How to control very strong energy?

Thay answers questions on 21 June 2014. Question 5

(Half-Bell)

(Bell)

Dear Thay, dear Sangha

I have a question:

Sometimes deep down in my soul,

I feel crazy, really powerful energies.

That's something I can't really control.

It feels like...something
really deep inside...

so shiny, so deep, so strong.

And I haven't been able at all
to control these energies in my life.

And it takes me in places and situations
where I cannot control anything.

Really extreme.

Because that energy is so strong.
Sometimes I feel a victim of that energy.

For example, if I want to know
something about the world,

I go travelling, and I let
that energy guide me

and I arrive at some places where there is
war or pretty extreme things.

And I'm not ready to accept that,
but I have my answer.

My energy gives me that answer.

I know it's complicated (laughs).

And now I want to be with the theme
of my own powerful energy that I have.

I wish that my soul...
I want to be one...

I want to direct that energy
in one precise point.

I feel so small to do that,
because the energy is so huge.

I feel like that energy
is all reversed in me.

And I don't know how to direct it
as a human being in society,

to a big, clear point,
like doing something...

something really concrete.

I try to do mindfulness during that,
and try to breathe deeply

and let things come.

But I want to know if Thay
has some advice about that.

I hope I am clear (laughs).
Thank you.

Can you repeat?

Sum up?

Our friend says that
she has some very deep

and very powerful energy inside her

and sometimes she feels that

she is at the mercy of this energy.

It makes her do this and that

and sometimes maybe not
in the best direction for her.

And she wants to have more mastery
of the energy.

She wants to be able to have
a more conscious choice about the direction

and to focus the energies
to do something concrete and positive.

And she's trying to practice
mindfulness and breathing with it

but she still feels that she is
not quite able to master the energies.

That energy can be very strong

and maybe our mindfulness

is not powerful enough

and we want to control...

But the practice of Plum Village is

not to control.

Because if you want to control,

you are suppressing somehow

what you want to control

Mindfulness is only
to recognize it as it is,

without trying to control.

First of all, we use mindfulness

of breathing and walking

to recognize that,

to say hello to it.

Do not try to control,

to suppress.

And we should know that that energy

may have been transmitted by our father,

our mother, or our ancestors.

That is what we have received also from

our ancestors and from our society also.

So we want to understand

the source of that energy,

where it came from.

So we are interested in recognising

and understanding it rather than

to control it.

And that energy may be a habit energy,

a habit that has been formed during

many generations,

longer than the period
from our birth until now.

That habit, that pattern of thinking

of talking, of acting may have been there

very long already.

So, we have inherited it from our parents

and our ancestors.

What we have to do is to recognize and

accept it as it is

And if we know how to accept them
as they are,

we feel better right away,

Do not be eager to control.

To recognize, that is called
simple recognition.

Breathing in, I recognise it.

And when you recognise it as it is,

it cannot push you to do things

you do not want to do anymore.

You don't have to remove it.

You don't have to control it.

You don't have to suppress it.

The fact that you recognize it as a habit

can already bring you a lot of freedom.

Twenty years ago
there was a young American

practitioner in the Upper Hamlet.

One day he was asked by the brothers to go

shopping for the community.

We were celebrating Thanksgiving.

Groups of people belonging to different

nationalities were supposed
to cook a dish,

to offer to the altar of ancestors.

The group of Americans wanted to

make Pumpkin Pie which is something

very American.

And the group of Italians would cook an

Italian dish.

And we will place the offerings on the

altar of the ancestors.

During the ceremony we get in touch

with our ancestors inside of us.

So the young man was sent by the Sangha to

the town nearby to do some shopping.

Afterwards he told us that

when he went to Saint Foy La Grande

doing shopping, suddenly
he saw that he was

trying to do the shopping quickly

in order to finish,

eager to do it quickly and to

finish what he was supposed to do.

But during the few weeks before

he did not have that kind of feeling,

because he was staying at the Upper Hamlet

and was embraced by
the collective energy of the brothers.

doing everything slowly, mindfully

and enjoying it.

So during these two weeks
he was doing very well,

walking, sitting, cooking,

with the brothers in the Upper Hamlet.

He was able to do it
slowly, with mindfulness.

Everything went well.

But when he was sent
to Sainte Foy La Grande,

he was on his own.

He was not guided and embraced,

supported by the collective
energy of mindfulness

That is why he lost himself

The old habit energy came back and pushed

him to do the shopping quickly to

get it over

And suddenly he remembered that,
he recognized that,

that energy of being in a hurry

and he suddenly realised that,

that's the way his mother used to be.

She was always like that.

So the moment when he breathed in and

recognized the habit energy, he said:

"Hello Mother"

"I know you are there, with your habit"

Suddenly he became calm again

and he continued to do the shopping

mindfully and joyfully again.

So it means that that habit energy

once recognized, cannot push you anymore

to do what you don't want to do,

to say what you don't want to say.

Because many of us are
victims of that kind of habit

There are things we don't want to say

There are things we don't want to do.

We know that saying that, doing that

will bring suffering to us and to

the other person.

We know that very well.

We don't want to say or do that.

But when the situation comes,

the habit energy pushes us to do it or
say it.

And after we have done it

after we have said it,

we regret it.

We beat our chest, pull our hair and say:

"I already knew that
I should not do that,"

"I should not say that,
but why did I do it, did I say it?"

So I promise myself that next time when

this situation presents itself,

I will not do like that,

I will not speak like that

and you are very sincere..

And yet when the situation comes

you'll do exactly the same,

again, again and again.

That is the habit energy.

The practice of Plum Village is to use

mindful breathing, mindful walking

to recognize that energy.

Don't try to control it.

Don't try to destroy it.

Just smile to it and say:

"Hello there!"

"My old friend, I know you are there".

"You cannot push me to do it anymore".

"You cannot push me to say it anymore".

So simple recognition brings you freedom

and if you continue like that

your habit energy will transform

slowly, slowly.

If there are good energies,
good habit energies,

we can help them to grow.

And if in our lives we have a purpose,

if we have a good volition, a desire,

to transform ourselves
and to help people

to suffer less,

if we know exactly what we want to do,

then we nourish that kind of willingness.

And if we keep that intention alive,

we remind ourselves
of that intention everyday

and then the other kind of energies can be

used to nourish this kind of intention.

That is a kind of nourishment,

a kind of nutriment, called volition,

good intention.

So a person with
a good intention to...create

a good energy for himself, or herself and

for the world,

she will be able to make use of

every kind of energy in him or in her

in order to serve that purpose

So the answer has two aspects:

the first one is to recognise

and the second one is to channel it into

the direction we want it to serve.

(Half-Bell)

(Bell)