bell sound

bell strike and reverberation

bell strike and reverberation

bell strike and reverberation

Dear respected Thay, 
dear brothers and sisters,

dear friends and sangha.

Today is the 24th of January
the year 2019

and we are in the [?] Meditation Hall
of the [?] hamlet

during our Winter Retreat.

Winter has arrived, yes,

I think we all agree.

There is snow in Paris 
and in 18 other departments in France

and in other countries

we can see the beauties of nature 
and winter

in all seasons in fact

the wonders of Mother Earth 
that she offers us

the beautiful green grass

the delicate snowflakes

the nourshing rain

We've had rain, wind and cold weather here

but that's also wonderful

with our practice of mindfulness

we celebrate life.

Every moment of life is precious

and the energy of mindfulness helps us be

in touch with ourself

our body and mind, but also

in touch with the world around us.

the other morning a sister said to me,

did you see the bird in our tree?

and I...oh, what tree? what bird?

he pointed in the direction, at a distance

and then I saw a noble blackbird

sitting alone on the bare branch

of a winter tree with the sunrise

the golden light of the sunrise

filtering through this beautiful moment.

So I thanked her very much

for sharing this beauty with me

and I said "Please write a poem".

She writes very well.

In winter the sunrises and sunsets 
are special

and I enjoy going out and 
seeing the sunrise

and sunset in winter especially

though all year round 
we can appreciate the

sunrise and sunset.

Mindfulness as an energy is always with us

it doesn't leave us

it's a capacity we have that is stored

within the depths of our consciouness 
as a seed

a [?]

we just have to wake it up, 
we just have to activate it

invite it to be present with us

mindfulness is with us 
during all seasons of the year.

it helps us be aware 
of our internal weather,

so to speak

what is happening in our mind

in terms of our feelings, our thoughts

our emotions, our mental formations.

So mindfulness helps us know what is

the terrain, the paysage, the landscape
of our mind

and that's very helpful

and it's very wonderful

to know what's actually happening in us

and around us

This afternoon we'll have our

sharing circles called dharma sharing

and sometimes we begin the sharing circle by

by inviting everyone to give a
internal weather report, metéo, ...

say their name, where they're from 
and then what is their internal weather

and they may use some images, such as

I feel sunny

I feel rainy, maybe sad

I feel happy, I feel cloudy

that means I have some confusion today

I'm not real sure

there's a storm brewing in me

that means, oh, I'm in touch with some

strong feelings, anger, et cetera.

so we have an opportunity connect 
with our feelings

to know actually what they are

feelings are very important,
they're part of our daily life

you know that babies have feelings

and because they're too young to tell us
what their feelings are

they let us know about their feelings

when a baby's happy 
we'll see a baby smile, laugh, gurgle

you know, baby sounds, they're happy
they're doing fine

when a baby doesn't have a pleasant
feeling, the baby lets us know

they cry, they may be hungry
or cold, or wet

or need more sleep.

So from the very beginning of our life

we experienced feelings

we have many relationships, don't we?

and relationships usually are formed

or begin, when there are pleasant feelings

when there are good feelings
that are shared mutually

and then relationships can end

when the feelings turn to
unpleasant feelings

there are bad feelings between us

so if we don't know practices then
a relationship can end

our relationship with our mindfulness
is forever

and that's the good news

as long as we want to practice
and cultivate this energy within us,

it's always there.

no matter what's happening 
with our daily life relationships

The Buddha gave some wonderful teachings

in the sutra of the four foundations of
mindfulness

this is an important sutra

and Thay has written a book based 
on this sutra, which contains this sutra

called "Transformation and Healing"

and Buddha gave some teachings in this way

he said
the first foundation of our mindfulness

is to be aware of our body

every morning when we wake up

we can be aware of how does my body feel?

The second foundation of mindfulness

is to be aware of our feelings.

ok, how am I feeling?

third foundation: to be aware of our mind

the thoughts, the objects that we're 
thinking about

and then the fourth foundation
of mindfulness

is to be aware of the objects

of our mind, and that could be the world
around us

now feelings are very interesting

according to how the Buddha looked 
at feelings.

In modern Western psychology,

we use the word feelings and emotions

interchangeably, right?

We could say I'm feeling happy,

I'm feeling sad, I'm feeling peaceful,

I'm feeling anxious, 
I'm feeling depressed,

et cetera.

Buddha didn't have modern 
Western psychology,

but what he created was a practice
of being aware of our feelings

just in three ways.

The Buddha said we have pleasant feelings,

then we have unpleasant feelings,

and then we have neutral feelings

that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

And you know for Buddha and his
disciples who become Arhats,

that was enough.

To be able to identify what we're
experience as something pleasant

or unpleasant has simplified my practice
enormously.

Sometimes I've gotten too caught up
or tangled up

with more "advanced" practice by trying
to name the feeling correctly.

Is it irritation? Is it anger?

Is it sadness? Is it discouragement?

I spent so much time trying to get

the right word to describe my feeling,

and I discovered that it wasn't necessary,

and that was good news for me.

Whenever I'm in touch with a feeling,

I can just be aware of the feeling.

The feeling may have its origin in my body

or something outside

a conversation, seeing something.

In other words, the origin may be through

the six senses: my eyes, my ears, my nose,

my tongue, my body, the sense of touch,

or my thinking.

So when I'm in touch with a feeling,

I try to recognize,

Is it a pleasant feeling

or an unpleasant feeling?

A neutral feeling is neither pleasant

nor unpleasant

but it has the characteristic of being

sort of not there. Nothing much is

happening when we have a neutral feeling.

For example, when I open the mailbox

to take out the letters, voila, nothing

much is there. I buy a magazine, I give

someone directions to the train station,

maybe there's a slight feeling, but

it's neither really pleasant nor
unpleasant.

A neutral feeling can change however and

become either a pleasant or an

unpleasant feeling. And I remember

once Thay said, Neutral feelings can be

made into pleasant feelings, they can be

transformed into pleasant feelings

with mindful breathing. And that is,

nothing much is happening, but if I sit

down and relax and breathe, I can bring

calmness into my body and relaxation

and that is pleasant.

So feelings are constantly changing,

one into another, there's a constant flux

of feeling because wer'e constantly

receiving impressions through our nervous

system, through our sense organs,

and that is activating feelings.

Let us a take a moment now to create

a pleasant feeling, I hope. We will pause

and come back to ourself and enjoy our

breathing in and out, gently, naturally.

bell

bell

So then the practice that helps us

recognize our feelings is called [?]

recognition. We simply notice what is

there and what the feeling is,

without thinking, without adding more

to the feeling. Sometimes when we have

a pleasant feeling, we begin to think:

"Oh, how can I continue to have this

pleasant feeling?" or sometimes when

we have an unpleasant feeling, we begin

to think: "Why did this happen?

What can I do to stop it?"

We add thoughts.

But to simply recognize a feeling,

all we have to do is notice it,

breathe with it, and no mental

commentary. There is a pleasant feeling

here now, there is an unpleasant feeling

here now.

I made a list of some of the objects

which result in pleasant feeling for me,

and I invite everyone to do that,

this afternoon, this evening,

tomorrow, on your day off.

Become aware of what gives us

a pleasant feeling.

I've already mentioned the sunrise

and the sunset. Hearing the sound of

the waterfall, the birds singing in spring,

singing, soon we will celebrate the lunar

new year, Tet, and a pleasant feeling

is almost guaranteed everyday.

There's happiness, there's friendship,

the delicious taste of the Earth cake,

and other wonderful Vietnamese food.

I have pleasant feeling seeing the

spring flowers, the green grass,

the bamboo.

Feeling the warmth of the sun on my face.

Walking with friends, enjoying

a cup of tea, sitting down.

Doing nothing.

So these are some of the sources

but not all, of the sources, of pleasant

feelings. There's one thing

I want to share about pleasant feelings,

is sometimes, we want them over and over

and over again, and more and more and more

and they can become an addiction.

So we call it a sweet internal formation.

It's addiction to drugs, to drinking,

to smoking, to too much sugar, too much

whatever. Because we have the seed

of desire within us, okay? So it's

alright, there's nothing wrong with that.

With our practice of mindfulness

we're aware of pleasant feeling, and

whether the seed of desire is present,

okay, I'm aware the seed of desire

is present. To have a piece of chocolate,

alright, one piece of chocolate,

moderation. But if I say, oh another piece

won't hurt, a second piece, okay, desire

has grown a litte bit more, it's been
watered.

Well ,a third piece for good luck,

three pieces of chocolate. Okay.

Do you understand?

So the desire grows and grows

and then we think we need the chocolate

to have pleasant feelings.

But not really. So we want to say

we bring our mindfulness to the

experience of pleasant feelings

based on consumption. Okay? But there are

many ways of consuming. We consume

with our eyes, our ears, et cetera.

So, if mindfulness is there it's sort of

a protection so that the pleasant feeling

doesn't be absolutely necessary all the

time without fail. So with my mindfulness

I say "I'm aware of the pleasant feeling.

I'm aware of the chocolate," or whatever

it is that's giving you the pleasant
feeling.

Breathing out, I know my mindfulness

tells me I've had enough, and that's all.

So where this goes for anything that

we consume. And I use a sentence now

that is very, very helpful to me.

I say to myself, "I don't want to hurt

myself." Okay? And if I keep that as

my mantra, "I don't want to hurt

myself" then my mindfulness is there

as the protector. Mindfulness says,

"Okay, you don't want to hurt yourself?

Stop now." So we know the mindfulness

trainings are guidelines that help us

not hurt ourselves, help us keep us going

in a good direction, to create more

happiness and pleasant feelings.

This afternoon there will be a match,

Asian World Cup foot, football, and the

countries are Vietnam and Japan. And

we know at the end of the match there

will be some pleasant feelings shared by

one team, we don't know which team.

But there will be pleasant feelings.

There will also be unpleasant feelings.

And that will be for the team that doesn't

win, I imagine there will be unpleasant

feelings, but an ability to accept.

So, we know that there are also

unpleasant feelings that occur, and

accepting them is important.

Do you know when I breathe in the

cool morning air, the cold morning air,

it's minus 1 and I'm breathing it in, it's

unpleasant, a little bit.

But my nose accepts it. My nose doesn't

say "Go away, cold air. I don't want you."

My nose accepts the cold air.

And I do, too.

So, unpleasant feelings can have their

root in our body.

There's something maybe not balanced

in our physiology, and we can have an

unpleasant feeling, a headache,

for example, or a toothache.

An unpleasant feeling can have its source

not within the body and physiology but

unpleasant feeling can come from a

physical event. Let's say you hurt your

thumb while trying to hammer a nail

into wood. So you hit your thumb, and

that was a physical event. The hammer

and the nail were not part of your body's

physiology but it contributed to an

unpleasant feeling. A third source of

unpleasant feeling would be from our

mind, a psychological event. So you hear

some sad news, or you see something

and you feel very sad on seeing it, so

something has watered the seed in our

consciousness, the depths of our

consciousness, our alaya, and the seed

will manifest, and we will experience what

we would call, maybe, an emotion.

Okay? a separation, an argument, a

disappointment, losing a credit card,

things like that, and we will have an

emotional response. So unpleasant

feelings can have three sources, but

also pleasant feelings can have

three sources: from our body, our mind,

and then the world around us.

So, what do I do when an unpleasant

feeling arises? Breathing in, using my

mindfulness practice, I'm aware of

this feeling. Breathing out, I experience

this feeling as unpleasant, but no

judgment okay? Unpleasant. Breathing

in, I embrace and I stay with this

unpleasant feeling. Breathing out, I

know I am taking care of this unpleasant

feeling. One morning not too long ago,

I had unpleasant feelings. And I realized

that the source was my body, my

physiology. Everything seemed too loud.

Much too loud. But that's very unusual.

Usually everything is too soft.

But this morning, everything was too loud.

In the meditation hall, the chanting

was beautiful, absolutely inspiring, the

melody, the words, everything was

beautiful. However my ears heard it,

it's too loud. So I had to protect my ears

and I hope that no one saw that. We do

that when the jets fly over. You know the

army, air force, they go over grand speed

with a great big sound and I do that.

And then after breakfast in our quarters

everyone was talking, sharing, 
just normal,

hello, and daily talk before the gathering

it's too loud, again, too loud. And

instead of trying to correct it, which

may be a habit, you know we have contact,

attention, a feeling, perception, and then

a volition to do something about it.

A tendency to say, "Oh, could you turn

down the volume?" et cetera. No, I

decided I didn't want to do that,

I didn't want to add anything to anyone

else's mind, you know, their mental state.

We never know, when we speak, how

the words will be received.

So I was silent through all of this

too loud experience, So, I said to myself,

"I'm having an unpleasant feeling

now." I was overwhelmed with

unpleasant feelings, you know, strange,

but okay, unpleasant feeling.

And the next, most important

sentence I said to myself was,

"I'm going to transform this feeling

into a pleasant feeling. I'm going

to transform it." Because I remember

Thay said we can transform an unpleasant

feeling into a pleasant feeling

by mindful breathing.

So I sat down and

I just sat there, I relaxed, and

I practiced breathing in and out.

And I relaxed.

And it worked, it really worked.

So, that's how I handled that

unpleasant feeling that was continuing

and when I was able to relax,

calm myself, I was able to see clearly

why, why it came up. It had to do with my

physiology, my body, my nervous system

I did not have enough sleep,

and because of that I thought,

"Oh, a nice cup of green tea might

help me, early this morning."

So I had a cup of green tea, but

it was at the same time that my body

is producing cortisol. We know that

the body produces cortisol, which

activates the whole body, the adrenal

glands, it's a stress hormone, cortisol,

but it's necessary to get the body moving

in certain situations.

However, I drank the tea at the same time,

and green tea releases cortisol, also.

So I had a double dose of cortisol.

And cortisol will act on the adrenal 
glands

and secrete adrenaline, and it affects,

the double dose of adrenaline,

everything was too loud.

So now there are better times to drink

green tea, after the cortisol level

in the body goes down, if your
body is sensitive.

Maybe the young ones, it's fine, any time,

green tea, but, at a certain age, we know,

it's better to drink tea and coffee

after 9:30 in the morning. I'll give you

the times, scientists have found it

between 9:30 and 11:30, cortisol level

is lower, 1:30 to 5:30, okay?

time for coffee and tea.

This is research actually, they have done

research, and it was posted by someone

who has her web page is "I love coffee"

but she found the better time to drink

the coffee, during coffee break really,

and that's between 9:30 and 11:30.

But anyway, let us have a pause

and we'll listen to a sound of the bell

and it's after 9:30 so I can enjoy a

little taste of green tea.

(bell)

(bell)

On Sunday we had a wonderful dharma

talk that described the four noble truths

and the eight-fold noble path.

And I would like to review that

a little bit in terms of unpleasant

feelings, because unpleasant feelings

are not necessarily suffering.

It depends on the depth of the

unpleasant feeling or the strength of it.

It can simply be unpleasant feeling, okay

it will change.

Or it can be something that is with us

from childhood even, from our wounded

child, if we experienced a lot of 
suffering

as a child growing up with abuse or

unhappy family life, unhappy experience

in the home, so unpleasant feelings

have their history.

It could be caused just a few moments ago

or the roots can be much further back

in our lives. So I would like to have us

look at that again, the four noble truths,

in terms of pleasant feelings,

so that will be: I recognize the presence

of an unpleasant feeling. I recognize

that the unpleasant feeling has its source

its roots, in the past, in the three

domains that I mentioned: my

physiology, a physical event, my mind,

but we know there are some practices

we can do to transform unpleasant feelings

and with the practices we will restore

the pleasant feeling.

So we have the noble eight-fold path

which is right view, right thinking, right

speech, right action. For the feelings

we don't have to go through all of the

eight practices of the eight-fold path,

but one important thing to remember is

that when we have an unpleasant feeling

sometimes our thinking about the feeling

may make it worse.

Okay? we add commentary.

We may know the example of

the arrow, the Buddha gave this

example. An arrow is shot

and a man is hit by an arrow.

Of course he has pain, he has an

unpleasant feeling, physical
unpleasant feeling

But for the man to stop and say, "Wait,

don't take out the arrow yet,

I want to know who shot it,

where he came from, why did he do it."

No, this kind of additional thinking

is not necessary. Take out the arrow,

take care of the wound, okay?

So, with unpleasant feelings sometimes

we add a lot of thinking and

questioning when we first recognize

the unpleasant feeling, so we don't have

to do that. The Buddha said "If a second

arrow comes and hits the man in the same

place, the pain will be ten times,

a hundred times greater."

So our response to illness or bad news

is made much heavier by our added

thinking about it, our worries, our

anxiety, everything that we add just

to the event. There is an illness. Okay,

the illness is there, we'll take care
of it,

Take care of my diet, my exercise,

everything. So when there's an

unpleasant feeling, if we continue to

think about it, and he did this,

she did that, why'd it happen,

why didn't it happen, et cetera,

that won't help. It's like the second

arrow. So what we want to do is

simply practice with an unpleasant feeling

calm it, relax the unpleasant feeling.

So, let's have a look now at what I

mentioned. We'll have a look at the four

noble truths, just in terms of feelings,

not suffering as such, and then see that

we can restore pleasant feelings.

It's always a little bit of a challenge

dismounting from the podium, do I

stand up and walk down the stairs?

or do I just step down? I prefer

to just step down.

These orchids are beautiful,

they're really very lovely.

Every moment is a moment for

a pleasant feeling, even as I have the

unpleasant task of dismounting.

But it's been done, thank you.

Unpleasant feeling. So that's taking the

place of the presence of suffering, okay?

Cause of my unpleasant feeling, causes.

And that's causes of suffering, the

second noble truth.

Practices to do with unpleasant feeling,

what are the practices I can do when

I have an unpleasant feeling?

Practices to transform the

unpleasant feeling

We know one is stopping, just

stopping for a minute

taking a pause, stopping pause.

Come back to ourself with mindful

breathing.

If our whole body can be involved with

transforming the energy of an

unpleasant feeling, that sometimes

works better, at least for me.

So I enjoy walking, I enjoy walking

meditation or walking.

You can enjoy jogging, running, or

other body movement. Walking.

Looking deeply into the causes

to have clarity

Clarity, how this has come to be

and we know that causation, the

Buddha said, this is like this, because

that is like that. There's an

interdependent causing. Many events

come together to create an event or

something, it's interdependent

origination. Looking into the many

causes. We do not have to know the

causes to change the unpleasant feeling

into a pleasant feeling right away.

We don't have to know the causes right

away. We can relax, calm our mind,

and when the mind is calm, we will

see more clearly. We will have the

better conditions for understanding.

What we have learned that when

our mind is agitated, when we're

very worried, or upset, or angry

when there's a lot of mental

disruption so to speak, then the

understanding cannot manifest, it's

as if the waves on the ocean are too

big, there's too much happening, and

we simply cannot access the deeper

wisdom and understanding of why

this has happened.

So the calming of the mind makes

the water clear and we can see,

we can understand better. Okay,

so I'm listing some practices to

transform the unpleasant feeling.

Don't think about the situation, the

person, the event. Don't do the

thinking while changing the feeling, okay?

Don't think at that moment,

just breathe, just walk, just listen to

music. So I will add that, because music

is also a very wonderful healing element

that is available. It's not something the

monastics can do all the time, right

away, but we chant, that's also healing

the chanting, the singing.

For all of you who have other conditions

music can be very soothing and healing

an unpleasant feeling.

And I say this from my experience so

I'm not making it up.

So for me it's Mozart, Mozart piano

concerto. For you it may be others.

Or other kinds of music, so

many more practices to transform

unpleasant feeling.

Please be attentive now because

sometimes when we have an unpleasant
feeling

we want to consume, we want to drink

something, we want to eat something.

Thay says we go to the refrigerator, we

look, is there something that will help

me now feel better? So the fifth

mindfulness training will help us to

not consume when we have

unpleasant feelings. We do other

things. Talk to a friend, or go outside

be in touch with what is refreshing

and healing in the present moment.

So for an unpleasant feeling, to transform

it, the country where we do that is

the present moment. We don't

go to the past to transform our

unpleasant feeling. We stay here and now.

So present moment.

Bring yourself out of the past, out of

the shadows of the past, with

everything that contributes to your

unpleasant feeling now. Come back

to what is nourishing and healing

in the present moment.

Let's have a pause and to just bring

ourselves to the present moment now

with our mindful breathing.

(bell)

(bell)

When we're feeling better,

the unpleasant feeling is no longer there,

then we have the restoration of the

pleasant feeling.

So this in terms of the four noble truths

is "happiness is possible"

So I ask the forgiveness of the Buddha

for taking his four noble truths and

sort of making a re-addition, a little

bit of a renewal, but I felt it helped me

a lot when I was thinking about how to

present unpleasant feelings, with the

good news that they can be transformed

into pleasant feelings.

Sometimes we're in an environment

where there's a lot of unpleasant feelings

could be at work, or when we visit home,

some other places, you know, it

seems as if, that everyone, or almost

everyone, has unpleasant feelings, and

the atmosphere is quite heavy.

And in fact, burnout could be the non-stop

experiencing of unpleasant feelings.

We just don't know how to stop all

of that. The stress, the demands, we're

living in a high-octane culture.

meaning we need to have efficiency,

do many things at once, no mistake,

on time, high-octane living.

So for that to help with burnout or just

too many unpleasant feelings, in me

and around me, we need to make a pause

by recognizing and then saying,

"I'm going to take care of myself."

"I'm going to do the practices of

mindful breathing, body movements:

yoga, tai chi, chi gong, anything to help

move this energy that is unpleasant."

Pay careful attention to my diet, to

eat...they're recommending now more

plant and vegetable sources for a

healthy body. You'll know what you

will need to change.

We have a new year arriving,

we have a double, two new years,

we have a second chance (laughter)

at the new year resolution we made

24 days ago, and we're not doing so well

in keeping them, well we can revise

the list, and maybe make a shorter list,

two things, and then continue for the

rest of the year.

So I just have maybe a few more things

to share with you this morning, and

that is, I want to talk about how do

we create pleasant feelings.

So can I erase this?

or are you [inaudible]

I was very happy to discover that

pleasant feelings are very easy to create

in a practice center.

We have the practices of communication,

beginning anew, where we say kind things

to one another. we appreciate

others' presence in our life, and

say thank you for being here.

Thank you for your smile.

When I see you making the cup of tea,

I feel warm inside. So by using loving

speech, we create pleasant feelings in

ourself first, and in the other person.

We have gratitude. We have gratitude

to all of you, our guests, and this

is the truth. Without your presence,

Plum Village could not be. So we have

appreciation and gratitude to all of our

retreatants, our lay friends, and to our

monastic brothers and sisters for making

the retreats possible for you to come.

So pleasant feelings are easy to create
here

We also have the possibility of creating a

pleasant feeling after there's been an

unpleasant feeling. So we've done

something out of a mistake, we made

a mistake, or we just didn't know enough,

ignorance, and we see that, it created

some unpleasant feeling in someone, so

in our practice, we can go up and say

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the mistake

I made. I feel very bad about it."

So just being able to say that, can open

up the heart, can clear the slate, turn

a new page, by saying I'm sorry.

So it's good for relationships.

We can create pleasant feelings again

if we say we're sorry.

Sometimes that never happens. She

never said she was sorry. He never

said he was sorry. How can I forgive?

You know? So it's an important

step and it will create pleasant feelings

We have the be-in, and that's where we

all get together and we sing, we

share experiences, our happiness meeting

we call it.

Just being together creates

pleasant feelings

The five mindfulness trainings, or

our monastic precepts, actually

protect the happiness feelings.

They create pleasant feelings when we

practice the five mindfulness trainings

because we know each training begins

with aware of the suffering caused.

We could think "aware of the

unpleasant feeling caused by"

doing this, saying that

So there's sort of a contiuum from

unpleasant to suffering, okay?

Listening to Thay's dharma talks, the DVD,

pleasant feelings, I'm always very

grateful and I'm very nourished when

I hear Thay's dharma talks

pleasant feelings

All of Thay's, almost, a few hundred of

Thay's dharma talks are available on

YouTube, so you have a resource when you

go back, to listen and continue your

learning of mindfulness practice

from Thay

and that's a pleasant feeling, to hear

Thay's dharma talks.

So lazy day, is that a day when we have

pleasant feelings?

If you think the schedule is too much,

we get up too early, et cetera,

lazy day is when we don't have that

and it's a pleasant feeling.

Just having free time

time to do as you wish

to rest, to relax, to sleep more,

to do more sitting meditation

So Thay has said that our practice

should be enjoyable

we should not make ourselves suffer

our practice is not to give ourself

unpleasant feelings, it's not the purpose

of practicing.

It's to cultivate happiness, pleasant

feelings, understanding, love, peace,

well-being, compassion.

And this is possible with

our practice of mindfulness

So there are many resources for

creating pleasant feelings.

you can seek and find these resources

to our lay friends when you return

Find a sangha

find a group that practices mindfulness

it coudl be even your church, your
synagogue

your temple, but where you know that

the pleasant feelings are to be 
found there

or at least people who are practicing

with unpleasant feelings, suffering,

but who have the motivation and the wish

to transform them

there are just two more things I want

to share with you before we end

we have heard the four words: calm,

clarity, compassion, and courage

I'll write the on the board

these are wonderful qualities

that we develop as we continue

our practice

we'll take a minute or two to have a look

these are four of my favorite words

for practice: calm: I become more calm

with my mindfulness practice,

stopping, mindful breathing, eating 
calmly,

tasting the food, listening, nourishing

my happiness feelings

I can become calmer

I don't water the unpleasant feelings

I don't think unpleasant thoughts

I become more calm

When I'm more calm

I have more clarity

and that means I can see more clearly

I can see more clearly what I'm doing

I see more clearly what is my lifestyle

is it contributing to my pleasant feelings

I have clarity to understand others

to understand their deepest aspirations

to understand their difficulties

and I have more clarity to know what to

do and what not to do

so with calmness I'm able to just be calm

sometimes we don't have to do too much

but calmness is already enough

to give support

the deep listening, just being there

so clarity helps us know when we

should act and when we should stay

calm but present

clarity into the sources of happiness and

suffering

so when we go home we can make a list:

what are the sources of pleasant feelings

in my life now?

what are the sources of unpleasant feelings

in my life now?

and where do I experience them?

what percentage of the time

do I have pleasant feelings in each place?

each situation

what percentage of the time do I have

unpleasant feelings?

in which place

and in which situation

and with what people?

but we're not going to blame or judge, k?

we're just using bare attention

okay when I have this more clarity,

which is understanding,

naturally more compassion arises in me

I understand we all have needs, yes?

and sometimes there's suffering in another

person because their needs

are not being met

sometimes I suffer because

my needs are not being met

and what are our needs?

the basic needs are food,

shelter, clothing, for the monastics

in the Buddha's time they added

medicines, but the medicines were

plant-based, they didn't have

pharmaceuticals, but we're 
grateful for the

pharmaceuticals that are avaialble

for some illnesses, of course

food, shelter, clothing, medicine, love

we all need love

babies need to be held

we need to feel loved

and we also need to love others

we need love, and play

I think that's a need, amusement

we know on our lazy days when we

we have 10 lazy days, what do the

monastics do? some of them play

others will go to a room and

look inside and understand and do more

sitting, et cetera, but play,

for some people, is a healthy need

so, compassion, and that means

I want to relieve the suffering,

do everything I can to be present

for myself and others

with understanding and not judgement

not blaming

okay? then will lead to courage

is this the kind of courage where

I go out and start fighting?

No, it's not that.

It's the courage to continue

to go through the difficult moments, to

change my lifestyle if necessary

to change my way of eating, courage to

add more things into my life.

So it's the courage to look deeply

and then to carry on in a beautiful way

supported by the mindfulness trainings

and our daily practice of all the other

steps: calming, clarity,

understanding and compassion

then I have enough information to be

courageous. And sometimes the most

courageous thing is to stay and to 
continue

to not cause suffering. Continue the

relationship or if necessary

what needs to happen is that you

separate. No one has the perfect answer

or the right answer.

But we have the courage to try many

possibilities. New work, new lifestyle

new friends, we find new friends

in the practice center, we have new

friends in our sangha. Courage just to see

alright, let me try something.

Let us try something.

The courage to be in community.

That takes courage, to change a lifestyle

to live with others.

So we had some sharing this morning

and I'm going to be very courageous now

I didn't dare share this

but I'm going to be courageous

I'm going to share a favorite song

but I'm not going to sing it

because I can't sing it

but what is courageous is I'm going to

tell you to go online, (laughter)
and a dharma talk

should never tell people to go online,

you know, for monastics, we can't

do that often,

[] go online

and I'm gonna mention two singers

one is a Vietnamese, a very popular singer

who Thay appreciated very much

and he knew Thay and appreciated

Thay very much.

He was []

write his name on the board? okay.

[laughter]

okay, so I will write his name on the 
board

he wrote a song that we sing here

it's "Everyday I choose a happiness

to live by"

[]

that means everyday I choose a happiness

to live by.

That means everyday I choose to create a

pleasant feeling, yes?

And Thay has even selected one of his 
poems

or the lyric from one of his verses

and has used that to teach on the

eve of Tet.

He's a very important songwriter

in Vietnam

who I believe has passed away now

but a very important

Another important song that I

knew about many years ago in the

70s and it was called

"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone"

and it was written by Johnny Nash

but sung by Jimmy Cliff

we know him as the reggae

musician from Jamaica.

And it's a very beautiful song

it's a song that describes getting

through with a positive attitude,

experiencing unpleasant feelings

but getting through

so you can go online and hear it

and I listened and I thought

oh can I play it for everybody

but I didn't have the technology

and I don't think that would

be acceptable to play this

in a dharma talk.

but we have the option, and

the words are:

I can tell you the words, because

they're very beautiful

"I can see clearly now

the rain is gone": clarity

"I can see all obstacles in my way":

causes of unpleasant feelings

these were obstacles

"Gone are the dark clouds that made me
blind, I just didn't know":

Thay has said the rain, all of the tears

I have shed have become rain,

it's one of Thay's calligraphy.

All the tears I have shed

from sadness

from his experience in the war of course

have become rain

"Gone are those dark clouds.

It's gonna be a bright, bright, bright

sunshiney day."

It's gonna be better

"Oh yes, I can make it now.

The pain is gone.

All of the bad feelings have disappears."

well we know how to make those bad

feelings, unpleasant feelings, disappear.

"Here is the rainbow I've been waiting for

It's gonna be a bright, bright, bright

sunshiney day."

When we see a rainbow here it's an event

we all go outside and we're happy

we jump up and down.

Also in the summer when the hot air

balloons pass over slowly,

they have the rainbow colors

so we see the rainbow ballooons

and we're happy

okay. and then look straight ahead

look around you, there's nothing

but blue sky

And so the song has that

so it's gonna be a bright, bright,

sunny day.

A bright, sunny future for all of us

We stay with it and we continue

with our practice

and everything will be wonderful

There will be unpleasant feelings

certainly but we don't have to be a

victim of our unpleasant feelings

and that's the good news.

So I want to find a very wonderful

sentence from Thay as the final sharing

right now, and he has said,

first of all, there is a gatha Thay gave

us, a little poem, when we have

feelings we say, "Feelings

come and go, as clouds in a windy sky,

but mindful breathing is my anchor."

Mindful breathing will keep me in the safe

little cover away from the stormy waves

it's my anchor for peace and protection

when feelings arise like storm

we come back to ourself and do belly

breathing, calming our whole body,

breathe from our belly

So, Thay has said,

"A meditator is both an artist and

a warrior"

and that's courage.

"We'll need the creativity of an 
artist and the

courage to cut through what is

holding us back

from being happy or free."

And the first Zen teacher in

Vietnam and China was

Zen master Tang Hoy

and he said,

"Letting go is the action of heroes"

so we want to continue with our

mindfulness practice, let go

of the unpleasant feeling by

transforming them, don't hold on,

transforming them with mindful

breathing, mindful walking, and

then every day can be a sunshiney day,

or at least part of the day

can be sunshiney.

Thank you dear friends for listening

and let us hear three sounds of the bell

now to end our time together

and then there will be some announcements

bell

bell

bell