Dear respected Thay, dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, today is the 26th
of November 2017 we are in the Stillwater meditation hall of the Upper
Hamlet, Plum village and we'll continue with the theme the seven factors
of awakening, of enlightenment. I'm always really fascinated by this theme
enlightenment because I I feel that there's more than what I can hear and
what I can perceive and what I know and I remember going through times in my
life when I had this burning desire to know to understand because I feel
there's a curtain that prevent me from seeing what's actually there
and this feeling this desire was so strong with my mom passed away I really
wanted to know where is she now, which direction is she going into. And I felt
if I could just you know draw away the curtain I can't really see and yet it felt
really impossible for me to draw that curtain so that I can actually see so then
I can really understand
and in my life as a practitioner I felt a lot of time that I am wearing tinted
glasses to look at reality. I have an idea of reality, I have an idea, a
perception of myself and of other people and I can't really you know like really
put down that glasses so that I can see reality as it is and I can see other
people as who they are and not just ideas and perceptions and prejudices
that I have so a burning desire in me to really experience enlightenment. To really
have a taste of it because I know once I'm able to experience enlightenment
then I can see what my flesh eye cannot see, I can understand what my mind cannot
perceive. And so I always talk about enlightenment.
I always touch on it every time I give a talk. And one time one of the
younger brothers came up to me after my talk about enlightenment and he said:
"Sister you were very brave to talk about enlightenment!" and I knew that wasn't a
compliment.
And I asked "what do you mean?" and he said: "the brothers, well some of the
brothers, are very allergic to the word enlightenment". And I thought what's with
you brothers I mean maybe that's why you have a lot of difficulties maybe because
you don't set high enough goal for your for your practice and that's when I
realize that maybe people do have negative idea negative connotation to
the world enlightenment and so the theme of the talks this winter is about
enlightenment how can we experience enlightenment here and now what
practices can we do to become enlightened
and so instead of using the word enlightenment I learned to use the word
awakening I think it makes more sense to me because it's like we've been sleeping
all along for a million years with our eyes closed even when we are awake we
live in a dream even when we are awake and then artists under our eyes opened
and seen so it's a beautiful image for me the word of wakening really provokes
them image of waking up to what's there. And so so let me write down the Seven
Factors of Awakening. Last week sr Jina had already talked about mindfulness
So the Seven Factors of Awaking, it starts with mindfulness.
The second one is investigation of phenomenas, or dharmas.
The third one is diligent or energy.
The fourth is joy, the fifth is tranquility, sixth is concentration and the seventh equanimity
so today I will talk about investigation so as you have already learned that there
are the 3 important practices, three essential practices, we call them the
three trainings or the three learnings. It's mindfulness concentration and
insight. These are three precious gems in our heart. And mindfulness simply means
to know what's happening here now.
Mindfulness is a light inside ourselves
that once it's lit up we can see we can see not just with our eyes but we can see
with our mind what's happening in our body what's happening did our mind and
also what's happening around us. And like sister Jina said if only you take up this
practice the mindfulness practice as she has shared last week it's already
enough for you to become enlightened. Because once you are embodied
with mindfulness you you radiate with light and that you see you can see so
much more and when you are mindful it means that you're there you're present
for whatever it is that you're looking at
and when you stay with it long enough you see see very deeply and that's
mindfulness concentration and insight and that feeling it's coming from a very
deep place inside it's like a gut feeling experience and once you have
that insight you know this is it it's like aha
is that a high experience and it helps you to understand and it liberates you
from whatever it is that you still get stuck in or tell you have not understood
so that's mindfulness concentration and insight in brief but when you look at
the seven factors of awakening we don't really see insight
there's concentration there's mindfulness but there's no insight
and insight is very important the element that liberates it's not there
I can see in your faces that you have the answer already
that's because investigation of dharma's which means to look deeply, to search to be
curious, helps us to understand. So investigation leads to insight.
So in investigation, if we practice it then there's understanding, there's insight.
So insight is actually there. But of course if we practice mindfulness you can also
find insight to mindfulness. If you practice concentration you can also find
insight in concentration. Because this three things. mindfulness concentration and
insight, they go together. Each is giving birth to the other they are connected.
And so how do we practice investigation? How do we practice looking deeply?
This is a question that came up all the time in my practice for myself, but also
questions that came up for my younger brothers and sisters about how to
practice looking deeply. How to practice the factor of awakening
investigation?
Is it speculation? Is it analyzing?
Is it thinking over and over and over about something?
well I'll share this morning how I practice investigation because since
understanding is so important for me that it's something that I've dwelled on
a lot like I said the biggest suffering for me is not understand not knowing
like seeing things through this window and not being able
to get out of this window to see the whole picture because when I look at
this window this reality it's
just a tiny teeny picture of the whole picture a tiny bit like one little
jigsaw, jigsaw piece of a jigsaw puzzle and only if I get out of this room
outside of this window that I can see the whole picture. So let us look into
the sutras to see what the Buddha say about Investigation how to practice
investigation to see whether it's really speculation and analysis analyzing us as
we learned that you know in school just speculate things using our intellect to
analyse things using our intellect
so let's begin with the sutra on mindful breathing we all know the
practices of the sutra on mindful breathing and it always begins whatever
it is that we're looking at whether we're looking at our body or a feeling
or a mind or our perception which is really the objects of mind we always
begin with breathing so breathing in I'm aware of my breathing my body breathing
out I'm aware of my body we start with breathing in I'm aware of my breathing
pretty now I'm aware of my breathing and so whether we look into the body or
whether we are looking into our feeling or whether we look into impermanence or
the idea of non-self we always have to dwell on the breath which means we're to
be present which means no thinking you have to stay present for
the breathing with our body with our breath when we look deeply into
something and it makes so much sense because when we look deeply why are not
using a breath while we're not mindful or present what happened is that we can
easily get caught up in our thoughts stories we have you know head ideas you
have about you know whatever it is that we're looking at and before we know it
we're miles away from where we are from the present moment and so we can go in
there with the intention good intention of wanting to look deeply into something
and the next thing we knew, it's like we're wasting our time thinking about one
thing to the next. Does that happen in you? It happens to all of us because
we're not really present and so the breath helps us to stay afloat
so that we're not submerged in the sea of thinking so that's the first thing
that we learn for the future he said the breath is so instrumental
and happiness to be able to look deeply into something
so let's breathe with the sound of the Bell and just stay pressing with a
breath we notice it coming in coming out we notice the beginning of the breath
and the end of the breath
so the breathing helps us to be really quiet in our mind so that was consumed
and then there's another sutra that I really like, and I always, it's like my my
daily practice, is the sutra, the discourse on the four foundations of
mindfulness which helps me to see one how to practice looking deeply
and again this discourse, this sutra, shows us how to practice
mindfulness in our body in our feeling in our mind and in the object of mind
and what would I really like about this sutra is that so we don't have to do
much we don't have to do anything that we simply acknowledge what's there
we acknowledge its presence the presence of a feeling or of a mind state such as
anger or love and we acknowledge that it's there and if it's not there which
is acknowledged oh it's not there anymore my mind there is no hate in my
mind there's no love in my mind that's all there there is to it
it's a practice of recognition which is there and in what some in other world
which is we should be present and be aware of so what habits happening in the
body in the mind in the feeling and in whatever it is that looked me looking at
there's no there's no judgement to it there's no, you know, association
associating this this mental state with stories that we have or with experiences
we had in the past simply just real recognition of what's there so what this
day is about looking deeply for me is that apart from being really present and
mindful of my breath I also need to keep myself really quiet
no thinking in Zen no mind they call it no mind it's in mine
which means you're thinking stuff in mind and how is that possible
you may think how is it possible that there's no thinking I mean we think all
the time sometimes we're so drained without thinking and we can't stop it
this ceaseless thinking that's when the practice of mindfulness becomes really
helpful to quiet down our mind you know being aware of the breath being aware of
the body being aware of our steps and
that's why when we practice mindfulness we are already practicing looking deeply
and I'm reading a book by master Linji our patriarch and you know he used this
really radical methods to help us cut off our thinking and to come in touch
with our own Buddha nature and I really enjoyed it because for me looking deeply
it's about cutting off our thinking some speculation is not about internal
intellectual speculation or analyzing it's not about sitting there and think
and think and think even if you're just thinking about yourself or impermanence
because the more you think the more you become confused the more we think we are
only coming in touch with our ideas and perceptions and preconceived ideas and
notions and we can't really experience reality as it is we can't really see
beyond this curtain
and so this comes to mind the practice of stopping arriving and looking deeply
stopping and looking deeply these are two aspects of meditation we stop
running in our head come back to the present moment
and then receive we look deeply and the metaphor that I really like is the
metaphor of a pond it's the image of a pond a pond on on a windy day or a rainy
day when you look into a pond you see lots of web ripples and waves you see
fragments of what's there you actually don't see anything but on my still and
clear day like today he looked into a pond and the water is so still and so
calm it reflects the blue sky it reflects the white cloud affects the
tree in the water it's as if they're like mirror image of one another
imagine the pond and also what's out there and and it's a metaphor for the
mind because our mind is it's like that whenever we have a lot of thinking and
thoughts and ideas in our head the sec out it's full of ripples and
waves I can't see much within the dark actually when we are just filled with so
much thoughts, ceaseless thoughts.
But when we are able to come back to our breath come back to our body come
back to our steps the pond of our mind becomes so still and so clear that we
see so deeply into it we see causes and conditions why we are
the way we are why we feel the way we do why we think the way we think and that
scene is not coming from a pure it's coming because our mind is clear
and master Linji said you are already a Buddha you don't need to look for the
Buddha outside of yourself and sometimes the shouts at you if you come to him
with a lot of ideas and thinking to help you cut up while you're thinking in you
know come in touch with your own Buddha nature with the baby Buddha inside
yourself so I'd like to talk about mice actually this place that we can look for
the Buddha inside ourselves since we're talking about you know quiet in our mind
in order to see where's that scene coming from Weston do you know where
exactly that insight is coming from
so we know about the store consciousness right maybe some of you may not heard a
bit before so I'm just gonna say briefly about it this is your mind and in the
depths of our being there our consciousness our mind there's different
layers and our tradition we say about eight layers in our mind so the deepest
of these eight layers is called the store consciousness
in the store consciousness it stores all kinds of seeds and heats a real
potentials potentials that were capable of the whole spectrum of seeds the whole
spectrum of potentials from the most positive to the most negative in other
word we have the seed of a Buddha inside ourselves the seed of insight in us also
but we also have the seed of ignorance
which is the seed of not seeing not knowing not understanding
and then we always have a see just tomorrow
inside ourselves Mara is there in in us too in other word everything that we're
looking for everything we have ever experienced can be found right inside
ourselves in the depths of our being in the store consciousness it preserves all
kinds of seeds it maintains all the seeds in here and then there are the six
some there the six organs sense organs there's we have the six sense organs the
eyes the ears the nose the tongue the body and the mind
These are the six organs, and when these six organs come in touch with its object
which is sight sound taste touch
smell or objects of mind these two things come together it gives rise to an
awareness to a consciousness so there's the eye consciousness the
ear-consciousness the nose consciousness tongue consciousness and body
consciousness and then the mind consciousness
and so whatever it is that we come in in touch with through our senses actually
it's a trigger that taps into the seeds in the depths of us store consciousness
it's a stimulus the trigger sit inside and the seed manifest as a mental
formation as a state of mind that we can actually experience in our body in our
mind we can actually sense it view it touch it and so
whatever seeds that have been watered in us becomes a significant it becomes
significant in other word it it affects the quality of our being and that but we
think that the object is coming from outside of ourselves and it goes in and
taps into our seeds and then you know like this mental formation manifest it's
not like that I mean that's an image to help us to understand how store
consciousness really works but the store consciousness it's the subject of
knowing but it's it's at the same time the object of knowing these two things
go together they manifest together but what we feel or what we experience in
what we see are manifesting together so the subject and the object of cognition
manifests at the same time it is not something we're taking they are already
there in a form of seeds and so when they manifest the manifests as the
subject and as the object
and
and this helps me it helps me to see that I don't really need to go out there
and look at things that it investigate on things out there all I need to do is
go back to here in order to investigate what's inside of me because what is
manifesting in me because what's manifesting in me as actually what's
manifesting out there is actually a projection of what's manifesting in me
exactly and so for me the object of my investigation is here it's here and
that's why when you come to plum village like all our practices it's encouraging
you to come back to yourself the bells happiness to come back and mr.
Ling Zhi keeps saying come back and recognize that the Buddha is inside you
don't need to look for the Buddha outside of you and so it becomes really
clear for me that the object of my investigation is myself and it makes so
much sense because when I understand myself then I can understand other
people
when I understand my impermanence the impermanence of my body and mind then I
can understand the impermanence of everything there is and what I really
like about this is that I don't really have to you know look for I don't have
to go out there and to practice that I have everything I need to practice
mindfulness to practice looking deeply
so go back because you have everything you need to help you to understand
reality
and
and suffering the experience in our life suffering difficulties the challenges we
go through they actually really really useful there was to stop and look and in
my life has in my practice I noticed that I went through times when I am
quite slacking I may be you know appearing you know in the sunglass
activity but I'm actually really slacking in a silent because things are
so easy to know I feel peaceful if you're calm and I take it for granted it
is only the challenges the suffering that I experience that really pushes me
to like look look a bit deeper and so actually it's it's good news to have
suffering and when you look at it in that way suffering is narrative and it's
actually really good they're opportunities we always see suffering
when we experience suffering that we see yourself as being a victim and that
really weakens us but when we see that suffering and difficulties are
opportunities to have a scope a bit deeper in ourselves to understand then
they're like really really valuable opportunities that's why suffering is
it's a no achieve right it's noble because it helps us to come in touch
with reality with who we really are
and we're more than just these difficulties with the Buddha we're not
just Mara we're the Buddha too and so these
opportunities the suffering helps us to come in touch with the Buddha inside
ourselves and bring in her a life
and I'll share with you about how I prepared the Dharma talk because I
always a problem preparing for Dhamma talk I really don't know how to prepare
a Dharma talk I noticed my sister's coming up with like a lot of paper and
stuff like that and I'm like wow that's great
I wish I could do that and I try to think nothing comes to mind that's my
problem and so what I did this time was that I know this is a really important
topic but you know because you know it's it's enlightenment
and so I asked my older sister can you please pretty please give me
some questions what is it that you want me to talk about what do you want in you
what do you want to know about the investigation
give me some questions and then I also told my mentee to give me some questions
and I told them a week before and so they gave me all these questions and
when I dealt with this question with them I didn't trust this question in my
store consciousness I said okay take over I'm not gonna think because I
cannot think and so that's I did and then I kept really quiet to know in my
daily activity I do my best to be mindful and to be really conscious of
what's unfolding inside and then but you know like this idea comes up even when I
least expected like what I should say and how I said what not how I should say
it because I never know how I should say it whatever comes comes it's coming in
touch with everyone that trigger whatever it is that it come out and
and I and this is what I do in my daily life is that I have to trust my store
consciousness and when we are keeping our self really quiet really mindful to
reflect on what's there this is exactly what we're doing we're and Trust in the
store consciousness with these issues for it to work for us and it's actually
less costly because that's the nature of store consciousness is that it works
night and day even when we are asleep maybe when I am asleep you know like
these questions it's working in the depths of my store consciousness to
prepare the Dharma talk for me
it's very costly when we have to think
because our brain with only 2% of the whole total total body mass and it
consumes 25% of the energy of our whole body but if we are like having this
episode of like ceaseless thinking that will stop even when we are completely
exhausted even when we have like a terrible headache and we couldn't stop
thinking anybody if experienced that before a few of you well that happened
to me so I know I've been there and so it drains you and yet you're still in
the dark because the more you think the more in the dark you are but if you
entrust these issues to your store consciousness like I have interested
these questions in their store consciousness store consciousness what
would we do its work and they will provide us with the answer
and that answer is inside so inside this now coming from our head inside is
coming for the depths of our being so trusting in my store consciousness helps
me not to be so tired and also dreamed
so the practice is not about getting more the practice is about cleaner in
clearing away because we already have woven whatever it is that we're looking
for we already have inside inside ourselves
it's about clearing away these ideas and thoughts and perceptions and thinking
that means that this but the space is in room this inside - and for
so one in the inevitable question that came from my sisters is how do they give
an example or how do I practice looking deeply to walk through my suffering
you know I've been up here many times before in the last day was in more than
two years you know that before that time is always appear and we have the
pleasure to sit in down there and listen you know being up here it's kind of I
feel like it's I feel transparent up here because it's beyond me what
actually comes out and sometimes my sister said it's a good talk or sometime
it's not a very good talk and I said I'm sorry
whatever comes out you just have to accept because I can't do anything about
it it's my store consciousness I blame it on my store consciousness and but
this time I have to admit I'm a bit nervous to come up here
how to breathe with that feeling and I heard this voice underneath that feeling
of nervousness the voice that I'm not good enough it's a voice familiar I'm
not good enough and this voice it's really a very oh oh friend of mine
a voice that was there when I was a child and especially when I was a
teenager and I had to work a lot with that voice that I'm not good enough I'm
not good enough every day - no I'm not intelligent
enough I'm not beautiful enough I'm not enough of this and I'm not enough of
that and I had to work a lot with with that
when I begun when I began my my my life my practice and what I realized was then
that voice was actually connected to I don't know if it's connected but it has
to do with my dad I never talked about my dad in the community I talked a lot
about my mom but never about my dad
that's because I don't know what it's like to have a dad that's because my dad
passed away we know it's one and a half years old and I grew up filthy feeling
there's something wrong with me that I'm not complete but I'm not good enough
not good enough and that as a teenager as a child I felt like there's a hole
inside here even though my mom was a very loving caring she was never
remarried so that she cannot she can really put all her energy and her love
for for us and now it's the internal process that was happening inside
excessive there's a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle inside me and it created a
lot of suffering for me and in my my practice whenever I experienced
suffering it's always coming back to that suffering as a child as a teenager
and that voice have always been there and I have to walk along with it
and so and so when I knew this is where it was coming from I had promised to
accept myself as sure I was and I practiced to see my father in myself to
see my dad in myself and I started to notice things in my siblings that are
also email he may not be very strong in my mom I know that's my dad so with the
practice I was able to fill up that hole in the practice of understanding myself
the practice of accepting and loving myself as Who I am but then once in a
blue it comes up again you know his voice it comes up again but the practice
of looking deeply had helped me now to recognize it immediately once it comes
up so that it doesn't have the charge and the power to overwhelm me as it had
you know as a teenager
and so whatever it is that we have to work with whatever voice it is that's
keep telling us about ourselves it's actually a wrong perception of myself if
we look deeper into ourselves we see that we're more than just this voice and
that actually helped to fill up that hole in our soul it makes us feel
complete so whatever it is that you're experiencing to be the object of your
investigation and that's why we need to start
and so investigation really as a factor self listening to ourselves listening to
this voice inside and I realized that we don't do this very often when we are
when we have like a quiet time quite place with ourselves we see that there's
so much thoughts thinking and ideas but if we can just listen to those thoughts
and ideas you know like it's very soft voice inside it's like there's just like
a chattering box in the back of our head you can actually understand ourselves a
lot and a lot and a lot and it could be really healing to be able to understand
to be able to listen to love ways it helps us to understand ourselves and why
we are the way we are why is the further way we do what we when we get triggered
the way we do so awakening or enlightenment it's not something
something beyond us and they're not just ideas either you know whatever ideas
that that brother had about enlightenment it's not about that either
it's about our daily experience of living mindfully and of being still
enough inside ourselves that we could see deeply into ourselves
and we're coming a bit closer to the reality of who really are that we
can come a bit closer to the reality of who that person really is and what it is
that were looking at so enlightenment is possible and it's simple to do it simple
to experiencing and it starts at is breath mindful breath mindful steps
there's this you know some people say that Thai only teaches breathing in and
breathing out but if you can really practice breathing
in breathing out deeply you can experience enlightenment awakening right
here right now so thank you for, thank you for embarking on this journey with
all us here in Plum Village, a journey to wake up, to become enlightened and that
with every step you make and every breath we take we experience enlightenment
thank you for listening