2019 09 22 LH EN Bodhicitta & protecting the Planet sr Chan Duc

Good morning, dear Sangha,

most respected Thay.

Dear Sangha,
today is the 22nd of September

in the year 2019, and we are in the

Assembly of Stars Meditation Hall,
in the Lower Hamlet,

on our day of mindfulness.

And we shall begin by listening
to three sounds of the bell.

You can enjoy the sound of the rain,

and the feeling of your breath
in your body.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The bell is invited.]

Dear Sangha, about 30 years ago,

we were having a picnic with Thay
in the Upper Hamlet.

And we were sitting where
there used to be a forest,

but now there is the monk's residence.

Well, not exactly a forest.

Green grass with some trees.

And it was a beautiful day.

And we put our hammocks between the trees

after we had the picnic.

And we lay down to have a siesta.

And then it started to rain very hard.

So we had to go back
to the nearest building for shelter.

And the nearest building was
the stone house, which had a veranda.

And we sat on the veranda.

And Thay said, "Chan Duc,
write a song about the rain."

I don't know,

The rain is falling
oo, so softly,

washing every leaf of every tree,

washing every care.

Namo 'valokiteshvaraya,

Namo 'valokiteshvaraya.

The rain is falling, oo so-o strongly,

reaching every root of every tree.

Reaching every root of affliction.

Namo 'valokiteshvaraya,

Namo 'valokiteshvaraya.

The rain is falling o-o so-o loudly,

playing the music of joy
for 10,000's of beings.

Namo 'valokiteshvaraya,

Namo 'valokiteshvaraya.

So, dear Sangha,

in this song we can see
that the climate outside of us

and the emotions and
mental formations inside of us

are not two separate things.

When we see the rain wash
the leaf of the tree,

we also feel that
our worry is washed away.

Because we are children of the Earth.

We are the Earth.

So whatever happens to the Earth,

it also happens to us.

And that is an insight that we've had
for a very long time.

We didn't have to wait for climate change
to have that insight.

But before climate change took place,

people had forgotten that
they were the Earth.

And therefore they didn't
take care of the Earth.

And at the same time,
they didn't take care of themselves.

But now we have that opportunity,

to see that we are the Earth.

And that means that every time
we take care of ourself,

we take care of the Earth.

And every time we take care of the Earth,

we take care of ourself.

And when I say "ourself", I really mean

"ourselves".

I really mean "ourselves",

because we are not separate
from each other.

If I take care of myself,
I'm taking care of you,

my fellow human being.

And I'm taking care of you,

animal species,

the plant species,
and the mineral species.

We are very lucky in a way
to be living in this time.

Because it's a time of urgency.

And it's a time
that forces us to look deeply

at our relationship with the Earth,

and our relationship with each other.

And if we did not have the threat
that we might not be here very long,

we might be lazy to make that effort.

That is one human characteristic,
is a little bit lazy.

And the Buddha said that we are fortunate
to be born human beings,

because if we are born a god,

then maybe everything is going our way,

and we feel very happy,
and everything is OK,

and so we don't really get
down to the practice.

But when we're a human being,

there is quite a bit of ...

things are not OK,

and quite a bit of suffering,

and so that is an impulse
for us to practice.

So today we have to talk
about the Bodhicitta.

Bodhicitta is sometimes translated
as the Mind of Love.

Sometimes translated
as the Mind of Awakening.

And we have the same word "bodhi"
in the word Bodhisattva.

And "citta" means our mind,

and "bodhi" means awakening.

It's the same root as the word for Buddha.

If you are Russian, then you know
that the word for "wake up"

is also from the same root, "Budta".

So we need to wake up.

Homo sapiens needs to wake up.

And become homo...

I can't remember the Latin word
for being awake.

Vigila, vigilatus or something, vigilatus?

We need to become "man awake"

rather than homo sapiens,

a name we gave to ourselves.

I don't know whether we gave it
to ourselves very correctly.

"Sapiens" means "wise",

but I don't know if we're always so wise.

But enough of this kind of wisdom,

we need to go forward
and become awake.

And we are lucky, because
we have the teachings of mindfulness.

And mindfulness is what keeps us awake,

makes us awake.

A bodhisattva means "a being
who is waking up,"

or "a being who is helping
other beings to wake up."

And now as a species
we have an opportunity

to practice waking up.

And every generation,

every era of the human species
has been here, on planet Earth,

there have been things
that we've needed to wake up to.

And now the thing
that we need to wake up to

is that we've done a lot of damage,

we're still doing a lot of damage
as a human species.

Geologists call our age the Anthropocene,

the age that is made by,

the geology is made by the humans.

It's not made by natural processes
in the Earth anymore.

If you take a look at the Earth,
you will find many chicken bones in it.

And those chicken bones, they come from
human beings eating too many chickens.

So as human beings,

we are making Mother Earth
what she is becoming.

And we are children of Mother Earth.

So we want to wake up.

And we want to wake up to the fact
that we inter-are.

We are interconnected
with everything on the Earth.

And what better opportunity

than when you are eating a meal.

Eating in mindfulness,

relating to the food that you are eating.

When I was young, when I was a teenager,

in my early twenties,

I suffered from something called
anorexia nervosa.

This meant that I didn't eat.

I didn't want to eat anything.

And it's very damaging for my body.

And it's also damaging for my mind.

And it planted seeds in my body
and my mind which harm myself.

And so I realize that at that time,

I was also harming my Mother Earth.

I was also harming
my genetic mother and father,

who had to worry a lot about me.

But at the time, I was not aware
of what I was doing.

I did not have the bodhicitta,
the mind that was awake.

I was not the waking up Bodhisattva.

It took me some time to realize
what I was doing.

And eating in mindfulness
is what can restore,

what restores my right relationship
with what I am eating.

So I am very grateful
for the practice of mindful eating.

And when I put something in my mouth.

I put a spoon of millet in my mouth.

I feel closely connected
to the whole universe.

I feel connected to the sun, to the stars,

and to the Earth under my feet,

and the atmosphere around me,

which contains the clouds and the rain.

And I feel all these things
are coming together to nourish me.

And my heart is filled with gratitude.

And I know that as a child of the Earth,

I am being nourished by the Earth.

And as I eat in mindfulness,

I am also aware
of where the food comes from.

And if the food that I am eating

is contributing
to global carbon footprint.

So I have to be aware of where,
how far away the food has come from.

what kind of transport the food used
to come to me.

And I still see that when I eat,

there is some carbon footprint
in what I eat.

But that does not take away
my joy of eating,

because although I want to minimize
the carbon footprint of what I eat,

at the same I know that the most important
thing is my relationship to Mother Earth,

to the atmosphere.

And when I feel that deep gratitude in me,

and that deep aspiration
to take care of the Earth,

as I take care of myself.

I know that I am doing the very best
that I can.

So we said that bodhicitta means,

literally it means the mind of awakening.

But Thay has translated this into English
as the mind of love.

As if awakening and love
are not two separate things.

And we know also that understanding
and love are not two separate things.

So when I sit and I eat a meal,

I am also aware of my brothers, my sisters

who are eating with me,
because they also are the Earth.

They also are children of the Earth.

And if I cannot understand them
and love them,

then I cannot understand
and love the Earth either.

So a meal time is not just being
grateful for the food,

feeling love for Mother Earth and
the universe that has produced the food,

but it's also feeling grateful to our
brothers and sisters who are with us,

and feeling love for our brothers
and sisters who are with us.

During the day, I keep alive

with my mindfulness

and with the use of the gathas,

my awareness of Mother Earth.

When I wash my hands, I wash my hands

that all may have hands blessed
to save this planet Earth.

And I know that when I wash my hands,

I want to be 100% there,

because I am in touch with the water,

and the water is such a precious gift

of the Earth and the sky.

And we know that sources of clean water

in the Earth are drying up.

The aquifers are drying up.

Those great underground rivers that
used to be there, are no longer there.

And so clean water is a precious,
precious gift.

And so I want to do my best
not to waste it.

Even though it's very difficult sometimes

to adjust the tap so that too much water
doesn't come out,

it is a joy for me to be able to adjust it

so that just the right amount of water
that I need comes out.

And I can catch that water in a bowl.

I don't have to let it keep flowing.

And then I can take the water
from the bowl and wash my face.

So these things are not an effort.

It doesn't take an effort to do that.

I do not have to force myself to do this.

Because I am the Earth,

and the Earth is me.

And when I take care of the Earth,

I take care of the water,

I am taking care of me.

And there are so many things
that we do during the day

which can keep us in our relationship,

our right relationship with the Earth

And of course, the most important one

is walking on the Earth,

On Friday,

some of us had an opportunity

to walk on the Earth, for maybe two hours.

And we really had to concentrate,
or at least, I did.

Because there was a lot of noise
going on around,

and if I wasn't careful,
I would lose my concentration.

So I had to use the gatha,
I used the gatha

"I am home, I have arrived,

in the here, in the now.

I am solid, I am free.

In the ultimate, the realm of
no birth and no death, I dwell."

And practice that solidly.

And the next morning when I woke up,
I was still practicing it.

Because two hours is quite a long time
to practise one gatha.

But this gatha is very important for us,

who are taking care of the earth.

First of all we see the earth as our home.

Secondly, we see that we have arrived
where we are.

This is a teaching of Plum Village,

the three times inter-are.

The past, the present and the future.

They're not three separate realities.

Some schools of Buddhism say,

the past, the present and the future
exist as separate realities.

Some say there's only the present moment.

Thay, in Plum Village, has taught us
that the three times inter-are.

So when I have arrived
in the present moment,

it doesn't mean to say
that the past is not there,

or the future is not there.

The best way I can take care of the future

is to take care of the present moment.

The present moment is what it is
because of the past moment.

So I have arrived is important.

It's important to keep myself
in the present moment,

in order to take care of the future.

That doesn't mean to say
that I close my eyes,

that I'm not awake to
what could happen in the future

The reason I know
what could happen in the future

is because I know what's happening
in the present.

Of course we care very much
about keeping to 1.5 degrees

and we know the ways we can do this,

we are aware of all that.

But we have to practise
to keep ourselves solid,

to keep ourselves free
in the present moment.

Otherwise we will burn out

and we'll not be able
to do the things we want to do

in order to get everyone to help,

to help the earth.

So when you become a monk or a nun,

it is said you become a monk or a nun
because of the Bodhicitta,

because of the mind of awakening,

because of the mind of love

which is there, for all of us,
in the store consciousness.

When you shave your head, the first time
and every time after,

you say a poem.

[speaking vietnamese]

Shedding my hair completely,

I make the great vow today

that all people
will transform their afflictions

and all species will go
to the other shore.

[speaks vietnamese]

for the world, yes.

And we can take the world
and all its species to the other shore.

That is a very strong vow.

When you vow deeply like that
on the day when you shave your head

you're realizing that you are
not separate from all species.

You're not separate from all human beings

and your suffering and their suffering
are not two separate things.

And so you come into the monastery

in order to be able to first of all
transform your own afflictions

and then you see that transforming
your own afflictions

is helping other people to do it.

You don't have to make an effort

to help other people
to transform their afflictions.

When you transform, they only
quite naturally will do that.

And that is the Bodhicitta.

The other gatha that you will read,

when you receive your robe:

How beautiful is the robe
of a monk or a nun,

it's a field of all good seeds.

I bow my head to receive it today,

and I vow to wear it life after life.

I used to think that.

Now I'm 70.
I don't think I'll live much longer.

So maybe I will avoid
all the climate change

But then I saw that is wrong feeling.
It is wrong view.

It is the view of nihilation
that I will cease to exist.

I won't have to go through climate change.

Yesterday I saw a poster, on Friday,
that said

You will die from old age,
but we will die from climate change.

That is written by a young person.

I used to think like that too.

But I don't think like that anymore.

I know that I will continue.

I know that I will be there.

In maybe a slightly different form
to go through climate change.

So I vow to wear my robe life after life.

Not just for this lifetime,

because I know that my practise
as a solid practitioner

will be needed in future lifetimes also.

So these two gathas, in a way,
they represent the Bodhicitta.

I remember when I was young,
I was a lay person,

I wanted to go and do something
to help the world.

And that is Bodhicitta.

We don't think about our own comfort.

We think about doing something
to really help.

I wanted there to be peace in the world.

I didn't want there to be
nuclear armaments

and that morning I got up.

I told myself I'm not going
to sleep in the house anymore.

I'm going to sleep outside.

So that night I slept outside,
and it was freezing.

The temperature was below zero.

But I slept in my sleeping bag,
it wasn't too bad.

And then in my sleeping bag
it was about freezing.

With my sleeping bag
and a pair of rubber boots,

I said, "I'm going to Greenham Common."

And then I felt so free,

I felt like a bird
that was let outside of its cage.

Then I walked and I walked,
until my feet couldn't walk anymore.

I felt that wonderful sense of freedom.

You have the whole world before you.

and you have your aspiration
to do something for the world,

because the world is not you.

The world is you.

You do something for the world,
you do it for yourself.

♪ Breathe and you know
that you are alive, ♪

♪ breathe and you know
that what is helping you ♪

♪ Breathe and you know
that you are the world ♪

♪ breathe and you know
that the flower is breathing too. ♪

♪ Breathe for yourself
and you breathe for the world ♪

♪ breathe in compassion
and breathe out joy. ♪

So that is...

One of the wrong views in Buddhism is,
I am the world and the world is me.

That wrong view is a little bit
in that song.

But when I say that I am the world,

I mean I inter-am with the world.

The world is not a separate self-entity.

I am not a separate self-entity.

Becoming a nun is a little bit like that,

is having a deep aspiration
to do something,

to do something for the world.

You just get up and you go
and you do that.

You don't worry too much
about your comfort.

Awareness of impermanence

is also an important contribution
to our Bodhicitta.

We all know that there are two kinds
of impermanence.

There's the kind of impermanence
that is happening at every second,

every instant.

You are not the same person
as when you came into this hall.

Cells have died in your body

and new cells have been born.

The feelings you had when you came in

are different from the feelings
you have now.

And your perceptions are different,
your mental formations are different.

Your consciousness is different.

So it's that instant impermanence,
happening at every instant is one kind,

and then there's the impermanence when
some major change happens in your life.

You are no longer a child,
you are a teenager.

You're no longer middle-aged, you're old.

Your death certificate is signed.

Those kind of things we call
'the cyclical impermanence'.

Maybe 65 million years ago,

when, we don't quite know why,

but maybe a meteorite
hit our dear mother earth,

then three quarters of the species
on earth went extinct,

and that was a cyclical impermanence.

And now we're also facing
a cyclical impermanence.

The end of the human species
may be the end of life on earth,

at least temporarily
the end of life on earth,

until earth recovers enough
to be able for life to come about again.

Because the sun will be there
for billions of years more

to support life on earth.

So even if we destroy everything now,

maybe a rebirth in the future.

So this cyclical impermanence,

this awareness of impermanence
is so important.

We have this gatha
which we use when we're angry.

Being angry I know I'm angry

in the historical dimension.

I close my eyes.

It's very important to close your eyes.

Don't look at the person
who's making you angry,

it'll only water the seed of anger in you.

I close my eyes and look deeply.

300 years from now, where will you be?

And where shall I be?

Then we remind ourselves
that I am impermanent,

I'm not going to be here much longer.

You're impermanent.
You're not going to be here much longer.

If we can remind ourselves of that,

all we want to do is take the other person
in our arms and say,

we're so grateful that you're still there.

When I was staying in Israel,
in Palestine, one time,

the people there that I was
staying with, told me:

"every day when my partner goes to work,

I don't know if I'll see him
or her in the evening.

And so, we relish each moment
of having breakfast together.

We hug each other before going to work,
we know that it may be the last time.

So it's a very deep hug.

When you hug somebody deeply,
and you breathe in and you breathe out,

you just follow your breathing,

and then you'll recognize how wonderful
this person is warm, this person is alive,

and you also recognize,
it won't always be like that.

I won't always be warm and alive,
nor will the other.

And when you recognize that,
you see how important this moment is.

This moment is
the most important momentof our life.

And you enjoy it deeply,
and you enjoy it fully.

and you may do as Blake did
and see eternity in an hour,

well not in an hour,
eternity in a second, in a minute.

So it's the same when I contemplate
on the impermanence of Mother Earth.

It makes me want to enjoy
every moment on mother Earth.

I want to enjoy
all the beauties of nature,

everything that's wonderful on the earth,
I want to enjoy it deeply,

because I don't know
how long it will be there for.

So in a way, I'm grateful
for that not-knowing.

I think the dinosaurs didn't know that
a meteorite was going to hit the planet

and they were going to become extinct.

So they didn't have the chance
to enjoy every moment.

We do have a bit of time,

we're in a bit of a different situation
from the dinosaurs,

which means we can enjoy every moment.

And enjoying our relationship
with the earth,

enjoying what's beautiful on the earth.

We don't have to make an effort
to conserve it.

We just do it out of love.

In Thay's book Love letters to the earth

Thay tells us he's in love with the earth.

Every time before Thay
goes outside for a walk,

Thay tells himself, "Oh,
I'm going to meet my loved one.

I'm going to see all these beautiful
and wonderful things."

And Thay said that
if we can have a relationship

of falling in love with the earth,

that's the best thing we can do
to take care of the earth.

If we don't have that relationship,

it's possible that we'll not be able
to take care of the earth.

Some of us really become burned out
trying to take care of the earth.

Some of us put a lot of pressure
on ourselves to do things,

to keep taking care of the earth.

But we forgot about ourselves,

we forgot to take care of ourselves.

We forgot we are a child of the earth.

So, just to be able to do nothing
is also a way of taking care of the earth.

To sit peacefully on the earth,
restore your self,

to rest and do nothing.

You may say you're not doing anything
to take care of the earth, but you are.

With every breath that restores you,
you are helping the earth.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

This morning, when we were practising
the guided meditation

before the Dharma talk,

when we got to the tongue
I thought we were going to be aware

of the taste of the rain on our tongue.

So I was practising that
in advance of it.

So when we talk about Bodhicitta,

we could talk about 'my' Bodhicitta,

but I think it might be not right
to talk about 'my' Bodhicitta.

Because Bodhicitta is
a seed in consciousness.

It's a seed
in the collective consciousness,

not just in my consciousness.

And it's been handed down
from my ancestors,

my mother, my father,

even though they may not have known it,
they also have the Bodhicitta.

So when you practise the meditation
on your mother and your father,

as five year old children,

you don't just see only that your mother
and father suffered

as five year old children,

although it's very important to see that,

so that you can give rise
to compassion for your mother and father,

but you also see that your parents,
as five year old children,

have the Bodhicitta,

have the mind of love,

and therefore they have
the capacity to transform their suffering,

and they've handed that capacity
on to you.

You look at the children,

you can see that intuitively they know
how to offer love to others.

Sometimes, in Christianity,

you say that you have to be a child
in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

Every day we want to walk on the earth
as if we're walking in the kingdom of God,

as if we're walking in the Pure Land.

I used to think the Earth
was not a perfect place.

There would be somewhere better,
there must be somewhere better.

Somewhere you can go to
when you die.

But then I recognized that...

everything I need is here on earth,

and when I die,
I just want to go back to the earth.

And if I'm not able to go back
to the earth when I'm alive,

it will be very difficult
to go back to the earth when I die.

So every day I want to practise
going back to the earth

and seeing the earth as paradise,
seeing the earth as the kingdom of God.

Because it's said that the pure land
is not something outside of you.

The pure land arises in our mind.

I feel very grateful to people
who take the risk of being arrested

by demonstrating,
by doing non-violent resistance.

I see that their Bodhicitta is strong.

But I also feel concern.

I think Mahatma Gandhi knew very well
how to take care of himself

and he could keep the mind of love alive.

If we have love in our heart,

if we have compassion in our heart,

it's what protects us most of all.

So even when we're being arrested,
we can feel compassion and love,

and that's important,

because if there's someone
who puts himself at risk of being arrested

because they want to do
something good for the world,

but they don't feel love in their heart,

they don't feel compassion,

then...

.. they're not doing the thing
that would be most helpful for the world.

One time, the Buddha taught
a very famous discourse.

It's called Kesaputtiya sutra,

and some people call it the Kalama sutra

The Buddha taught this sutra
to young people.

They were very confused
because Kesaputtiya is a town

that many, many religious teachers
liked to go to.

So the Kalama, young people,

had the chance to listen
to so many Dharma talks.

Maybe they had as many Dharma talks
as we do here.

But one thing about here is that mostly
we Dharma teachers agree with each other.

If every week we say the opposite
of what the person had said before,

then you would be in the same kind
of confusion as the Kalamas were.

So some people would come
and they would say,

"Whether you do a good thing
or a bad thing, that doesn't matter.

Because there's no such thing
as karmic retribution."

There's no karmic retribution.

Karmic retribution means
that you do something good,

you will have merits and
you will enjoy some kind of merit.

You do something bad and
you have demerit and you will suffer.

So that's what's meant
by Karmic retribution.

Then other teachers would come along
and they'd say,

if you do something bad,
then when you'll die, you'll go to hell.

If you do something good, when you'll die,
you'll be reborn as a god or a human.

So the Kalama were very confused
and said: "Oh, the Buddha is coming!

The Buddha is enlightened.
The Buddha can remove our confusion."

So when the Buddha came, they asked:

"So many teachers come and they all
tell us they're teaching the truth,

but their truths,
they contradict each other.

So we're very confused. Can you help?"

And the Buddha said:

"You're right to be confused,
it's very confusing. I understand that.

But before you believe something,
you have to experience it for yourself.

If you do something and you feel well,

and you see that others
around you feel well,

then you may know that that is beneficial.

If you do something and you
don't feel good, and others don't,

you know that that's not beneficial.

But that's not quite enough.

Because like I said, when I was young,
I had anorexia nervosa.

It's not good for me,
it's not good for other people.

But at that time, I wasn't aware.

So I needed some good, kind
spiritual friend to come along

and try to help me see the root of this,

and try and help me to transform it.

So in the sutra the Buddha also says,

"Is this something that
the wise ones would approve of?

Your good spiritual friends
would approve of?

That's also a question
you have to ask yourself.

And then the Buddha tells us,

tells the Kalamas,

You can develop the mind of love,
the Bodhicitta.

If your heart has no enmity in it,

you can be sure...

... that you have peace and joy
in the present moment.

WHEN THERE IS THE MIND OF LOVE

THERE IS HAPPINESS HERE AND NOW

and if there's such a thing as merit,

then there will be happiness
from that deed in the future.

The Buddha didn't want to say
that you will be happy in the future.

You will have merit and
that will make you happy in the future,

because if the Buddha taught like that,

it would mean there was a separate self,

there's a separate me
who's doing good now,

and that same separate me
will have happiness in the future.

And that's not the teaching of the Buddha.

It is the teaching of eternalism,
the opposite of annihilation.

So we know that when there's the mind
of love, there's happiness here and now.

If we understand
and have seen for ourselves

that the future inter-is with the present,

then we can say that basing
on this mind of love now,

there's mind of love in the future.

You don't have to say 'my' mind of love,

or bring 'me' happiness in the future.

So when we are allowing ourselves
to be arrested,

we are living outside,
like at Greenham, no tent,

is mind of love there,
or are we always fighting?

Are we always thinking about the enemy?

And seeing ourselves as separate from
the guards who are guarding the missiles,

as our enemy?

One time I was
in a local sangha somewhere,

I went to lead a retreat,

I said, "I was in Greenham Common,

in 1981 or something,"

and he said, "I was there too!"

but he said, "I was on the other side.

I was one of the soldiers
on the other side."

Then we both found ourselves
in the same sangha.

So we need to keep this mind of love alive

and if we feel that our mind of love
is no longer alive enough,

it's only understandable.

Sometimes a situation is so hard,

that it's difficult
to keep the mind of love alive

So there's nothing wrong with that,
it's natural.

But the important thing is to recognize,

'mind of love is not there
and I need to withdraw.

I need to do something different,'

rather than just resisting all the time,

non-violent resistance,

I have to do something like planting trees
which will nourish me more,

and help the mind of love to come back.

So sometimes I see,
this is a little bit a danger

forof people who, for decades,
are in some kind of resistance.

I'm very grateful to them,
but we have to remember the mind of love.

So that is the first reassurance.

We know that when there's the mind of love
there's peace and happiness here and now.

That peace and happiness is...

If we see that the three times interare,

we can see that it's also in the future.

So the second is,

WHEN THE THREE TIMES INTERARE,

THERE'S HAPPINESS IN THE FUTURE

[The third one:]

WHEN THERE IS ENMITY,

THERE IS SUFFERING HERE AND NOW

[The fourth one:]

SINCE THE THREE TIMES INTERARE,

THERE'S SUFFERING IN THE FUTURE

But the Buddha said,

"You don't have to believe
that the three times interare.

It's something
that you have to experience,

not something you believe.

So if you don't experience that,
and you say,

you can forget about the future,

all the same, you can know that
these are the most important things,

the number one and the number three.

But don't think that
suffering is something bad.

Don't think that we need
to get rid of suffering.

We talk about the Bodhicitta,

and in the Buddhist teachings of the Mahayana

it says clearly that the afflictions,
the klesha, the suffering IS the Bodhi.

The klesha,

the awakening IS the affliction.

IS the suffering.

So it means that the enmity that you feel,

it can be the ground for the Bodhi,
for the awakening,

because in Buddhism we don't want
to make two camps.

We don't want to make a camp
of the good and a camp of the evil.

Thay used to say that.

In the past, Thay said:

"Do not make man your enemy.

Your enemy is greed, hatred,
confusion,

but one day Thay said
he didn't want to say that anymore.

Greed, hatred and confusion
are no longer your enemy.

They are the mud
out of which the lotus can bloom.

But we have enough mud already,

so we don't want to make any more.

We have enough suffering
for us to give rise to awakening,

we don't need to make any more.

So we want to try and avoid
making more suffering, if we can.

We just want to use the suffering
that's already there,

in order to help us to wake up,
to be awake.

I don't know if you can think of a name

for the species that we want to become.

Thay suggested
that we talk about Homo Conscious,

the aware man.

If we can talk about interbeing,
the interbeing man,

I think it will be nice.

In Budhism we have
the Vajracchedikā sutra,

the diamond that cuts through illusion.

In that sutra it talks about
four kinds of wrong perception

which are very linked to the awakening
that we need to have now,

and the first wrong perception is
that I am a separate self.

The second wrong perception is,

the human species is separate
from the other species.

The third wrong perception is
that the living species,

those of us who can move around,

are separate from the non-living species.

The animals are different from the plants
and the minerals, are separate.

And the last wrong perception is
that we have a life-span.

Our life is limited,

we have a birthday and a deathday,

and we only live between our birthday
and our deathday.

You only need to go into the forest

and look at the leaves under your feet

and you'll know there's no such thing as

'birth separate from death'.

Everything is in a wonderful
cycle of transformation.

The leaf doesn't go anywhere
when it falls from the tree.

It goes back to the earth,

it becomes the nourishment
for the young leaf that's born on the tree.

And actually while the leaf
was on the tree,

it was already nourishing the tree.

So the leaf was going into the tree
while it was alive,

and when that leaf is on the ground,
it also goes into the tree.

So the leaf has no beginning and no end.

If we can see ourselves as leaves,

nourishing the earth
while we are alive on the earth,

and going back to the earth
when we have our death certificate,

in order to nourish new life on the earth,

then we have no more fear.

As someone who has no more fear,

we are really able to be useful
and beneficial to the world.

So, part of the Bodhicitta
is that deep desire that we all have

to realize the truth of no birth
and no death

that can take us beyond fear.

That is not just something
for a monk or a nun to do,

that's something that all of us,
the fourfold sangha,

need to have the time to do.

Because as a monk or a nun we can be busy.

We can have many projects,

things we want to do to help the world,

they may sound very good but we're busy,

we don't have the time to come back
to ourselves and stop, and look deeply.

A lay-person is the same,
you can be very busy going to work,

bringing up your family, you don't have
the time to stop and look deeply

into the matter of no birth and no death.

But a monk or a nun,
a lay-man or a lay-woman,

we can give ourselves,
we can organize our life,

so that we have time
to look deeply into impermanence,

To look deeply into impermanence
doesn't mean to be caught in impermanence,

because impermanence can become
a view that you are caught in.

Then you think that impermanence
is something bad.

But in fact, impermanence doesn't
mean there isn't a continuation.

Things change their form
into a different form,

and there's always continuation.

The rain we listen to now
is the continuation of the cloud.

In Buddhism, in China,

they used to say
there's two kinds of awakening.

There's the sudden enlightenment,
and there's the gradual enlightenment.

I don't understand
the Plum Village teachings in that way.

We can have little enlightenments
every day that come to us

when we practise mindful walking
and mindful breathing.

We can become enlightened
a little bit every day.

We don't have to wait
for a sudden enlightenment,

and we don't have to think that at the end
of a long, gradual enlightenment

we'll become enlightened.

Because the Bodhi, the enlightenment,
is present in each of us,

with our own practise
of dwelling in the present moment

mindfulness of walking,
mindfulness of breathing,

that enlightenment is always inside
and can always come up.

With mindfulness and concentration
that can always be inside.

So we shouldn't miss
the opportunity of guided meditation,

walking meditation,

That is our aspiration,

always to remain fresh,
not to grow tired of the practise,

not to find the practise boring.

That feeling of boredom, of being tired
of the practise, come from our own mind.

We need to open our mind a little bit more

in order to be able
to give ourselves the opportunity

to use the Dharma door
such as being given to us,

in order to help us have insight,

that insight will bring us encouragement,

and help us to continue
a long time on the path.

Of course we can always
renew our practise.

we can always have new ideas
about how to practise

We need to be creative in our practise.

If you use a knife,

cutting carrots every day,
it will get blunt after a while.

Then you need to sharpen it again.

If you just keep using the blunt knife

that's like just keeping the outer form,

but you don't have the content anymore.

As long as the practise has the content

and it's not the outer form,

it will always nourish you
and nourish others as well.

So dear friends, thank you for listening.

We now hear three sounds of the bell.

[the bell is awoken]

[the bell is invited]

[the bell is invited]

[the bell is invited]