bell sound
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
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)
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)
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