00:03:08.811 Thay teaches us that the 14 mindfulness trainings 00:03:08.995 --> 00:03:12.667 are the very essence of the Order of Interbeing. 00:03:13.047 --> 00:03:16.472 They are the torch lightening our path, 00:03:16.644 --> 00:03:21.655 the boat carrying us, the teacher guiding us. 00:03:23.641 --> 00:03:27.598 They allow us to touch the nature of the interbeing 00:03:27.771 --> 00:03:30.558 in everything that is, 00:03:30.709 --> 00:03:36.855 and to see that our happiness is not separate from the happiness of others, 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:43.406 to see that out happiness is not separate 00:03:43.721 --> 00:03:46.711 from the happiness of others. 00:03:46.908 --> 00:03:52.941 Interbeing is not a theory, it is a reality that can be directly experienced 00:03:53.074 --> 00:03:57.975 by each of us at any moment in our daily lives. 00:04:00.603 --> 00:04:07.784 The 14 mindfulness trainings help us cultivate concentration and insight, 00:04:08.277 --> 00:04:11.467 which free us from fear 00:04:11.915 --> 00:04:16.204 and the illusion of a separate self. 00:04:20.467 --> 00:04:24.024 So, during this Rains Retreat 00:04:25.428 --> 00:04:29.572 we've been studying how to let go of our views. 00:04:32.144 --> 00:04:39.714 Thay introduced these trainings in the middle of the American War in Vietnam, 00:04:40.370 --> 00:04:44.920 when the ideologies of Communism 00:04:45.125 --> 00:04:49.685 and maybe we can say Capitalism, or maybe 00:04:54.985 --> 00:04:57.962 Anticommunism, 00:04:58.184 --> 00:05:04.025 were dividing families, tearing brother from brother, 00:05:07.288 --> 00:05:10.040 splitting the sangha. 00:05:13.825 --> 00:05:17.351 And Thay and sister Chan Khong suffered very deeply 00:05:17.539 --> 00:05:22.578 because of this attachment to views 00:05:23.907 --> 00:05:26.792 that they saw around them. 00:05:27.013 --> 00:05:29.819 And they said, "How can we 00:05:30.164 --> 00:05:34.059 train ourselves in such a way that we do not become caught up 00:05:35.494 --> 00:05:40.727 in the views that are dividing our close friends, our family? 00:05:44.126 --> 00:05:46.217 It was not 00:05:46.841 --> 00:05:51.219 just a matter of sitting around and say, "Oh! Yes, I see 00:05:52.443 --> 00:05:55.917 there are some big points about Communism. 00:05:56.266 --> 00:05:59.282 I don't really like the Communists", is not really like that. 00:05:59.922 --> 00:06:02.574 It's a matter of life or death. 00:06:03.039 --> 00:06:05.666 Which side you are on. 00:06:11.790 --> 00:06:14.709 And that is something we are not very used to 00:06:14.967 --> 00:06:18.440 in the way of living that we are experiencing here 00:06:18.580 --> 00:06:21.995 in Plum Village in modern times, 00:06:22.596 --> 00:06:27.986 when we feel we can share our ideas just as we feel in our heart. 00:06:31.407 --> 00:06:35.692 So the first few trainings are dealing with our views, 00:06:35.846 --> 00:06:38.792 and how to become free from views. 00:06:41.259 --> 00:06:44.475 We also looked into consumption, 00:06:44.602 --> 00:06:47.682 how the things that nourish our body and mind, 00:06:48.801 --> 00:06:52.758 edible food, sense impressions, volition, consciousness, 00:06:52.905 --> 00:06:56.307 contribute to how we experience this present moment, 00:06:56.460 --> 00:06:59.666 and how we will continue into the future. 00:06:59.819 --> 00:07:03.343 So a lot of the trainings have to do with how we are nourishing 00:07:03.531 --> 00:07:08.241 through our eyes, our ears, our nose, nose... 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:09.860 (Laughter) 00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:12.386 Tongue, body and mind. 00:07:14.200 --> 00:07:18.244 We know that we are what we ingest. 00:07:20.757 --> 00:07:24.347 Both in terms of physical food and in terms of sense impressions, 00:07:24.602 --> 00:07:28.799 in terms of how we set our mind, our volition, 00:07:28.976 --> 00:07:32.626 and in terms of consciousness. 00:07:33.753 --> 00:07:36.817 So today we are going to look into 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:42.002 a very powerful and delicate topic, which is 00:07:47.742 --> 00:07:50.286 the energy that 00:07:51.113 --> 00:07:53.871 has brought us here 00:07:54.387 --> 00:07:58.068 over hundreds of millions of years. 00:07:59.893 --> 00:08:04.159 So it's not something to be treated lightly, 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:07.815 to dismiss lightly. 00:08:09.020 --> 00:08:12.259 Sometimes we call it sexual energy, 00:08:13.612 --> 00:08:16.753 the energy of reproduction. 00:08:18.630 --> 00:08:22.147 Because it is a kind of vital life force. 00:08:25.303 --> 00:08:28.468 How really we want to call it, 00:08:28.665 --> 00:08:33.520 it is that which is impelling us from within to continue into the future, 00:08:33.572 --> 00:08:38.356 not just in this physical body, but in successive generations. 00:08:46.940 --> 00:08:53.496 So the fourteenth mindfulness training invites us to look deeply into this area, 00:08:53.928 --> 00:08:56.431 of sexual energy. 00:09:01.278 --> 00:09:04.424 So I'll start by reading the trainings, 00:09:04.581 --> 00:09:09.184 and then we will practice looking deeply into it together. 00:09:10.405 --> 00:09:14.715 The 14th mindfulness training: True Love. 00:09:16.011 --> 00:09:20.275 So there are two parts. There is a section for lay practitioners, 00:09:20.467 --> 00:09:23.794 and a section for monastics. 00:09:24.355 --> 00:09:31.275 The 14 mindfulness trainings, one of their roots are 00:09:31.944 --> 00:09:36.483 the Bodhisattva Precepts, 00:09:37.603 --> 00:09:43.870 which are quite popular in East Asia, also in Tibet. 00:09:45.034 --> 00:09:48.639 Those precepts were for bodhisattvas, 00:09:48.776 --> 00:09:52.297 they included both monastics and lay practitioners. 00:09:52.451 --> 00:09:57.674 So the inspiration of the trainings are these Bodhisattva Precepts. 00:09:57.833 --> 00:10:00.378 And Thay has revised them, 00:10:00.543 --> 00:10:05.405 updated them for, to be relevant for our modern time. 00:10:05.929 --> 00:10:09.412 So this training in particular has a separate section 00:10:09.616 --> 00:10:12.983 for lay practitioners and for monastics. 00:10:13.116 --> 00:10:18.848 So, for lay members: Aware that sexual desire is not love 00:10:20.906 --> 00:10:25.244 and that sexual relations motivated by craving 00:10:25.572 --> 00:10:29.125 cannot dissipate the feeling of loneliness 00:10:29.835 --> 00:10:35.518 but will create more suffering, frustration, and isolation, 00:10:36.599 --> 00:10:41.484 we are determined not to engage in sexual relations 00:10:41.622 --> 00:10:48.632 without mutual understanding, love, and a deep long-term commitment 00:10:49.318 --> 00:10:53.533 made known to our family and friends. 00:10:54.920 --> 00:10:59.259 Seeing that the body and mind are one, or in unison, 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:05.719 we are committed to learning appropriate ways to take care of our sexual energy 00:11:06.287 --> 00:11:13.691 and to cultivate loving kindness, compassion, joy, and inclusiveness 00:11:14.026 --> 00:11:18.946 for our own happiness and the happiness of others. 00:11:22.647 --> 00:11:30.621 We must be aware of future suffering that may be caused by sexual relations. 00:11:32.782 --> 00:11:38.691 We know that to preserve the happiness of ourselves and others, 00:11:38.923 --> 00:11:45.593 we must respect the rights and commitments of ourselves and others. 00:11:47.442 --> 00:11:53.559 We will do everything in our power to protect children from sexual abuse 00:11:54.041 --> 00:12:00.773 and to protect couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. 00:12:02.890 --> 00:12:07.924 We will treat our bodies with compassion and respect. 00:12:09.227 --> 00:12:14.605 We are determined to look deeply into the Four Nutriments 00:12:14.876 --> 00:12:23.463 and learn ways to preserve and channel our vital energies, sexual, breath, spirit 00:12:24.024 --> 00:12:28.952 for the realization of our bodhisattva ideal. 00:12:29.788 --> 00:12:33.260 We will be fully aware of the responsibility 00:12:33.426 --> 00:12:36.540 of bringing new lives into the world, 00:12:36.690 --> 00:12:41.194 and will meditate regularly upon their future environment. 00:12:43.805 --> 00:12:46.771 And the training for monastics: 00:12:47.705 --> 00:12:54.595 Aware that the deep aspiration of a monk or a nun can only be realized 00:12:54.874 --> 00:13:00.211 when he or she wholly leaves behind the bonds of sensual love, 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:08.480 we are committed to practicing chastity and to helping others protect themselves. 00:13:09.787 --> 00:13:13.841 We are aware that loneliness and suffering 00:13:14.023 --> 00:13:18.555 cannot be alleviated through a sexual relationship, 00:13:18.822 --> 00:13:26.470 but through practicing loving kindness, compassion, joy, and inclusiveness. 00:13:27.449 --> 00:13:33.872 We know that a sexual relationship will destroy our monastic life, 00:13:34.705 --> 00:13:42.685 prevent us from realizing our ideal of serving living beings, and harm others. 00:13:44.695 --> 00:13:50.763 We will learn appropriate ways to take care of our sexual energy. 00:13:52.622 --> 00:13:57.141 We are determined not to suppress, or mistreat our body, 00:13:57.295 --> 00:14:01.425 or look upon our body as only an instrument, 00:14:01.888 --> 00:14:06.569 but will learn to handle our body with compassion and respect. 00:14:07.699 --> 00:14:11.147 We will look deeply into the Four Nutriments 00:14:11.316 --> 00:14:17.847 in order to preserve and channel our vital energies, sexual, breath, spirit, 00:14:18.030 --> 00:14:22.930 for the realization of our bodhisattva ideal. 00:14:26.493 --> 00:14:29.542 We can hear a sound of the bell. 00:14:34.181 --> 00:14:35.676 (Bell) 00:14:37.235 --> 00:14:43.117 (Bell) 00:15:10.040 --> 00:15:13.133 We know that the Buddha 00:15:15.412 --> 00:15:19.944 as far as we know, the Buddha had a partner, 00:15:21.128 --> 00:15:24.820 was married and had a child. 00:15:28.328 --> 00:15:31.270 And as a young man, he had 00:15:33.581 --> 00:15:38.910 the things that were considered 00:15:40.727 --> 00:15:44.369 appropriate for a wealthy young man, 00:15:44.555 --> 00:15:49.564 that is, access to many young women. 00:15:51.332 --> 00:15:54.699 A kind of standing in society. 00:15:54.884 --> 00:15:57.711 He had the experience 00:15:58.571 --> 00:16:04.136 before and during his marriage of sexual relations. 00:16:06.006 --> 00:16:10.116 And then he made a very interesting decision, 00:16:11.727 --> 00:16:14.242 to leave home 00:16:16.324 --> 00:16:21.192 and to go forth into the forest. He saw a monk, 00:16:21.376 --> 00:16:27.058 who was living very simply in the forest, 00:16:27.830 --> 00:16:32.282 he saw a kind of joy, maybe, happiness. 00:16:33.141 --> 00:16:35.556 And he realized that 00:16:35.866 --> 00:16:39.398 to realize that kind of joy he needed to change his life, 00:16:40.071 --> 00:16:43.702 he needed to make a deep change. 00:16:44.423 --> 00:16:47.015 And at that time in India, 00:16:47.156 --> 00:16:51.964 when a young man decided to go and live as a wanderer, 00:16:54.674 --> 00:16:57.393 that also meant 00:16:57.964 --> 00:17:01.390 a practice we call brahmacharya. 00:17:01.555 --> 00:17:04.998 It literally means 'moving with Brahma'. 00:17:05.170 --> 00:17:09.491 Brahma is like a god, or it could be the whole universe. 00:17:11.796 --> 00:17:16.464 But brahmacharya specifically meant to practice chastity. 00:17:16.806 --> 00:17:19.304 So specifically meant 00:17:19.478 --> 00:17:23.010 many of us know it from the Four Stages of Life 00:17:23.141 --> 00:17:26.318 in the tradition of Hinduism. 00:17:26.454 --> 00:17:30.143 Brahmacharya is the time when you are a student. 00:17:30.322 --> 00:17:34.131 You are expected to practice celibacy because you are learning 00:17:34.338 --> 00:17:36.609 and studying the way. 00:17:36.802 --> 00:17:42.277 And only when you complete that stage you go on to and have a family. 00:17:46.609 --> 00:17:51.313 So the Buddha followed his instinct. 00:17:52.890 --> 00:17:58.200 I'm not sure he had a very clear idea of what that would bring him. 00:17:58.962 --> 00:18:03.209 But he saw there was suffering in his life 00:18:05.470 --> 00:18:08.063 and I don't think he thought 00:18:08.248 --> 00:18:11.750 that suffering was only due to the fact that he was married, 00:18:11.841 --> 00:18:16.075 or because of sexual desire, but I think that he saw that it played a role. 00:18:16.202 --> 00:18:20.858 And he wanted to understand more deeply the nature of that suffering. 00:18:22.477 --> 00:18:27.624 And so I see that story not as necessarily as an invitation for us 00:18:28.357 --> 00:18:32.099 to leave our home and become a monk or a nun, 00:18:33.035 --> 00:18:36.446 although you're welcome if you want to do that. 00:18:36.613 --> 00:18:42.839 But it's a way of recognizing the importance of looking deeply 00:18:42.974 --> 00:18:50.371 into this energy within us that is transmitted to us in an unbroken chain 00:18:50.579 --> 00:18:54.306 for 1500 million years, 00:18:54.488 --> 00:18:58.121 more than two billion years possibly. 00:19:00.069 --> 00:19:04.932 That has arrived in the form of every cell of our body. 00:19:05.848 --> 00:19:10.368 And the need to continue, the need to reproduce 00:19:10.634 --> 00:19:13.133 for future generations. 00:19:14.259 --> 00:19:19.726 There are many living beings, 00:19:20.775 --> 00:19:23.473 or something like a living being, 00:19:23.635 --> 00:19:26.179 that didn't continue. 00:19:29.735 --> 00:19:33.543 And so they are not our ancestors. 00:19:35.232 --> 00:19:40.854 It's not that every one of our ancestors had strong sexual desire, 00:19:41.826 --> 00:19:47.910 but this desire has been transmitted to us. 00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:51.877 That is why we are here. 00:19:53.682 --> 00:19:55.954 Without that, 00:19:56.177 --> 00:20:01.547 that attraction between the male and the female of species 00:20:04.202 --> 00:20:07.644 is unlikely that we would bother 00:20:10.236 --> 00:20:14.802 to come together as two bodies 00:20:16.066 --> 00:20:20.022 in such a way that we can continue, in sexual intercourse. 00:20:20.254 --> 00:20:24.186 It's very unlikely without that desire, without those feelings. 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:30.306 And so, it's quite understandable that we feel it very strongly, 00:20:30.748 --> 00:20:33.459 at least, many of us. 00:20:34.815 --> 00:20:37.962 Because through many generations 00:20:38.135 --> 00:20:41.902 that force, that energy has been selected 00:20:42.818 --> 00:20:47.414 over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. 00:20:51.489 --> 00:20:55.864 It is true that due to human culture, 00:20:56.362 --> 00:20:59.206 that had been 00:21:01.487 --> 00:21:05.235 that had been lying, which have continued, 00:21:05.421 --> 00:21:09.032 we are not so much based on sexual desire. 00:21:09.262 --> 00:21:13.048 For example, we know in Europe as well as India and China, 00:21:13.182 --> 00:21:16.263 many times marriages were arranged. 00:21:16.406 --> 00:21:20.789 That is, people had very little choice, maybe it had to do with diplomacy. 00:21:21.281 --> 00:21:24.908 But overall, I think we can safely say 00:21:25.043 --> 00:21:30.431 that the desire within us to come together as man and woman, 00:21:30.586 --> 00:21:33.479 or even... 00:21:35.722 --> 00:21:40.251 Yes. For the moment, we speak about coming together as man and woman, 00:21:40.620 --> 00:21:43.464 has been selected 00:21:43.668 --> 00:21:48.491 and become stronger, perhaps, stronger and stronger. 00:21:54.116 --> 00:21:58.917 That doesn't mean that there are not other kinds of sexual attraction, 00:21:59.080 --> 00:22:02.854 like between two men, or two women. 00:22:04.064 --> 00:22:08.203 It seems clear that it is also part of the process. 00:22:10.467 --> 00:22:15.817 But such a need, the desire between a man and a woman has been 00:22:16.564 --> 00:22:19.068 cultivated. 00:22:19.937 --> 00:22:24.526 Because when we look deeply with the eyes of non-self, 00:22:25.560 --> 00:22:29.399 we don't see that this body is only me, 00:22:29.650 --> 00:22:34.281 but we see ourselves only as a stream continuing our ancestors. 00:22:34.448 --> 00:22:37.665 And we can look deeply into that stream, 00:22:37.863 --> 00:22:41.249 and we see that certain things have evolved. 00:22:44.972 --> 00:22:48.780 For example, certain things have fallen away. 00:22:50.368 --> 00:22:52.922 In the Summer Retreat 00:22:53.076 --> 00:22:56.341 I love to watch the children climbing trees. 00:22:56.811 --> 00:23:02.867 And when I look deeply into them, scampering of a tree, 00:23:03.892 --> 00:23:07.188 with such ease, and just hanging out there, 00:23:07.346 --> 00:23:10.283 sometimes swinging by one arm, 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:17.383 when my worry and fear disappears, then I look deeply and I see 00:23:17.548 --> 00:23:22.744 that I can see my ancestors, our ancestors 00:23:23.207 --> 00:23:25.859 who also lived in trees. 00:23:26.054 --> 00:23:28.728 We started in trees. 00:23:28.956 --> 00:23:34.939 Who like me at that age were very adept at knowing where to put their feet, 00:23:35.127 --> 00:23:38.523 where to grab onto the branch. 00:23:38.579 --> 00:23:42.668 They could test whether the branch would hold, whether it's dry and may break 00:23:42.926 --> 00:23:47.361 or whether would limber but too thin. 00:23:47.550 --> 00:23:51.993 All that wisdom is past on to us in our hands. 00:23:54.722 --> 00:23:59.722 And the process of an embryo developing 00:24:01.416 --> 00:24:07.402 is often related to our own evolutionary development. 00:24:08.413 --> 00:24:12.344 It is very difficult to, for a non-trained eye, 00:24:12.490 --> 00:24:15.912 to tell the difference between the embryo of a human being 00:24:16.025 --> 00:24:19.510 and the embryo of a chicken, for example. 00:24:21.461 --> 00:24:27.507 So, in the same way, our evolutionary past can be viewed through 00:24:29.444 --> 00:24:33.411 the development of a young person. 00:24:33.633 --> 00:24:38.747 And so, as we go through puberty and our body develops, then, 00:24:40.104 --> 00:24:44.679 we lose that capacity somewhat. 00:24:44.859 --> 00:24:50.612 And that nears our own development as human beings, when we've... 00:24:51.276 --> 00:24:54.391 It seems because the climate became cooler in Africa, 00:24:54.536 --> 00:24:58.538 and we needed to go out into the grasslands and walk long distances 00:24:58.715 --> 00:25:03.761 to maybe find roots to dig for or even then we had to hunt, 00:25:04.272 --> 00:25:07.012 our Achilles tendon became longer, 00:25:07.756 --> 00:25:11.025 and the arch in our foot became more rigid. 00:25:11.615 --> 00:25:15.213 Our neck developed the capacity to keep our head steady, 00:25:15.397 --> 00:25:19.381 even when we are walking and running, and upright. 00:25:19.534 --> 00:25:22.883 And so, that development also came 00:25:23.052 --> 00:25:28.926 with certain things that fell away, which is our capacity to, for example, 00:25:29.907 --> 00:25:32.927 hold on to a branch with our feet. 00:25:33.114 --> 00:25:35.926 It's very difficult, if you have ever tried, 00:25:36.091 --> 00:25:38.889 climbing a tree only with your feet. 00:25:39.085 --> 00:25:43.401 It was no longer so useful anymore, or it was more useful that we could run 00:25:43.564 --> 00:25:46.174 across the savanna. 00:25:47.421 --> 00:25:52.479 So I share that story so we don't look at this process of impermanence, 00:25:53.137 --> 00:25:57.701 of the stream of ancestry as always going in the direction 00:25:58.430 --> 00:26:00.836 of things getting better. 00:26:01.010 --> 00:26:03.753 That is a wrong perception. 00:26:04.115 --> 00:26:09.451 It is selecting for what is appropriate in the present moment. 00:26:10.198 --> 00:26:14.343 That is a better way to talk about evolution. 00:26:15.339 --> 00:26:20.924 Selecting for what is most appropriate and adaptive to the present moment. 00:26:22.320 --> 00:26:25.010 But that takes time. 00:26:27.303 --> 00:26:32.672 Time much vaster that we are normally capable of imagining. 00:26:35.506 --> 00:26:39.765 So here we are, in this situation in the present moment, 00:26:39.983 --> 00:26:44.207 where our environment is changing more quickly 00:26:44.822 --> 00:26:47.755 than we are able to adapt. 00:26:49.183 --> 00:26:53.691 So it's a very interesting moment, and I think already in the time of the Buddha, 00:26:53.853 --> 00:26:58.385 the Buddha had an idea about that. He had an insight. 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:10.996 He saw, we are not quite adapted to live in this dusty houses. 00:27:17.417 --> 00:27:20.150 And so he left the home 00:27:20.307 --> 00:27:23.579 and went to live in the forest, 00:27:25.142 --> 00:27:27.999 in a way reliving 00:27:28.873 --> 00:27:33.230 the ancestral evolutionary heritage, 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:40.018 using his own body as a kind of laboratory 00:27:40.505 --> 00:27:44.923 for understanding who he really is. 00:27:47.032 --> 00:27:49.329 Another way of saying that, 00:27:49.543 --> 00:27:54.768 how am I most adapted to be? To live? 00:28:02.381 --> 00:28:07.619 So I invite you to look at the path of the Buddha and his life story, 00:28:08.438 --> 00:28:11.199 and the community 00:28:12.102 --> 00:28:15.925 he has built up in that light. 00:28:16.104 --> 00:28:21.144 In the light of the ancestors the ancestral lineage, 00:28:22.583 --> 00:28:26.371 and finding our true home. 00:28:27.011 --> 00:28:30.863 Finding our true home. We can listen to a sound of the bell. 00:28:31.946 --> 00:28:33.168 (Bell) 00:28:35.445 --> 00:28:41.979 (Bell) 00:29:20.804 --> 00:29:24.873 In the list of Buddhist mental formations, 00:29:25.105 --> 00:29:28.791 there is on called jivitendriya. 00:29:29.494 --> 00:29:35.366 [jivitendriya] 00:29:38.384 --> 00:29:42.669 'Jiva' is life, and 'endriya' is faculty, 00:29:42.928 --> 00:29:45.480 the faculty of life, 00:29:45.686 --> 00:29:49.296 life energy, a kind of life force 00:29:49.460 --> 00:29:56.816 that is impelling us forward to have a continuation in the future. 00:29:59.871 --> 00:30:02.884 When I started practicing, 00:30:04.418 --> 00:30:09.938 I took this sexual energy as a core part of my practice. 00:30:10.388 --> 00:30:14.620 Looking deeply into it in my sitting meditation. 00:30:14.833 --> 00:30:18.592 Because I knew I wanted to become a monk. 00:30:18.769 --> 00:30:23.477 But about a year after I made that resolution inside, 00:30:24.132 --> 00:30:29.872 then the seed of wanting to be a father came up in me, 00:30:30.332 --> 00:30:35.565 to have a family. I was at Maple Forest monastery, in Vermont, 00:30:35.719 --> 00:30:38.597 sister Chan Duc was there, 00:30:41.395 --> 00:30:45.480 at the Summer retreat, and I remember being in the Dharma sharing, 00:30:45.978 --> 00:30:49.287 and there were a few monastic sisters there. 00:30:49.778 --> 00:30:52.727 And I shared about that. 00:30:53.075 --> 00:30:57.064 Somehow into that point, and I was I think, 00:30:57.236 --> 00:31:02.494 26, maybe? 26 years old. 00:31:03.965 --> 00:31:08.210 Maybe it sounds a little bit selfish but I speak honestly as a young man, 00:31:08.368 --> 00:31:11.949 I didn't think very much about having a family. 00:31:12.837 --> 00:31:16.595 But that doesn't mean I didn't have sexual relationships. 00:31:16.723 --> 00:31:19.644 So, and... 00:31:24.229 --> 00:31:28.607 But actually, taking the decision to become a monk, 00:31:28.754 --> 00:31:32.519 somehow changed my mind. 00:31:32.907 --> 00:31:37.073 And over the course of a year of practicing, 00:31:38.485 --> 00:31:42.555 I saw this strong urge coming up inside of me. 00:31:42.949 --> 00:31:47.181 A lot of it was based on the happiness I had experience as a young man, 00:31:47.313 --> 00:31:49.437 in my family. 00:31:49.588 --> 00:31:53.139 You know, thinking about vacations, or going water skiing, 00:31:53.287 --> 00:31:58.237 and my house, my dad, and my mum. We going ice-skating in the winter, 00:31:58.419 --> 00:32:02.947 all those warm, happy memories of childhood. 00:32:07.576 --> 00:32:12.836 And they came up very strongly, a kind of a warm feeling inside of my chest. 00:32:13.946 --> 00:32:17.900 So I shared about it in the Dharma sharing group. 00:32:22.199 --> 00:32:26.069 And it felt so healing just to be able to share about that. 00:32:26.247 --> 00:32:30.703 First time I ever shared really I think to anyone. 00:32:31.561 --> 00:32:36.338 And one of the sisters there, sister Susan, 00:32:36.797 --> 00:32:39.787 some of you may remember her, 00:32:41.675 --> 00:32:44.995 she shared something that I always remember 00:32:45.468 --> 00:32:48.328 that affected me very deeply, which is, 00:32:48.420 --> 00:32:52.410 some of you may know she was in our community for many years, 00:32:52.572 --> 00:32:56.912 and she lived in a practice community before coming to Plum Village. 00:32:57.070 --> 00:33:01.427 And in that community, she was not a celibate nun, 00:33:01.628 --> 00:33:04.514 at first, she had a family. 00:33:05.203 --> 00:33:08.958 And what she shared with me was that 00:33:09.813 --> 00:33:15.430 as a monk or a nun, we become part of the human family. 00:33:17.141 --> 00:33:20.811 Our love knows no bounds. 00:33:21.169 --> 00:33:27.438 We're no longer just containing our love to one blood family. 00:33:30.247 --> 00:33:34.180 And we can see ourselves, in some way, in shape or form 00:33:34.366 --> 00:33:38.196 as the father, the brother, the mother, the sister, 00:33:38.322 --> 00:33:43.097 the daughter, the son in every situation. 00:33:45.654 --> 00:33:48.381 And that was... 00:33:48.586 --> 00:33:55.779 That feeling that I had so strongly that I could not separate from sexual desire, 00:33:56.133 --> 00:33:58.867 so it's connected, 00:33:59.567 --> 00:34:03.774 allowed it to suddenly be released. 00:34:04.175 --> 00:34:08.001 Not that it disappeared, but it just released, 00:34:08.177 --> 00:34:10.280 it no longer had a... 00:34:10.462 --> 00:34:14.189 I realized I put a boundary around that emotion, 00:34:14.796 --> 00:34:19.190 which was bounded by my memories of my family. 00:34:19.379 --> 00:34:21.679 Bounded by the 00:34:22.295 --> 00:34:27.462 the accepted norms of society, which don't include becoming a monk or a nun, 00:34:27.633 --> 00:34:30.392 at least where I grew up. 00:34:30.648 --> 00:34:33.232 And so, that bounds, 00:34:33.445 --> 00:34:36.441 I untied myself taking this path of awakening, 00:34:36.745 --> 00:34:40.223 which is outside of the boundary. 00:34:40.449 --> 00:34:44.113 That could not be easily explained to those around me. 00:34:47.311 --> 00:34:51.941 And I suddenly felt isolated, alone. 00:34:52.745 --> 00:34:58.555 And that warm energy, this kind of life energy 00:34:59.259 --> 00:35:03.104 seemed to be bounded within this idea, 00:35:03.286 --> 00:35:06.167 this framework 00:35:06.825 --> 00:35:10.728 of a family like I've known growing up. 00:35:11.749 --> 00:35:13.953 So in that moment, 00:35:14.120 --> 00:35:18.073 listening to that sister share, another sister share, 00:35:19.641 --> 00:35:23.212 I felt whole again, 00:35:23.971 --> 00:35:27.985 I felt like there was no longer a boundary there. 00:35:30.399 --> 00:35:33.668 And so this energy was able to manifest. 00:35:33.833 --> 00:35:37.116 So in the one hand I don't have to push it down. 00:35:37.247 --> 00:35:40.009 I can give it its true 00:35:40.846 --> 00:35:44.967 flowering, I can allow it to come out, 00:35:45.970 --> 00:35:51.046 not being separated from what I love, 00:35:51.197 --> 00:35:55.149 but I see myself as being one with it. 00:35:55.340 --> 00:35:57.984 One with the sangha, 00:35:58.170 --> 00:36:01.283 one with our teacher, 00:36:01.499 --> 00:36:07.431 one with the whole human family, 00:36:07.896 --> 00:36:12.516 all living beings, and so forth. 00:36:12.924 --> 00:36:18.609 So touching this vital energy, as Thay talks about in the trainings, 00:36:18.862 --> 00:36:22.996 is very important, and understanding its nature. 00:36:25.664 --> 00:36:31.157 Thay talks about three aspects of this energy. 00:36:34.387 --> 00:36:37.610 We will look deeply into the four nutriments. 00:36:37.745 --> 00:36:41.707 Remember we learnt a few weeks ago: 00:36:42.140 --> 00:36:47.336 edible food, sense impressions, volition and consciousness. 00:36:48.388 --> 00:36:52.334 In order to preserve and channel our vital energy, 00:36:53.222 --> 00:36:57.022 sexual, breath, spirit, 00:36:57.488 --> 00:37:01.745 for the realization of our Bodhisattva ideal. 00:37:04.061 --> 00:37:10.570 This is how we learn appropriate ways to take care of our sexual energy. 00:37:12.851 --> 00:37:16.040 This is a kind of tight. 00:37:17.255 --> 00:37:21.869 So the way that I practiced, and I learned from Thay 00:37:22.091 --> 00:37:27.406 to work and understand this energy, work with it, understand it, 00:37:27.542 --> 00:37:31.108 was by using mindfulness of breathing. 00:37:31.300 --> 00:37:34.660 So in the practice of mindfulness of breathing 00:37:34.862 --> 00:37:39.470 we start with awareness of the in and out-breath. 00:37:40.615 --> 00:37:44.273 [1 aware of I+O] 00:37:44.503 --> 00:37:48.375 The first step. Breathing in, I know I'm breathing in. 00:37:48.657 --> 00:37:52.973 Breathing out, I know I'm breathing out. So we start with the breath. 00:37:53.138 --> 00:37:56.769 In fact, the breath goes all through. So this vital energy 00:37:56.943 --> 00:38:00.082 that is nourishing every cell in our body, 00:38:00.271 --> 00:38:02.989 passing through our blood stream, 00:38:03.126 --> 00:38:06.805 generating respiration within every cell of our body, 00:38:08.625 --> 00:38:11.685 it is nourishing us. 00:38:14.720 --> 00:38:18.283 There is a story you might know. 00:38:23.676 --> 00:38:25.938 A species 00:38:27.521 --> 00:38:31.270 that reproduces on the planet Earth so successfully, 00:38:33.974 --> 00:38:39.486 that expands to fill every corner of its ecological niche. 00:38:40.284 --> 00:38:48.565 After it discovers a way to exploit the carbon it finds in its environment, 00:38:51.208 --> 00:38:57.170 its presence dominates to such an extent that it drastically changes 00:38:57.320 --> 00:39:00.661 the composition of the atmosphere. 00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:05.853 Other species must adapt to this new toxic environment, 00:39:06.120 --> 00:39:08.803 or die out completely. 00:39:08.979 --> 00:39:13.635 And extraordinary numbers of species do go extinct. 00:39:15.137 --> 00:39:18.336 Anybody know which species this is? 00:39:18.789 --> 00:39:21.706 Yes, someone is pointing this way. 00:39:21.835 --> 00:39:24.075 It sounds familiar. 00:39:24.204 --> 00:39:27.763 It's a species called cyanobacteria. 00:39:28.959 --> 00:39:32.018 Anyone has ever heard about cyanobacteria? 00:39:32.274 --> 00:39:35.018 Ok, one hand goes up. Thank you. 00:39:35.195 --> 00:39:37.529 A happy farmer. Not surprisingly. 00:39:37.665 --> 00:39:42.279 Hopefully he knows cyanobacteria. Now we call it chloroplast. 00:39:42.813 --> 00:39:46.272 And it is located in every plant cell. 00:39:46.436 --> 00:39:50.963 It is the motor and the energy generated in a structure within 00:39:52.176 --> 00:39:56.356 pretty much, I think, every plant on the planet today. 00:39:57.168 --> 00:40:00.271 And about 2.4 billion years ago, 00:40:01.010 --> 00:40:05.316 a little bacteria 00:40:07.348 --> 00:40:11.154 very much like modern chloroplast 00:40:11.686 --> 00:40:15.414 was floating around in the surface of the ocean. 00:40:16.760 --> 00:40:19.876 And it had evolved the capacity 00:40:20.390 --> 00:40:24.983 to receive sunlight and carbon from the atmosphere. 00:40:25.972 --> 00:40:29.821 So taking the CO2 from the atmosphere 00:40:30.070 --> 00:40:37.139 and releasing the O2, it means oxygen, the oxygen, out into the atmosphere. 00:40:37.882 --> 00:40:43.173 And eventually, when all the natural water 00:40:44.740 --> 00:40:50.439 and elemental repositories for binding that oxygen were filled, 00:40:50.676 --> 00:40:53.587 then that oxygen went into the atmosphere. 00:40:53.763 --> 00:40:57.423 It's sometimes called the Great Oxygenation Event. 00:40:58.761 --> 00:41:02.757 Before that, most living beings were anaerobic, 00:41:02.895 --> 00:41:06.562 they could not survive in an oxygen rich environment. 00:41:07.409 --> 00:41:13.223 Many people, many scientists now believe those organisms 00:41:14.162 --> 00:41:17.649 formed in deep ocean vents, 00:41:17.938 --> 00:41:21.774 where hot gases were coming up from the center of the Earth. 00:41:21.911 --> 00:41:25.200 And over billions, millions and billions of years 00:41:25.577 --> 00:41:28.828 they built out a kind of life like quality. 00:41:30.061 --> 00:41:33.471 And so out of that lineage came the cyanobacteria, 00:41:33.729 --> 00:41:38.336 which for the first time was able to take the energy from the sun, 00:41:38.488 --> 00:41:46.307 rather than energy from other sources, and release, transform carbon dioxide 00:41:46.460 --> 00:41:49.619 into oxygen. 00:41:51.425 --> 00:41:56.033 And that is why today we can breathe. 00:41:58.300 --> 00:42:06.372 So all that oxygen favored those species that could learn to respire. 00:42:07.910 --> 00:42:10.693 They were able to build up respiration. 00:42:10.872 --> 00:42:14.771 So in every cell of our body we have cells which are able to take oxygen, 00:42:14.962 --> 00:42:18.689 and use it in order to generate energy along with the sugars, 00:42:18.845 --> 00:42:21.152 from the food we eat. 00:42:21.306 --> 00:42:24.658 So without that great event, we would not be here. 00:42:25.154 --> 00:42:28.927 So depending on how you want to look at the situation, 00:42:29.486 --> 00:42:35.299 cyanobacteria was a great destroyer of the world atmosphere, 00:42:36.587 --> 00:42:39.496 or the great renewer. 00:42:40.330 --> 00:42:45.557 It depends on which side you take. The anaerobic side or the aerobic side. 00:42:47.352 --> 00:42:52.349 So I tell that story a little bit to understand why the Buddha emphasizes 00:42:52.497 --> 00:42:54.880 mindfulness of breathing. 00:42:55.061 --> 00:42:59.445 It is nourishing every cell in our body when we breathe in and out. 00:42:59.633 --> 00:43:05.491 And by being aware of our breath, we are also honoring our evolutionary heritage, 00:43:05.683 --> 00:43:10.936 our ancestral heritage as an aerobic living being. 00:43:15.878 --> 00:43:20.068 So we start with awareness of the in and out-breath, 00:43:20.776 --> 00:43:25.126 and then continue with following the in and out-breath. 00:43:25.612 --> 00:43:30.250 [2 following I+O] 00:43:33.067 --> 00:43:35.724 So we develop concentration. 00:43:35.878 --> 00:43:38.310 Thay would often say, 00:43:38.449 --> 00:43:43.111 it's like this marker is our breath, and our finger is our attention. 00:43:43.307 --> 00:43:45.167 So we, 00:43:45.610 --> 00:43:49.492 with the in-breath we become aware as the breath starts to come in, 00:43:49.653 --> 00:43:52.604 through the whole length of breathing in. 00:43:52.753 --> 00:43:56.024 Our finger stays with the breath the whole way. 00:43:56.456 --> 00:44:00.203 And then, with the out-breath is the same breathing out. 00:44:00.928 --> 00:44:03.848 And from time to time, our attention goes off. 00:44:03.998 --> 00:44:07.791 We start thinking, worrying about the future, the past, 00:44:07.940 --> 00:44:11.427 and so we just smile, because we are practitioners, 00:44:11.612 --> 00:44:14.647 and we know to bring our attention back to the breath 00:44:14.839 --> 00:44:16.852 as it goes in and out. 00:44:18.088 --> 00:44:22.109 That is the training, following the in-breath all the way through, 00:44:22.266 --> 00:44:26.009 and following the out-breath all the way through. 00:44:27.936 --> 00:44:30.832 Concentration is not so complicated. 00:44:30.985 --> 00:44:33.893 You don't have to go like this to concentrate. 00:44:34.026 --> 00:44:38.234 You just continue to maintain your mindfulness over time. 00:44:42.649 --> 00:44:45.716 And then, we become aware of our body. 00:44:45.833 --> 00:44:51.008 So this awareness of the breath, actually brings us in contact with our body. 00:44:51.178 --> 00:44:55.265 We see that this process of respiration is not only 00:44:55.841 --> 00:44:59.653 the air moving into our mouth and into our lungs, 00:44:59.819 --> 00:45:03.920 but it is also continuing into our bloodstream to relax our body, 00:45:04.486 --> 00:45:09.761 to generate energy, to contribute to this vital energy. 00:45:11.319 --> 00:45:14.449 So breathing in, aware of the body. 00:45:14.970 --> 00:45:19.817 [3 aware of body] 00:45:24.860 --> 00:45:29.342 One thing that is so relaxing about listening to our teacher talk 00:45:29.470 --> 00:45:32.905 is that during the whole time of talking, 00:45:33.019 --> 00:45:36.815 Thay maintains his awareness of his breathing. 00:45:37.189 --> 00:45:41.788 He is relaxed. Usually when we hear people speak, they speak very quickly, 00:45:41.930 --> 00:45:44.248 just to get out the information. 00:45:44.358 --> 00:45:47.073 And you feel more stress and everybody is stressed 00:45:47.210 --> 00:45:49.844 and they want just to get out of there. 00:45:49.976 --> 00:45:54.166 But with Thay, you want to stay there for longtime, sometimes an hour, two hours, 00:45:54.297 --> 00:45:56.803 almost three hours. 00:45:56.937 --> 00:46:00.691 And somehow you feel calm and at peace. 00:46:00.829 --> 00:46:03.562 So that is how Thay train us. 00:46:03.730 --> 00:46:06.929 Even when we are speaking, or whether we are walking, 00:46:07.051 --> 00:46:09.241 or whether we are eating, 00:46:09.372 --> 00:46:13.170 to maintain this awareness of the body and the breath. 00:46:13.352 --> 00:46:16.454 And by doing that, we relax our body. 00:46:17.206 --> 00:46:22.252 [4 relax body] 00:46:23.777 --> 00:46:26.845 We calm the body. 00:46:29.361 --> 00:46:31.350 I mean calming. 00:46:39.921 --> 00:46:44.494 [4 calming body] 00:46:45.656 --> 00:46:50.021 When our mind is caught in an emotion like anger, 00:46:50.828 --> 00:46:55.113 we don't need to go much further than the breath 00:46:55.295 --> 00:46:59.149 to understand what is happening. Our breath becomes short. 00:46:59.358 --> 00:47:01.742 Our muscles constrict. 00:47:01.930 --> 00:47:06.665 So by being aware of the body, we can tell anger is manifesting. 00:47:06.917 --> 00:47:09.665 Our body is telling us. 00:47:09.826 --> 00:47:13.456 Sometimes the mind is quite tricky. It says, "Me? I'm not angry!" 00:47:13.739 --> 00:47:16.958 But the body knows. The breath knows. 00:47:17.125 --> 00:47:21.449 So that is why we start by being aware of the body. 00:47:21.656 --> 00:47:24.287 And when we are relaxed, 00:47:24.803 --> 00:47:29.960 when there is nothing disturbing our mind, and our attention is fully on our body, 00:47:30.141 --> 00:47:33.049 then we naturally become calm. 00:47:33.538 --> 00:47:37.114 So this is developing the breath. 00:47:40.105 --> 00:47:44.890 Throughout all the 16 exercises of mindful breathing, 00:47:45.345 --> 00:47:50.973 we're developing the breath, the vital energy of the breath. 00:47:51.277 --> 00:47:54.275 And understanding of this breath. 00:47:54.467 --> 00:47:57.996 But particularly, as we start out, we start with the breath. 00:47:58.724 --> 00:48:02.010 [BREATH] 00:48:21.682 --> 00:48:25.584 And the next section of practice... 00:48:28.377 --> 00:48:30.651 Everybody got this? 00:48:30.834 --> 00:48:33.854 I think you all know this, right? 00:49:02.201 --> 00:49:04.432 We learn to generate joy. 00:49:04.766 --> 00:49:08.811 [5 generate joy] 00:49:16.840 --> 00:49:20.053 I remember when I first practiced mindfulness 00:49:20.224 --> 00:49:26.348 of the body, the feelings, the mind, and phenomena, 00:49:27.306 --> 00:49:29.982 when I first discovered 00:49:30.165 --> 00:49:34.495 the establishments of mindfulness sutra, 00:49:38.146 --> 00:49:43.124 I discovered that it was possible to generate joy within me 00:49:43.723 --> 00:49:47.502 without depending on anything outside. 00:49:47.876 --> 00:49:51.708 Nothing that I bought, no movie that I watched, 00:49:51.905 --> 00:49:55.252 not even a thought 00:49:55.831 --> 00:49:58.997 like a memory of a happy time, 00:49:59.386 --> 00:50:02.642 or a happiness in the future. 00:50:02.812 --> 00:50:05.407 That is was actually possible 00:50:05.526 --> 00:50:10.548 to learn to touch the source of joy in my mind, in my body, 00:50:10.977 --> 00:50:15.069 and allow it to come up like a wellspring. 00:50:16.922 --> 00:50:20.687 For me, that was a huge freedom. 00:50:22.239 --> 00:50:28.780 Suddenly I felt not bound by outside circumstances. 00:50:29.028 --> 00:50:32.025 Of course, it didn't last so long. 00:50:32.831 --> 00:50:37.309 Because I tried to went away and then I learned I had to do this regularly. 00:50:37.440 --> 00:50:41.679 So I committed right away to sitting every morning, when I woke up in the morning, 00:50:41.845 --> 00:50:44.305 and also in the evening. 00:50:45.848 --> 00:50:49.187 I was very diligent, I was quite strict. 00:50:49.360 --> 00:50:52.602 Because of that joy, touching that joy, 00:50:53.063 --> 00:50:56.735 and I didn't need any other, anyone else to tell me what to do. 00:50:57.318 --> 00:50:59.758 It came from within me. 00:50:59.894 --> 00:51:02.534 It wasn't like the brothers knocking on my door, 00:51:02.680 --> 00:51:05.392 "Eh! Get up for sitting meditation!" 00:51:05.535 --> 00:51:08.596 Or my mental yelling at me because I'm sleeping in. 00:51:08.736 --> 00:51:11.074 That joy, that's what I wanted. 00:51:11.337 --> 00:51:16.420 I wanted to be able to cultivate that joy, so it could stay around for a long time. 00:51:17.863 --> 00:51:23.340 And I wanted to learn how to do it, I wanted to learn techniques 00:51:24.101 --> 00:51:27.546 that would help me to do that. 00:51:31.009 --> 00:51:34.511 And the next one is generating happiness. 00:51:34.742 --> 00:51:39.147 [6 generating happiness] 00:51:41.016 --> 00:51:42.996 So, 00:51:43.408 --> 00:51:45.905 most of us have learned these before, 00:51:46.203 --> 00:51:49.636 but I share them again in order for us to 00:51:50.285 --> 00:51:55.024 create a foundation for looking into the sexual energy. 00:51:55.555 --> 00:51:59.695 Because when we are able to generate joy and happiness 00:52:00.726 --> 00:52:04.767 that is not dependent on sexual craving, 00:52:05.650 --> 00:52:09.388 that is the first step of freedom. 00:52:15.383 --> 00:52:17.422 Nowadays 00:52:18.231 --> 00:52:20.060 there is 00:52:23.109 --> 00:52:29.844 images and sounds we can get at the touch of a button on the Internet. 00:52:30.308 --> 00:52:33.607 I can touch the seed of sexual craving in us. 00:52:36.168 --> 00:52:40.190 In a moment of - We are tired, we are lonely, 00:52:41.195 --> 00:52:46.263 we are looking for some joy, some happiness, 00:52:47.111 --> 00:52:50.102 all we have to do is press one key 00:52:50.610 --> 00:52:52.931 and there it is. 00:52:54.136 --> 00:52:58.144 Even I've heard of some men that 00:52:59.092 --> 00:53:04.988 even just opening their computer touches the seed of sexual desire in them. 00:53:06.756 --> 00:53:10.573 The conditioning is so strong, they don't even need the image, 00:53:10.756 --> 00:53:15.391 just turning on the computer touches the seed of sexual desire. 00:53:16.827 --> 00:53:20.287 We can listen to a sound of the bell. 00:53:20.539 --> 00:53:23.501 And I invite you to look in yourself, 00:53:23.646 --> 00:53:29.101 now we will go into looking at the sexual energy in our own body and mind, 00:53:30.215 --> 00:53:33.396 to see if you can look deeply 00:53:36.812 --> 00:53:41.710 and touch its nature in your mind's eye 00:53:42.499 --> 00:53:45.282 with the sound of the bell. 00:53:46.365 --> 00:53:47.863 (Bell) 00:53:50.946 --> 00:53:57.019 (Bell) 00:54:42.404 --> 00:54:45.964 So, was your meditation successful? 00:54:51.882 --> 00:54:53.980 It's a... 00:54:54.560 --> 00:54:57.419 For me, it's not difficult. 00:54:57.532 --> 00:55:01.229 Right away I can get in touch with that energy in my body, 00:55:01.636 --> 00:55:04.717 because is something that I practice with almost 00:55:05.134 --> 00:55:08.918 every minute throughout the day, at least once. 00:55:09.920 --> 00:55:14.187 And I'm not embarrassed to say that, that is it's part of... 00:55:14.343 --> 00:55:18.015 I've been a monk for 15 years, so it's 15 years of celibacy. 00:55:18.414 --> 00:55:22.593 And not a single day has gone by where I haven't, 00:55:23.887 --> 00:55:31.305 to some degree, had to look deeply into the energy, this sexual energy in my body. 00:55:32.690 --> 00:55:37.256 So that is a very actually easy meditation for me to share about, 00:55:37.398 --> 00:55:41.826 I never talked about it so much, like in a big Dharma talk like this, 00:55:42.128 --> 00:55:43.686 but... 00:55:43.858 --> 00:55:45.889 (Laughter) 00:55:46.432 --> 00:55:50.296 But I feel very at ease, because I know, 00:55:51.322 --> 00:55:55.562 I know when I'm touching that seed of sexual desire. 00:55:55.771 --> 00:56:00.015 Inviting it to come up, I know how to invite it to back down. 00:56:01.096 --> 00:56:06.207 I know when there are moments when I'm sad, or angry, or lonely, 00:56:06.590 --> 00:56:12.389 and I'm just looking for some way to stimulate that seed 00:56:13.225 --> 00:56:15.431 of sexual desire. 00:56:15.569 --> 00:56:18.783 But I know also how to, when that fever passes, 00:56:19.010 --> 00:56:22.219 my brother the other day described it like a fever, 00:56:22.336 --> 00:56:24.721 when we get sick and then 00:56:24.929 --> 00:56:28.010 the temperature of our body goes up. 00:56:28.119 --> 00:56:30.812 It's a little bit like that. You feel the fever, 00:56:30.974 --> 00:56:33.488 it comes and then it goes. 00:56:33.607 --> 00:56:36.536 And so, as monks and nuns, we become skillful 00:56:36.675 --> 00:56:40.564 in how to handle that energy with love and care. 00:56:40.734 --> 00:56:43.921 Not pushing it down, but knowing how to 00:56:44.594 --> 00:56:46.858 remove the... 00:56:46.995 --> 00:56:49.981 the water, the nutriment 00:56:50.268 --> 00:56:52.482 to that seed. 00:56:52.635 --> 00:56:54.998 So that is the next part. 00:56:55.146 --> 00:56:59.868 When we've learned how to touch the seed of joy and the seed of happiness, 00:56:59.995 --> 00:57:01.881 we can 00:57:04.116 --> 00:57:08.872 become aware of the sexual energy, sexual desire. 00:57:09.223 --> 00:57:12.927 [7 aware of sexual desire] 00:57:14.148 --> 00:57:17.536 It has a form. 00:57:17.910 --> 00:57:21.189 It feels in certain way. 00:57:22.432 --> 00:57:27.628 And in the body, when we learn to understand it, 00:57:28.430 --> 00:57:31.947 and specially, when we learn to cultivate joy and happiness 00:57:32.100 --> 00:57:34.894 without touching that seed yet. 00:57:35.041 --> 00:57:38.401 So you touch joy and happiness that is not... 00:57:38.760 --> 00:57:43.267 not tainted by sexual desire. 00:57:46.376 --> 00:57:50.371 So that helps you to grow your understanding of its nature. 00:57:51.678 --> 00:57:57.346 You learn how to be a skillful gardener in the garden of your mind. 00:57:59.245 --> 00:58:03.358 Many people don't know how to separate, they don't know 00:58:03.681 --> 00:58:08.605 what is oregano, and what is basil. For example. 00:58:12.854 --> 00:58:16.198 How many of us don't know what oregano looks like? 00:58:16.354 --> 00:58:19.317 You can be honest. Thank you. 00:58:20.644 --> 00:58:24.739 Right, so if you don't know what oregano looks like, and you don't... 00:58:24.904 --> 00:58:28.056 Most of us know what basil looks like probably. 00:58:28.206 --> 00:58:31.371 Because sometimes they put it on the pizza, so it's easy. 00:58:31.503 --> 00:58:35.083 They put oregano, but it's already ground up, so it's not so clear. 00:58:35.906 --> 00:58:42.451 So a good gardener knows what to do to plant oregano, and what to do to... 00:58:42.802 --> 00:58:45.197 Actually we don't have to plant it here in France, 00:58:45.400 --> 00:58:48.162 you find it everywhere in the ditches. 00:58:48.326 --> 00:58:51.336 But we know how to plant basil. 00:58:51.514 --> 00:58:55.896 So, we also know to tell the basil from the weeds. 00:58:56.075 --> 00:58:58.257 Maybe there are 00:58:58.400 --> 00:59:01.610 certain weeds that are coming up in our garden, 00:59:01.741 --> 00:59:06.092 and we don't want... We want to favor the basil. 00:59:08.064 --> 00:59:11.618 So then we come back to what I shared at the beginning 00:59:11.779 --> 00:59:14.518 about our modern situation. 00:59:14.681 --> 00:59:21.247 The human body is not quite adapted to the environment in which it finds itself. 00:59:21.595 --> 00:59:25.499 So when we go down to Leclerc, to go shopping, 00:59:25.646 --> 00:59:29.089 and we hear the sound of a love song 00:59:30.174 --> 00:59:34.904 as we go along, and we just feel, "Oh! I feel so pleasant! 00:59:35.057 --> 00:59:37.542 Why not I just buy that?" 00:59:37.944 --> 00:59:42.150 Because they are very skillful, they know how to water the seed of, 00:59:42.322 --> 00:59:45.169 not too much, just a little bit, just enough, 00:59:45.293 --> 00:59:49.611 sexual desire in our consciousness, so we have a nice, pleasant feeling. 00:59:49.758 --> 00:59:51.659 We think about 00:59:51.801 --> 00:59:56.614 somebody who is moaning on the loudspeaker about the love, 00:59:56.800 --> 00:59:59.647 I will love you forever, and ever, and ever. 01:00:00.056 --> 01:00:05.060 And then we think... So it touches that seed in us of our relationships 01:00:06.202 --> 01:00:10.269 from the past, of love, when we had that feeling, 01:00:10.855 --> 01:00:14.405 and so we just want to buy everything because we feel so good. 01:00:14.772 --> 01:00:19.535 Ah! That wonderful relationship I had in the past! 01:00:20.424 --> 01:00:23.979 So I try to go to Leclerc as little bit as possible. 01:00:27.919 --> 01:00:31.386 Then, along the highway we see signs, 01:00:33.086 --> 01:00:37.627 like we talked already about the computer, at the push of a button. 01:00:37.841 --> 01:00:40.909 We see all kinds of pornography. 01:00:41.086 --> 01:00:44.830 So in this modern environment that we find ourselves in, 01:00:44.979 --> 01:00:48.850 we are actually not adapted very well to it. 01:00:50.410 --> 01:00:54.607 When I used to be stimulated sexually 01:00:55.714 --> 01:01:02.094 almost non-stop throughout the day in all this subtle ways. 01:01:02.706 --> 01:01:08.754 So this original energy, which is there to help us to continue into the future 01:01:09.062 --> 01:01:12.027 is being co-opted 01:01:13.428 --> 01:01:16.018 by our environment. 01:01:16.153 --> 01:01:19.494 It is being conditioned by our environment. 01:01:19.652 --> 01:01:23.398 So I want to ask you, when you look and you are aware of sexual energy, 01:01:23.530 --> 01:01:29.026 is it really that life force, or is it just an ad? 01:01:29.789 --> 01:01:34.170 Is it just a love song? Is it just an image 01:01:34.413 --> 01:01:38.046 of the one you love? 01:01:38.685 --> 01:01:41.780 Or is it really them? 01:01:43.247 --> 01:01:47.271 Thay said that we don't fall in love with another person, 01:01:47.459 --> 01:01:51.322 we fall in love with the image of the other person. 01:01:52.201 --> 01:01:56.745 And overtime, when the image starts to look different than the reality, 01:01:58.469 --> 01:02:01.518 then suffering appears. 01:02:03.092 --> 01:02:07.475 So we've already been conditioned by the pictures in the magazines, 01:02:07.610 --> 01:02:11.429 by the pornography on the Internet. 01:02:12.465 --> 01:02:16.494 We narrow down our search on Google 01:02:16.753 --> 01:02:20.635 to exactly that image of that perfect person. 01:02:20.796 --> 01:02:25.604 So when we see her, or we see him, we cannot control ourselves. 01:02:25.776 --> 01:02:30.038 We are overwhelmed. It is "the one", the one I've been looking for! 01:02:30.205 --> 01:02:32.309 (Laughter) 01:02:34.762 --> 01:02:39.201 But is it that one? Or is it just an image in our mind? 01:02:41.102 --> 01:02:46.545 So that is what the Mindfulness of the Breathing Sutra invites to look into. 01:02:46.728 --> 01:02:50.660 I put in sexual desire here as one of the mental formations. 01:02:50.806 --> 01:02:54.314 The seventh step is to be aware of mental formations. 01:02:54.489 --> 01:02:58.822 So in this case, we are looking into the mental formation of sexual desire. 01:03:01.981 --> 01:03:06.292 And we learn to calm, we learn its nature, so we can calm 01:03:09.699 --> 01:03:12.321 the energy of sexual desire. 01:03:12.868 --> 01:03:18.351 [8 calm sexual desire] 01:03:21.351 --> 01:03:25.695 So there are many ways we can learn to do that. 01:03:27.086 --> 01:03:30.339 In the mindfulness training it says, 01:03:37.479 --> 01:03:43.095 "We must be aware of future suffering that may be caused by sexual relations." 01:03:45.312 --> 01:03:47.918 But this is the training. 01:03:48.074 --> 01:03:52.738 Nobody is forced to train in the 14 mindfulness trainings. 01:03:52.984 --> 01:03:55.384 A lot of people complain, 01:03:55.384 --> 01:03:57.368 "Long term commitment?" 01:03:57.505 --> 01:03:59.799 (Laughter) 01:04:03.529 --> 01:04:05.944 "Why can we just be free?" 01:04:08.971 --> 01:04:12.434 Okay, we can be free as long as you are not in love with an image. 01:04:14.050 --> 01:04:16.594 And I challenge you 01:04:16.799 --> 01:04:21.686 to prove that you are not in love with an image of that other person 01:04:23.434 --> 01:04:27.916 without committing over long term. 01:04:28.034 --> 01:04:30.446 I challenge you. 01:04:30.729 --> 01:04:32.641 Good luck! 01:04:34.877 --> 01:04:38.009 Because the - When I first took the 5 mindfulness trainings, 01:04:38.186 --> 01:04:40.824 wich had a very similar line, 01:04:41.110 --> 01:04:44.634 when I first read them, I did not take them right away. 01:04:45.351 --> 01:04:49.744 But I practiced for a year and I did an experiment. 01:04:50.834 --> 01:04:54.393 Sometimes I would fall back on my old habit energies, 01:04:54.565 --> 01:04:59.629 and then I practiced, just like we learn, following the in- and out-breath, 01:04:59.788 --> 01:05:04.421 I practiced to maintain mindfulness throughout the whole experience 01:05:04.568 --> 01:05:07.615 of that sexual relationship. 01:05:07.728 --> 01:05:11.372 Not just the moment that is really interesting, 01:05:11.907 --> 01:05:15.393 but also the parts that are not so interesting, 01:05:15.559 --> 01:05:17.797 that maybe are related to that 01:05:18.730 --> 01:05:21.789 experience, right? The ones that come after, 01:05:21.991 --> 01:05:26.545 sometimes days after, sometimes weeks after, sometimes months. 01:05:26.977 --> 01:05:31.560 And I can tell you, as a monk for 15 years, sometimes 15 years later, 01:05:32.621 --> 01:05:35.883 when I'm sitting in meditation. 01:05:39.855 --> 01:05:43.509 That was because I was in love with an image of the other person. 01:05:43.656 --> 01:05:47.009 And sometimes that image still comes back. 01:05:47.553 --> 01:05:51.454 And the infatuation returns, that seed comes up, 01:05:52.759 --> 01:05:55.926 and I think, "Oh! It was so lovely!" 01:05:56.067 --> 01:06:01.184 So somehow this hidden infatuation blinds us to what is really going on. 01:06:01.719 --> 01:06:04.930 What we are really doing in the present moment. 01:06:05.119 --> 01:06:09.371 And we need to be very careful. So, monks and nuns, we train in that, 01:06:09.492 --> 01:06:13.642 to recognize infatuation, attachment when it arises, 01:06:13.795 --> 01:06:19.322 and not to smash it to the ground with a hammer, but to just take care of it, 01:06:19.435 --> 01:06:22.249 to hold it, to embrace. 01:06:22.407 --> 01:06:26.443 That is the beauty of Thay's transmission to our sangha, 01:06:26.604 --> 01:06:31.273 because in many traditional Buddhist monasteries 01:06:31.428 --> 01:06:34.466 you just smash it down. 01:06:34.598 --> 01:06:36.516 You cut it off! 01:06:38.291 --> 01:06:42.897 And, as we know, when we try to 01:06:46.406 --> 01:06:50.121 keep the seeds in the earth from expanding up, 01:06:50.275 --> 01:06:52.953 then they just spread their roots out, 01:06:53.081 --> 01:06:55.226 sometimes farther. 01:06:55.395 --> 01:06:58.251 Sometimes people try, with bamboo, you try to - 01:06:58.397 --> 01:07:02.798 You cut it and then you cover it up and then the roots keep growing out, 01:07:02.983 --> 01:07:06.935 and they find a new place to come up, maybe sometimes 10 meters away. 01:07:08.452 --> 01:07:12.178 So our sexual desire is like that. If we just push it down like that, 01:07:12.301 --> 01:07:15.403 it will find other ways to come up. 01:07:15.555 --> 01:07:20.521 So there is not a healthy circulation of our mental formations, 01:07:20.681 --> 01:07:24.203 there is no a healthy circulation of this sexual energy. 01:07:24.360 --> 01:07:26.062 And Thay 01:07:26.237 --> 01:07:29.247 trained us, as monks and nuns, 01:07:29.405 --> 01:07:32.456 to have a healthy relationship with our sexual energy. 01:07:32.605 --> 01:07:36.155 And then the aspect of spirit. So we touched on the breath, 01:07:36.305 --> 01:07:40.778 these four is to looking to our sexual energy. 01:07:41.629 --> 01:07:44.382 And then Thay provides us - 01:07:45.031 --> 01:07:47.610 [SEX] 01:07:50.169 --> 01:07:54.632 Energy called spirit. Spirit. 01:07:59.008 --> 01:08:01.814 We can listen to a sound of the bell. 01:08:02.002 --> 01:08:03.200 (Bell) 01:08:04.552 --> 01:08:09.791 (Bell) 01:08:22.361 --> 01:08:27.498 [vital energy] 01:08:42.383 --> 01:08:51.136 [SEXUAL - BREATH - SPIRIT] 01:08:58.596 --> 01:09:05.170 Spirit. The word comes from the same root for 'respire'. 01:09:06.096 --> 01:09:08.383 The breath. 01:09:08.605 --> 01:09:14.499 It has to do with our mind, it recognizes that our mind is connected with our breath. 01:09:19.492 --> 01:09:23.249 So in the next steps of mindful breathing, 01:09:25.415 --> 01:09:28.268 we become aware of the mind. 01:09:28.492 --> 01:09:32.025 [9 aware of the mind] 01:09:37.047 --> 01:09:40.228 We are aware of the thoughts that are appearing. 01:09:41.762 --> 01:09:45.263 When we look deeply into those thoughts we see 01:09:45.417 --> 01:09:50.575 that they are providing nourishment for our mental formations, like sexual desire. 01:09:51.853 --> 01:09:55.188 So we are aware of what our mind is attending to. 01:09:55.291 --> 01:09:58.336 Do we have an image in our mind? 01:09:59.062 --> 01:10:02.646 Maybe an erotic image. 01:10:06.479 --> 01:10:11.802 We hold that and then we notice that that waters a seed of sexual desire in us. 01:10:13.456 --> 01:10:16.011 It's very simple! 01:10:16.490 --> 01:10:19.497 We just don't recognize it. 01:10:19.715 --> 01:10:23.523 We don't take a step back and shine the light of mindfulness on it. 01:10:23.628 --> 01:10:26.462 So that is what the sutra invites us to do. 01:10:26.555 --> 01:10:32.079 As we breath in, I'm aware of my mind. Breathing out, I'm aware of my mind. 01:10:32.252 --> 01:10:37.494 So aware of what has been put there in our mind, in our mind's eye. 01:10:37.646 --> 01:10:40.654 When we are attending to the breath, 01:10:40.787 --> 01:10:44.137 then the breath becomes the object of our meditation. 01:10:44.244 --> 01:10:48.168 Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something. 01:10:48.575 --> 01:10:53.624 So we can be mindful of our breath, we can be mindful of - 01:10:55.659 --> 01:11:00.301 We can imagine the face of someone that we find very attractive, 01:11:00.474 --> 01:11:04.279 and then I can water that seed of sexual desire. 01:11:04.383 --> 01:11:07.492 So it becomes a source of nutriment. 01:11:07.923 --> 01:11:11.053 That's what we are doing day in and day out. 01:11:11.177 --> 01:11:14.838 And then when we stop, when we shift our attention back to the breath, 01:11:15.047 --> 01:11:18.177 that seed is no longer watered. 01:11:18.798 --> 01:11:23.516 We think this is our 'me' who is doing it for us, 01:11:23.741 --> 01:11:28.336 like I am the one doing this. But this is a process of conditioning. 01:11:28.470 --> 01:11:31.116 The nutriments, they come in, 01:11:31.293 --> 01:11:34.817 sense impressions, volition, consciousness. 01:11:35.033 --> 01:11:39.746 If we cultivate the seed of having many sexual relations, 01:11:40.587 --> 01:11:44.469 that becomes a reality. 01:11:44.728 --> 01:11:47.984 If we cultivate the seed of being aware of breathing, 01:11:48.125 --> 01:11:51.788 of calming our body and mind, then that becomes a reality. 01:11:54.448 --> 01:12:00.206 So where we put our attention, what is there on the plate of our mind, 01:12:00.349 --> 01:12:03.868 it's like we have food on a plate in front of us. 01:12:04.031 --> 01:12:09.005 Or maybe it's whatever is open in our computer. 01:12:09.315 --> 01:12:13.234 It is coming up on the screen. That's what this is training us to do, 01:12:13.452 --> 01:12:16.598 at every moment, to be aware 01:12:16.781 --> 01:12:20.309 of what is present in our mind. 01:12:22.168 --> 01:12:25.929 And then, we learn to gladden the mind. 01:12:26.295 --> 01:12:30.270 [10 gladden the mind] 01:12:30.825 --> 01:12:35.307 So we learn to bring up those kinds of thoughts, 01:12:35.477 --> 01:12:40.444 or to give attention to those things which actually bring about happiness and joy. 01:12:40.628 --> 01:12:43.533 So we are going down to the root. 01:12:43.701 --> 01:12:47.524 We learn to generate joy and happiness, and now we are going down to see, 01:12:47.653 --> 01:12:50.467 what is really going on there, at the root? 01:12:50.631 --> 01:12:56.838 How can we provide a kind of nutriment in our thinking, in our attention, 01:12:57.900 --> 01:13:01.938 that nourishes joy and happiness? 01:13:02.683 --> 01:13:05.301 So, mind training, 01:13:05.484 --> 01:13:08.161 training the mind. 01:13:08.373 --> 01:13:12.854 So we are learning how to sublimate this vital energy 01:13:18.011 --> 01:13:22.510 which has the manifestation of sexual desire. 01:13:22.749 --> 01:13:27.451 And we are directing it towards the breath, towards the spirit, 01:13:27.610 --> 01:13:32.225 towards being aware of also the sexual energy. 01:13:33.223 --> 01:13:38.527 But not being swept away by that energy, or being just pulled away 01:13:39.380 --> 01:13:45.149 by the images that we are attached to, infatuated with. 01:13:48.089 --> 01:13:51.339 And by gladdening the mind, the mind becomes peaceful, 01:13:51.515 --> 01:13:54.659 it is not searching for things outside of itself. 01:13:54.808 --> 01:13:57.504 It's no longer searching for those images, 01:13:57.643 --> 01:14:01.534 it is not easily carried away by that music in the supermarket, 01:14:01.662 --> 01:14:05.591 or the advertisements that you see alongside the road. 01:14:06.662 --> 01:14:09.193 I read a story yesterday 01:14:09.386 --> 01:14:12.864 from an old student of Thay's. 01:14:17.749 --> 01:14:21.699 Many of you know Thay is in the root temple, in Vietnam. 01:14:23.062 --> 01:14:27.024 He has committed to going back there for the rest of his life. 01:14:31.077 --> 01:14:34.652 So many brothers and sisters in the community 01:14:37.281 --> 01:14:41.764 are in this moment to prepare for 01:14:43.249 --> 01:14:48.092 maybe many people becoming very interested in Thay's life, suddenly, 01:14:48.494 --> 01:14:54.133 to explain some things about the history of Thay's life. 01:14:55.260 --> 01:15:00.983 And one of the sisters doing that sent me a link of an old student of Thay, 01:15:01.233 --> 01:15:07.098 named Jim Forest, who studied at (), and also the Buddhist Peace Delegation, 01:15:07.554 --> 01:15:11.179 in Paris, in the 1970s. 01:15:12.906 --> 01:15:17.650 And he told the story where they were walking in the Tenderloin district 01:15:18.042 --> 01:15:23.737 of San Francisco, which is a, I think still is a little bit - 01:15:25.275 --> 01:15:27.919 Michael has said. 01:15:28.128 --> 01:15:30.925 It's an area - I think that is a little bit 01:15:31.026 --> 01:15:33.869 with kind of sex shops, 01:15:34.092 --> 01:15:36.895 and, you know, shows and things like that. 01:15:37.026 --> 01:15:40.349 I think in Paris you also have something like that. 01:15:40.481 --> 01:15:43.216 And somehow they ended up walking through San Francisco 01:15:43.327 --> 01:15:47.659 and they ended up at that - And, so Jim told the story where he thought, "Oh gosh! 01:15:47.774 --> 01:15:50.750 How did I end up with Thay here, in this district!" 01:15:50.847 --> 01:15:52.647 (Laughter) 01:15:53.077 --> 01:15:56.897 And he just kept his view very straightforward 01:15:57.142 --> 01:16:00.049 and he just kind of was walking by. 01:16:00.163 --> 01:16:04.234 But then, they came to one shop where there was a show inside. 01:16:04.388 --> 01:16:07.420 And then Thay turned and he looked. 01:16:07.998 --> 01:16:09.954 And, 01:16:10.571 --> 01:16:15.520 I get the impression Thay was just looking at like Thay would look at an autumn leaf, 01:16:15.891 --> 01:16:18.138 or a blade of grass. 01:16:18.304 --> 01:16:20.055 (Laughter) 01:16:20.176 --> 01:16:22.745 Just with these eyes of wonder. 01:16:22.897 --> 01:16:27.385 Because I think in Vietnam it's not very common to have out in the street - 01:16:27.787 --> 01:16:33.218 And Thay seeing images of women to go into the shop. 01:16:33.814 --> 01:16:39.259 And it said underneath, it said, "Only people over the age of 21 01:16:39.969 --> 01:16:42.675 with an ID are permitted to enter". 01:16:42.825 --> 01:16:47.226 So then, Thay turned to Jim and said, "Jim, are you older than 21?" 01:16:47.446 --> 01:16:49.756 (Laughter) 01:16:52.121 --> 01:16:56.977 And then Jim said, "No, Thay". Of course, Jim was older than 21. 01:16:57.195 --> 01:17:01.082 But Jim had a deeper insight into Thay's question. 01:17:01.451 --> 01:17:06.445 Thay was not asking Jim literally are you already age of 21. 01:17:06.613 --> 01:17:10.880 When a Zen master asks you a question, there is many layers of meaning. 01:17:11.871 --> 01:17:15.038 So Thay said, "Good. Neither am I." 01:17:15.191 --> 01:17:17.402 (Laughter) 01:17:17.587 --> 01:17:20.287 Of course, Thay was in his 40s. 01:17:21.769 --> 01:17:26.077 But Thay said, "Neither am I. So we don't have to go in there" 01:17:26.278 --> 01:17:28.862 And they continued walking. 01:17:29.006 --> 01:17:31.431 I love that story, because 01:17:31.588 --> 01:17:37.618 a normal way of practicing is a kind of like a spiritual by-passing. 01:17:37.900 --> 01:17:41.207 We just want to walk by. 01:17:41.341 --> 01:17:45.388 We have a fear, right? Like the mindfulness trainings talks us 01:17:45.626 --> 01:17:49.135 that we have a fear, and illusion of a separate self. 01:17:49.279 --> 01:17:53.462 So in that fear, in order to maintain our illusion of a separate self, 01:17:53.602 --> 01:17:56.948 we just close off our vision. 01:17:57.392 --> 01:18:00.949 We just look like that. 01:18:02.607 --> 01:18:07.446 But Thay stopped and looked. Thay wants to see what is really going on. 01:18:07.637 --> 01:18:10.654 So there is someone in us that really wants to see 01:18:10.781 --> 01:18:16.422 what is going on. We don't want to just blind ourselves to the reality. 01:18:16.601 --> 01:18:19.030 There are young women in there, 01:18:19.210 --> 01:18:22.921 they are making their living by doing these sex shows. 01:18:23.062 --> 01:18:27.480 Thay is looking deeply into the situation with compassion. 01:18:30.351 --> 01:18:33.799 And if we are solid in our practice like that, 01:18:33.968 --> 01:18:39.516 we are not enticed, we are not pulled in, we are not pulled away by the emotion. 01:18:40.422 --> 01:18:43.625 And we can smile with this wonder, these eyes of wonder. 01:18:43.825 --> 01:18:48.946 Here, not being over 21 means we maintain our innocence, 01:18:49.113 --> 01:18:52.998 our joy, our wonder of looking at the world. 01:18:53.173 --> 01:18:58.550 Even if we have suffered in the past, even if we've been over 21 in the past, 01:18:59.230 --> 01:19:03.166 we can return to that childlike wonder. 01:19:03.567 --> 01:19:07.084 And look at another human being, and look at the situation 01:19:07.261 --> 01:19:10.714 with the eyes of understanding and love. 01:19:10.898 --> 01:19:14.603 And see the suffering that is there. 01:19:18.066 --> 01:19:21.317 So if we are able to gladden the mind in that way, 01:19:21.484 --> 01:19:24.226 if we are happy, and solid in our joy, 01:19:24.405 --> 01:19:27.406 then we are not pulled away by these things. 01:19:31.646 --> 01:19:35.804 And the 11th is concentrating the mind. 01:19:36.922 --> 01:19:41.425 [11 concentrating the mind] 01:19:45.389 --> 01:19:49.824 So we learn to maintain our awareness over time. 01:19:50.033 --> 01:19:53.719 This is connected to following the in-breath and the out-breath. 01:19:54.790 --> 01:19:59.514 We can become aware of in-breath, and then we maintain that attention 01:19:59.658 --> 01:20:01.769 over time. 01:20:02.406 --> 01:20:06.952 And the more we train in that way, the more our concentration becomes steady, 01:20:07.113 --> 01:20:11.071 and solid, we are not easily distracted. 01:20:11.834 --> 01:20:15.045 So even if these images come, like Thay standing there, 01:20:15.162 --> 01:20:18.448 looking at the image of a woman, 01:20:18.684 --> 01:20:21.902 we are not pulled away. We are not - 01:20:22.380 --> 01:20:26.190 The image is there to pull you in. So you pay your money, 01:20:26.597 --> 01:20:31.759 so you can go in and that seed of sexual desire can be watered in you. 01:20:32.162 --> 01:20:35.213 But if we know how to maintain concentration, 01:20:35.363 --> 01:20:39.561 then we know when things come in, and they are trying to nourish our seed, 01:20:39.698 --> 01:20:43.689 and we don't allow them to continue to manifest 01:20:43.950 --> 01:20:46.404 in our mind consciousness. 01:20:46.531 --> 01:20:49.548 It will not penetrate deeply. The Buddha often said, 01:20:49.669 --> 01:20:54.081 it is not that the Buddha doesn't have sexual desire, 01:20:55.294 --> 01:20:57.730 or anger, or sadness, 01:20:57.904 --> 01:21:03.688 it is that he does not allow those emotions to overwhelm his mind anymore. 01:21:03.874 --> 01:21:08.189 He has made the decision to cut them off. 01:21:11.485 --> 01:21:13.822 He can see a naked woman, 01:21:14.037 --> 01:21:16.928 but it doesn't penetrate into touching the seed 01:21:17.080 --> 01:21:19.997 of sexual desire in his consciousness. 01:21:20.170 --> 01:21:23.638 He knows that that is not true freedom. 01:21:23.810 --> 01:21:26.900 That he cannot find true happiness 01:21:28.049 --> 01:21:31.098 in a sexual relationship. 01:21:31.274 --> 01:21:37.302 Only - True happiness is only found in ourselves, 01:21:38.122 --> 01:21:40.797 in this body, in this mind, 01:21:41.165 --> 01:21:46.052 in cultivating peace, joy, calm, and understanding the nature of our mind. 01:21:46.238 --> 01:21:51.178 So we are no longer pulled away by these temptations. 01:21:51.514 --> 01:21:58.393 And if we do have a sexual relationship, we are also not pulled away 01:21:59.238 --> 01:22:03.329 by the image we have of the other person. 01:22:04.379 --> 01:22:09.608 We are able to look into their eyes, and see them as they truly are. 01:22:10.264 --> 01:22:13.925 We practice it as a meditation. 01:22:14.059 --> 01:22:16.639 If we are lay practitioners, 01:22:16.784 --> 01:22:20.874 we are not committed to, like we as monastics. 01:22:22.113 --> 01:22:25.246 So I don't want you to go away and think, "Oh my gosh! 01:22:25.372 --> 01:22:28.436 I have to become a monk or a nun right away!" 01:22:28.566 --> 01:22:33.780 But we have to learn how to take care of that desire within us 01:22:33.919 --> 01:22:38.323 so that we are not blinding ourselves with infatuation. 01:22:38.506 --> 01:22:42.284 That is understanding this vital energy of spirit. 01:22:42.440 --> 01:22:44.691 Understanding our mind. 01:22:44.836 --> 01:22:47.600 We have to understand how these things 01:22:47.741 --> 01:22:52.335 in every moment are stimulating seeds in our consciousness. 01:22:55.021 --> 01:22:59.295 And then, we touch freedom. Liberating the mind. 01:22:59.873 --> 01:23:05.436 [12 liberating the mind] 01:23:10.094 --> 01:23:15.076 The mind is no longer enslaved, we are no longer easily carried away 01:23:15.318 --> 01:23:17.822 by the images. 01:23:17.991 --> 01:23:21.839 So, dear brothers and sisters, thank you for being here, 01:23:24.548 --> 01:23:31.015 helping to look deeply into this energy of sexual desire. 01:23:37.155 --> 01:23:42.252 I encourage you to look into the remaining steps of mindful breathing, 01:23:42.899 --> 01:23:49.471 concentration on impermanence, letting go, abandoning desire, 01:23:50.266 --> 01:23:56.578 extinction of notions, nirvana, in you own practices here. 01:23:57.043 --> 01:23:59.146 Out of time. 01:24:06.121 --> 01:24:08.811 But I want to share that 01:24:11.427 --> 01:24:13.665 as a man, 01:24:14.799 --> 01:24:16.898 and a monk, 01:24:17.144 --> 01:24:20.657 I'm aware that in our ancestral history, 01:24:21.246 --> 01:24:26.503 that we have a lot of Beginning Anew to do around this topic. 01:24:27.895 --> 01:24:32.574 And going into this XXI century, 01:24:32.768 --> 01:24:36.544 I hope we can do it together, 01:24:37.060 --> 01:24:41.855 that we can learn of these seeds, how we've used violence, power, 01:24:42.394 --> 01:24:45.406 fear in the past, 01:24:45.632 --> 01:24:49.525 because we didn't understand what the Buddha was teaching. 01:24:49.701 --> 01:24:54.006 We didn't know how to put into practice this understanding 01:24:54.172 --> 01:24:57.634 of sexual desire. So, it is 01:25:01.413 --> 01:25:06.019 with a lot of humility that we need to learn to Begin Anew as men, 01:25:06.311 --> 01:25:08.795 specially. 01:25:09.800 --> 01:25:15.379 With the Me Too movement, it is helping us, it's like a bell of mindfulness 01:25:15.654 --> 01:25:20.224 to help not only men, but mostly men 01:25:21.146 --> 01:25:25.019 to look deeply into this as a training 01:25:25.174 --> 01:25:28.435 so that we can transform going into the future, 01:25:28.560 --> 01:25:32.084 and live again, or maybe for the first time, 01:25:32.224 --> 01:25:35.322 in real harmony and peace, 01:25:35.787 --> 01:25:39.236 with brotherhood and sisterhood. 01:25:39.598 --> 01:25:45.046 I just end with asking you to support. 01:25:46.142 --> 01:25:53.195 Two of us are going this coming week to a conference, 01:25:55.238 --> 01:25:59.335 On the Dignity of the Child in the Digital World. 01:25:59.538 --> 01:26:06.173 It is taking place in the United Emirates. Thay has been invited to represent, 01:26:08.115 --> 01:26:11.458 as a Buddhist leader, to represent 01:26:15.566 --> 01:26:18.420 the community 01:26:18.900 --> 01:26:22.952 in looking deeply into the situation with children 01:26:23.141 --> 01:26:28.383 who are being abused for pornography online. 01:26:29.577 --> 01:26:34.752 This is a meeting of many leaders from many different traditions, 01:26:34.895 --> 01:26:40.138 from Muslim, Christian, and Jewish and other traditions, Buddhists, 01:26:40.351 --> 01:26:45.306 so Thay will not go in person but two brothers will go 01:26:45.743 --> 01:26:51.192 and will support. So I thank you for being able to share about this topic here today, 01:26:51.357 --> 01:26:58.090 because - And I'm grateful for Thay, for putting right in the trainings, 01:26:59.601 --> 01:27:04.009 "We will do everything in our power to protect children from sexual abuse 01:27:04.177 --> 01:27:09.236 and to protect couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct." 01:27:09.744 --> 01:27:13.490 So I ask you to send energy for the children everywhere 01:27:13.671 --> 01:27:18.464 who are in a situation like that because of our own incapacity 01:27:19.239 --> 01:27:22.517 to take care of our energy of sexual desire. 01:27:22.712 --> 01:27:26.682 They are enslaved to be put online 01:27:27.205 --> 01:27:29.876 for our own sexual desire. 01:27:30.038 --> 01:27:34.094 And that is a big bell of mindfulness for us all. 01:27:34.683 --> 01:27:37.455 Please, enjoy walking meditation, 01:27:38.122 --> 01:27:41.619 and we will continue next week with more looking deeply 01:27:41.862 --> 01:27:44.855 into the mindfulness trainings. Thank you so much. 01:27:47.375 --> 01:27:48.864 (Bell) 01:27:51.172 --> 01:27:57.480 (Bell) 01:28:10.263 --> 01:28:17.015 (Bell) 01:28:32.904 --> 01:28:38.628 (Bell)