Our Attention | Brother Phap Luu

In every moment we have the possibility to control where we put our attention,

and that becomes the source of nutrition for us,

for our thinking, for our way of seeing the world.

So if we put our attention into a tree, we get in touch with the nature of the tree,

standing there patiently, year after year, growing with the sunlight and the earth and the air,

then that becomes what nourishes our thinking.

But if we put our attention on these images of despair, violence, betrayal,

then we water those seeds as well in our consciousness.

It's not that it is wrong, but it is what we water.

It's what we nourish ourselves with.

And we tend to become what we attend to.

So if we attend to situations of despair in a movie or film,

we become more despairing.

we have to know what is enough to nourish our understanding of a situation that is difficult,

and what is only just strengthening the seed of despair and fear and worry.

That is understanding our mind.

So when the situations of injustice of that are really happening in the world,

we can give our attention to that, to dig more deeply, understand the suffering in ourselves and in Mother Earth.

But when we we only make stories that water the seeds of despair and fear.

We make up stories.

We we spend our time listening to made up stories.

Watching Made up stories and films and movies.

And when those stories water those seeds of fear, despair and sadness in us, well, that is what we will become.

So we have to know and accept that it's not right or wrong, but we have to know that is what happened.

What we attend to is a mirror of what we become.

So if we want to know our future, we can look into what we are paying attention to.

That becomes our future.

And so that is a wisdom that is available in the present moment.

I think when we can just stop wherever we are.

Take a moment to walk in a forest,

or just if we don't have a forest, just find a tree and just be with that tree.

Try to understand it as a brother or sister.

Have a conversation with the tree.

We don't need language, human language, to have a conversation with the tree.

Because that tree has a story to tell.

We look into its bark,

its leaves, its branches, its roots.

It has a wonderful story to tell.

Cyanobacteria's floating in the ocean, coming together as algae, in kelp,

and then finding a way to bring that water up from the earth

into its leaves, and the leaves're transporting the sugars from photosynthesis down,

throughout the body of the plant.

That is all in the, in the body of the tree.

That story is written in its very body.

That is the kind of conversation we can have with the tree,

and that nourishes us.

It helps us to understand our own ancestry, our relationships to that tree,

how we learn to be nourished by plants, our ancestors,

taking their first steps on land.

And we see this more deeply our relationship with the tree.

And that kind of understanding nourishes joy and freedom and understanding.

So I think we need to be more aware of where we put our attention,

so that we can nourish this kind of understanding in our heart.