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(The Plum Village Online Monastery)
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(Mindful online broadcasts like this)
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(are supported by viewers like you.)
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(Donate at: http:// pvom.org)
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(Thank you for your generosity.)
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(The Plum Village Online Monastery)
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(Thay) Please come closer.
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(Thay) Today, we have a session
of questions and answers.
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Those who have a question
are invited to come and sit here.
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We will take turns to sit on this chair,
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so that everyone can see us
before we ask the question.
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We know that a question, a good one,
can benefit many people.
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Therefore, it would be more helpful
to ask a question
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that has to do with the practice,
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to do with transformation and healing.
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You may like to write down your question
on a piece of paper also,
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if you don't want to come up here.
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But looking from here is so beautiful!
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(Laughter)
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So those of us
who already have a question,
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please come up and sit around here,
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and we will take turns
to sit on the chair.
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The practice, according to the tradition:
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Before we ask a question,
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we breathe in and out three times
with the sound of the bell,
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and everyone is breathing with us.
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Then, we take the microphone
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and we ask the question.
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And we know that a good question
does not have to be very long.
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(Laughter)
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A question is not a statement.
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So please,
those of us who have a question already,
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come and sit close to Thay
and we will take turns.
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And if you have written a question,
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ask someone to bring it here
to Brother Mountain,
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who is sitting to the left of Thay.
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From time to time,
he will read from one of these questions.
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This is your opportunity, please come.
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(Thay laughing)
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Let us listen to the bell and breathe
before you ask the first question.
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(Half Bell)
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(Bell)
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(Bell again)
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(Bell again)
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Hi,
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My question is:
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How do we do
when we go back to our real home?
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This retreat has been really nice
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But when we go to our real home?
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What recommendations can you give us
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to bring at home and be
every second of our lives?
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(Br. Mountain) Thay, the...
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(Thay) Please speak in the microphone.
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(Br. Mountain) If I understand correctly,
the question is:
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"How to bring this practice
into your daily life?"
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Yes?
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(Repeats question in Spanish)
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We just do it!
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(Laughter)
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Suppose when you turn on the water tap
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and you see the water flowing,
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you pay attention to the water.
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You tell yourself that it's wonderful,
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that the water has come to you,
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to your kitchen, to your bathroom,
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from high up in the mountains,
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from deep in the earth,
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and you feel grateful, you feel happy,
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because the water is there for you.
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That is how to apply
the teaching of mindfulness
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in our daily life.
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When you brush your teeth,
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you may like to focus your attention
on brushing your teeth,
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not thinking!
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Because you have the water,
the toothpaste, the brush,
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and you still have teeth to brush!
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(Laughter)
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I am over 80 and every time
I brush my teeth,
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I always say:
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"It's wonderful at this age
to still have some teeth to brush!"
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(Laughter)
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And happiness can come right away.
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And when you cook your breakfast,
do it mindfully.
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Pouring the water into the kettle,
boiling the water,
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every moment can be a moment of joy.
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Laying the table, preparing your tea,
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everything you do
can be the practice of mindfulness
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and can bring you joy, happiness.
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You are fully present
in the here and the now!
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When you drive your car,
you can drive it mindfully,
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and enjoy every minute of driving.
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When you walk
from the parking lot to your school,
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you do the same.
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So just do it!
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And you have verses to memorize
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in order to brush your teeth, to sit down,
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to open your window.
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Every daily act can be accompanied
by our breathing,
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our recitation of the verse.
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It's very convenient,
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because people who have come before us,
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they have prepared the practice for us.
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And walking in a railway station,
walking at the airport,
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you can always enjoy walking meditation.
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You do not have to set up a separate time
to do meditation.
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But one thing can be said:
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If you have a home to yourself,
in your home town,
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you can create a group of practitioners,
practicing together.
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Every weekend you come together,
to enjoy walking together,
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sitting together, having tea together,
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sharing the practice together.
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That would be wonderful,
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because that community will help you
to continue the practice for a long time.
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Otherwise you will be carried away
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and you'll abandon the practice
after few weeks.
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Good luck!
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(Laughter)
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(Inaudible)
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(Half Bell)
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(Bell)
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( Spanish) My question
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is about the subconscious,
the store, the seeds,
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how mindfulness can help
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to stop the wrong consumption,
the toxins,
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because our being is
from the subconscious
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to consciousness.
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True consciousness.
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(Br. Mountain) There is too much echo,
so I can't really understand.
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(Br. Mountain) Can you repeat
the question?
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(Translating what Br. Mountain just said
into Spanish for the lady)
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(Spanish )Yes, my question is...
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(Br. Mountain) How can mindfulness help...
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(Thay) You have to translate
into English later.
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(Brother) Yes.
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(Spanish)... how mindfulness helps
to bring out the subconscious, the mind,
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to stop the toxic seeds
that are in the store consciousness.
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To know how to identify them.
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How mindfulness can
not only plant the seeds,
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but stop the seeds
that have already been planted.
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To be more aware
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of what is already inside.
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(Brother) The essence
of the question is:
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How can mindfulness help transform
the toxic seeds
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or the seeds of suffering
that are in the store consciousness?
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Mindfulness can recognize...
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the manifestation of a seed.
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In fact, to be mindful is to
be aware of what is going on.
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So from the depth of our consciousness,
called the store consciousness,
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there are many seeds,
good ones and negatives ones.
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And every time a good seed comes up
to the level of the mind
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and you recognize it
as a good mental formation,
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like joy, brotherhood, sisterhood,
forgiveness, and so on.
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So mindfulness recognizes
the good mental formation
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that has manifested.
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Mindfulness can help to keep it longer
for your nourishment and healing.
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You continue to breathe or walk
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and maintain the energy of love,
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or happiness, or joy,
or brotherhood, alive
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as long as you want.
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That is what you do when a good seed
like love, forgiveness or joy, manifests.
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But when negative seed in you
begins to manifest:
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fear, anger, sorrow, hate, violence.
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Then mindfulness helps you
to recognize it:
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"Hello! Good morning my fear,
I know you are there,"
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"I will take good care of you!"
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So, the first thing mindfulness does
is to recognize what is there.
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"Good morning my anger,
I know you are there,"
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"I will take good care of you!"
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And you breathe in and out mindfully,
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and continue to generate
the energy of mindfulness,
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with which you embrace
your fear, your anger.
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You are protected
by the energy of mindfulness,
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because your fear, your anger,
will not push you
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to do or say things
that will cause damage
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to you and to the other person.
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So mindfulness protects you,
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if you know how to use
the energy of mindfulness,
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to recognize and embrace
your fear, your anger, tenderly,
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like a mother holding a baby.
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Then mindfulness can do more.
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Mindfulness can help you
to look into that fear, that anger
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and see what kind of roots they have.
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It has come from somewhere,
some wrong perceptions,
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something like that.
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With the practice of looking deeply
into the fear, the anger,
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you can recognize the roots
of your anger, of your fear,
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and you get an understanding of it.
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Your understanding
of the roots of something
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will liberate you from it.
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So mindfulness can do many things.
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And the practice of mindful breathing,
mindful walking
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can help generate
the energy of mindfulness,
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with which you can nourish yourself,
and you can heal yourself!
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(Half Bell)
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(Bell)
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My question is personal
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but it can help a lot of people.
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At this moment
I am feeling a lot of pain
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because I am unable to follow
what makes me happy,
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my style of life.
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What would be your message
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for the people who, as me,
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do want to follow a good path,
a safe path
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who want to follow
what makes us happy
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but we fight against
a lot of negativity,
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messages of...
insanity,
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but we feel that
that is a wrong path.
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Thank you.
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(Br. Mountain) The question is:
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How can we find a new path for society?
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How can we find a new path
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and nourish our aspiration
in this society?
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And what would be Thay's message
for young people?
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What would be Thay's encouragement
for young people...
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considering the society is not
a very healthy place?
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What can we do?
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When we look at an adult
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and see that that person is not happy,
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we cannot believe what that person
tells us about happiness,
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or the path leading to happiness.
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Because if the path is correct,
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then the person would not be
the way he or she is!
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So what that person recommends us to do
may not work.
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Sometimes they recommend us
to do something,
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but they don't do it themselves!
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So we have to be careful.
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So we can...
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we can make a decision
based on our own experience.
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Whatever you do
that brings you true happiness,
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you believe that.
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That is the right thing to do.
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What you say can bring you happiness
and can bring the other person happiness.
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We can believe in that kind of thing,
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and you can continue
to say things like that.
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So it's much safer to base it
on our own experience of life.
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I think the first thing is to have
a correct idea about happiness,
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because everyone has an idea of happiness.
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Our idea of happiness may be the obstacle
for our true happiness.
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So you have to look, look deeply,
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and have your own idea of happiness.
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Many people believe
that power, fame, diplomas,
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money, sensual pleasures,
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can make you happy.
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But when you observe,
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you can see that many people...
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who have plenty of these things
still suffer a lot.
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So you don't believe it.
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You feel that when you have
understanding and love in you,
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you are happy.
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You look around,
you see people who are not so rich,
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who are not powerful,
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but who have plenty
of understanding and compassion.
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You see them happy.
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So you tell yourself:
that's what I want!
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I want to be happy like him, like her,
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and in order to do that,
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I have to cultivate
more understanding and compassion...
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and love.
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Because it's very difficult to live
with a person
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who cannot understand you.
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You see? Very frustrating!
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So you don't want to be
like him, like her.
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You want to be a person
who has a lot of understanding.
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It's very pleasant to be with someone
who can understand you.
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And to understand is a power.
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Not money - understanding is a power.
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When you love someone,
if you understand him or her,
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you are a true lover.
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So cultivating understanding
is a practice.
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If you do not have the time
to look deeply,
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you cannot understand.
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You have to understand first of all
the suffering in you and the other person.
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So cultivating understanding
is very important.
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When you have understood,
love and compassion are born.
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And love is another kind of power.
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Love has the power to heal.
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When you have true love in you,
you can heal yourself
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and you can help to heal the other person.
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So understanding and love are two powers
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and with them you can create happiness,
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restore communication, reconcile.
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You are determined
to go in that direction,
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not running after fame, power,
money, sensual pleasures,
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but taking your time to cultivate
more understanding
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and love and compassion.
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Even if you live a very simple life,
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you can be a very happy person.
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I think the young people have
the power to do it.
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They don't have to follow any tradition.
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They can find their own way.
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They can practice true love,
true understanding,
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brotherhood, sisterhood,
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in order to make themselves happy
and to stop suffering.
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If they can succeed, they can inspire
many people to do the same.
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(Half Bell)
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(Bell)
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(Man) First
I would like to thank you, Thay,
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on behalf of everyone
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(inaudible)
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English or Spanish?
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(Br. Mountain) Both.
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(Man replying but inaudible)
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(Man asking question,
inaudible due to echo)
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...Mindfulness speaking,
mindfulness walking...
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mindfulness eating...
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But the last few days you spoke about...
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(Laughing)
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Mindfulness (Spanish) "of suffering"
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....the minfulness of suffering.
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(Spanish) For me, that is
a little more difficult.
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(Spanish) To be mindful of the suffering
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to avoid (inaudible).
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So Thay, I would like to ask you.
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Could you explain a little bit more
about mindfulness of suffering?
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Because I find this very difficult,
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because it sometimes generates
a negative state of mind.
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(Brother) The essence
of the question is
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that Thay has spoken about
different types of mindfulness practices,
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and Thay has also spoken about
mindfulness of suffering.
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When our friend practices
mindfulness of suffering,
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it brings up negative feelings
or thoughts or emotions.
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(Man) Towards myself.
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(Brother) For yourself?
(Man) Yes.
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(Brother) So how to work
with the mindfulness of suffering,
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how to practice?
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(Man) Clarify the practice.
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(Brother) If Thay can clarify
what it means
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by working with
mindfulness of suffering.
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(Thay) Mindfulness of suffering
is a very important practice.
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Mindfulness, first of all,
is the kind of energy that helps you
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to know what is going on.
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When suffering is coming up,
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you should know that suffering is there.
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That is mindfulness of suffering.
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Most of us do not want to do it,
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because we feel that when we get in touch
with the suffering inside,
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we will be overwhelmed by it.
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So everyone is trying to run away
from their own suffering.
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They try to cover up the suffering inside.
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When you pick up a newspaper to read,
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when you turn on your television,
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maybe it's not
because you need to do that,
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but you do that in order
not to have to get in touch
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with the suffering inside.
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So pick up the phone and talk to someone,
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take the car and go out,
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we do many things in order
not be in touch with the suffering inside.
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The suffering inside remains the same
and continues to grow,
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because you do not know
how to take care of suffering inside
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and how to transform it.
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So mindfulness of suffering is
first of all to have the courage...
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to go home to yourself
and recognize that suffering is there.
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And then, as I have said several times,
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you can use the energy of mindfulness
to embrace your suffering,
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your fear, your anger.
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If you know how to do it,
then you will suffer less.
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It's like a mother holding her baby,
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the baby suffers less after a few minutes.
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I have also said
that if you are a beginner,
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you may like to borrow
the energy of mindfulness of someone else
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in order to help you
to embrace your suffering.
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Three or four people sitting with you,
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breathing with you,
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and offering their energy of mindfulness,
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to help you to recognize
and embrace the pain in yourself.
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That is brotherhood, sisterhood.
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If you live
in the heart of a practice community,
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you profit from the
collective energy of mindfulness,
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of the community.
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We have learnt a very important thing:
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if you know how to suffer,
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you suffer much less.
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That is an art,
to suffer is an art.
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Everyone has to suffer,
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including the Buddha,
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including Jesus Christ.
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But those of us who know how to suffer,
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we suffer much, much less.
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We have to learn.
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If you have the energy of mindfulness,
you can go back to yourself.
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You are not afraid of being overwhelmed
by the suffering inside.
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With that energy of mindfulness,
you can embrace your suffering.
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Even smile to your suffering,
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as a mother holding her child.
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If you know how to do that,
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in three, five or eight minutes,
you suffer less.
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The energy of mindfulness is holding
the energy of anger,
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of fear, of despair.
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Two kinds of energy.
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They are not fighting each other,
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but one is holding the other.
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Very non-violently, very tenderly.
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That is what everyone should learn,
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it is possible
to embrace our pain tenderly,
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with compassion.
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That helps you to get a relief
after a few minutes of practice.
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So we should remember
that someone who knows how to suffer,
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will suffer much less.
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And then he can go further,
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he can make good use of suffering
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in order to create understanding,
compassion and happiness.
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Suffering has a role to play
in creating happiness.
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It's like when you grow lotus flowers,
you need the mud.
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Without the mud,
lotus flowers cannot grow.
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It's the same with happiness.
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Happiness is a kind of lotus
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and it needs some kind of mud,
in order to grow.
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The process is like this:
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there is suffering,
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and there is mindfulness
that can look deeply...
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into the nature of suffering.
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We listen, we look deeply,
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and from that kind of practice,
called mindfulness of suffering,
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understanding and compassion are born.
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Understanding of suffering,
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compassion coming out of
that kind of understanding.
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Understanding and compassion
are the very foundation of happiness.
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We know that understanding and compassion
come from the mud,
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come from suffering.
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So there is a very deep connection
between suffering and happiness,
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like the connection
between the mud and the lotus.
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If you try always
to run away from suffering,
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you have no chance.
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You have to see the goodness of suffering.
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The goodness of suffering -
(French) la bienfaisance de la suffrance.
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It's like the mud,
the mud is essential for the lotus.
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So suffering is essential
for the making of understanding and love,
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which are
the very foundation of happiness.
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When you have seen that
you have Right View.
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Right View is the first element
of the Noble Path leading to happiness.
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You don't have any discrimination
any more.
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You know that there is a deep connection
between suffering and happiness.
-
If you know how to make
good use of suffering,
-
you can create a lot of understanding
and compassion
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that can create happiness in you
and in the other person.
-
So there are two things
we have to remember concerning suffering:
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if you know how to suffer,
you suffer less;
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if you know how to make good use
of suffering,
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you can create happiness.
-
That is why mindfulness of suffering
is very, very important.
-
We should not try
to run away from suffering,
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pretending that it's not there.
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In our civilization,
most people do that.
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They pretend that there is no suffering
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and they buy, they consume,
in order to cover up the suffering inside.
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We consume not because we need to consume.
-
There are people who go
to look for something to eat,
-
but they are not hungry at all.
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They eat because they want to forget
the suffering inside.
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Eating is one way,
-
one of the ways to help us to run away
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and not to have to confront,
to get in touch with the suffering.
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We can practice by ourselves,
-
but if we have a community of practice
supporting us,
-
the practice of mindfulness of suffering
can be easier,
-
because we have brothers and sisters
in the practice supporting us.
-
They provide understanding and compassion,
-
and with that kind of collective energy,
-
we can easily recognize and embrace
our suffering.
-
Clear?
-
(Laughter)
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Thank you.
-
We'll read from one written question.
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Bell, the bell.
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(Laughter)
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(Half Bell)
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(Bell)
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(Br. Mountain) "The errors of the past
have caused a lot of suffering"
-
"and are very difficult to liberate."
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"My errors have created in the past
quite a heavy burden."
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"How can I forgive myself
for this pain I've caused"
-
"and how to be sure
that I've forgiven others?"
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"What can I do if I offer
forgiveness and reconciliation"
-
"again and again to others,"
-
"but the others don't respond positively"
-
"and they keep the door closed?"
-
This is a very good question.
-
(Laughter)
-
First of all, everyone can learn
from their own mistakes, unskillfulness.
-
All of us are unskillful at times.
-
Even the Buddha as a teacher,
-
he was unskillful at times,
-
and he learnt from his unskillfulness.
-
(Laughter)
-
So first of all, we should remember
that we are a human being,
-
and we can be unskillful at times.
-
The practice of mindfulness
can always transform,
-
even transform the past.
-
You think that the past is already gone
-
and you can't do anything
concerning the past,
-
but that is not true.
-
You can change the past,
-
because the past is still there
in the present.
-
The wound of the past is still there
in the present moment
-
and you can touch it.
-
Suppose in the past you have said
something unkind to your grandma,
-
and now you regret it.
-
Your grandma is no longer there
for you to say sorry.
-
You have that complex of guilt
following you all the time,
-
but according to this practice,
you can do something.
-
You breathe in and out mindfully,
-
and you recognize that your grandma
is still alive in every cell of your body.
-
You continue your grandma.
-
That is the truth.
-
The genes of your grandma are in you.
-
Your grandma has not really died.
-
She continues in you.
-
So having seen your grandma in you,
you say:
-
"Grandma, I am sorry."
-
"I was not skillful."
-
"I promise you that from now on,"
-
"I will never say
something like that again."
-
And if you are sincere, mindful,
determined,
-
then you can see your grandma in you,
smiling,
-
and you are healed,
you are healed.
-
So you can transform the past.
-
You make an aspiration,
a strong aspiration,
-
that from now on, you will not say
things like that any more.
-
You will not do things like that any more.
-
That is a powerful energy,
-
that can transform even the past
and you feel lighter. Lighter!
-
During the Vietnam war,
there was an American soldier
-
who killed five children in Vietnam.
-
His unit was destroyed by the guerillas,
-
so he was very angry.
-
He came back to that village,
-
looking for a way to retaliate.
-
He brought with him a bag of sandwiches,
-
and he put explosives in the sandwich.
-
He left them by the gate of the village.
-
He hid himself
and he saw five children coming out,
-
and enjoying eating the sandwiches.
-
After that, the children
showed the signs of sickness
-
and they cried, they yelled,
-
and their mothers came out
and tried to help.
-
But the soldier knew
that nothing could be done,
-
because the village was so far
from a city.
-
He saw the five children dying
in the arms of their mothers.
-
The soldier survived the war
and went back to America.
-
He could no longer sleep.
-
Every time he found himself
with a few children in the same room,
-
he could not stand it,
he had to run out of the room.
-
He could not share the story with anyone,
-
until one day,
-
we offered a retreat for war veterans
in California,
-
and he came.
-
After four days of practice,
he got enough trust.
-
During the sharing, he told us the story,
crying a lot.
-
I was in the group.
-
I promised to give him a consultation.
-
I told him: "Daniel,
you have killed five children."
-
"That is the truth."
-
"And you suffer."
-
"But now there are other children
who are dying"
-
"in Africa, in Asia, in many countries,"
-
"and even in America,
children are dying."
-
"There are poor people."
-
"There are children who only need
one tablet of medicine"
-
"in order for their life to be saved."
-
"Thousands and thousands of children
like that are dying all over the world."
-
"If you make the aspiration to go to them,
every day you can save five children."
-
"You don't have to lie down
in the corner of the past"
-
"and suffer like that."
-
"If in the past you have
killed five children,"
-
"then today, you can save five."
-
"If you can save five today,
five tomorrow,"
-
"then you can see the five you killed
begin to smile in you"
-
"and you are healed."
-
So he followed those instructions.
-
I could see the transformation
and healing taking place
-
right during the time he listened
to the advice,
-
because during the time he listened to me,
-
he made that vow:
-
"I will go out and try to save children."
-
"I am young enough to do the work."
-
The tremendous amount of energy
given to him by that aspiration...
-
began to heal him right away.
-
After that he practiced helping
children in the world to survive.
-
He was healed.
-
He married a dentist in England
-
and lead a normal life.
-
This is a real story.
-
So the fact is that you can
liberate yourself from the past,
-
from the prison of the past.
-
You can make a strong determination,
a strong aspiration, to go and help:
-
to help the people who are abused,
-
to help the people who are victims
of sexual abuse, and so on.
-
And then you can heal yourself.
-
That is the power of aspiration -
the [third] nutriment we call "volition."
-
If you have transformation
and healing in you,
-
you become a pleasant person,
-
you are full of compassion, understanding,
-
and your presence is very fresh,
-
very pleasant for other people.
-
If you propose to him or to her
the practice of reconciliation
-
and if the other person refuses to do it,
-
it's because you are not fresh enough,
-
you have not healed yourself enough.
-
You have to show yourself
as someone who has transformed,
-
who has healed himself, or herself.
-
The healing in you will help start
the healing in the other person.
-
There are many ways.
-
You can write him or her a letter of love.
-
You can ask a friend to talk to him or her
on your behalf.
-
There are many ways to do it.
-
If you have already
reconciled with yourself,
-
renewed yourself to become a new person,
-
then transforming him,
reconciling with him,
-
becomes much easier.
-
If you still find it difficult
to invite the other person to reconcile,
-
it's because you have not started
the process of reconciliation from within.
-
If you have,
then you have healed yourself.
-
Then it will be much easier to help him
to reconcile,
-
with himself and with you.
-
OK?
-
(Br. Mountain) Thank you, Thay.
-
(Half Bell)
-
(Bell)
-
Well...
-
(Spanish) Sorry, in Spanish.
-
First, I would like to thank you,
-
because until yesterday,
-
I thought I was practising
mindful listening properly,
-
just because I tried
to listen to every word
-
that the other person was saying.
-
Yesterday I understood
-
that my practice was not right,
-
because no matter
how hard I tried to listen,
-
if I did not add compassion,
-
the practice was not going to improve.
-
I thank you for that.
-
My question has nothing to do with myself,
-
it has to do with my daughter.
-
She is 3 years old.
-
I wish she will not need to be 35
to begin to practice mindfulness,
-
as it happened to her mother.
-
I want to begin to practice with her,
-
but everyone tells me
that she is still too young.
-
I see that children live more
in the present moment than us, adults.
-
But they do it for short periods.
-
I don't want to begin with
formal practices too early,
-
because it would not be
appropriate for her age.
-
Is there a good age
-
to begin the practice of mindfulness
with children?
-
(Br. Mountain) So I will try to touch
the essence of the question.
-
She has a daughter
who is 3 years old
-
and she would like
to teach her mindfulness
-
and start already with the seed
of mindfulness at that age,
-
and not wait until her daughter is 35
to start the practice of mindfulness.
-
So is there any good age
to start teaching mindfulness to children?
-
Some people say she's too young
for me to teach her mindfulness.
-
She's only 3 years old.
-
Is there a good age to start teaching
mindfulness to children?
-
(Thay) You can teach
your child mindfulness,
-
even when your child
is still inside of you!
-
(Laughter)
-
You practice mindful breathing
-
and you talk to your child:
-
"Breathing in, I know you are there"
-
"and I am so happy."
-
You are mindful of the presence
of the baby in yourself.
-
If you are mindful, the child in you
is mindful at the same time,
-
because you and him or her
are not two entities.
-
Everything you eat is for your child.
-
Everything you drink is for your child.
-
Your happiness is your child's happiness.
-
Your anger is your child's anger.
-
If you conceive a baby,
you have to be very careful.
-
You have to be very mindful.
-
Anything you consume
of the Four Nutriments,
-
the child consumes also.
-
So be gentle,
consume only the healthy things,
-
in terms of the Four Nutriments:
-
what you read, what you listen to,
-
what you eat,
what you hear as conversation.
-
They will go directly to the baby.
-
So your practice of mindfulness is
the practice of mindfulness of your child.
-
So you can begin at a very early age
with your child.
-
The baby may not understand yet
the talking of adults,
-
but the baby can be aware of the energy
that you radiate.
-
If father and mother are in harmony,
loving each other,
-
the baby feels that.
-
Don't say that he does not understand
what we are saying to each other yet.
-
Don't do that.
-
The baby may not understand
what you are saying,
-
but the baby can feel
the harmony or disharmony between you.
-
So your practice of mindfulness,
of reconciliation, of harmony...
-
has a direct impact on your child.
-
When you hold your baby,
-
if you hold your baby in mindfulness,
-
the baby feels that.
-
That is a way to teach mindfulness.
-
When you feed your baby
with your own milk,
-
you are aware of that,
-
you feel the happiness,
-
so the baby not only is feeding himself
from the milk,
-
but from your love too.
-
So you can teach the baby mindfulness
right away in the beginning.
-
I remember at a Dharma talk in Germany,
-
there were 1000 people in the talk.
-
I remember in the front row,
-
there were 3 or 4 mothers,
breast-feeding their babies.
-
The atmosphere in the talk
was very, very peaceful,
-
because we practiced mindful breathing,
mindful smiling.
-
It was very nice.
-
Before I started the talk,
I looked at the babies.
-
They were so happy, so calm.
-
They were getting the nutriments
not only from the breast of their mother,
-
but they were getting nutriments
-
from the collective energy
of mindfulness and compassion
-
generated by the practice.
-
So children, they know the value
of the practice of mindfulness.
-
When you are about to have breakfast
with your child,
-
if the child is 3, or 4, or 5 years old,
you can say:
-
"Darling, it's wonderful
that we have breakfast together."
-
You show your appreciation...
-
that mother and son, mother and daughter,
are there having breakfast together.
-
You cherish every moment.
-
There is a mantra that we practice
in Plum Village.
-
From time to time, we remind
the other person or people...
-
that the moment we spend together
is a wonderful moment.
-
That can be practiced with children too.
-
The mantra is: "This is a happy moment."
-
"This is a wonderful moment."
-
"Don't you agree?"
-
"This is a legendary moment
that we share with each other."
-
That mantra, we can practice,
we can pronounce, several times a day.
-
I myself practice that mantra a lot
with my students.
-
Walking together, sitting together,
eating together,
-
we remind each other
that this is a wonderful moment.
-
We are still alive,
we are sharing a cup of tea.
-
This is always possible.
-
So children are receptive
to that kind of practice.
-
They know that
we appreciate their presence.
-
We offer attention to them,
and they are happy.
-
They learn in a way
that we cannot conceive.
-
They learn without knowing
that they are learning.
-
We transmit the practice of mindfulness
by our way of life.
-
If the parents smoke and drink alcohol,
-
the children will smoke and drink alcohol.
-
If the parents practice mindfulness,
loving speech, and deep listening,
-
then the children will do it.
-
They do not have to know
that they are learning.
-
So the learning, the practice,
can be non-formal.
-
You don't have to say that,
"I am practicing mindfulness."
-
You just enjoy the practice
of mindfulness, of breathing,
-
walking, eating and so on.
-
That will have an effect on the children,
-
even the very young ones.
-
Three years old may be too late!
-
(Laughter)
-
(Half Bell)
-
(Bell)
-
Dear Thay, dear brothers and sisters,
-
I want to deeply thank you
for sharing your time with us.
-
My question is regarding hurt kids.
-
How can we guide them,
help them to look deeply,
-
and try to understand the root cause
of their suffering,
-
such as anger, anguish, or fear,
-
when they are small?
-
(Br. Mountain) So the question is
about children:
-
How to guide them to look deeply,
-
and try to understand the cause
of these children's suffering
-
- anger, anguish, fear -
-
so how to help them?
-
Any particular age?
-
(Lady) Maybe six, seven or eight.
-
(Br. Mountain) Six, seven or eight.
-
So how to help little children
understand the cause of their suffering?
-
We should not try
to give the teaching...
-
orally only,
-
because often it does not work.
-
As teachers, we have
the tendency to explain.
-
In order to explain, we have to use words.
-
That may turn them off.
-
They are not interested
in words and concepts.
-
I think we should use
very simple expressions,
-
simple, simple words.
-
Suppose when...
-
when we have anger in us,
-
when mother has anger in herself,
-
if the child wants her
to do something,
-
to say something, for him.
-
If the mother realises that it's not good
to do it, to say it,
-
when she's angry,
-
she may tell her child
-
that Mummy does not feel good in herself.
-
Mummy is a little bit angry.
-
You should allow Mummy
to breathe, to walk,
-
in order to calm herself first.
-
You can do it like that.
-
That is teaching.
-
You teach by your own life.
-
If they see you practicing
when you are angry,
-
they will believe you.
-
Next time when they get angry,
-
you may say something:
-
"Darling, why don't you do it like Mummy?"
-
"Don't say anything, don't do anything,"
-
"it may do harm to yourself
and to others."
-
"Do like Mummy, just breathe"
-
"and know that we are angry."
-
"If we know how to breathe like that,
walk like that,"
-
"then we will feel better."
-
"Why don't you hold Mummy's hand"
-
"and we will breathe together,
make a few steps together."
-
That is teaching.
-
The same thing is true
with other mental formations,
-
like fear, jealousy and so on.
-
So there is a kind of teaching
called teaching by your own life,
-
by your own body.
-
This is very good.
-
So as a teacher, I know the value
of that kind of teaching.
-
You teach by the way you walk,
-
by the way you sit down,
-
by the way you eat,
-
by the way you look,
-
by the way you react to a provocation.
-
That teaching is well received
by the young people.
-
You don't have to use a lot of words.
-
Another question from the floor.
-
(Br. Mountain) Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
-
this is a question from a man, I guess,
-
because it says:
-
"How can men today
avoid becoming soft men?"
-
"How can men become more confident,"
-
"without becoming aggressive?"
-
"How can a man avoid becoming a soft man?"
-
Sometimes men, maybe in Spain,
have been aggressive in the past
-
and now when we practice,
-
we become soft,
very receptive and attentive,
-
and maybe we become too soft.
-
Too soft!
-
(Laughter)
-
Yesterday, we spoke about Noble Silence,
-
a kind of silence that is very powerful.
-
It's not oppressive at all.
-
It's very alive.
-
When we stop our talking,
-
when we stop our thinking,
-
we breathe, we become alive,
-
we are aware of being with each other
-
and that kind of silence is very powerful.
-
In the Buddhist tradition,
-
they describe the silence
as "thundering silence."
-
Powerful like thunder.
-
(French) The thunder.
-
Thundering silence.
-
There are those who believe that
when they have too much compassion,
-
they become very soft,
-
and that is not true.
-
Compassion is not soft.
-
Compassion is very, very powerful.
-
When you have great compassion,
-
you can die, you are ready to die
for the sake of helping people.
-
You are very powerful.
-
It is violence that makes you weak,
-
because you are weak,
-
that is why you need a gun,
-
you need an army.
-
If you are really powerful,
-
you can help many people around,
-
many countries around,
-
and you are safer.
-
If you are too afraid,
-
you need a gun, you need an army.
-
That is why cultivating compassion,
-
you protect yourself much better
-
than with an army, with a gun.
-
If you carry a gun,
that means you are afraid,
-
you are fearful.
-
Compassion makes us...
-
Compassion gives us a lot of energy.
-
With compassion, you can do everything
in order to help people.
-
You are not afraid.
-
In the Lotus Sutra,
-
compassion is described as "thunder."
-
It's like a cloud, a big cloud in the sky.
-
It looks very soft,
-
but a cloud can generate thunder,
-
lightning and thunder.
-
So in the Lotus Sutra,
-
compassion is described
as lightning and thunder.
-
Very, very powerful.
-
If you have violence in you,
-
your nature is weak, and not powerful.
-
But if you have compassion in you,
-
you are really powerful.
-
With violence in you, you suffer.
-
Children, adults, teenagers,
-
if they have a lot of violence in them,
-
then they suffer,
-
and we can see the suffering.
-
And they are weak.
-
If we cultivate compassion,
we are healthy,
-
and we are powerful.
-
Violence makes you sick.
-
It is destroying our health,
physical and mental.
-
Violence.
-
When you produce a thought
full of hate and violence,
-
that thought begins to destroy you
and destroy the world.
-
But if you have Right Understanding,
-
you generate a thought
of compassion, of understanding.
-
That thought begins to heal you
-
and begins to heal the world.
-
That is the practice of Right Thinking:
-
thinking in such a way
-
that you can generate
understanding and compassion.
-
That is real power.
-
Compassion can be expressed
in the way you think,
-
in the way you speak,
-
and in the way you act.
-
If you are motivated by the desire
to help a person to suffer less,
-
you can use loving speech,
compassionate speech.
-
What you write down in a letter,
-
what you say,
-
what you tell him or her
on the telephone...
-
has so much compassion.
-
When you are able
to say something compassionate,
-
you feel wonderful within yourself,
-
you can heal yourself.
-
You can begin to help
heal the other person.
-
So compassion has the power to heal.
-
That is why all of us have to learn
-
how to generate
the energy of compassion in us.
-
If we want to heal ourselves,
-
we have to generate
the energy of compassion.
-
If we want to heal our family,
-
make our family happy, harmonious again,
-
we have to generate,
to cultivate compassion.
-
If we want to heal our community,
-
our city, our nation,
-
we have to cultivate more compassion.
-
Compassion comes from understanding,
understanding suffering:
-
our own suffering
and the suffering of the other person,
-
even the suffering of the people
who we believe to be our enemies.
-
They have a lot of suffering
in themselves also.
-
So the answer to our situation
is compassion.
-
And medically speaking,
doctors are beginning to understand
-
that compassion has a healing power.
-
If you have so much hate,
and despair, and anger,
-
then it's difficult to heal.
-
But if you have compassion,
-
it's easier to heal yourself.
-
At Stanford University,
-
they have begun to study
the healing power of compassion.
-
Thay was invited to speak at Stanford
-
about the practice of compassion,
-
and someone asked
exactly the same question.
-
Is it not true that
compassion makes you weak?
-
No, the opposite.
-
Compassion makes you very strong.
-
Bell first.
-
(Bell)
-
(Bell)
-
I would like to ask:
-
If someone, at one moment,
comes to me for help,
-
and I cannot (inaudible) for that person,
-
and I have that moment,
-
when I tell that person
to embrace the pain,
-
to embrace the suffering.
-
What if the person doesn't accept
-
and maybe gets mad?
-
How can I keep helping the person?
-
I only have maybe a few minutes,
-
and then this person will go away.
-
(Br. Mountain) (Spanish) Could you ask
the question in Spanish?
-
(Spanish) If someone
comes to me for help
-
and I have a limited time,
-
and I try to help him
and tell him to embrace his suffering,
-
his sorrow, his hate,
-
and that person at that moment
refuses to do it
-
and gets even more angry,
-
How can I help that person
in that limited time I have?
-
(Br. Mountain) So somebody comes to her,
asking for help,
-
but she doesn't have
much time to offer to this person,
-
and she tells this person that
she just needs to embrace her suffering,
-
or anger, or whatever emotion,
-
but that person reacts,
they don't want to hear that.
-
With this limited time that I have,
-
how can I help this person transform?
-
So basically, she says to this person
that she needs to embrace her suffering,
-
but the person reacts
and doesn't want to embrace the suffering.
-
And she doesn't have much time available
to help the person.
-
What work do you do?
What is your profession?
-
Is this something professional?
-
(Lady) I am a teacher,
but I also help people with problems.
-
(Br. Mountain) So... a teacher,
and you help people professionally?
-
(Lady) Teaching, yes, it's my profession.
-
And I help people... (inaudible)
-
(Thay)
(Speaking in Vietnamese)
-
(Br. Inclusiveness)
(Replying in Vietnamese)
-
If we are so busy,
-
if we do not have the time,
-
we cannot do anything.
-
So the problem is to arrange
that you have plenty of time.
-
(Laughter)
-
There are those of us
who are doctors,
-
lawyers,
-
and who are able to help people,
-
but our capacity is limited.
-
So many of us have become monks and nuns
in order to have more time.
-
(Laughter)
-
Because as a monk or nun
-
you don't have to make a living.
-
You don't have to make a living.
-
You don't need a private house,
you don't need a salary.
-
You don't need
-
a private bank account
and so on.
-
So you have plenty of time to practice
helping yourself
-
and helping other people.
-
So one of the ways to have the time
is to live a simple life.
-
Especially and if possible to live
in a community.
-
You don't need
a private car, a private house,
-
a private bank account and so on.
-
You have plenty of time.
-
That is what the Buddha and his monks did.
-
They had plenty of time walking, sitting,
helping people.
-
Time is not money.
-
But in our society,
many people think of time as money.
-
Time is to make money.
-
Time is much more than money.
-
Time is life, and time is love.
-
You are given years,
months and days
-
and hours and minutes
-
in order to live your life and to love,
not to make money.
-
If your priority is to make money,
-
then you don't have the time
to do the work of loving.
-
You have to love yourself.
-
Do you have the time to love yourself?
-
To take care of your body,
to take care of your feelings and so on?
-
If you don't have the time to do that,
-
how can you help another person?
-
If you don't have the time,
how can you love?
-
Everything you do in your daily life
is an act of love.
-
Everything you say, everything you do
in your daily life
-
can be an act of love,
that is possible.
-
So please,
reconsider the way you use your time.
-
What are you doing with your time?
-
Your time is to be,
-
to live your life and to love.
-
Look at the people in our society,
the way they make use of their time.
-
They don't have the time
to breathe, to sit, to walk,
-
to enjoy being alive,
-
to look at their children.
-
We are always in a hurry.
-
So there must be a kind a revolution.
-
Those of us who have chosen
to be monks and nuns
-
or the lay practitioners
who are living in the community,
-
we want a lot of time
-
so that we can
take care of ourselves fully.
-
Heal ourselves and help heal
and help other people.
-
When we organize a retreat,
we do it as an act of love.
-
When we see the people
transformed and healed,
-
that is our reward.
-
That is the benefit we get.
-
When we see people suffering less,
-
beginning to smile,
reconciling with each other,
-
we are very happy.
-
We see that our life has a meaning.
-
This is nourishing us a lot.
-
So every one of us has to sit down
-
and reconsider how do we use our time.
-
Do we have the time
to love, to serve?
-
Do we have the time
to take care of ourselves?
-
Heal ourselves
and help heal our society?
-
This is the question.
-
And you have to give
the answer by yourself.
-
(Bell)
-
(Bell)
-
(Spanish) Dear Thay,
-
(inaudible)
-
How can we protect our Sangha,
-
especially if it is a very young Sangha,
-
composed by young people
-
who have few experience
with the practice?
-
How can we protect ourselves
when there are frailties?
-
(Brother) When there is what?
-
(Spanish) Frailties.
-
(Brother) Weakness?
-
(Br.Mountain) Can you
repeat the question?
-
(Spanish) How can we,
my Sangha friends and myself...
-
(Br.Mountain) How can my friends
of the Sangha and myself...
-
... protect our Sangha...
-
(Brother) ...how can we
protect our Sangha...
-
...especially if it is a young Sangha...
-
(Brother) ...especially
if it's a young Sangha?
-
Yes, it is OK.
-
(Brother) You said something more.
-
-It is a young Sangha.
-(Brother) It's a young Sangha.
-
-We are all young people...
- (Br.) We are all quite young...
-
-...with little experience...
-(Br.)...with little experience...
-
-...in the practice.
-(Br)...in the practice.
-
(Br. Mountain) So how can we
protect our Sangha
-
because we are a young Sangha,
we have little experience.
-
Building a Sangha
is a very basic practice.
-
If you have an aspiration,
-
a deep aspiration,
-
if you have a dream to realize,
-
you cannot do it
without a community.
-
And that is why, building a community
is very important.
-
The Buddha, after enlightenment,
-
knew that he needed a Sangha
in order to realize his dream,
-
offering the practice
and help change the world.
-
So he spent his time looking for friends
-
and set up a community of practice.
-
And at the end of the first year
after enlightenment,
-
he already had a community
of one thousand people.
-
He spent his time training them
how to walk.
-
How to walk mindfully and generate peace
and joy with every step.
-
How to hold their bow,
how to sit, how to breathe.
-
So you will do the same.
-
With young members of the Sangha
-
the first thing you do is not to organize.
-
For other people, we have to organize
so that we can practice together.
-
We should practice sitting together,
-
walking together,
eating together, sharing together
-
in such a way, that every time we do that
-
we create more brotherhood
and sisterhood
-
and mutual understanding.
-
We learn to make decisions
together by consensus.
-
We try to listen to each other.
-
We try to understand different views.
-
We try to combine all these kind of views
-
in order to make a synthesis of all views
-
and we make a decision collectively.
-
Only when we have enough harmony,
brotherhood, sisterhood, joy
-
should we organize a day of mindfulness
or a retreat of mindfulness
-
and invite other people to come.
-
We operate as a Sangha
and not as individuals.
-
An individual, no matter
how talented he is or she is
-
cannot realize the big dream.
-
So we learn to organize,
-
to lead a retreat as a Sangha
and not as a person.
-
An individual.
-
In Plum Village, we try to do that.
-
It's the Sangha who makes the decision
-
and not a person.
-
For this trip to Spain, organizing the
retreats and the public talks
-
the Sangha did everything,
-
including choosing the title
of the talk and the retreat.
-
Thay did not have to do anything.
-
He just obeyed the Sangha.
-
So you have plenty of time to walk,
to sit, to breathe.
-
It's very good.
-
We should operate as a Sangha,
not as individuals.
-
If you are able to build a Sangha
with harmony and brotherhood,
-
you can do a lot of things
in order to help people to suffer less.
-
Building a Sangha is
the most noble thing to do for a person.
-
When I met with Dr. Martin Luther King
for the first time in Chicago,
-
in 1966, we discussed about that.
-
Because he knew that without a Sangha,
without a community
-
he could not realize his dream.
-
A year before that, he spoke
with the theme "I have a dream".
-
I told him that:
-
"Your dream cannot become true
if you don't have a community."
-
And he agreed.
-
I was using the word Sangha,
-
but he used the word 'beloved community'.
-
The second time we met was in Geneva.
-
We attended a Peace conference.
-
We had the opportunity to discuss more
about building a Sangha.
-
Unfortunately, he was assassinated
-
not very long after that.
-
So, I made the vow
to continue to build the Sangha,
-
not only for us, but for him.
-
Building a Sangha is very important.
-
With a Sangha, you can maintain
your practice for a long time.
-
With a Sangha, you have an instrument
to help people.
-
People can come
and take refuge in the Sangha,
-
learn the practice
of healing and transformation.
-
So everyone of us who finds
the practice of mindfulness useful
-
should go home, to his city
-
and look around and identify
elements of a future Sangha.
-
We should set up a group of people,
learn to sit together, walk together,
-
breathe together,
create brotherhood and sisterhood.
-
Then we will be able to help many people.
-
Schoolteachers have to set up
their Sangha of schoolteachers.
-
Psychotherapists also have to set up
Sanghas of psychotherapists.
-
Doctors, nurses, even business leaders
have to come together and set up a Sangha
-
in order to support each other.
-
We all need a Sangha.
-
Without a Sangha,
Thay cannot do anything.
-
So he is taking refuge in the Sangha.
-
We always operate as a Sangha.
-
If the Sangha has harmony, brotherhood,
you can do a lot of things.
-
(inaudible)
-
Today we have walking meditation again,
-
but we should go with the same speed,
-
we should not walk too slow.
-
We should not create a traffic jam.
-
(Laughter)
-
Breathing in 2 steps,
breathing out 3 steps,
-
and do not allow the line
to be broken as yesterday.
-
We can enjoy every step and we are aware
that we are walking with a community.
-
We flow like a river
and not drops of water.
-
(Laughter)
-
(Bell)
-
(Bell)
-
That's long enough, that's good.
-
Thank you.
-
We shall gather and begin
our walking meditation in...
-
(Br. Inclusiveness) 30 minutes,
-
...in half an hour.
-
(The Plum Village Online Monastery)
-
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-
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-
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-
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