Part Four: Selective Watering Process | Dr. Larry Ward

Larry here again.

Session four.

We're going to be
deciding for ourselves,

taking a moment to make choices
of where to place our attention, wisely,

on the voices and communications and messages
we have been receiving or we are receiving now.

This is the selective watering process.

Which seeds, which wholesome seeds,

which wholesome influences
do we want to empower in our mind's space,

in our bodies,
with their energy and vibrations?

Which voices will uplift us

to higher levels and deeper levels
in our practice of compassion and wisdom?

I was thinking the other day of a— a funny—
not funny but strange commercial,

er, I've seen more than once,

but it's— it was a question
people get asked sometimes:

if you were on an island,
who would you want there?

And I think
that's the question of this session.

Erm, we know we have a practice
in the Plum Village tradition

called, er, going back to my island,
returning to my island of self,

and Thầy has also always encouraged us,
and— and led us in the meditation,

of constructing our island.

What do we want on our island?

What resources?

What visions do we want to be living with
on our island of self?

And in this sense,
what we're looking at here is

what energies or people do we want
to surround us as an inner sangha?

Not simply as acquaintances
or friends or mentors,

though all of that is good and wonderful,

but this is going deeper in making a choice
to bring intentionality to your inner sangha.

And so you may have, or may not have,
discovered your inner sangha is distant from you.

You may have discovered
it is hard to recognize it,

er, hard or difficult to name it.

It's important to remember
the naming of it is not about judgement,

it's about description,
and— and if you have a description, er,

like my uncle Jake, er,
was a hard worker whenever I remember him.

He worked construction
building roads and things

and whenever I used to have to do physical things,
which I did a lot of around the world in villages,

uncle Jake every now and then
would come up while I was digging a latrine.

And— and, er, he worked hard
and so I did not feel weird working hard.

I felt that I was
keeping with what I had learned,

er, about being present in the world,
in a helpful way.

And so that's just the—
a family message,

er, that I found helpful
and inspiring many times, and so...

who are your advisors?

If you were going to have a
care-taking council for your inner community,

who would be on that council?

Er, or another image is,
er, the round table,

er, if you were going to
have a round table

where you could have question and answers,
er, without blame, without judgement,

erm, who would be ar— who would you want
around the table, right now,

based on what's
actually happening in your life,

and the questions that are rising up
for you as a practitioner?

Whose presence, whose thinking,
whose language, and whose behavior

would be nourishing for you
to be in the presence of inside sangha within?

Of course, as well as outside sangha,

but you're with yourself all the time

and so it really matters, er,
who you're in dialog with

as your thinking is shaped and reshaped,

as your speech is shaped and reshaped,

and as your behavior is shaped and reshaped,

and I know there's
a lot of words in this process we're doing

and, erm, there's a lot of words,

but we are all intelligent enough to know
as practitioners, words are pointing to energy.

They are not a special thing
in and of themselves,

except they are helpful,
or can be helpful.

So, every now and then, hold a Q and A
with your, er, and see what comes up.

You may be surprised at
the ideas and the questions that arise,

that you still have,
that may have been unconscious,

may have been buried in your store house,

er, because of your pain
or your suffering or your busyness,

and so to be able to look
one's self in the mirror this way,

with love and respect
and tenderness and skillfulness,

can aid us in our deepening of the path
and the practice of the four right efforts,

which is another way to describe
what this series is about:

right diligence, how to take care.

One of the things Thầy said
over the last several years is:

what does it mean
to take good care of your sangha,

what does it mean
to take good care of your continuation,

and a part of your continuation,
my continuations, is inside of us.

The hermit in the well
that was there for Thầy is in me, in you.

The School for Social Service in Vietnam,

where our brothers and sisters
were assassinated is in us.

Precious memories of love
and compassion and wisdom in action.

One more thing about the internal sangha,
I've learned myself, experienced over 40 years,

the quality of my internal sangha
influences the quality of my external sangha.

When my internal sangha
is not happy (laughs),

it's difficult for me
to bring happiness to my external sangha.

When my internal sangha
is not calm, peaceful,

it's difficult for me
to bring that energy,

the high energy of that peacefulness
to my sangha, to my—

whoever I am in a relationship with
on a daily basis,

my family, my partner,
my community, my children, my parents,

whoever I might be in close proximity to.

So the practices here are not just,
uh, for, uh, an isolated experience,

but for a daily practice of acknowledgement

and, no, who, who should you
communicate that you're thankful for,

who do you need to write a note to,
or send a card, or make a phone call,

expressing gratitude
for their support of your inner life?

Who is that who nourishes your seeds
of joy and happiness and courage and diligence?

Let them know that.

Let them know that.

And some of our,

some of my, influential sangha members
are— are not alive at this moment.

Some have never been alive,
some are fiction,

but, uh, I will admit that
Don Quixote is on my internal sangha.

The message of marching in to hell
for a heavenly cause resonates in my heart.

So find for yourself what resonates
from the messages in your heart,

and remember, I know you do this,

but remember to protect
your boundaries, guard your senses.

Don't dwell on every message
you receive from the outside world.

Learn to protect yourself,

instantly recognizing this message,
the energy of this message,

is not helpful, healthy, and wise for me.

And the more you can learn your body and mind's
response to the internal community

the more you can recognize
what is helpful and what is not helpful

in the external messages you receive

because you're in touch with
your body's sensations of energy, and joy.

So this is not an internal community
to have a meeting with,

erm, you know no one
likes meetings that I know of, externally,

so why would you like an internal meeting?

So it can't be a meeting format.

If you want a dialogue
you can do one on one, you can call in a trio.

I often call in five,

the panchayat structure in villages in India,
has five members, er, and members can change.

Sometimes I need to have
my grandmother sitting there,

sometimes I don't, erm, and that's fine.

But you should know who is always there.

I know Thầy is always there for me.

I know Joseph Matthews is always there for me.

And— and be able to savor that connection,

er, respect that connection,

honor that connection
because that nourishes you.

The last thing I would say is,

in the Christian tradition
there's a song about Jesus,

there are many,

but one I want to point to now
is the power of this practice,

the song he walks with me,
and talks with me, and tells me I am his own.

That's who you're looking for
for a member of your inner sangha.

Thầy is that for me.

And the blessedness of having the sangha,
the noble community within, is priceless.

Thank you.

(Bell sounds)