(Half bell)
(Bell)
Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
my name is Jenna and I am here with my daughter and her baby,
my grandbaby for this retreat.
And I am a new grandmother.
And what has happened for me is something that I've never expected,
which is my heart has got me even bigger and filled with so much love
for this little baby girl and this little baby boy.
I feel very very deeply
and I feel a very big responsibility, a sacred responsibility for --
a future to be possible for them.
So, I try to do what I have learnt, which is to breathe and enjoy the beauty
and the joy of these babies in this life and in this world.
But even reading your book recently, 'Love Letters to Mother Earth'
and I am an activist, so the research that I have done about what is predicted
for life on this planet is very painful for me to live with.
And part of that is because I feel quite alone
and as I move through life, I look around and I wonder
if other people are feeling and thinking the same things as I am
because it feels very confusing to me
that more people are not talking about the positive things we can do.
And so, I do take the actions that I need to
and I am helping preserve tigers and the wild.
And the good news is there are more coming back.
Maybe they won't go extinct in the wild.
And where I live in the Pacific Northwest, there are changes happening politically
around prevention of coal coming into the area to go to Asia to be burned.
But I don't feel like there are a lot of places where I can talk about this.
I don't want to be angry about it, I want to talk from my heart about it.
I want to talk without a ruse about how to make positive changes that we can.
And what I am wondering is how we can do that in the Sangha
because it seems even some reservations that perhaps talking about this thing
is too political or too social and I feel alone in my suffering around this.
Thank you.
(Sr.) Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
our friend is here on the retreat with her daughter and her grandbaby.
And she is a very happy grandmother of two young babies
and her heart has gotten bigger as a grandmother.
But she is very worried for the future for her grandchildren.
She is an activist, she has been reading Thay's recent book
'Love Letters to Mother Earth', and she has done her own research and
she knows that the prognosis does not look good for the future for her grandchildren.
She is doing her best to cherish them in the present moment and to cherish life.
But she has this fear for them coming up and she feels alone in this.
She feels isolated, she does not want to be angry,
she would like to speak and act out of love
but she doesn't know how or where and in what way to do that.
She is active in protecting wild tigers and other projects
and she knows that in this way, she can make an impact.
Within her own Sangha, she also sometimes feels that there is not enough space
to talk about these issues or to work on these issues together
because they are seen perhaps is political or social.
And so, the essence of her question is this, how to go forward. Thank you.
Sangha building is a very important work.
Sangha means harmonious community
and the main task of the Sangha is not to organize events
even events of practice of the practice.
The main purpose of the Sangha is to build brotherhood and sisterhood, harmony.
That is why,the practice of deep listening and loving speech is so important.
We should be able to communicate with each other easily.
We share our views, we can come easily to agreement, collective insight.
And you feel that sitting in the Sangha, you feel nourished, you feel stronger
and that is the real Sangha building, not organize.
And with Sangha like that, everything is possible.
Because you feel nourished, you don't lose your hope and we have sensible time
even a Buddha cannot do much without the Sangha.
Sangha building,you need a lot of patience and patience is a mark of true love.
In Plum Village, we spend a lot of time and energy building a Sangha.
We have enough time to sit together, to eat together, to drink together,
to walk together, exchange views and so on.
Because we know, that if we do not have enough harmony
and happiness in our Sangha,
it could not mean anything to organize a retreat
for other people to come and have practice.
The Buddha spent a lot of time building his Sangha
and he was a perfect Sangha builder.
It is not easy to build a Sangha and the Buddha felt the same.
But with compassion and patience,
he was able to build a beautiful Sangha.
When the Buddha was 80, he met King Prasenajit for the last time,
the King was also 80,
And the king saw the Buddha was travelling and enjoying and he imitated the Buddha
and also left the politics to his son to enjoy visiting the country
and one day, by chance they met, in the northern part of the country
and on that occasion, King Prasenajit praised the Buddha and he said:
"Dear teacher, everytime I see the Sangha,
I appreciate you much more.
As I contemplate the Sangha moving, sitting, doing Dharma works,
I see your real insight, your real value,
and today, I would like to bow to you because you have such a beautiful Sangha.
In this trip, I remembered, once I went to a place with two carpenters,
and they were your disciples,
and that night we were sleeping in the same room.
They turned their head to the direction they believed you were
and they turned their feet towards me.
They fear you more than they fear the King,
so I know that you are loved daily
by members of your Sangha, foremost Sangha.
And today I would like to tell you that the Sangha is a jewel
and with the Sangha, you can accomplish much in the world.
So King Prasenajit as well as the Buddha recognized that the Sangha building
is the most important thing to do.
With the happy Sangha, many people can come and take refuge
and benefit from the collective energy of peace and happiness
and compassion and mindfulness.
With the Sangha like that, you can nourish your grandchildren.
That is the safest place for your children to be.
If children are nourished and raised in such an environment,
they will become instruments of peace and we have to believe in our children.
Our children have Buddha nature in them.
And what we can do today is not to worry
but to focus our efforts in watering the seeds of love, compassion,
talent in them and we should believe in our children,
investing and transmitting the best we have to our children
and not to worry about future.
Taking good care, the best care of the present moment
is about everything you can do for the future
so instead of spending energy to worry about future,
invest all your energies into the present and
nourish our children and grandchildren with the energy of hope,
compassion and insight.
(Half bell)
(Bell)