Sitting, Resting, and Not Worrying | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

Sitting also can be very enjoyable.

Sitting and doing nothing,

just enjoying the sitting

and enjoying your breathing

and feeling you are alive.

The president of South Africa,

Mr. Nelson Mandela,

visited France some time ago,

and when the press asked him
what he would like to do the most,

he said, "What I want to do the most
is just to sit down and do nothing."

"Since the time I was released
from prison," he said,

"I have not had the chance
to sit down and to do nothing."

For him, sitting down and
doing nothing is great.

He could not afford to do it.

Among the monks who are there today,
there is a very young monk of 17 years old.

He came from South Africa,

and I told him to enjoy
sitting for his president.

So sitting meditation is not
to become someone else,

something else,

it's not a struggle.

You just enjoy your sitting.

Sit and become aware

that you are there alive.

To be alive is already a miracle.

And if you can touch the fact that
you are there alive,

that is already Enlightenment.

because many people around us,

they live their daily life,
but they are not truly alive.

They always run.

They are not capable of
dwelling in the present moment

and touch the wonders of life that
are available in the here and the now.

When you sit with a cushion
or on a chair,

allow yourself to be comfortable.

You may like to choose the
kind of cushion that fits you,

but...

it will be very pleasant if you
can sit upright.

and our head is
on the same line with our back.

Don't sit like this,
sit like this.

Don't do like this.

And when you sit like that,

allow all the muscles
in your body to relax.

Give up the struggle.

Smile.

When you smile, you help many hundreds
of muscles on your face to release,

to relax.

And you allow the muscles
on your shoulders to relax.

You don't even have to
bring your hands up like this.

You can allow them
to rest like this.

Sitting is an art.

The art of resting first.

It's very important that we
learn how to rest.

Many of us have lost
our capacity of resting.

We know that our body has
the power of healing itself.

But we just don't give it
a chance to heal,

we work our bodies too hard,

we don't know how to allow
our body to rest.

By eating, by drinking,

by walking

we make our body suffer.

We do not allow our body to rest.

If only we know how to
allow our body to rest,

our body would know how to heal itself.

Remember when you
got a cut on your finger,

you didn't have to do anything,

you just clean the wound.

You are not worried,

because you know that

the cut will heal by itself alone.

Your body has the capacity of healing,

you trust your body.

This is very important,
we have to trust our body.

To trust in the power
of our body to heal itself,

and we should learn how to
allow our body to rest.

The animals in the forest, when they
get wounded, deeply wounded

they know what to do.

They find a place, a quiet place,
and they lie down.

Many days, not thinking about eating

or anything else.

There is a wisdom in that,

because they know that resting

is the only way by which
they can heal themselves.

And we humans, we have lost that wisdom.

We are overworried,

we don't have the trust
in our own body,

and therefore to learn how to
allow our body to rest is very important.

Many of us understand this in principle,

and yet we do not have the methods
in order to allow our body to rest,

including the method of not eating.

Not eating, fasting,
is a very wonderful practice.

But we are afraid that if we don't eat,

our body will not get the energy it needs.

It is exactly that kind of worry
that is responsible for the situation.

There are many things we can learn
in order to allow our body to rest.

In order for it to heal itself.

The same thing is true with our spirit.

If...There may be a zone of pain in our body.

There are also zones of pain
in our spirit, in our consciousness.

And our consciousness, it has
the power of healing itself also.

But we don't allow it to heal.

Every day we bring in to it
a lot of toxins,

a lot of worries,

a lot of anxieties.

We force it to do so much,

We don't know how to allow
our consciouness, our spirit, to rest.

Because it seems that we have lost
our confidence, our trust, in our spirit.

Our spirit, our soul, it has
the power of healing itself.

If only we know how to allow it to rest.

To worry too much
has become a habit energy in us.

In the beginning,
we did not worry too much,

but we have learned to worry,

and with time, the energy of worry,

the habit energy of worry
has become too strong,

and that energy called worry is preventing
the healing of our body and of our spirit.

Therefore, we have to learn how
to recognize that habit energy in us

in order not to let us
overwhelm us and to

to stand in the way of the healing.

We have the habit energy of running.

We do not seem to believe that happiness
is possible in the here and the now.

Therefore, we have the tendency to
run ahead looking for happiness.

Conditions of our own happiness
do not seem to be there, to be enough,

we believe like that.

That is why

we are always on the running.

And that makes it impossible for us
to enjoy what is there in the present moment.

The habit of running within is
responsible for our restlessness.

Rushing, becoming breathless
is a very important energy

negative energy in many of us,

we have to recognize them.

We know that if we become restless,

peace cannot be possible,
and happiness cannot be possible either.

Therefore, how to embrace
the energy of restlessness,

how to stop the running is very important.

And buddhist meditation can help us
dealing with these matters.

Every time the energy of running,
the habit energy of running is pushing us,

every time we feel that energy of restlessness is in us,
we should know how to deal with them,

how to recognize them,
how to embrace them,

how to smile to them, how to help them.

The Buddha said it is possible
to live happily in the present moment.

That teaching of the Buddha does not seem
to be very well known to people.

"Drsta dharma sukha vihara"
is the sanskrit expression.

Drsta dharma means the present moment,
the here and the now.

Sukha means happy.
Sukha vihara, living happily

And the Buddha also said that even if
you have pain and sorrow within yourself

still it is possible for you to
live happily in the present moment.

Many of us believe that unless we take
the block of pain and sorrow out of us

happiness will not be possible.

But the Buddha is
saying something different.

Suppose we throw into the river a rock.

The rock will sink into the river.

But if we have a boat, we can carry
hundreds of punds of rocks

and yet we don't sink
into the river of suffering.

Therefore, it's very important
to secure a boat.

And that boat can be seen
as the energy of mindfulness

that we can generate within us.

The energy of mindfulness is something

we cultivate by the
practice of buddhist meditation

And the secret of the practice

is just to learn how to live
each moment of your daily life mindfully.

When you drink your water,
drink it mindfully.

And by drinking your water mindfully,
you generate the energy of mindfulness

called mindfulness of drinking.

You have the capacity of
drinking your water mindfully,

there is no doubt about that.

Anyone would have the capacity
of drinking mindfully his or her water.

The only thing is
whether you want to do it,

you want to train yourself
in the art of drinking.

Everyone has the capacity
of walking mindfully.

You make one step with your left foot,

you are aware that
you are making one step.

That is called mindfulness of walking.

And all of us have
the capacity of walking mindfully,

but if we are determined
to train ourselves

in the art of mindful walking,
we'll be able to stop running

and to go back to the here and the now.

In a practice center,
people train themselves

to do everything mindfully,

breathing mindfully, eating mindfully,

walking mindfully.

Speaking mindfully,
drinking mindfully

drinking mindfully, eating mindfully,
walking mindfully.

That is the training.

If we continue to
train ourselves like that,

the seed of mindfulness in us
will grow every day

and it will be very easy
to touch that seed

in order to invite the energy
of mindfulness to come up and to guide us,

to support us.

And then around us,
there are people who practice the same.

My dharma brother, my dharma sister,
everyone are doing the same

because you practice

the same kind of teaching.

And everyone generates
the energy of mindfulness.

A practitioner always needs the support

the nourishment of his or her sangha.

Sangha means the community
of brothers and sisters

who practice with you.

So if you are sorrounded by a sangha

where members practice mindfulness

and if you can generate
the energy of mindfulness by yourself

then you have the two elements
of the boat that you need

the two components
of the boat that you need.

And sticking to your mindfulness practice

and sticking to your sangha

you never sink
into the river of suffering.