Enjoy Each Mindful Breath

0:00:00 Thank you. So, let's go. My dear friends, welcome to the Retreat in Biggest!

0:01:15 When you practice breathing, it's very important to enjoy your in-breath and your out-breath. Let us not struggle with our breathing. It allowed us to breathe normally, naturally. We just become aware of our in-breath and out-breath. And the practice of mindful breathing should be pleasant and enjoyable. We don't have to work out-breath, we have to be aware of our breathing. There is a difference between the two. It is like, when we look at the blue sky, we don't want to intervene with the sky.

0:02:05 We leave the sky. We allow the sky to be safe. We just want to be aware of the sky as well. So this is the same with our in-breath and out-breath. We just allow us to breathe normally, then it becomes aware of our in-breath, now-breath. This is very important. And our breathing can be very pleasant. Remember, there was a time when you could not breathe easily, normally. And you wish that you can breathe freely like other people. So to be able to breathe freely, to enjoy our breathing, is something you would like to do, something very enjoyable.

0:03:04 When you breathe in and out mindfully, you get insight that to be alive is a wonderful thing. To still be alive is a wonderful thing. In my Hermitage, I wrote in calligraphy the words: "Breathe, you are alive." You are alive, therefore, breathe and enjoy your breathing. When you sit, please allow your body to be relaxed also. You should not struggle.

0:03:53 When you sit in your living room and watch the television, you don't struggle. You allow yourself to be sitting there and you don't get the kind of headache or pain in your children. because you allow yourself to sit. So in sitting meditation, do not suffer. Do not try. Do not try to become someone other than yourself.

0:04:36 Allow yourself to be. Sit relaxingly and enjoy the sitting. Sitting also can be very enjoyable. Sitting and doing nothing. Just enjoying your sitting, enjoying your breathing, and feel that you are alive. The President of South Africa, Mr. Nelson Mandala visited France some time ago. And when the press asked him what he would like to do the most, he said, "What I want to do the most is just to sit down and do nothing." Since the time I was released from prison, he said, "I have not had the chance to sit down and to do nothing." For him, sitting down and doing nothing is great.

0:05:37 He could not afford to do it. Among the monks who are there today, there is a very young monk of 17 years old. He came from South Africa. And I told him to enjoy sitting for his president. So sitting meditation is not to become someone else, something else. It's not a struggle. You just enjoy your sitting. Sit and become aware that you are there alive. To be alive is already a miracle.

0:06:24 And if you can touch the fact that you are there alive, That is already enlightenment. Because many people around us, they live their daily life, but they are not truly alive. They are always wrong. They are not capable of dwelling in the present moment and touch the wonders of life that are available in the here and the now. When you sit with a cushion or on a chair, allow yourself to be comfortable.

0:07:08 You may like to show the kind of cushion that is fit to you. But it would be very pleasant if you can sit upright. And our head is on the same line with our back. Don't sit like this, sit like this. Don't do like this. And when you sit like that, allow all the muscles in your body to relax. Give up the struggle. Smile.

0:07:53 When you smile, you help many hundreds of muscles on your face to release, to relax. And you allow the muscles on your shoulders to relax. You don't even have to bring your hands up like this. You can allow them to rest. sitting is an art, the art of resting first, it's very important that we learn how to rest. Many of us have lost our capacity of resting.

0:08:46 We know that our body has the power of healing itself. But we just don't give it a chance to heal. We work our body too hard. We don't know how to allow our body to rest. by eating, by drinking, by working, we make our body suffer. We do not allow our body to rest. If only we know how to allow our body to rest, our body will know how to heal itself.

0:09:33 Remember, when you got a cut on your finger, you didn't have to do anything. just clean the wound, you are not worried because you know that the cut will heal by itself. Your body has that capacity of healing. You trust your body. This is very important. We have to trust our body, to trust in the power of our body to heal itself. And we should learn how to allow our body to rest. The animals in the forest, when they got wounded, deeply wounded, they know how to do it. They find a place, a quiet place, and they lie down many days, not thinking about eating or anything else.

0:10:33 There is a wisdom in that because they know that resting is the only way by which they can heal themselves. And we humans, we have lost that wisdom. We are over-worried. We don't have the trust in our own body. And therefore, to learn how to allow our body to rest is very important. Many of us understand this in principle, and yet we do not have the methods in order to allow our body to rest, including the method of not eating.

0:11:32 Not eating, fasting is a very wonderful practice. But we are afraid that if we don't eat, our body will not get the energy it needs. It is exactly that kind of worry that is responsible for the situation. There are many things we can learn in order to allow our body to rest, in order for it to heal itself. The same thing is true with our spirit.

0:12:19 If there may be a zone of pain in our body, there are also zones of pain in our spirit, in our consciousness. And our consciousness, it has the power of healing itself also. But we don't allow it to heal. Every day, we bring into it a lot of toxins, a lot of worries, a lot of anxieties. We force it to do so much. We don't know how to allow our consciousness, our spirit to rest. Because it seems that we have lost our confidence, our trust in our spirit.

0:13:08 Our spirit, our soul, it has the power of healing itself. If only we know how to allow it to rest. To worry too much has become a heavy energy in us. In the beginning, we did not worry too much, But we have learned to worry.

0:14:18 And with time, the energy of worry, the habit energy of worry has become too strong. And that energy called worry is preventing, preventing the healing of our body and of our spirit. Therefore, we have to learn how to recognize that habit, energy in us in order not to let us, to overwhelm us, and to stand on the way of the healing. We have the habit energy of running.

0:15:21 We do not seem to believe that happiness is possible in the here and the now. Therefore, we have the tendency to run ahead and looking for happiness. Conditions of our own happiness do not seem to be there, to be enough, we believe like that. That is why we are always on the running. And that makes it impossible for us to enjoy what is there in the present moment. The habit of running within is responsible for our restlessness.

0:16:15 Rushing, becoming restless, is a very important energy, negative energy in many of us. We have to recognize them. We know that if we become restless, peace cannot be possible and happiness cannot be possible either. Therefore, how to embrace the energy of restlessness, how to stop the running, is very important. And Buddhist meditation can help us dealing with these matters.

0:17:03 Every time the energy of running, the habit energy of running is pushing us. Every time we feel that energy of restlessness in us, we should know how to deal with them, how to recognize them, how to embrace them, how to smile to them, how to help them. The Buddha said it is possible to live happily in the present moment. That teaching of the Buddha does not seem to be very well-known to people. Dhrista-dharma-sukhavihara is the Sanskrit expression.

0:17:54 Dhrista-dharma means the present moment, the here and the now. Sukha means happy. Sukha Vihari, living happily. And the Buddha also said that even if you have pain and sorrow within yourself, still it is possible for you to live happily in the present moment. Many of us would believe that unless we take the block of pain and sorrow out of us, happiness will not be possible. But the Buddha is saying something different. Suppose we travel into the river, a rock, the rock will sink into the river.

0:18:48 But if we have a boat, we have a boat, we can carry hundreds of pounds of rocks, and yet we don't sink into the river of suffering. Therefore, it is very important to secure a boat. And that boat can be seen as the energy of mindfulness that we can generate within us. The energy of mindfulness is something we cultivate by the practice of Buddhist meditation.

0:19:33 The secret of the practice is just to live, to learn how to live each moment of your daily life mindfully. When you drink your water, drink it mindfully. And by drinking your water mindfully, you generate the energy of mindfulness, the whole mindfulness of drinking. You have the capacity of drinking your water mindfully. There is no doubt about it. Anyone would have that capacity of drinking mindfully his or her water. The only thing is whether you want to do it, you want to train yourself in that heart of drinking.

0:20:21 Everyone has the capacity of walking mindfully. You make one step with your left foot. You are aware that you are making one step. That is called mindfulness of walking. And all of us have the capacity of walking mindfully. But if we are determined to train ourselves in the art of mindful walking, we will be able to stop running and to go back to the "here" and the "now". In a practice center, people train themselves to do everything mindfully, breathing mindfully, eating mindfully, walking mindfully, Speaking mindfully, drinking mindfully, drinking mindfully, eating mindfully, walking mindfully.

0:21:49 That is the training. And if we continue to train ourselves like that, the seed of mindfulness in us will grow every day. And it will be very easy to touch that seed in order to invite the energy of mindfulness to come up and to guide us, to support us. And then around us there are people who practice the same. My dharma brother, my dharma sister, everyone are doing the same because you practice the same kind of teaching. And everyone generates the energy of mindfulness.

0:22:41 A practitioner always needs the support, the nourishment of his as well as Sangha. Sangha means the community of brothers and sisters who practice with you. So if you are surrounded by a Sangha where members practice mindfulness, And if you can generate the energy of mindfulness by yourself, then you have the two elements of the boat that you need. The two components of the boat that you need. And sticking to your mindfulness practice and sticking to your sangha, you'll never sink into the river of suffering.

0:23:38 Mindfulness is the energy that helps us to be aware of what is there in the present moment. When I drink my water mindfully, the water becomes real. I'm aware that I'm drinking this water. When I look at the blue sky mindfully, the blue sky becomes something very real to me. Mindfulness helps it, helps me to be there as a real entity. and it helps the object of my perception become real also.

0:24:35 When you drink your coffee, when you hold your baby in mindfulness, your coffee, your baby become real. Why? Because you yourself have become real thanks to mindfulness. The other thing becomes real also. And since everyone in the community is practicing the same, the collective energy of righteousness is strong. And that is why finding yourself in the midst of such an environment, you are supported, you are encouraged, you are empowered, and you have the solidity, You have the faith that will keep you from sinking into the ocean of suffering.

0:25:33 It's wonderful that many people come together for the practice. If people who are angry come together, there will be a collective anger. That can be very devastating. But if there are many people who come together and practice mindfulness, that is a wonderful thing. Because the collective energy of mindfulness produced by that amount of people will be penetrating into each of us. And each of us will profit from that energy.

0:26:21 Suppose we do walking with meditation together, 600 people. Everyone practices breathing in and breathing out mindfully, generating the energy of mindfulness within himself or herself. That helps the person who practices, that maintains him or her in the present moment. that helps the world to be real for him or for her in the present moment. But at the same time, she offers that energy of mindfulness to the whole Sangha. Everyone is doing the same and the collective energy of mindfulness generated by the whole Sangha will be available for each individual.

0:27:20 That is why walking meditation as a group is different from walking meditation alone. While practicing walking meditation as a group, allow yourself to be penetrated by the collective energy of the Sangha. You feel you are empowered. You feel that you are supported. And other people, instead of being an obstacle for your practice, have become a source of support. A Dharma brother, a Dharma sister is there to support you, not to be an obstacle for your practice.

0:28:11 While you practice sitting, surrounded by so many people who enjoy sitting, Allow yourself to be penetrated by that collective energy of mindfulness. You don't sit alone, you sit with the sangha. It's wonderful to sit with the sangha. When you share a silent meal with the sangha, don't eat alone. Of course, there are a few people who sit among other people but who still feel alone and sometimes embarrassed by the presence of other people.

0:29:06 We have to feel that we are brothers and sisters to each other. your brothers and sisters in the Dharma, in the practice. And I have the right to benefit from your presence, your wonderful presence, because you are there to practice like I am. So let us learn to look at our brothers and sisters who are there as a source of support and we profit from their presence and their practice. In that way, we can receive the energy that we need.

0:29:55 And that means that the support of another person in our life is very important. So to have a Sangha, to have a community where people are devoted to the practice is wonderful. And we should be able to profit from the presence of these brothers and sisters. So let us enjoy sitting together, not just sitting alone. Let us enjoy eating together. Eating breakfast is a beautiful practice.

0:30:40 These strong practices also allow yourself to be penetrated by the joyful spirit of the Sangha. Walking together, sitting together, breathing together. It's wonderful to sit together and just enjoy our breathing in and out. The practice of mindfulness is first of all the practice of going back to the here and the now.

0:31:46 But the habit energy might prevent us to lose the energy of rushing, the habit of over-worrying, the feeling of restlessness. the tendency to be caught by the past, the tendency to be afraid of the future, all these things constitute obstacles for our practice of going back to the here and the now.

0:32:34 If we are able to go back to the here and the now with mindfulness, you will be able to recognize many elements that can make us happy right now, right here. You will be able to identify what is wonderful, refreshing, healing, nourishing in us and around us. And having recognized them, identified them, we know that happiness in the present moment is possible. And with our practice of mindful breathing, mindful sitting, mindful walking, we nourish, we keep alive that kind of insight so that happiness can last.

0:33:33 Otherwise, the thinking, the worries will settle in and take us away from the here and the now. The address of happiness, the address of peace and stability is written very clearly, the here and the now. The first thing we shall do together tomorrow is to enjoy walking meditation as a group of 600 people. I would like to offer some instructions as how to enjoy walking together.

0:34:33 We shall not wait for everyone to come in order to start walking. We can start with 200 or 300 people. When you breathe in, enjoy making two steps or three steps. Try and see whether you would like to make two or three steps while breathing in. Ask your lungs, they will tell you. And when you breathe in like that, and if you make two steps, you may like to use the words: "I have arrived, I have arrived, I have arrived, all right." And when you breathe out, you say: "I am home, I am home." That is the practice of stopping the running inside.

0:35:39 And you stick to that practice until you arrive, you truly arrive, in the here and the now. Because the habit energy is there, And if we allow it to take hold of us, then we will be carried away into the past, into the future, into our worries, our projects. And we are not able to establish ourselves in the address of the here and the now. That is why combining your breathing and your steps and help you to be solid, to be yourself.

0:36:28 I have arrived, arrived, I am home, I am home. My true home is in the here and the now. Because only in the here and the now, that life is available. The Buddha said the past is already gone, And the future is not yet there. There is only one moment when you can be truly alive.

0:37:16 That is the present moment. It's simple, clear. And your appointment with life, that address is clear, the here and the now. And if you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. Therefore, the practice is to go back to the here and the now. The practice is arriving, arriving in the here and the now, your true hope. Everything you are looking for, have been looking for must be found in the here and the now, including your peace, your happiness, your stability, your joy, including the kingdom of God, including the Buddha, including our ancestors.

0:38:13 I have arrived, arrived. I am home, I am home. It means I don't want to run anymore. You may like to make three steps or two steps while breaking in and breaking out. It's up to you. And some time later, you will switch into the second line: In the here, in the now. In the here, in the here, but that is for your ingress. In the now, in the now, that is for your always.

0:39:00 In fact, it is the same kind of practice. When you say, "In the here," you bring yourself back into the present moment. So it is exactly the same kind of practice. And a few minutes later, maybe five, you may switch into the third line. "I am solid, I am free. I am solid, solid, I am free, I am free". This is not auto-suggestion.

0:39:49 This is not wishful thinking. Because if you have succeeded in arriving in the here and the now, You already begin to touch the element of solidity and freedom in you. Your steps are now more solid because you are already established in the here and the now. The past can no longer pull you, the future can no longer pull you away. You are yourself, you walk like a free person, as a free person.

0:40:39 From these worries, anxieties, and fears, and regrets. And therefore, the element of solidity and freedom has increased in you. I am solid, I am solid, I am free, I am free. That is the acknowledgement of the quality of quacking that you have now. In fact, you have cultivated your solidity and your freedom in the last five or ten minutes. That is why now you enjoy it. So when I reach in and I say, "I am solid," I just enjoy my solidity.

0:41:25 we know that without some solidity, we cannot be truly happy. If we feel shaky, we cannot be happy. We must have some solidity within us. And the degree of freedom has also increased because you are now much more of yourself than before. Because you are heavily able to prevent the worries about the future, the regret about the past to come and overwhelm you.

0:42:16 Your quality of life has been improved. You have a lot more freedom. And when you practice walking mindfully like that, you are cultivating your solidity and your freedom with the energy of mindfulness. The Buddha said, "Solidity and freedom are the two characteristics of Nirvana." Nirvana is not an abstract thing. It is made of solidity and freedom. And the Buddha also said, "You can touch nirvana with your own body, with your feet." So walking meditation is wonderful.

0:43:06 Sometimes when you are angry, you are worried, walking like that can release very quickly your negative emotions. And when you are not possessed by anger or worries, walking meditation can help you to cultivate more solidity, more freedom, help you to touch the wonders of life that are available in you and around you. In France, I used to ask the children to practice walking meditation with the two words only: "oui" and "merci".

0:43:55 When you breathe in, when the children breathe in, they make two steps and they say "oui", "oui". Learning to say "yes" to the wonderful things that are available. You say "yes" to the blue sky, you say "yes" to the fact that you are... that your beloved ones are still there, alive, taking care of you. You say yes to your youth. There are so many things to say yes to. And when you have recognized them, you say thanks, merci. So although these words are simple, they are truly the essence of the practice. you recognize the positive elements that are there available, you say "yes" to them.

0:44:46 And you feel thankful that they are there, conditions for your own happiness. So although it looks like a practice for Shottami, but we are down to it and very well practice. "Oui, merci, merci" like the Shottami. The sight of a brother who walks in front of you, on your left, mindfully enjoying every step he makes, will be a bell of mindfulness, helping us to go back to our practice. Because while walking, you may lose your mindfulness.

0:45:32 The thinking might settle in, and mindfulness may be gone. And you are no longer in the here and the now. Especially when you are a beginner, the presence of a brother or sister in front of you or beside you will be very helpful. During the retreat, Let us all practice walking mindfully. And each of us should become a bell of mindfulness for the rest of the sangha. If someone happens to lose one or two steps in forgetfulness, and if he or she sees another person walking mindfully and enjoy deeply his steps, and then that person will be reminded and can come back to himself and enjoy the mindful walking again.

0:46:41 The monks and nuns in Plum Village, they have got the habit of walking mindfulness. Because in Plum Village, you don't have any other style of walking, Only mindful walking. If you come, you will get the habit quickly. And the sight of a monk or a nun walking mindfully, peacefully, can be very helpful. Each of them can be a bell of mindfulness. But all of us can do the same.

0:47:27 each of us can transform himself or herself into a bell of mindfulness by our way of walking. So that the whole community, the whole retreat can profit from our presence and our practice. And the collective energy of mindfulness will be strong and will benefit all of us. Please, if you need to move from one place to another place, go to another place, even if the distance is only a few yards. Do mindful walking. Enjoy every step you make. Walk like you are already in the Kingdom of God. Because in the Kingdom of God, there is only one style of walking.

0:48:25 "Walk in such a way that peace and joy be possible." "Walk in such a way that this very place becomes the kingdom of God, the pure land, the Buddha land." "That is possible." So, walking meditation is a matter of enjoyment. and with the collective power of the Sangha, we will be supported to be successful in our environment of walking. From time to time, you will hear a bell, and you may like to pause in order to touch the blue sky, or whatever is there around us.

0:49:19 Smile to them, recognize them, recognize the fact that we are together. We are here, alive, in this very kind of moment. We touch the metaphor of life, of being alive. And we resume the walking after a few briefings, Like that. We can look at each other, and we can smile. And these little things, they can bring a lot of happiness.

0:50:07 And then if possible, we will sit down together with informal sitting meditation, for some time, before we go to breakfast. Breakfast is a time of togetherness. We enjoy our breakfast. Every piece of bread, We should enjoy it with our mindfulness. We eat in such a way that a piece of bread becomes real, becomes really a piece of bread.

0:51:08 I think this is the intention... of our teachers... when they created the tradition of the Eucharist. Jesus broke the bread and offered to his students. And he said, "Enjoy this bread. This is my body offered to you." To me, this is a very drastic kind of teaching that can help you to be awake.

0:51:56 You are touching a piece of bread, not less than a miracle, a wonder of life. If you hold your bread in your hands and look deeply with mindfulness, you'll see that the piece of bread is no less than the body of the cosmos. The sunshine is in there, the clouds, the sky are in there, the great earth is in the piece of bread, the farmers. Everything in the cosmos are present in that little piece of bread. You need only to breathe in mindfully in order to see it in a piece of bread.

0:52:44 A piece of bread is something not less than a miracle. That is an ambassador from the cosmos coming to you. And if you can see like that, life is full of miracles. And if the piece of bread has not revealed herself to you, don't put it into your mouth. Smile to it first. Call it by its true name, "Bread." And then it will reveal itself. Because when you look mindfully, you call the name "Bread" mindfully, energy of mindfulness bringing you back to yourself, mind and body together.

0:53:33 And when you have produced your True Presence, body and mind united, what is there in front of you will also become very real. When you are truly there, something is there also. That is life, that is the wonder of life. So when you breathe or you look mindfully, or you say something like bread mindfully, you become whole, you become real. And a piece of bread is real now, you can put it in your mouth, and you shoot it mindfully, And be sure not to show anything else.

0:54:24 Not to show anything else like your projects, your worries. Just show the bed. A real pleasure. And eat so. Because that is loving kindness to our body. Show your bed carefully until it becomes something very tasty before you soar. That helps your body very much. If you eat like that, you don't have to eat a lot. And the amount of nutrition will be enough, or more than enough. Enjoy every morsel of food like that, and enjoy the community of brothers and sisters who surround us, that surround us.

0:55:19 From time to time, we look at a brother or a sister and smile, and feel the happiness of heavenly Sangha in practice. And when we stand in line waiting for our turn to serve, to take the food into our plate, we also practice enjoying our in-breath and out-breath.

0:56:05 Not a minute, not a second of our daily life is wasted. Because every minute is a minute of practice. Standing in line, you don't wait any second, any minute. The whole time is for the practice. The whole time can be joyful. There is no waiting. What are you waiting for? Because life is available in this very moment. There are those of us who are new to the practice and have come for the first time.

0:57:01 You should not be embarrassed. Sometimes we don't know whether to bow, to stand up, or not to bow, or not to stand up. But that is not important. The right thing to do is not to bow or not to bow. The right thing to do is to be mindful. It's better not to bow than to bow without mindfulness. So please don't feel embarrassed. If you can allow yourself to settle in the present moment, that is the best thing we can do already. You don't have to imitate exactly the other people.

0:57:48 You might profit from some of their experiences, but you don't have to imitate. If we can produce our true presence and enjoy every minute we are here together, that is already excellent. Walking is good or running is good. If you can run mindfully, that is good. The problem is not between walking and running. The problem is whether you walk mindfully or you run mindfully. In Blown Village, in winter, the monks and the nuns practice mindful running also to get warm.

0:58:40 Mindfulness practice does not mean that you have to slow down everything. But we have to recognize that in the beginning to slow down, it helps. It's easier to be mindful when you do things more slowly. But that does not mean that you have to be slow all the time. No. When you listen to a Lama Thang, that is also a time for enjoyment. Allow yourself to sit with comfort. Don't sound, don't use your intellect, don't try to understand, don't try.

0:59:30 Don't try to compare, don't try to think about it. Just allow the Dhammaton to come to you naturally like that, like the earth welcoming the rain. The best way to listen to the Dhamma talk is not to use the intellect. Using the intellect is like using a sheet of nylon in order to receive the rain. It prevents the rain from penetrating into the soil of our consciousness. It is confirmed that the seed of understanding, the seed of enlightenment, the seed of love and joy, they are only there in our consciousness, in the soil of our consciousness.

1:00:32 Maybe in the past, not many people have been able to touch them and to help them grow. And that is why they have not become important enough in our life. But if we allow the Dharma ring to penetrate into our consciousness, into the soil of our consciousness, and touch deeply the seeds inside, The best a teacher can do is to help the seat of enlightenment and love in him, in the student to come up, to be touched and to manifest. The morning when the Buddha attained perfect enlightenment, he said something.

1:01:39 alone, translating his surprise, he said, "How strange! Everyone has the capacity of great understanding and great love, and yet they allow themselves to sink and to sink more and more in this ocean of suffering." So that statement made by Buddha on the morning of enlightenment Remind us that we all have the capacity of understanding and of loving for being happy. We should allow these seeds to be touched and to grow, to manifest themselves. And the purpose of the practice is to do that.

1:02:28 The purpose of the Dhamma Tao is also to do that, to create opportunities for the most precious ships in us to be touched and to grow, to manifest. Even if you feel sleepy during the Dhamma Tao, that's still much, much better than to use your intellect. Because the Dharma talk, in that case, can sneak into you easily. But with the intellect, there's no sense. There is another line of the Gatha that I have not mentioned.

1:03:33 I have arrived. I am home. In the here, in the now, I am solid, I am free. The last line is: In the ultimate, I dwell. In the Ultimate Ideal is a very deep practice. There are two dimensions to the same reality. The first dimension we call it the historical dimension. And the second dimension we call it the ultimate dimension. and they both are aspects of the same reality, like the wave and the water.

1:04:27 The wave is a wave, but she is at the same time water. From the side of the wave, we can see the beginning and end. You can see whether the wave is high or low, more or less beautiful, this wave or the other wave. But on the side of the water, we cannot see that. We cannot say that the water has a beginning and end, high or low, more and beautiful, because the water is the very round of being of the wave. So it is natural that the wave can live the life of a wave, but she can do better than that.

1:05:29 She can at the same time learn how to live the life of water. And if the wave can bend down and touch the water within her, which is her very ground of being, she will lose all her fear, all her sorrow. Because as far as water is concerned, there is no beginning, there is no end, there is no up, there is no down. There is not this, there is no this, there is no that. There is no before, there is no after. And each of us is a wave like that.

1:06:14 We have our historical dimension. We can live our life in the historical dimension, but we may be filled with a lot of fear, suffering, discrimination. But if we are able to touch the ground of our being, the substance of no birth and no death within us, we will lose all our fear. And we get the greatest relief we can get from the practice. In the language of Christianity, The ground of being, that ground of being is God.

1:07:02 Do not be afraid, it is me, your God. That is the voice of the water talking to your way. And if you can touch your ground of being, and then the ups and downs, The idea of being and non-being can no longer make you suffer. Touching Nirvana is the practice. Touching the ground, no birth and no death, we should be able to train ourselves to touch the ultimate dimension. In other words, for one day, we can get the greatest relief, free from all kinds of fear.

1:07:51 "In the ultimate, in the ultimate, I dwell, I dwell." That is the last line. Let us sing together the song so that we, those of us who are not used to this practice, can memorize. "I have arrived." I have arrived, I am home in the here and in the now. I have arrived, I am home In the here and in the now, I am solid, I am free.

1:08:53 I am solid I am free In the ultimate I dwell In the ultimate I dwell One more time please I have arrived, I am home, in the here and in the now. I have arrived, I am home, in the here and in the now, I am solid, I am free.

1:10:00 I am solid. I am free. In the ultimate I dwell. In the ultimate I dwell. Dear friends, each of us will use a notebook like this during our retreat. And during the first four days, we will practice complete silence.

1:11:05 For us to have a chance to observe, to observe the energy in us, whether positive or negative. And each of us will be offered one notebook like this. And after having used one page, you click that page, don't tear it out. Because a few days later, we have a chance to look at it again. There is a practice called the purification of speech, you don't talk, and you observe the ideas, the feelings that come up in you. All the monks and the nuns here, during the first four days, will practice with you like that.

1:12:19 We shall not talk at all. Every time we need very much to say something, we would use the notebook and write that sentence here in the shortest way possible. We learn to be thrifty as far as words are concerned. But you are asked if you want to say something, you want to react to say something, instead of saying it, don't say it, write it down. You might like to note the day here, Monday or Tuesday.

1:13:15 Something that is not to your liking, something that makes you angry, that makes you irritated, makes you sad. Instead of trying to say out to another person, I won't say it, I'll write it down here. When a feeling, a strong feeling, I come up, instead of trying to find someone to show your feeling, to talk about your feeling, Practice mindful breathing, embrace that feeling.

1:14:02 Write it down here, one line about the nature of your feeling, your feeling, and if possible, the nature of your feeling. Learn to observe your feeling, your ideas. And you may like to practice looking deeply in order to see the true nature of that feeling, of that idea. After a few days, when you read the sentences that you have written down, the sentences that represent what you want to tell the other person, And you see that you don't need to say it at all.

1:14:57 This is about the habit energy, the negative habit energy that is strong in us. And sometimes we say that it's stronger than us. We know that if we said that, if we did that, it would destroy, it would cause damage to our relationship with the other person, to cause damage within us and within the other person. And yet, we have said it, we have done it, and then we regret it a lot.

1:15:45 We are very sincere. We vow to ourselves that next time, we will never say something like that again or do something like that again. And yet, when the time comes, you will say it again, you will do it again. That is the habit energy in us. When you see something not to your liking, you have the tendency to react right away, to say something right away, to react strongly.

1:16:28 Because it seems that we believe that reacting like that will help us feel better. But the result is the opposite. If we feel irritated, and if we reacted angrily like that, we suffer more. And we also destroy something in us, and something around us. If only we can refrain from saying, or from doing that, instead we write it down. And if we can go to sleep one night and the next morning when we read what we have written, we know that it's good that the other day, yesterday, you didn't say it.

1:17:33 Many of the things we say in our daily life are not truly necessary. And many of the things we say also have the power of destroying, causing damage in us and in the other person. That is why the practice of silence is a practice that can help us to observe the habit energy in us. Mindfulness, every time it is lifted up, it can recognize the habit energy. And the habit energy will not be able to push us to say it or to do it again.

1:18:24 Every time we are able to recognize the habit energy, we will keep it from overwhelming us and causing damage in us and in our relationship. And that heavy energy will go back to the depth of our consciousness as a seed and a little bit weaker than before. There was a young American practitioner who came to Plum Village and who spent three wonderful weeks in summer surrounded by solid practice.

1:19:16 He was quite happy. He practiced like other people, mindful walking, mindful breathing, mindful sitting, mindful eating and so on. One day, he was asked by his fellow countrymen to go to the market in Saint-Foil-la-Groans to do some shopping because that was Thanksgiving Day. And each group of residents would like to make a special dish in order to offer to the altar. While he was in the city shopping, the energy of restlessness, the energy of rushing suddenly arise in him, come up.

1:20:09 It did not come up during the three weeks of staying in the Upper Hamlet. He was able to recognize it because he had already practiced three weeks of cultivating mindfulness. So at that moment, he was able to recognize the habit energy of restlessness, of ration. And he saw that is the habit energy that had been transmitted to him by his mother. Because his mother is always like that. So he began to smile, he went back to his mindful breathing and he said, "Hello, mommy!" And suddenly that energy vanished.

1:21:02 He knew that he is not surrounded by practitioners in the Sangha. He has to take care of himself. That is why from that moment on, he followed his mindful breathing and continue to shop, to do shopping until he went back to Plum Village. And that energy did not come up for a second time. So if we know how to cultivate the energy of mindfulness, we have something in order to recognize the habit energy in us every time they come up. We will prevent it from pushing us to do or to say things that we don't want to do or to say.

1:21:53 And every time we embrace and recognize it like that, it will go back to the depth of our consciousness in the form of a seed and always losing some of its strength. Next time, we will do the same. And now we have an opportunity to practice silence in order to observe it. And we have a notebook. So please, every time you need to communicate, use the notebook. Every time you want to say something, just write it down. To show or not to show the other person. That's not important, but you keep it. And the next day, you may like to read it again and find out that it's not really important.

1:22:45 And of course, any feeling that comes out, any emotion that comes out, we should train ourselves to be aware of that, to recognize it, to embrace it, and to use our notebook to record about the time, the day, when it manifests itself. That would be very helpful. Every time I see something not to my liking, I don't react right away.

1:23:31 I go back to my breathing in order to see whether there is something I can do in order for the situation to get better. Because I know, through experience, that if I react with irritation, with anger, I make myself suffer more and I make the other person suffer more. I make the situation worse. And that is a good habit that you can cultivate, you can learn. If you see something not to your liking, don't react. Go back to your breathing and ask yourself the question: "In this very moment, is there anything you can do in order to better the situation?" I know some of us were not happy tonight when we arrived here and find that we have to use a shuttle in order to go back to the other end and go to the city.

1:24:43 I would not like it myself. But if it happens like that, I will go back to my breathing and I will find out what I can do to myself in order to make it acceptable, make it more pleasant. One day, I conducted a retreat in New York City, Manhattan. And there's no place to do walking meditation. And it was not pleasant to come and to find out that there is no facility for walking meditation.

1:25:35 You cannot stay many days just in a building like that. So after one hour of looking deeply, I invited Subway meditation. The subway will link us to the Central Park, where we can have a walking meditation and also Dharma discussion. So I ask the community to support me in practicing subway meditation. So all of us, when the time arrived, would go down to the street and walk to the subway station nearby.

1:26:23 mindfully, observing everything on our way, smiling. And one of us would buy the token and we got into the subway smiling and observed. Usually people in the subway are not very joyful. And you have to maintain your aliveness by mindful breathing and to observe each person on it. Because you are equipped with mindfulness, you are capable of observing things and of smiling. And it turned out that Subway Meditation became the thing that people memorize the most from that retreat.

1:27:21 After the subway, we got into the Central Park. We enjoyed walking there, Dharma discussion there, and then we go back using subway meditation again. I remember one day when we went back to the place of the retreat, one person was stopped by a passenger because they saw us walking in silence and we accepted a solid language. I was walking ahead so I did not know but it was reported to me.

1:28:05 A lady stopped one of the practitioners and asked her. and said this: "I know you are in a powerful experience. You are having a powerful experience. Please tell me what is going on with you." But that person was a little bit, I think, carried the teaching, the practice, too much, too seriously. So instead of smiling and explaining, she continued walking like that. To smile and to explain markfully is also the practice.

1:29:05 So I would ask you to do what we have done in many places, like in India, when we visited the birthplace of the Buddha, the place where the Buddha got enlightenment and so on, always Always on the bus, we use the bell of mindfulness. We practice sitting meditation, mindful breathing, and observing on the bus. So tonight, you use the shuttle to go to the other place. Please maintain your silence, maintain your mindful breathing, and observe whatever you see.

1:29:52 It may be that you see them for the first time because mindfulness is with you. It is my wish that every chapter has a bell of mindfulness in there. Everyone will practice mindfulness of sitting in a desk. And even if we have to go through the city, we don't have to suffer. Why do we have to suffer? Because the subway if you don't practice, easy, is difficult. Therefore, with the mindfulness of breathing, of smiling, of observation, you can transform the situation into something much more pleasant.

1:30:44 And I trust that you can do it for all of us. After four days of complete silence, we shall learn the practice of mindful speaking. But in occasions like Dharma discussion, we have to share our ideas and our experiences. but even in Dharma discussion, use this notebook. You talk only when you really have something important to say, mainly when you have an experience of the practice.

1:31:34 In Dharma discussion, we never engage in the kind of speculation, discussions that are purely theoretical. Dharma discussion is an opportunity for us to share the difficulties we have in the practice, the success we have gone through, we have obtained in the practice, so that everyone in the discussion group will benefit from our presence and our experiences. And thanks to the practice of silence, we have an opportunity, maybe the first time, to observe what is going on inside us.

1:32:20 And we know that thinking may not be the best. Being, touching deeply life in the present moment, is the best. Building firmly in the present moment, Touching and believing that present moment deeply is the best thing we can do. Because mindfulness, concentration, will lead to insight. And it is the insight that reveals to us many wonders that we have not seen. And it is the insight that will liberate us from our suffering, our afflictions. Thinking is not the best thing.

1:33:08 It is being, it is living deeply, that is our practice. I think, therefore, I am not really there in the present moment. So, if we allow the thinking to settle in, we lose the opportunity to observe, to practice mindfully. My dear friends, we have talked about the art of mindfully walking, About breathing, about eating, about using the chapel.

1:34:12 Every time we hear the bell, that is an opportunity for us to go back to our breathing, to enjoy our breathing. That one amass of our body and mind. In Plum Village, not only we go back to our breathing every time we hear the bell, but we also do that every time we hear the telephone ringing. Also when the clock plays the music every quarter of an hour. And in the Dhamma discussions also if from time to time there will be a bell so that we have an opportunity just to stop and to enjoy our in-breath and out-breath.

1:35:14 If you happen to bring your bell, please let us know because I think on each shuttle we need a bell. Thank you.