Hành Trình Vô Ngã by
Vô Ngã Vô Ưu
Transcript of Thich Nhat Hanh English Dharma Talks
12 The Chant on Protecting and Transforming
Dharma Talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh
on March 12, 1998 in Plum Village, France.
Dear Sangha,
Today is the 12th of
March 1998 and we are in the New Hamlet. We are continuing the winter retreat
in the spring retreat, and we are going to study The Chant on Protecting and
Transforming. We need to have a new second body in the spring retreat. We
should use our experience from the winter retreat in having a second body and
take a step further in this practice so we can do it more deeply. We must
master this practice, as the Dharma door of the second body is going to be a
very important Dharma door, and we're going to share it with different Sanghas
in other parts of the world. At the end of this retreat we will write a report
about what we have learnt about our practice of the second body. We have to
report on how we have been able to help our second body, and we also have to
talk about our feelings about the benefits that have come to us from this
practice and the difficulties we have been able to overcome, or avoid, thanks
to this practice. It's a wonderful Dharma door and we need to succeed in its
practice and therefore we should not practice according to the outer form, just
saying I have a second body. If we do it only half-heartedly we will have
nothing to report. Actually, we are not practicing in order to report, but we
are practicing in order to have a deep experience, a direct experience of the
benefits of the practice.
Secondly, we should
learn more about how to hold meetings in the Sangha. We are still very bad at
this - we have meetings that are too long and make people very tired. There are
moments in the meetings that are stressful and tense; there is irritation and
we lose the faith of people who are with us when we do that. Therefore, the
Sangha must organise Dharma discussions in order to find out how meetings in
the Sangha can be beneficial, can be a real practice with peace, joy, smiles
and happiness, and without tension or lasting too long. Everybody should
contribute to these Dharma discussions so that the quality of the meetings in
the Sangha can be raised. How can we do that so that in these meetings there
are no unkind or unbeneficial words spoken which pass back and forth between
people. We need to have somebody who is able to bring the Sangha back to the
real matter of the meeting, and whenever there is tension that person should
know how to remove the tension otherwise it is harmful for our minds.
I remember in the
past there was a gathering, before we had the Unified Buddhist Church we had
the Vietnamese Congregation and in charge of that was a high monk. It was a
very long meeting with the Congregation. He was the facilitator sitting at the
bell from hour to hour with great dignity and he was listening to what everyone
was saying, what every monk from the South, from the Centre and from the North
of Vietnam was saying. When the country of Vietnam was divided, then the monks
made different congregations: in the South, in the Centre and in the North. In
addition there were also sections for the monks and those for the lay people.
This meeting was very long and there were moments in the meeting when there was
great tension, if you compare, you could say that they are not very different
from meetings of Parliamentarians in the world - there was a lot of tension. I
was, at that time, the editor of a certain Buddhist magazine, therefore I had
to be there. I saw there was a lot of tension and the monk behind the bell did
not intervene - he just sat there. He just had to say perhaps one word and the
tension would go down straight away, or one sentence and the tension would go
straight away because his virtue and dignity was very great.
When I was in India,
I met the Premier of India and I gave him a couple of suggestions to be used in
the National Assembly, because I heard people were fighting in the Assembly. I
suggested a couple of things that the leader of the national assembly liked
very much. The next day he established a committee to look into the ethics of
the national assembly. One of the suggestions which I gave was that when they
begin a meeting of the National Assembly, the Chairman should say, "I have
been asked to represent the assembly in asking you to be able to listen to each
other so that our collective wisdom can bring about beneficial decisions.
Therefore in today's meeting I ask you to practice deep listening and loving
speech." The members of the assembly all belong to different spiritual
traditions, but these words of advice can be accepted by any spiritual
traditions. Whenever there is tension the Chairman can invite the bell for
everybody to breathe, and when somebody stands up to express themselves in an
unkind voice, then he can also invite the bell. The leader of the National
Assembly liked that very much and said he would use this. So why don't we also
use these suggestions in our own meetings, because in our meetings there is
also tension. When the elder brothers and sisters have tension between them,
the younger brothers and sisters feel very weary of this - they think the older
brothers and sisters have practised a long time but they still have tension
between them.
At the beginning of
the meeting, we have three sounds of the bell, and then we read something like
this:
Before the Buddha,
before the ancestral teachers, we vow that today's meetings will take place in
the spirit of harmony of views and harmony of thought. We will use loving
speech and deep listening so that today's meeting will bring about beautiful
results.
These results are an
offering we can give to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We vow not to hold back in
sharing our wisdom, but we also vow not to speak if we see that in us there is
irritation. We are determined not to allow stress and tension to arise in the
meeting, and if there is tension, we vow immediately to stop the meeting, to
stand up and practice repentance in order to return the atmosphere of harmony
of thought to the Sangha. Repeat these words:
Lord Buddha, and
teachers over many generations, we vow to go through this meeting today in the
spirit of happy sharing. We will use loving speech and deep listening in order
to bring about the success of the meeting as an offering to the Three Jewels.
We vow not to hesitate to share our insight honestly, but will not say anything
if the feeling of irritation and anger is present in us. We will not let
tension come up during the meeting, and at the sign of such tension we will
stop right away and begin anew so that it will be completely gone before we resume
our meeting.
We read this first
and if necessary we read it a second time. At the time of the meeting we need
somebody sitting at the bell - a bell-master, mindfulness master. During the
meetings that person is asked by the community to have that responsibility, and
they are supposed to stop the tension arising in the meeting. If tension does
arise that person is responsible for dissolving it, for letting off the steam
of the tension. Whenever there is tension that person should see it and should
admit – yes, there is tension - breathing in, I know there is tension,
breathing out I know there is tension. I know what I have to do to stop the
tension because this is for the happiness of the Sangha. The result of a
meeting is something we offer to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and if all we have
to offer is tension, what a pity for the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. If someone
in the meeting feels there is tension, that person can stand up and say
respectfully to the chairman of the meeting, I feel there is tension in this
meeting. Anybody can do that; a novice who feels there is tension can stand up,
join their palms and the mindfulness master has the duty to do something about
that tension. If someone feels they have said something that has made tension,
they should stand up straight away, prostrate and say:
I prostrate to the
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I have brought about tension, I am very sorry.
And that will bring
about harmony of thinking. Sometimes it is somebody who is not responsible for
the tension, they can invite that other person to prostrate with them. The
third method we could use - we can put a cushion for Thây in the meeting.
Although Thây isn't there, we see that Thây is there and whenever we say
something to the Sangha we always say "respected teacher, respected
Sangha" - we talk as if Thây is there because Thây is in fact in every one
of us. When we say "respected Thây" like that and we are aware that
Thây is sitting with us and he is expecting us to speak in mindfulness, with loving
speech and listen with mindfulness, then whatever we say will be with harmony
of thought. This practice exists in our tradition already. In the Root Temple,
my teacher used to sit at a table and whenever one of the disciples went past
that table he would bow his head, whether our teacher was there or not. If he
wasn't there we still bowed our head. Bowing our head like that was beneficial
for us. It wasn't really beneficial for our teacher - he didn't need that, but
we needed it. The guest house was a place where our teacher always used to sit.
Nobody else wanted to sit there because that would be impolite, and when we
went past that place we would bow our head and when two of us went past we
always felt that our teacher was there, so what we said in that place was always
mindful. So, in our meeting we can put a cushion for Thây as if Thây is there
and when we come into the meeting we join our palms and bow our head towards
that cushion and when we say something in the meeting we always say
"respected teacher, respected Sangha". Later we will be able to do it
without the outer sign, but to begin with we need the outer sign. This is a
method we can use to raise the quality of our meetings in the Sangha.
As far as Shining
Light is concerned, we have to shine the light on those who are preparing to
become Dharmacharyas, and we also need to shine light on those who have already
become Dharmacharyas. First of all, those practicing to become Dharmacharyas
and then those who are already Dharmacharyas. The Shining Light method is very
wonderful. It is a Dharma door which we offer to the Three Jewels and which we
will hand on to future generations, so therefore we have to be successful. We
have to do what we can; we have to shine the light with all our compassion and
loving-kindness, with all our respect. We have to say everything we have seen
about the person we are shining light on, with respect, with compassion, with
love. We should see the person we are shining light on as ourselves. We haven't
the right to hide what we have seen; we have to be sincere in saying what we
have seen. This is not a matter of not sharing respect, but is a method of deep
looking. We may need to take time from sitting meditation in order to look
deeply, because sitting meditation and looking deeply are the same, and in a
session of looking deeply we need the same seriousness as we have in
meditation. We should sit, body and mind as one, our backs straight, not
sitting in a sloppy way and we should shine light, sitting as straight as we do
in sitting meditation and with all our heart. There are a number of lay people
who need to have light shone on them because they are practicing to be
Dharmacharyas. All those practicing to become Dharmacharyas have to begin, so
that they can show us in the Summer Retreat that they are practicing to be
Dharmacharyas. They really have to practice to show their capacities in the
summer. There is an Order Of Interbeing member in the upper hamlet who has made
a lot of transformation, and I would like that person, he is 'True Great
Instrument', to be practicing to be a Dharmacharya. I want him to be able to
help people who come in the summer. When he first came to Plum Village he was
not a good practitioner but while he's been here he's made a lot of progress;
he's helped his family and he has said quite correctly that not necessarily
every body in the Sangha loves him, but nobody hates him. I think it is true,
everybody sees that, and he is very worthy to be a Dharmacharya, so therefore I
suggest that he should begin practicing to learn to be a Dharmacharya. If monks
and nuns can do as well as he does, then they are already doing very well.
We should practise
our dharma doors with all our heart and straight away. One day, I mentioned in
a Dharma Talk the ways in which we can practice in the kitchen. It is a
practise when it’s our turn to cook for the Sangha. I suggested that when we go
into the kitchen to practise in the morning, we should begin our time of
working by lighting a stick of incense together. We should invite the bell
before we bring out the carrots and the potatoes. I was very happy to hear that
the day after I mentioned that point, two sisters did this straight away. Our
Dharma doors are being practised seriously in the New Hamlet, Lower Hamlet and
Upper Hamlet.
With regards to the
practice of the second body - we may have a second body who we feel is
difficult to look after, because people who we think would be easy to look
after have already been taken. The method of getting a second body is this -
everybody says the name of the person they want to be their second body and at
first there are many people to choose from, but as we go along there is only
one person left, and we have to choose that person. We may feel that this
person is very difficult to look after, but you should know that this is a
wonderful chance for you, an opportunity. The person that you think would be
difficult can bring us a great deal of benefit and joy in our practice. There
are fruits that have thorns and are hard, but when we break them open, they
taste very good. The monkeys know that - they break these hard-skinned fruits.
There are people we see, who, from the outside are not very sweet. The way they
talk is rather severe, but if we know how to deal with them, if we are able to
open them up, then the fruit is very sweet - you must have seen people like
this. Myself, I have seen there are people who are shy, withdrawing; they don't
say anything, speak anything, but one day they react very strongly - that is
because for a long time they wanted to say something but they haven't dared to
say it. So we think that person may be very unkind and not at all gentle, but
in fact, we can help that person become a very sweet spring of water, so don't
be deceived by the outside - don't think that the second body is very difficult
to look after. Bring all your ability to look after that person and that person
will become a very sweet spring of water. Good luck.
So, protecting and
transforming our practice is to guard the six organs of sense – eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, body and mind - they are like six gates to a city. Do not allow
the bandits to come into the city through those gates. The guards who stand at
the gates of the city are mindfulness, because when we have mindfulness we are
able to recognise what is coming in and going out. There are times we allow
people in the gates, but if they are strangers then we should know what they
are bringing in because they could invade our city. And we have released our
city to them, so therefore we have to see the coming in and going out of the
sounds and the images of the different mental formations. The practitioner who
does not know how to guard the six senses, how can they practice and transform
these things? There are things that are not as we would like them to be in our
body and our mind - suffering, craving, anger, hatred and ignorance. We have to
be able to transform these things into something more positive, so that is why
we have this chant called "Protecting and Transforming"; we chant it
to direct us in our practice. "We your disciples who, from the
beginningless time, have made ourselves unhappy out of confusion and
ignorance". This chant was written by me when I was 24 or 25 years old and
after that the congregation of Vietnam put it in their daily liturgy and I
changed it a little bit and made it into the chant we have here.
"We your
disciples who from beginningless time" means for so long - in fact, from
time without beginning. In English we say non-beginning. It is to help us see
about how Buddhism looks at time, because time does not have a beginning -
there isn't a point zero in time, which afterwards has minute one, minute two,
minute three. Time has no beginning because in the teachings of the Buddha,
time is a manifestation. It is a phenomenon and every phenomenon depends on
other phenomena in order to arise and manifest. If there is not space, there is
not time. If there is not material, there is not time. The Buddha talks about
the six elements – earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness, and in
these six elements there is time, even though it's not mentioned as one of them
it lies within them. The eight elements are earth, water, fire, air, space,
time, consciousness, direction, and consciousness. For these eight elements,
each one contains to the other seven - if you look into one, you will see the
other seven. Matter is one of manifestation, therefore time is not a separate
existing identity. This is true of the relativity theory of Albert
Einstein-time and space are not two things, they are part of the same reality.
They cannot be divided from each other – this is, because that is – so time and
space are just ideas we have and they manifest and we see them and when we look
into time, we see space. We say summer is time and space also. Now we are in
winter, but if we go to Australia, where some monks and nuns are soon going, we
will see that it is summer over there, so a season is time, but also space.
Beginningless time means we don't know when it began. It could be now; it could
have been far away in the past, so this is the first time the beginning of time
has been talked about in terms of interdependent arising.
We, your disciples,
who from beginningless time have made ourselves unhappy out of confusion and
ignorance. The word "disciple" in Chinese means younger brother and
child, so we are both the younger brother and sister and the child of the
Buddha, so we have done things because of our speech, our body and our mind.
These things have made obstacles in our life and we have done these things
because we are ignorant, we don't know where we are going. We have made many
mistakes that make us suffer and those around us suffer. We don't want to do
these things, but because we are ignorant and confused we do them. We have
wrong perceptions and that is why we do these things. So we have been born and
died with no direction so many times and now we have found confidence in the
highest awakening. Before the throne of the Buddha, and this awakened person is
sitting on the throne and they have the highest awakening - they could not find
a higher awakening, so we come before this person in order to begin anew. We
have seen clearly that there is a beautiful path. "Path" here means
the pure teachings - the way, the light. With the great good fortune we are
drifting on the ocean and we see the lighthouse, and we know that we have
returned. For so many lifetimes we have been in confusion and ignorance, but
now we see the light of the Buddhadharma and we have an opportunity. Therefore,
we turn in the direction of the light of loving-kindness, because love is a
light that brings us out of suffering. We bow deeply to the Buddha and our
spiritual ancestors. The Buddha is one of our spiritual ancestors who has
established the path of awakening, and Buddha Shakyamuni said that before him
there were other Buddhas. Therefore Shakyamuni also had spiritual ancestors,
such as Buddha Kasyapa, Buddha Vipashyn and Buddha Sikhin; therefore,
"Buddha and ancestral teachers" mean that Buddha and ancestral
teachers throughout all generations are one, so we bow down to them all. Buddha
is a spiritual teacher and the spiritual teachers and ancestors are the
continuation of Buddha who can light the path and guide our steps. We bow
deeply to the light which we use to shine on our path and guide our steps.
Buddha and teachers are one. The wrongdoing and suffering which has imprisoned
us has resulted from great hatred, ignorance and pride. Today, we sincerely
begin anew to purify and free our hearts of the wrongdoing which we have done
in our lives; the harmfulness, not only harming in the sense of killing, but
words which are negative. Anything which is not conducive to love and awakening
is what is referred to here as just not cruelty - it's the opposite of purified
action, and it also means that our body and our mind has become black and dark,
without happiness. All these sufferings and wrongdoings come from greed,
craving and attachment because of hatred, because of ignorance, because of
pride. Today we sincerely begin anew to purify and free our hearts. So we
resolve to become anew before the Buddha. I am determined to put and end to my
old livelihood and begin a new way of life, taking the 5 precepts or the 10
precepts or the 250 precepts. I want to start a new way of live and put an end
to my old way of life - that is the meaning of beginning anew.
There are seven kinds
of pride-called the Seven Prides. The first kind of pride is when we say that
we are better than others; we feel that we are better than others. It is also
pride to say we are just as good as others and to say that you are worse than
others, so we can have pride towards those who are not as good as us, or equal
to us, or we say that we are better than them. When people are the same as us,
and we say we are better, then we can see that we shouldn't do that. Why can't
we say that we are better than people who are not as good as us? According to
Buddha, people who are not as good as us have Buddha nature just the same as we
do; they have the awakening nature just the same as us. Just because the
conditions and causes have not been sufficient enough for them to be able to
develop that awakened nature, we are not better than they are. In fact, if they
had had the right causes and conditions they might well do better than us. We
always think that the other person could never be as good as us, so pride is
not only to think we are better than those who are equal to us, but it is also
to think that we are better than those who are not as good as us.
The second kind of
pride is when someone is equal to us and we say that we are better than them,
and when someone is better than us, we say we are equal. You're not any better
than me, you're just the same. The third kind of pride is when the other person
is better than we are and we say that we are better than them. It is not enough
to say that we are equal to someone who is better than we are, but when we say
we are better than somebody who is better than us - that is going too far. The
fourth pride is self-pride, pride of self. That is the basic pride, the root of
all pride. We see that the five aggregates are us - the five aggregates are
self, or they belong to the self. They are me or they are mine. In our everyday
language we say we are very proud - in Vietnamese we say we are very proud of
ourselves - but that doesn't really mean what it means here. We are not
awakened, yet we say we have realised. This is one of the very important
precepts of a monk or nun, very severe. Even though someone has not made
realisations in the practice they say that they have made realisations in the
practice, or they do things to make people think they have realisations in the
practice, and they offend against the precept. All these are superiority
complexes.
Then there is the
complex of being worse than others - thinking we're not worth anything, an
inferiority complex. In the novice precepts there is a sentence describing this
in Chinese - if the other is a hero then we can be a hero; we should not
despise ourselves... And finally there is wrong pride, which means we do not
have virtues, but we make out that we have virtues. We call our self, "The
Venerable One". We do not have compassion and love, but we make out we
have compassion and love. We don't have insight, but we make out we have
insight. These are of the seven different manifestations; forms according to
the Abidharma Koshasastra of Vasubandu. There are also theories of three
prides... the ten prides, etc. Our substance is this equal nature, the
Samathajnana, the sameness, the equal-ness nature - to be able to see the
sameness and the equal-ness of all species with ourselves.
[Bell]
The wrong actions
that have imprisoned us have resulted in greed, hatred, ignorance and pride.
Today, we sincerely begin anew in order to purify and free our hearts. These
words want me to proclaim that I do not want to continue the life of suffering
which I have had in the past. I want to develop a new life so that is why I am
beginning anew. When I have begun anew, I will have a new energy and I will
feel light in my heart and my body, so today we sincerely begin anew. Awakened
wisdom bright like the sun and moon - immeasurable compassion, merciful and
kind. These are two sentences to praise the Buddha - on the one hand there is
compassion and on the other hand there is wisdom. The wisdom of the Buddha is
like the sun and moon and the love of the Buddha can rescue very many sentient
beings. We resolve to live well throughout our life, going for refuge to the
Three Jewels. We look up at the Buddha and see that the Buddha is the example
for us to follow - an example of compassion and wisdom. And we want to follow
the Buddha, we want to be as Buddha, we want to go on the path of Buddha; we
are resolved to live well throughout our life, going for refuge to the Three
Jewels. That is, we take whole life and go for refuge with our whole life, all
the way, with everything we have. We bring all our life and we invest it in the
Three Jewels. We shall take the boat of loving kindness to go over the ocean of
sufferings. This is not a matter of belief, this is a matter of action. There
is a boat and you get onto the boat - the boat of loving-kindness. It is only
that boat that can help me to go over the ocean of suffering and reach the
other shore. That is the boat of wisdom, so this is action - it is not a wish,
a desire.
So we shall use the
torch of understanding to come out of the forest of confusion, the forest of
wrong perceptions. With determination we shall realise learning, reflecting and
practice. Learning, reflecting and practice are the progress of the practice.
You hear the teachings - you look deeply into want you are listening to - you
shine light on what you hear and what you hear shines light on your own thought
and on the environment you’re living in. You see how you have suffered and how
you have lived and you are determined to get out of that situation by learning,
reflecting, and practising - that is, applying what we have looked deeply into.
We have heard, and we have used what we have heard, to look deeply and then we
practice. After that, we apply it in our daily lives. With determination we
shall realise learning, reflecting and practice. Every day we do this - we
learn and we bring what we have learnt to into our daily life.
Right view shall be
the basis of actions of body, speech and mind. Right view means there are many
ways to define the meaning of right view. First of all, it is the insight which
depends on the principle of the Four Noble Truths. This is the principle of the
Four Noble Truths - to practice learning, reflecting and practicing. The first
of the Four Noble Truths is that we have to recognise our suffering - the
suffering which I am bearing and the suffering which those around me are
bearing. We have to accept that this suffering is real and be sure not to say,
"0h, I'm not suffering-why should I be suffering?" We have this kind
of suffering which we have to admit – I am suffering, I am suspecting, I am
unkind, I am angry, I am blaming, I am craving, I am attached. I have these
sufferings and I accept them. And after that, I look deeply to see the causes
of my suffering. Why am I suffering these particular thoughts? And that is the
look of those who practice according to the Second Noble Truth - the making of
suffering. Then we can see the reasons that have brought about our suffering,
and we are determined to put an end to it because these sufferings can end. So,
the third Noble Truth is the way to transform and end our suffering, and this
is called the path of reflecting. In learning reflecting and practicing we have
to go on this path and when we practice the Four Noble Truths we have to be
able to see the Four Noble Truths not as a matter of knowledge, knowledge is
not right view. Right view is to learn about these sufferings and to be able to
get insight into them, to recognise them in us, to know why we have them, and
to see that there is a method, a way, a path to transform them. Learning,
reflecting and practicing has to go according to the Four Noble Truths. It has
to be applied in terms of the Four Noble Truths, and in the light of the Four
Noble Truths we can learn, reflect, and practice.
Shariputra said that
right view could be defined in the light of the four kinds of nourishment or
edible food. The Buddha taught that there is nothing which can exist without
being nourished. Our happiness needs to be nourished if it is to continue, and
our suffering has to be nourished in order for it to continue. There is nothing
that can continue to live without nourishment and therefore we have to look
with the eyes of the four nourishments. First of all, the nourishment we bring
in through our mouth - these foods can bring about suffering or happiness for
us. We have to look into them to see clearly the basis of food. Looking into
the food, edible food, we see the substance of these things and we know whether
we should eat them or not. That is right view, and in learning, reflecting and
practicing we have to do this. Second is the food of sense impression, that is
the matter which we bring into us through the six organs of the senses - the
eyes, ears, nose, body, mouth and tongue - the smells which we are attracted
to, the stories, the novels, the songs and the films which we look at. They all
belong to the second kind of food called sense impression food.
The first is edible
food, the second is sense impressions. When we are driving through Bordeaux, we
see the advertising boards and sometimes we hear a love song and all these
things are food - called the food of sense impression, and if this food is
poisonous we should be able to see that. That is right view. We are singing an
emotional song, we're listening to an emotional song, then we are eating sense
impression food. We eat the sentimental song and then when we're sitting it'll
come back to us again, so when we are in the monastery, if we don't look at
films, we don't read books of the world, we are protected to a large extent.
Because those images will go into us and darken our souls, they agitate and
disturb our whole mind. These are the kind of poisons which those in the world
consume every day and they have to learn how to transform this. If we are
depressed, it may be because we have not looked after our sense impression
food. We have seen or heard things which make us anxious and despairing. All
these things can come from the food of sense impression. When we come into the
monastery, practice the 10 precepts, the 5 precepts, the 14 precepts, we
protect ourselves. We do not consume intoxicating sense impression food and
learning, affecting our practice which is illuminated by right view. If we
leave the practice centre and go to Bordeaux for 24 hours, we will begin to
consume the sense impression food of the world, it is enough time for us to be
intoxicated. What if we are in the world for our whole life? Sense impression
food is a very important kind of food. We need right view to be able to see
what kind of food will bring us back our peace, joy and stability and what kind
of food will bring back destruction.
The third kind of
food is called intention. The food of intention is our wishes and our desires
for the future. Someone's life is directed by their intentions. We want to
become a nun or a monk. The reason why we become a monk or a nun is because in
us there is an energy that motivates us, pushes us. We want to become a monk or
nun; we want a simple life; we want to transform our suffering. We want to
train ourselves in the capacity to help the world, and that energy is what
pushes us to become a monk or nun - that is the food of intention. But there
are also intentions which don’t take us in a good direction like that - they
could take us in the direction of sadness. A person may think that they have to
kill the person that has made them suffer in order for them to be happy. The
other person has done so many injustices to him and if he cannot kill the
other, he does not feel satisfied, and so the only reason he stays alive is to
get revenge. His life only has one motivation - that is to take revenge on the
other person. Or we want a certain position like a manager or director - we say
that if I cannot be director, there is no point in my being alive, so all body,
speech and mind actions, all strength of mind, is used in order to have that
post. We see a great energy in that person, but we know when that person does
become director he will have to suffer. So our motivation could be our hatred
or our anger. Mindfulness will show us where this food of intention is leading
us because we are being driven away on the path of suffering. If that energy is
the energy which pushes us on towards the direction of enlightenment and
freedom, of saving others, then that action has a very wholesome intention and
we should be very happy to have that kind of intention. But if our intention
belongs to the realm of craving, hatred or revenge we should see that, and we
should not allow this source of food to destroy us. We need right view to be
able to see that. If we don't see that then we don't have right view.
Finally, there is the
food of consciousness. Our consciousness every day eats a great deal, and we
become what we eat as far as consciousness is concerned. We are what we eat and
we eat all kinds of things. We have edible food as well as sense impression
food, attention food, and consciousness food. Master Tang Hoi said that our
consciousness is like a great Ocean - it receives the water from the rivers
from all directions – the Ganga, the Mekong, the Red River, the Mississippi
River – we receive all these sources of wholesome things and unwholesome
things. If we received too many negative things we will use them to do negative
things, so we should see that our consciousness is like a great Ocean,
receiving the waters of all rivers. We have to be aware that our consciousness
is six sense objects and if we don't have mindfulness and practice guarding
these six sense objects then our consciousness will be poisoned. The fifth
mindfulness training talks about this, so when we talk about right view, first
of all we talk about right feeling being the insight which flows on from the
Four Noble Truths, and right view is the insight which follows on from the four
kinds of nourishment. I'm determined to practice learning, reflecting and
practicing, these are the basis of our practice.
Right mindfulness
will determine our walking, standing and sitting. When there is mindfulness,
there is benefit. When there is no benefits, it is because there is no
Mindfulness. This is the training of the monk or nun and also the lay person
because our practice is the practice of right mindfulness and when there is
right mindfulness of walking, standing, lying down, and sitting, it will be
different, more beautiful. So if we live deeply every moment of our life, right
Mindfulness will determine the form of our speaking, smiling, coming in and
going out. Whenever anger and anxiety enter our heart we are determined to come
back to ourselves with conscious breathing. This is like a treaty we sign
whenever we are angry or anxious. We do not allow these things to pull us away;
we are determined to practice; we return to our breathing. If not, we are not a
monk or a nun, we are not a lay practitioner who practices mindfulness.
Every step enters the
Pure Land, every look sees the Dharmakaya. If we practice already then each
step of ours will nourish us. If not, we are walking in the Saha world, or in
the hell realms - and that is a great pity for us because we practice for
mother, or father, for grandparents, for spiritual ancestors, and for future
generations. We have to be able to walk on the Pure Land. That is the only way
to practice. If we have mindfulness, if we can dwell in the present moment, we
are in touch with the wonderful things of life and the Pure Land is present
right here and now. If we continue to walk in the Saha world, we let down our
family and we betray our body and our mind, so why are our steps based in the
world of dust? Why can we not step in the Pure Land where every look is able to
see the Dharmakaya? You have to look deeply. If you look superficially you will
not see the Dharmakaya. Look at a pebble, a flower, a glass of water. Look at a
brother or a sister deeply. To see deeply into our nature our education needs
to be changed. When we send our children to the middle school, the high school,
or the University, they learn a lot but when they are 20 or 25 years old their
capacity to be able to see themselves and to see those around them is very
weak. In society and life they still do not know themselves and they do not
know those around them because the level of their mindfulness is so weak. What
does it means to see oneself? It means that when we are angry or sad, we know
that we are angry and sad. When we walk, we know we walk and when we sit, we
know we sit. That capacity in them is so very weak. So educators, who have
studied so much, when they are 25 years old they still don't know themselves
and the people around them. Therefore, we have to change our education.
Who is an educator?
Who are those concerned about the future of education? There are adults who are
22 years old and do not know what is happening within themselves, do not know
who they are - these people go around in the world not knowing what is
happening to them. It means that their level of mindfulness is very low and when
we don't know who we are and what is happening to us, how can we see those
around us deeply to see that they are also suffering? They are also caught. How
can we look at them with the eyes of loving kindness and compassion? How can we
understand them?
To know ourselves, to
have self-awareness - we know our body is there, we know our mental formations
are there. We learnt these things in the Sutra on the Four Establishments of
Mindfulness. Here is this body, here is this mental formation; this body is in
such a state; this mental formation is in such a state. A young person of 25
years old should be able to see these things, should be able to look deeply.
Why have they been ten years in school and not learnt this? What is the point
of learning so much mathematics, for what reason? If we don't know what is
happening in us, how do we know what is happening with us as far as feelings
are concerned? The Buddha taught that when we have a feeling, we should look at
that feeling from within and from outside. And if we know our feeling we can
also know the feelings of another, when our elder brother has a difficult
feeling we know it. If we don't know it then we could say something that could
make him even more unhappy. If we don't know ourselves, we won't know another
person's feelings. We should observe our feelings from the inside and from the
outside. If we can see our feelings within us, then we will see the feelings in
others and we will be careful and will stop ourselves from saying and doing
things which will make the other person suffer even more. Therefore, to go to
school and University for ten years in the world can teach us nothing. Our
capacity to see ourselves is very elementary and when we cannot see ourselves, how
can we see those around us?
When we have
mindfulness concerning ourselves, concerning our feelings, we will have a
capacity to put ourselves in the place of the other, which is called
"empathy" by psychologists. Chinese people translate it as,
"entering into the other." It means we see the presence of the other
and we can enter into the other in order to be able to feel what the other
feels. That is what is meant by "looking deeply" - we can put
ourselves into the flesh and bones of the other, into the mind of the other; we
can see how that person is feeling. If there is suffering and sadness, we go
into that person and we can feel their pain, and if we can feel the feelings of
the other we can understand the other and we will not do or say anything which
could make that person suffer more. But if we can't do that for ourselves, if
we cannot see our own mental formations, how can we see the mental formations
of a younger brother or sister, or an elder brother or sister? Therefore,
self-awareness leads to empathy. So the first thing is self-awareness, and the
second thing is an empathic awareness of others and this is what we should be
able to do. Only when we can do this, when we can see the other, enter the
other - only then can we have real loving-kindness and compassion. That is one
of the aims of education, therefore we have to practice correctly and solidly
and then bring these things out and hand them on to our society. We should
apply these things in the field of education so that the world can have much
less suffering. If we cannot understand ourselves, we cannot understand others;
if we cannot love ourselves, we cannot love others. Therefore self-awareness
leads to an empathic awareness of others and there is a capacity to enter
others and feel their feelings, and then we can look at them with the eyes of
understanding and love and only then we help them suffer less.
These things are
taught by the Buddha in the Four Establishments of Mindfulness - the
mindfulness of the body in the body, mindfulness of the body from within and
from outside. We are mindful here and we are mindful there, and when the six
sense organs touch sense objects we should always use careful attention. And as
we look we should see the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya is the wonderful reality
of all that is. The Dharmakaya is the world of no birth and no death and if we
do not have a deep insight, we are not able to be in touch with the Dharmakaya.
Every step enters the Pure Land, every look sees the Dharmakaya - this is the
"dwelling happily in the present moment" practice. We can see the
Dharmakaya - the wonderful world of no birth and no death. The Dharmakaya is
not some vague idea or wish for the future, but something we can do right now,
something we can do by means of our mindful steps, our mindful looking. Every
step has to be in touch with the Pure Land and every look has to be in touch
with the no birth, no death nature of the Dharmakaya. That is what the hearer
does and that is something we can do now - it is not a wish for the future.
Whenever our sense
organs touch sense objects we should always use careful attention to guard the
senses so that habit energies can be transformed, our hearts garden of
awakening will bloom with one hundred flowers. Each one of us has habit
energies and not one of us can say they are without habit energies. This comes
from our ancestors and when we live together we accept each others habit
energies. We do not say, "you have to get rid of your habit energies and
then you can stay with us". I want to be accepted with my habit energies
and I vow that I will practice with my habit energies, so we transform
ourselves and we transform our ancestors and our descendants. If we don't
practice, we shall hand on our habit energies. Our hearts garden of awakening
blooms with one hundred flowers - our hearts garden - that is the ocean of our
consciousness - we guard it and we transform it and therefore the flowers open.
May we bring the feeling of peace and joy to every house, may we plant
wholesome seeds on ten thousand paths. So we bring peace and joy to many
houses, and in our daily life, at every moment we are able to sow wholesome
seeds. A smile, a look, a word, they all can sow wholesome seeds. May we never
leave the Sangha body. The Sangha body is the Pure Land. This is the Pure Land
teaching - the Pure Land lies in our heart.
May mountains and
rivers be our witness as we bow our heads and request the Lord of Compassion to
encompass us all. So our teacher, the Buddha, has saved and rescued beings in
our world and we are the continuation, so if I have to be born again, I will be
a disciple of the Buddha and continue the work of rescuing beings. So this
world is the enlightenment place of our Teacher, Buddha Shakyamuni, and we will
stay in this enlightenment place in order to continue the work of our Teacher.
This is a vow we make - may mountains and rivers be our witness as we request
the Lord of Compassion to encompass us all. Not to leave us outside of his
embrace, the embrace of his practice of transformation. Whenever we read this
chant, we water the seeds of our ideal, of our happiness, of our direction. If
we have mindfulness while reciting this, we will have a lot of happiness as a
result.
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