(Half bell)
(Bell)
[What is a mindful student?]
Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
In many of your writings, you refer to a mindful teacher.
A man learned the practice of mindfulness
and one student says he wrote no longer,
"What are you thinking? Very bad grade!"
Instead he wrote,
"You do not understand and it is my fault."
And this is a very empowering view for students.
But I wondered, what does it mean to be a more mindful student?
What are the responsibilities of the student towards the teacher
and towards their own work?
Mindfulness helps to deal with difficulties and problems,
of course,
but mindfulness can bring a lot of joy and happiness.
And this part is very important.
You learn mindfulness not only to deal with daily problems, difficulties.
First of all you learn mindfulness
in order to nourish yourself, to heal yourself.
And this can be done right away.
When you breathe in mindfully,
mindfulness of breathing.
If you do it skillfully,
if you know how to do it,
you'll find that breathing in is very pleasant.
If you suffer during the in-breath
this is not really mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the energy that helps you to know what is going on.
And what is going on now is you are breathing in.
It can be very pleasant to breathe in.
And mindfulness tells you that it is wonderful to breathe in,
because you are breathing in, therefore you are alive.
You are still there.
And to be alive is a miracle.
To get in touch with the wonders of life
that are available in the here and the now is wonderful.
One in-breath can bring you a lot of joy and healing.
And that in-breath should be pleasant in order for you to enjoy.
You nourish yourself, you heal yourself by breathing in like that, breathing out.
When you practice walking meditation,
you stop all the thinking
and making a step with your left foot
you touch Mother Earth.
It can bring you enlightenment.
To be alive and to be walking on this beautiful planet
is a wonder.
And you are alive.
You are making one step on this beautiful planet,
touching Mother Earth.
That can bring you happiness right away.
You don't have to run into the future
in order to get happiness.
And while sitting, and eating,
washing the dishes or making breakfast, you practice mindfulness
and you enjoy every moment.
That is why we say that mindfulness is a source of joy and happiness.
You don't need to run into the future
to look for happiness.
Mindfulness tells you that the Kingdom of God,
the Pure Land of the Buddha is available in the here and the now.
So you can taste every moment that is given you to live.
So if students and teachers practice mindfulness,
they should enjoy their time together.
You can teach mindfully
and enjoy your teaching.
If you suffer while teaching,
that is not good practice.
So as schoolteachers,
you learn how to teach in such a way
that there is pleasure in teaching.
And as students, you also practice like that.
Learning is not to get a Diploma
in order to have a job later on.
But the fact of learning, the act of learning
should bring happiness.
So teachers and students can sit together
and discuss a strategy
as how to be happy during the class, for both.
You know that in Plum Village we have developed
the program of Wake up, Global Ethics.
We have been training many school teachers
so that they can go and teach in that way in school.
They can help the students to enjoy learning
and teaching and learning
will not be hard labor anymore for both sides.
So inquire about that,
specially the monastic brothers in Plum Village.
Thay Phap Dung an so on, they are working on this.
They have given many courses of training
for school teachers in India, in Bhutan, in Thailand, in America, in England.
And there are many school teachers who have trained to do that,
making the class into a family,
where is that joy and brotherhood and sisterhood
so the students will have a chance to learn
and practice with the teacher
in order to make the work of learning and teaching
agreeable, pleasant.
[connect, be inspired, be nourished]
(Bell)