So smiling is a practice, a yoga practice. Don"t say, "I have no joy, why do I have to smile?" Because when you have joy and you smile, that is not practice, that"s very natural. When you don"t have joy and you smile, that is a real practice. You know there are something like 300 muscles, small and big on your face. Every time we get very angry or worried all these muscles are very tight. When people look at you with that tension on your face, they don"t see you like a flower. People are afraid of you when all the muscles on your face are tense like that. You look more like a bomb than a flower. But if you know how to smile, in just one second, all these muscles are relaxed and your face looks like a flower again. It"s wonderful.
So we have to learn to smile and then we"ll look presentable right away. Look into the mirror and practice, and you"ll see that the practice of the smile is very important. It brings relaxation and you can let go. You feel that you are released from the grip of the anger, of the despair.
[Bell]
On my right, there are already four pebbles. Now I"d like to practice the fifth pebble. This is the most wonderful practice. The fifth pebble can bring you a lot of joy, a lot of enlightenment, a lot of delight. That is "Present moment, wonderful moment. Present moment, wonderful moment."
This is a very deep teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha said that it is possible to live happily right here and right now. We don"t have to go to the future. We don"t have to go elsewhere to be happy. We can be happy right here and right now. You don"t need more conditions to be happy, you have enough conditions to be happy right here and right now. If we know how to be ourselves and to look inside and around ourselves, we see that we have had enough conditions to be happy. That is the practice of living happily in the present moment.
When you breathe in, you feel that you are alive. Life is available to you, now: the blue sky, the white cloud, the green vegetation, the birds singing. Plum Village is here. Many friends are here. Your daddy is still alive, your mommy is with you, your brother is there, your sister is there. You have strong feet. You can run. You have eyes that can help you to see everything. There are many conditions for your happiness, you don"t need anything else, you can be happy right away. You stop running. That is the practice. Because there are people who run all of their lives; they run because they think that happiness is not possible in the here and the now.
So this is a wonderful teaching of the Buddha. You breath in and you say "Present moment." It means, "I establish myself in the present moment. I don"t run any more." This is the practice of samata samata, stopping. Stop running. I am wonderful like this in my sitting position or my walking position or even in my lying down position. It"s wonderful like that, I don"t need to run any more. Stopping. Present moment, wonderful moment. It"s wonderful that you are alive.
To be alive, that is a miracle. Imagine a person who is already dead. You might not have seen a dead person but maybe you have seen a dead bird, a dead animal. No matter what you do, the animal cannot come back to life. Whatever you do, whatever you say, the animal is not able to listen, to hear. A dead person is also like that. She lies on the bed and no matter what you do, you cannot revive her. You cannot bring her into life again. You cry, you beat your chest, you pull your hair. But that person is already dead.
So, when you look at yourself, you see you are still alive. You see the person you love is still alive. That is wonderful. You have to wake up to that fact. The teaching of the Buddha is the teaching of waking up, waking up to see that all these wonderful things are still available. So you stop running, you establish yourself in the present moment. "Breathing in, I am in the here and in the now. Present moment. Breathing out, I feel this is a wonderful, wonderful moment."
The Buddha said life is available only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, you have only one moment to be alive. That is the present moment. So simple and so deep. You have an appointment with life. You should not miss that appointment. Life is most precious. You"ve got to meet her, you"ve got to be with her. And you know something, life is only available in the here and the now, in the present moment. So don"t miss your appointment with life. Don"t miss the present moment. That is why the fifth practice is wonderful. If you practice like that, you get a lot of joy whether you are on your cushion or on your bed or in the position of walking meditation. "Present moment, wonderful moment."
Now I would like to ask you to sing and I will practice. I practice for you. I will practice breathing in and out and I enjoy for you. Okay.
[The community sings: "In, out. Deep, slow. Calm, ease. Smile, release. Present moment, wonderful moment."]
I think by now, everyone knows the gatha by heart. I would like to tell you that this gatha is also good for practicing walking meditation. We shall do walking meditation after the talk and you may like to walk peacefully and happily with this poem. You breathe in and you make two steps. You say, "In, in." Then you breath out and you make another two steps, "Out, out." That is walking meditation. You don"t do anything else. Your mind and your body are totally for the breathing in, the breathing out, and the making of steps. You are perfectly concentrated in walking and breathing, you are not concerned with other things. And you can continue with "In, out" like that for a few minutes. If you want to walk a little bit quicker, you can make three steps while breathing in and breathing out.
You do it very naturally, in such a way that you get a lot of pleasure. Don"t be so serious, so solemn. You do it very, very, very naturally. "In, in, out, out." If you enjoy walking, you feel wonderful. You are doing the practice correctly. After some time, you switch into "Deep, slow." "Deep, deep, slow, slow. Deep, deep, slow, slow." Very concentrated. And we shall be walking with you. Everyone is concentrated. Everyone is peaceful. Everyone is joyful. The energy of joy and of peace will radiate from each person, and if we walk in the sangha like that, we will receive the collective energy and it will be very, very strong.
There is still one pebble left. But for this gatha we don"t need all six pebbles, we need only five. After you have practiced five gathas, your sitting meditation is done. So you hear the sound of the bell, you collect your pebble, and you put it in your small bag.
Do you think my small bag is beautiful? I like this color very much. If you want to have your bag in yellow or orange, you are welcome. Make a very beautiful pebble bag for your meditation because you are going to practice using it here. And when you go home you"ll continue to use your pebble meditation bag. If the adults want to imitate, they are welcome. It"s wonderful. There are those of us who have rosaries-108-and the use of the rosary is exactly like the use of the pebbles. But I think this way is fun.
So, please, young people, I think today you have a lot of things to do. Do them joyfully. I hope the children who have been here for one or two weeks will transmit the teaching of the pebble meditation to the newer children and then we will practice together. Now, when you hear the bell, please stand up and bow to the sangha before you go out and continue the practice.
[Bell]
I would like to give a little bit more instruction about [conscious breathing]. Don"t try to breathe in. Don"t make any effort of breathing in. It is very important. Allow yourself to breathe in naturally. You breathe in any way, why do you have to make a determination to breathe in? That is the point. Allow yourself to breathe in normally. Only pay attention to your in-breath. Don"t say, "My in-breath, come here, I will tell you how to do it." No. You allow yourself to breathe in, that"s all. Short or long, you allow it to be the way it is. Be completely non-violent while holding your baby. Don"t force your baby to be like this or to be like that, allow it to be as it is. Embrace it only with your mindfulness. It is very important.
When you love someone, you allow him to be or allow her to be. Don"t say, "If you don"t do this, I will not love you." This is already the practice of love. Allow your in-breath to be itself. Just embrace it with the energy of mindfulness. "Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing in." That"s all. The impact will be great.
Many people practice like they are in a hard labor camp. You force yourself, you make too much effort, and you tire yourself out after some time. If you know how to allow yourself to rest, to allow your in-breath and your out-breath to flow in and out naturally, you will never get tired. You only need to light up your mindfulness and to be aware of it. Like when you turn on the light, you just turn on the light. And because of the light you are aware that the bell is there, your friend is there. Awareness is like that. So you recognize your in-breath as an in-breath, your out-breath as your out-breath, and you embrace them with love.
Then in no time at all, their quality of being will be improved. Like a suffering baby who is kicking, is crying, is vibrating. You don"t say, "Now, stop, don"t cry, don"t be agitated!" You don"t say this. You don"t do anything; you don"t intervene. You don"t force it to be the way you want. Just pick up the baby and embrace it with all your being. When you have the energy of tenderness, of love and of care, that energy will naturally penetrate into the baby and there will be a transformation. Many of you have been a mother or a father and you know this. Just hold the baby with your tenderness, with your whole presence. And that whole presence, body and mind concentrated we call mindfulness (and you are capable of being mindful, you know). So you cultivate your mindfulness so that you will be mindful more, to be there for your suffering, for yourself, for your beloved one.
In sitting meditation you do like that also. Don"t struggle in order to sit. Allow yourself to sit in a relaxed way. "Smile, release." Remember, there was a time when you"d sit in your living room watching television? You could sit for one hour, even two hours? And you didn"t complain that you had pain in your shoulders or arms. You just allow yourself to sit. Sitting meditation is not a struggle. If you take it to be a struggle, you"ll be tired. After fifteen minutes you"ll feel pain in your shoulders and in your head. So, allow yourself to rest. When you practice sitting meditation, walking meditation, allow yourself to rest. It is possible to rest while practicing walking meditation, sitting meditation, mindful breathing. In fact, this practice I offer to you as a means of resting.
Many of us take vacations. But during the time of the vacation we don"t know how to rest. Then after the vacation, we are more tired. So, we now allow ourselves to rest our body and our spirit. Here, we are learning the art of resting. Meditation as the practice of resting.
Our body has the capacity of healing itself. You know that. When you get a cut in your finger, do you have to do anything? No. You only have to keep it clean and in a few days it will be healed. Your body has a number of problems within because you have not allowed it to rest. If you know the art of total relaxation, the art of allowing your body to rest, most of these troubles will go away after a few weeks.
When an animal is wounded in the woods, it knows how to do this. It seeks a peaceful corner in the forest and it lays down for several days. Several generations of ancestors have transmitted to them the wisdom that this is the only way to restore themselves. They don"t have doctors, they don"t have pharmacists, but they know how to rest. They don"t need to run after their prey, they don"t need to eat-in fact, they fast during these three, four, five days of resting. And one day the animal is healed and it stands up and it goes to look for a source of food.
We don"t know how to do like animals. In order to get well quickly we bring a lot of interventions into our body: we take a lot of drugs, we undergo a lot of treatments. But we don"t know how to allow our body to rest. So learning how to allow your body to rest is a very important practice. Love your body. You learn total relaxation and you can do it several times a day. Five minutes is enough, ten minutes. Even three minutes are already very good if you know how to allow your body to rest completely.
And for your spirit, it is the same. Our consciousness is able to heal itself. It has the power of self healing but you don"t allow it to rest. You continue to feed your consciousness with your anger, your worries, your thinking, and so on. You don"t believe in your consciousness. You are seeking for a means to heal it but you don"t know how to allow yourself to rest. You keep thinking the whole day and you keep worrying the whole day. You never allow yourself to rest. If you know how to practice total relaxation, you"ll know how to smile and how to send your smile to different parts of your body. During that time, you have stopped thinking and worrying because you are focused on your body, your breathing, your walking. When you practice mindful breathing, when you practice "In, out, deep, slow," not only can you nourish yourself-body and spirit-but you can also stop your thinking. Stopping the thinking, stopping the worries, is very important.
Our mind is like a ca.s.sette tape turning nonstop day and night. We have a habit. You are not there, because you are carried away by your thinking, by your worries. You may get lost in the past, regretting the past or being caught in the suffering that you endured during the past. You suffered in the past already but now you want to suffer more by recalling the past. You call your past back in order for you to suffer more. Why do you have to show it several times, your suffering? Cows, when they eat gra.s.s, they swallow and then they bring it up again and swallow for a second time. Many of us do the same. We have suffered already in the past. But we want to bring our suffering back to the present moment and suffer more. We like that.
The future is not yet there but we think of it and we worry, and we become scared. We are not capable of dwelling in the present moment where life is. Life and its many wonders are available inside of you and around you and yet you are not able to touch its wonders because you get lost in the past, in the future, and also in your projects, your worries. How can your mind rest and restore itself? Our mind also has the capacity of self healing just as our body.
Remember when you lost someone very dear, you suffered, and you thought that you"d never restore yourself, you"d never be able to forget that suffering. You thought that the suffering would dwell with you, the wound would be with you, forever. But some time later you got used to it and you were able to go on with life. This means that your mind, your spirit, was able to heal itself.
We have to trust our spirit in the way we trust our body. Our spirit has the power of self healing if only we know how to allow it to rest and don"t continue to feed it with more worries, with more projects, with more fear. The practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking, enjoying the contemplation of the sky, of the vegetation, of being with friends, enjoying things in the present moment, helps you to stop these kinds of feelings-the heart and the spirit filling with worries and fear. You will heal in the inside.
During the time you are here in Plum Village, you are surrounded by many friends who are practicing resting, recuperating themselves. Do a lot of total relaxation, mindful relaxing, walking, and sitting meditation, and enjoying doing things mindfully to help the sangha.
[Bell]
Many of us have had the good fortune of having a loving father, a loving mother, a loving teacher, or a loving brother or sister or friend. We have to call on them for help. Whether they are still alive or they have pa.s.sed away, they are always there in you.
A father always wants to love his child. That is the deepest nature of a father. If you see that your father does not love you, it is because he was not able to manifest his love, that"s all. No one had helped him to express his love. All fathers, deep inside, want to love their child. But if they say, "I hate you! I don"t recognize you as my child!" that is because they do not know how to do it. It does not mean that a father does not love his child. You also, you love your children even if your children do things you consider to be negative, that irritate you. Still, deep inside you, the love you have for your children is still intact. You only need to learn how to express your love. There are many people who think that their father or their mother doesn"t love them, many are victims of such a vision. But, according to my experience, all fathers love their children, deeply. All mothers, also. Even animals, they love their children.
When you look into your hand-if you look deeply-you"ll see that this hand of yours is also the hand of your mother and your father. Because you are a continuation of him, you are a continuation of her. This hand has been transmitted to you by your mother, by your father. It is also the hand of your ancestors. So, don"t think that this is only your hand. This is the hand of several generations. And you are going to transmit this to your children and their children.
All your wisdom, all the wisdom, all the experience, all the suffering, all the happiness of all the generations of your ancestors are here in your hand. Our ancestors, their wisdom, their happiness, their sorrow, their hope, their fear are there inside you. They all have been transmitted to you. In every cell of your body you find everything: all the hope, all the fear, all the happiness, all the suffering of all the ancestors are in each cell of you. Now mankind is capable of cloning itself. We need only to take one cell, any cell of our body, and we can duplicate ourselves.
This means that in each cell there is the presence of you as a whole. The one is the all, that is the teaching of the Buddha in the Avatamsaka Sutra Sutra. And in each cell of our body there is h.e.l.l, there is the Pure Land. There is the Buddha, there is Mara, there is Jesus, there is Satan, there is happiness, there is sorrow, in just one cell. All our ancestors can be touched, can be found in one cell, because one cell contains everything. And this is not just an abstract idea. You have heard of the technique of cloning. We know that one cell can manifest as the whole thing. So look in your own hand, and you"ll see that the cells in your hand are also the cells of your father, your mother, your ancestors. Many of them were wise, were happy. Call on these elements within yourself to come and help you and rescue you.
You have blood ancestors and you also have spiritual ancestors in yourself. If I only have blood ancestors, I cannot be myself, as I am now. Now I use my eyes in such a way that my ancestors did not. I have learned the Buddha"s way of looking. I look at things with mindfulness. I look at things and touch the nature of interbeing in them. The way I look at the sky, at a pebble, as a person, is very deep. And without the Buddha, my teacher, I could not look like that. The way I breathe, the way I walk, also. My feet, walking, are also the feet of the Buddha. I am walking with the Buddha"s feet. Not only do I walk with my mothers feet and my fathers feet, but also I walk with the feet of the Buddha, because each step I can generate joy and peace.
You have your beloved father in you. You have your beloved mother in you. You have your beloved teacher in you. Your teacher may be Jesus, your teacher may be Buddha, and, according to your practice, your teacher is more or less evident, powerful, in you.
Suppose you have a painful spot on your body. Why don"t you call on your father, your mother, your ancestors, to come and help? Touch that painful spot with the energy of healing, of love. Because you know that deeply in him, your father loves you, deeply in her, your mother loves you, deeply in him, your teacher loves you and wants you well.
Suppose you have a tumor that might become important and the doctors say that the only way is to open you up and take it and throw it out. That is our tendency. If there is something that we don"t want, we tend to cut it out and to throw it away: surgery. We have created the painful things in our body and we don"t want them any more, we want to throw them out. It is the same with your mind, your consciousness. There are tumors in your consciousness, the tumor of hate, of despair, of depression. And we also want to cut and throw it out.
That is a way of life, a habit of thinking that we have learned from this new society. If you don"t want anything, you eliminate it either by using a gun or a knife. We have to look deeply into our civilization and to see in what direction we are going. When we have something painful in us, we don"t know how to take good care of it. We don"t know how to embrace it the way we embrace our child. We want to take it, to throw it out. We want to punish it.
So, breathe in deeply, and see that this hand is the hand of your father, your loving father, or your loving mother or your loving teacher. Even if she is no longer alive, she still is real in you because every cell in you is also her. Every cell in you is also him. Call on them to help. There are healthy cells in you, and the healthy cells will come to rescue the cells that are not so healthy. Because you do not know how to take care of them, some of them are tired and are being transformed into a problem.
So breathe in and bring your father, your mother, and your loving teacher back into your hand. You call the name of your father, the name of your teacher and suddenly your hand becomes the hand of your mother, your teacher. And then, when you breath out, touch the painful spot. Breathe slowly. Transmit all these energies to the painful spot. And after you finish, do it again. Breathe in, call his name, and you make him alive, you make her alive. The energy of your father or your teacher will be present in your hand. And when you breathe out you smile, and the energy of your father or your teacher will penetrate into you. Practice like this every day, whether in a sitting position or in a laying down position.
In the moment of your practice you are totally relaxed. You have faith in the people who love you, who want to wish you well. Then you make them present in the form of energy and you use that energy to touch and heal. Your hand has a healing power. You don"t need someone else. Every one of us has a healing power within himself or herself, an energy you can generate into the palm of your hand. That energy is stored within each cell of your body. Learn to do it with your body. If you have a liver that does not work so well, that is suffering, concentrate yourself, inviting your father, your mother.
I have no doubt that my father always loved me. And I don"t consider my father as nonexistent, because my father is in every cell in me. When I call on him, he is back in every cell in my body. When I generate that energy called the energy of a loving father, I touch myself and say, "Father, please help" And your father will be transmitting to you this energy. During that time you feel peaceful, knowing you are being loved, being taken care of by your father.
Remember when you were a small child, you had a fever and your tongue was so bitter you didn"t want to eat anything? And your front felt like it was burning and when your mother came, she put her hand on your forehead, and suddenly you felt like you were in paradise. Just one hand. You felt much better with the presence of your mother and just one hand. Don"t think that hand is no longer there. It is still there because your hand is the continuation of your mother"s hand. And if you call on her, "Mommy? Please help," when you breath in and then, when you put your hand on your forehead and you breath out, you will receive exactly the same energy. Nothing is lost.
Take care of your body in such a way. Allow your body to rest in whatever position you are. And later you will be able to take care of your spirit, your ailing spirit, in the same way. You have blocks of pain, of sorrow, of fear, of despair within yourself. You have to embrace these blocks of pain and sorrow exactly in the same way. Call on them to help.
The Buddha-to-be is not something abstract. The Buddha is very deep in me because I have learned the practice. I have learned to look in the way the Buddha looked. I have learned to breathe the way the Buddha breathed. I have learned to walk in the way the Buddha walked. On the Gridhrakuta Mountain where the Buddha stayed more than twenty years, I sat there and I contemplated the very sunset that he had contemplated. I was looking with my eyes and his eyes at the beautiful sunset.
You also are capable of looking with your Buddha eyes. In your daily life you are used to looking with your eyes, the eyes that do not have the energy of mindfulness and concentration behind them. But with your mindful breathing, you can generate the Buddha eyes in you. When you use these eyes to look, you will see things much differently. It is like having a pair of binoculars and if you bring them up to your eyes, you can see differently. So, you have the Buddha eyes transmitted to you by your teacher. Why don"t you use them? Just breathing in, breathing out, generates the energy of mindfulness and suddenly, you have the Buddha eyes. Looking with the Buddha eyes, you will not get angry. You will despair.
You should not have any complex. The Buddha is enough, Jesus is enough. Jesus said so, "I am in the father, the father is in me, I am in you, and you are in me." Very clear. You can"t deny that teaching in the heart of Christianity.
So, if the Buddha is in you, why don"t you call on him for help? You just breathe in and breathe out and Buddha will be alive, you can use Buddha eyes, Buddha hands. "Dear Buddha, please help," and suddenly you have the hand of the Buddha available to you. How simple. What else do you practice? What else do you learn? This is very simple, easy to understand, and yet very deep. The healing that you want, you can provide by yourself. You are supported by the sangha, by the Dharma, by the Buddha, every moment of your daily life. If only you know this, you will realize that support is always available and then you will not feel alone and scared.
So today, in the Dharma discussion, please discuss this practice. Allow us to rest. Allow our body to rest. There are techniques of resting. You may not be used to them but they are good habits to learn. We have learned the other kind of habit of not resting, and now we have to learn a positive habit to be able to rest-bodily and mentally. And we have to share with each other the ways we do this to arrive at a relaxed state of the body and of the mind.
Walking is a way of resting, sitting is a way of resting, eating is a way of resting. Don"t struggle. We have struggled all our lives, we have gone nowhere at all. Stop the struggle and take care of our body, our mind. Practice resting and restoring ourselves and we"ll go very far.
We will get together and discuss this. We will share our experience of the practice of resting. There are brothers and sisters who have been in the practice longer, they can share their practice. You may ask questions. And we practice the first day, the second day, and then we"ll meet again and share again our practice. If you have any difficulties, if you have any questions, or if you have some success, some joy in your practice, please share these with other people.
We practice as a sangha. There are dharma teachers available in our midst, there are also brothers and sisters who are familiar with the teaching and the practice. So do profit from their presence.
And when you feel concentrated and mindful, and you enjoy your practice of walking, of breathing, of smiling, then you"ll contribute a lot to the sangha. Because if we see you relaxed, walking mindfully, smiling, breathing mindfully, we will be reminded to do the same. Together, we"ll produce that collective energy that will nourish us. When we go home, we can continue the practice even with our children. Because the children in Plum Village proved that they are capable of the practice.
Recognizing Feelings
Dharma Talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh on November 25, 1999 in Plum Village, France.
Thich Nhat Hanh Today is the 25th of November 1999 and we are in the Lower Hamlet, we know that we have thirty seven days to live before the arrival of the year 2000. I like to visualize the 21st century as a beautiful hill. It would be wonderful to climb the hill together. To climb, is not to arrive, but just for the pleasure of climbing.
Suppose here is the year 2000 and here is 2100 and this must be 2050 and we have 37 days before the arrival at this point. To climb a hill together does not mean that we want to arrive as soon as possible at the year 2050, but just to enjoy the climbing, especially if we climb with the Sangha, people who know how to appreciate what is happening in the present moment because there are many wonders of life that are available in the here and the now and climbing is not to arrive, just to climb, just to enjoy climbing.
The practice of Buddhism is the practice of living deeply every moment of your daily life and the heart of the practice is mindfulness, because mindfulness is the capacity to be there, fully present in the here and the now. And when we have the energy of mindfulness we are capable of being there in the here and the now because that is a basic condition for touching deeply life. If you are distracted, if your mind is caught by your regret concerning the past, or the fear and uncertainty about the future, then you are not capable of being there fully alive in the here and the now. Therefore, you miss all the wonders of life that are available in that moment. That is why mindfulness is at the heart of Buddhist practice, you have to be mindful of every moment of your daily life.
When you drink your morning tea you should drink your tea in such a way that life should be possible in that moment. Peace, stability and joy be possible in that moment of tea drinking. You have to be concentrated, you have to be mindful of the tea in order for your tea drinking to be a real act of mindfulness. Only by drinking your tea in mindfulness that you can enjoy really the tea, you have to be totally present in that moment of drinking tea. You have to help the tea to reveal itself one hundred percent to you. You have to offer yourself one hundred percent for the tea and then you and the tea will become perfect in that moment. And the tea drinking can bring you a lot of happiness. That is simple, that is something you can do and that is the practice.
When you sit with your son or your daughter, sit in such a way that you be there one hundred percent of yourself, for him, for her. You will see that your son or your daughter will reveal himself or herself to you one hundred percent. You are available to him to her and she will be available to you one hundred percent. So, sit with your daughter in such a way that you are totally present and alive so that the moment of sitting together becomes an eternal moment. A moment of joy, of peace. If you are caught by your worries, by your regret, your fear, your anger you are not there and your daughter, your son is not there either.
When you look at the morning sky you look at the sky in such a way that the sky will reveal to you one hundred percent of itself, and the basic condition is that you be there one hundred percent for the sky. I remember one day I received the visit of a reporter from San Francisco. He was there to interview me and I invited him to have tea with me in the garden. I proposed that he forget the interview, that he just enjoy the tea with me and I gave him instructions as to how to enjoy the tea, to be there fully for the tea and he liked it.
He had a taste of mindfulness practice, that is why the article he wrote is good. Because what is the use of interviewing if you don"t know the practice? And then I walked with him to his car. Halfway I asked him to stop and I proposed to him to look up at the blue sky and, breathing in I am aware of the blue sky, breathing out I smile to the blue sky. And we stood there looking at the sky, breathing in and out together and smiling. And he told me, it is wonderful, it is the first time I look at the sky that way, very deep. The sky revealed itself to him entirely because he was there one hundred percent for the sky. Many of us have looked at the sky, have seen the sky of course, but not in that way. If our mindfulness is clear then the sky will reveal itself to us in such a deep way. So, drink your tea, sit with your son or daughter, look at the sky in such a way that life be possible in that moment. That is life.
The word Buddhism comes from the root Budh. Budh means to wake up, to be awake, to know what is going on. Budh means to know also, to know what is going on and the one who is awake, the one who is mindful knowing what is going on, that one we call him/her a Buddha. Buddha is not the name of a person, Buddha is just a word that describes someone who is really present, awake, knowing what is happening and that is why the energy that inhabits the Buddha is the energy of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the capacity of being truly present in the moment. And when we drink our tea perfectly in mindfulness we are a Buddha but because we don"t practice we are not a full time Buddha. We are a Buddha for a few seconds and then we are non-Buddha again. That is why with the support of a community we can be more and more a Buddha.
Practicing mindfulness you will develop the capacity of being free, we cultivate our freedom and we know that freedom is the foundation of our happiness. There is no happiness without freedom. When we walk we can walk as a free person or as a slave, it depends on your way of walking. If you are caught by your anger, by your worry about the future, by your guilt concerning the past then you are not a free person, you walk but you are a slave. But if you are capable of making steps that are solid, peaceful, and if you enjoy every step that you make you are free from your worries, your fear, your regret and then you are a free person. And being a free person you can be very happy. So the amount of happiness you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart. So, the practice of mindfulness, being there in the here and the now is really the practice of freedom. Not to allow yourself to be caught by the past, by the future, by your worries, by your anxieties. Free yourself in order to be there in the here and the now, to touch the wonders of life that are available in the here and the now, that is the practice of mindfulness.
During walking meditation, whether we walk alone or walk with a group of people we should learn how to walk as a free person. And as a free person you can enjoy every step you make. The earth that you tread becomes the Kingdom of G.o.d, becomes the Buddha Land. Whether it is h.e.l.l or the Kindom of G.o.d depends on us on our way of walking. If we are full of sorrow, of fear, of anger, of violence, the very ground that we walk, that we tread becomes h.e.l.l. But if we are a free person, if we have the energy of love, compa.s.sion, understanding and freedom in our heart and then the place will become the Kingdom of G.o.d, the Buddha Land. Everything depends on us, everything depends on our freedom and that is why practicing Buddhist meditation means to contemplate your freedom.
When you clean the floor, when you clean the bathroom or the kitchen you can do that as a slave or as a free person. As a slave you suffer but the other person while scrubbing the floor, cleaning the bathroom is very happy because she is a free person, it depends on your way. And mindfulness helps you to free yourself, and you can clean the bathroom with a lot of love and understanding, with a smile and that is an expression of your love and doing the work of cleaning the bathroom or the kitchen you get a lot of happiness. But if you are accompanied by your anger, discrimination and despair, cleaning the bathroom or the kitchen may become hard labor and we suffer a lot, every minute of doing it. That is why the practice of mindfulness can be described as the practice of freedom. Cultivating freedom. Where is the freedom? Is the freedom possible? Is there any freedom at all? The answer is yes! Freedom is possible and it comes from the practice of mindfulness. When you clean the bathroom with mindfulness, aware of every moment, aware that you are cleaning the bathroom, you are cultivating your freedom. But if you clean the bathroom in forgetfulness, being caught in your anger, your jealousy, in your worries and fear, there is no freedom at all.
Bell When we practice walking meditation we invest one hundred percent of ourselves in the act of walking. When our body and our mind are fully concentrated on the act of making a step, the energy that helps us to do that is mindfulness and when mindfulness is there we are concentrated and the object of our concentration is the step we are making. Mindfulness plus concentration will bring forth the solidity, the freedom and the happiness. During the whole time we are walking we keep the energy of mindfulness alive in us, we are entering in the present moment. And when you look upon a person walking, sitting, lying down, cooking, watering the vegetable garden you can see if that person is anch.o.r.ed in the present moment or not.
In the here and the now. Our practice is to learn how to be anch.o.r.ed in the here and the now, all the time. Not to lose ourselves in forgetfulness. Forgetfulness means, we allow ourselves to be carried away by the past, by the future and so on. That is the way of cultivating freedom and when you do that, your brother, your sister around you will learn from you. She will go back to herself, he will go back to himself and walk like you do, breathe like you do, sit like you do and you become a bell of mindfulness for other people. Everyone is practicing freedom and we know that the amount of freedom determines the amount of happiness we have.
When you go back to the present moment you have a chance to recognize many of the wonders of life that are available in the present moment. You need to be in touch with them for your nourishment, for your healing and transformation because there are many things that are refreshing and healing and nourishing around us, and even within us is a lot of goodness. When we go back to ourselves we recognize things that are not good, but if we continue to be there in us we will be able to touch the goodness within us. The same is true of the other person. When you focus your attention on him or her you may have the impression that person does not have enough goodness but that is your first impression only. If you really have enough mindfulness and concentration you will be able to discover that the person also has the potential to be a good person and if you know how to touch the goodness within her then she will be transformed into a very pleasant person.
If you live in a superficial way we can recognize only what is wrong, but we are not capable of realizing what is not wrong in us, in the other person and around us. We have the tendency to think that what is wrong is overwhelming and that is why we have a lot of depression and anger and fear but if we are capable of establishing ourselves firmly in the here and the now we will be able to recognize the positive elements that are still available in us and around us.
Suppose you get into a garden and you see a number of trees dying and you become depressed. You are not capable of noticing that there are still many trees that are healthy and beautiful. You should be able to notice the presence of these beautiful and healthy trees in order to enjoy them. And if you are supported by these beautiful, positive aspects of life you will be strong enough in order to take care of what is wrong, namely the trees that are dying. We protect what is not wrong and we try to help with what is wrong and that is our situation.
To allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the negative feeling when we touch what is wrong, is not a good thing to do. Therefore we should be able to be there in order to recognize the positive elements for our nourishment and healing. And we need a friend, a brother, a sister who practices in order to help us realize that. A good dharma brother, a good dharma sister will tell you that there are still many wonderful things around, and if you know how to be in touch with them you get the nourishment and healing that you need. Then you will be strong enough to take care of what is wrong.
There are things that are very much to our liking, but mindfulness helps us not to be possessive, attached to them. We know that the fresh breeze, the clean air, the beautiful sky are all wonderful and we can profit from them, and we need time. But you don"t need to possess them, you don"t need to be attached to them. You don"t have to make them your own, preventing the other people to profit from them. Mindfulness is the kind of energy that can help you to identify and to recognize what is there, and also to keep you free.
You see something beautiful, you see someone beautiful, and if you have freedom in you will be capable of enjoying that beauty. Mindfulness will help you not to be attached to it, not to be a slave of it, not to try to possess that to make it yours, and to prevent others from enjoying it. Mindfulness has been described as the act of recognizing things as they are, mere recognition of what is there. When we see a rose blooming, we recognize there is a rose blooming. When we see that the rose is beautiful we say, the rose is beautiful, simple recognition of what is there. You do not try to be there to tie it to you, to possess it, to be attached to it, or to run away from it, to suppress it or to try to discriminate against it.
When we do something negative your mindfulness will tell you, this is something negative. When you see something not beautiful, your mindfulness will help you to see, this is not so beautiful. Simple recognition of what is there, and how it is; that is the practice of mindfulness. Suppose you have a feeling of joy and breathing in you are aware of the feeling of joy in yourself. Mindfulness is the capacity of recognizing that joy is there in you; that is the practice. And mindfulness also helps you not to be a possessor of joy, trying to possess that joy, trying to make that joy exclusively yours. And that is why when that feeling of joy is no longer there you don"t suffer.
When you have a feeling of non-joy arising in you, an unpleasant feeling, mindfulness will help you to recognize it as an unpleasant feeling. Mere recognition that it is an unpleasant feeling and you are still free from that feeling. Breathing in I know that a feeling is in me, breathing out I smile to the feeling. Breathing in I know that this feeling is unpleasant, breathing out I smile to the unpleasant feeling in me. You recognize the feeling and yet you are not a slave of that feeling, whether that feeling is pleasant or unpleasant. In both cases you remain a free person and as a free person you don"t suffer much, that is the secret.
Even if you have a physical pain. If you have a physical pain mindfulness will help you to know, to be aware that a physical pain is there. Breathing in I know that there is a physical pain in me, breathing out I smile to the physical pain, and somehow you may remain a free person. If you try very hard to suppress the physical pain, you try to resist, your suffering is increased by ten times, twenty times because you are not free. If you are free you suffer very little, if you are not free you suffer ten times, twenty times more, that is why mindfulness can help. I repeat this, if it is a pleasant feeling, recognize it simply as a pleasant feeling, not to be attached to it, not try to possess it, not try to make it last longer, not try to make it eternal. Because if you do you will suffer, because everything is impermanent, including your pleasant feeling. So, whether the pleasant feeling is there or is not there, you are a free person and that is the key of your happiness.
If the unpleasant feeling is there, recognize it as being there, not trying to resist, not trying to combat,and then you are still a free person, you don"t have to suffer much because an unpleasant feeling is also impermanent. Any feeling is impermanent, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and you are not touched by the unpleasant feeling, whether it is mental or physical. When you have physical pain you tend to worry a lot, you tend to resist a lot, you really want to hurry in order to remove the physical pain. And that kind of tension, that kind of resistance, that kind of att.i.tude will make the physical pain in you double, triple, ten times, one hundred times more intense, that is why mindfulness practice is just to recognize it as it is, smiling to it. The practice of mindfulness is to maintain your freedom in order for you not to suffer.
The Buddha offers us this example. Suppose someone is struck by an arrow. He is suffering. Suppose a second arrow comes and strikes exactly that same spot, now the pain will not be double, the pain can be ten times or fifty times more intense. So, if you have a mental or physical pain and you recognize it with freedom then you just suffer a little bit, but if you resist, if you are eager to suppress it, if you get angry, if you get a lot of worries and fear then your unpleasant feelings will be one hundred times more intense and you suffer a lot. And that is the second arrow. Never allow the second arrow to hit you, that is the practice. And only the freedom, with the practice of mindfulness, you can avoid the second arrow to come and hit you, simple recognition, mere recognition, is a very wonderful practice. And if you know how to practice mindfulness of relaxation, mindfulness of smiling, of breathing and then the feeling whether mental or physical will diminish and you know that if you are allowed to be touched by the healing, refreshing elements within and around you there will be a transformation and then the unpleasant feeling in you whether mental or physical will be relieved little by little. You know what to do and what not to do in order for the pain not to increase. And to know what to do and what not to do is the job of mindfulness because if you are mindful you know the situation well. If you are in the here and the now you know the situation better, and if you know the situation better you know what to do, and especially what not to do, in order not to make the situation worse. That is why mindfulness practice is very crucial in our daily life.
When we come to a practice center where people practice mindfulness, we have a chance to learn the art of mindful living. You have the chance to learn walking in mindfulness so you can enjoy every step you take. Walking in mindfulness is what all of us are supposed to do in Plum Village and the technique of walking is simple. Produce your true presence, body and mind united and make one step. Not to allow yourself to be carried away by the past or by the future, your projects, by your fear and just be there and enjoy making one step: with freedom, of course. Freedom from the past, freedom from the future, freedom from your projects, freedom from your resistance. Allow yourself to be there in the here and the now and make one step and you become a Buddha; a walking Buddha and if you are capable of making one step like that you know that you can make a second step and you can make also a third step. And your walking becomes very healing and transforming and you are supported by other brothers and sisters around you because they are practicing the same walking with freedom and enjoying every step they make. Walking as a free person. Walk like a free person and not a slave.
When we say the Kingdom of G.o.d is at hand, you have to say, are you ready to enter the Kingdom of G.o.d? The Kingdom of G.o.d is available, the Pure Land is available, it is there, it is only you who are not ready. You have no freedom, therefore the Kingdom of G.o.d is not yours, the Buddha Land is not yours. The Kingdom of G.o.d is only for those who are free and cultivating our freedom is your practice. Life is full of wonders, if you are free you come in touch with all these wonders, they all belong to the Kingdom of G.o.d. That is why, to allow yourself to be carried by your resistance, your fear, your anger is to run away on the Kingdom of G.o.d. Knowing that the Kingdom of G.o.d is there waiting for you with all the wonders, abandon all these kinds of worries and fears, and anger and resistance in breath, outbreath and produce your true presence, your freedom and with only one step you can step into the Kingdom of G.o.d.
I remember twenty years ago speaking in a church in the vicinity of Philadelphia, a church attended by the black people I made that declaration for the first time; you don"t have to die in order to enter the Kingdom of G.o.d, in fact, you have to be very alive. Free yourself, go back to the here and the now and with only one step you can already enter into the Kingdom of G.o.d. And during another retreat in Plum Village with Catholic nuns and monks, during the time we sit in the woods after walking meditation I turned to my friends and I said, "the Kingdom of G.o.d is now or never..." so be ready for it. And your practice is to walk in the Kingdom of G.o.d every day and if you are capable of doing it in Plum Village, you will be able to do it in Philadelphia, in New York City, Zurich, Bangkok and so on. So this is the place to train yourself to walk in the Kingdom of G.o.d. If you wait until you die it may be too late. And to me the Kingdom of G.o.d, the Buddha Land is available only in the here and the now; the message is very clear, otherwise we waste our life.
With our steps, with our mindful steps, we get anch.o.r.ed in the here and the now - the only address of life. The only real address of life: all the other addresses are fake. The real address of life is here and now, including the zip code. And if you ask the address of the Kingdom of G.o.d, the address of the Buddha, of Bodhisattvas I will tell you, the same address, here and now. Therefore our practice is to go back all the time to the here and the now in order to encounter true life and in order to encounter the Kingdom of G.o.d, the Buddha Land. And if your practice is strong, authentic, then you get it today, you don"t need tomorrow, you can get it today. And the more you practice the more you enjoy, the practice is enjoyable. You don"t practice for the future, you practice for the here and the now because the Dharma is described as not a matter of time, transcending time. The Dharma is for the here and the now.
With the practice of mindful breathing also you get anch.o.r.ed in the here and the now. Breathe in and out in such a way that you establish yourself always in the here and the now, while you eat, while you drink, while you wash dishes, while you sit with your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister. The practice of mindful breathing or mindful walking is very crucial, very basic in Plum Village.
The Buddha said, if you practice mindfulness in seven years you get your freedom, your emanc.i.p.ation. And then he said, you don"t need seven years, one year may be enough if you practice mindfulness and then in one year you get your freedom. And after that he said, maybe you don"t need one year, you need seven months and if you practice with all your heart in seven months you get your freedom, your emanc.i.p.ation. And then he looked at his disciples and he said, maybe you don"t need seven months, you need seven days. Because if you get down to the practice, you practice with all your heart in seven days you get your freedom, it means your total happiness. And then he looked at them again and said, maybe you don"t need seven days, you need one day, twenty four hours. You put all your strength, your heart into it and then in twenty four hours you can get your freedom and your happiness. And these words are recorded at the end of a discourse called Sattipattana Sutta, the Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. It is very meaningful, because every minute of the practice can already bring you joy and emanc.i.p.ation. It means that with only one step you can already get some freedom, with another step you get more freedom. One in breath you get some freedom, one out breath you can more freedom, you are cultivating your freedom all the time. because no happiness, no peace, no stability will be possible without freedom. So we can attribute, we can describe that the practice of mindfulness is the practice of freedom.
This morning we talked about the mindfulness trainings, the mindful manners as means to protect our freedom and to develop our freedom and now we are talking about the practice of breathing, of walking, of cleaning, as a practice of freedom also. Freedom is so precious for us, and that is why we come to the Sangha, we come to the practice center.
In our tradition, in our Zen tradition if you are in the meditation hall, in the Dharma hall you have to keep very quiet, very still. You are expected not to produce any noise. As soon as you arrive in the Dharma hall or in the meditation hall you sit down and you begin to practice mindful breathing. You don"t talk, you don"t do anything to create any noise. That is very important because the noise, even small noises, will harm the practice of other people. Out of respect for the Sangha we should be sitting very still and not making movements or other noises. This is in the tradition. It is very helpful and we have to learn how to do it. There should be no talking in the meditation hall, in the Dharma hall.
Mindfulness of the Body in the Body