Non Fear

0:00:00 Thank you. Dear friends, let us enjoy a few more of our verses. Let us read together the 31st.

0:01:12 Subject and object, self, other, inside and outside are all creations of the conceptual mind. As we know already that consciousness should be viewed as three elements: subject of cognition, object of cognition and the wholeness. It is like the snail. It is like the piece of money. And without one, the two others cannot be. So it's naive to think that there is a consciousness really there.

0:02:00 And we use that consciousness in order to go and recognize this and recognize that. Because subject and object, they help each other to manifest in the same time. Thinking is always thinking of something. Angry is always angry at something. There cannot be object without subject and vice versa. Both are based on the wholeness. Self, other, that is another pair of opposites.

0:02:52 The Buddha was very clear, this is because that is. Therefore, we have to be able to transcend the concept of self and other. We inter-are, we cannot be by ourselves alone. The perceiver and the perceived is also a pair of opposites. And now, inside and outside is another pair of opposites. One of you asked the question: "Thay, you said that stalkerousness can be found in every cell of our body. And you also added that it can be found outside of each cell also.

0:03:45 How can it be?" You are taught by the idea of inside and outside. The inside is made of the outside. The outside is made of the inside. Remember the joke I made. We are sitting here, believing that this is our above and this is our below. And our Chinese friends who practice Zazen on the other side of the planet, they wouldn't agree. So outside and inside are also concepts. They are all the creations of our conceptual mind.

0:04:35 32. Consciousness can be viewed as having three parts: the perceiver, the perceived and the holiness. All seeds and mental formations are the same. It means that every mental formation, every physical formation, every physiological formation also has these three parts because they are all belonging to consciousness. 33. Production and disintegration both depend on conditions. Production here is birth, disintegration here is death.

0:05:25 So, production and disintegration, birth and death, belong to another pair of opposites. If we look deeply, we see that birth is made of death. And death is made of birth. And both birth and death take place simultaneously in each moment. And that can be seen when we touch our self deeply, our body and our mind. "The nature of consciousness is to manifest in cognition, in which subject and object support each other to make the cognizer and the cognizer possible." I believe that yesterday we already discussed about this.

0:06:16 Thirty-fourth: In the context of individual and collective manifestation, Our self and non-self are not distinctive entities, like in the case of mother and daughter, the case of father and son, the case of God the Father and God the Son. Everything possesses within itself the nature of inter-being. The cycle of birth and death is achieved in every moment. Usually we think that we need one hundred years or a little bit less in order to achieve one cycle of birth and death.

0:07:06 But birth and death is really taking place in every moment. And we can experience both birth and death in every moment within our body and within our consciousness. Cells of our body die every moment in order to make room for other cells. If we organize funerals, every time a cell dies, then we will not have any time left to do other things. And consciousness evolves in the ocean of birth and death.

0:07:55 Always evolving. Aaliyah, collective or individual, is always compared to a river. Always flowing, evolving. Thirty-five, space, time, and the four great elements All the elements are all displays of consciousness. The four great elements are earth, water, fire and air, Mahabhuta. They are manifestation of consciousness.

0:08:44 Also space and time. Space and time, they are also manifestations of consciousness. In the old time, there were teachers who said that space is an unconditioned dharma. Because we have gone across the term conditioned dharma and unconditioned dharma. And it was said that conditioned dharmas are everything that is combined, that is a combination of many elements, like a flower, a dharma. Flower is a dharma, it is a formation, a flower is made of different kinds of elements, like clouds, sunshine, seeds, minerals and so on.

0:09:37 So every Dharma, every formation is impermanent because they are conditioned. And in the past, there were teachers who thought that there are a few Dharma that are not conditioned like space. Space is not conditioned by anything, but they were not entirely correct because space is made of non-space elements. Space is also a conditioned Dharma. If you look deeply, you see that space is one aspect of the manifestation. The other aspect may be called time.

0:10:22 The same reality, when manifested, could be recognized as space. And sometime later, or somewhere later, it can be recognized as time. It is like the electron. The electron sometimes is viewed as a particle, sometimes is viewed as a wave. Space and time are like that. They are of the same. And it's not so difficult to see that. Because if you take time out of space, space can no longer be space. For instance, they are thinking of winter.

0:11:09 We think winter belongs to time and we have to wait for winter to come. But you can very well travel in order to meet winter. You go to Australia, for instance. Where spring is in your country, In Australia, it is not spring. It is summer. So winter or summer is not only time, it is space. So winter is an entity. When touched, we can see both space and time.

0:11:57 And people talk about the Big Bang. It seems that they think that time just flows like this. And at a certain point of time, the Big Bang just happens. The Big Bang, the expansion of the cosmos, takes place in time. We have to re-think about that. Because it is that Big Bang, that expansion, that is why time is able to manifest itself. So you can see time just because you can touch the fact of the expansion of the cosmos.

0:12:51 And you can see the expansion of the cosmos just because you can touch time. So time and space, these are aspects of the same reality. The same reality sometimes manifested itself as time, and sometimes manifested itself as space. And time and space interpare. You cannot take one out from each other. The only dharma, the only thing that can be described as unconditioned is the ground of our being. That is God, that is Niqana. But it is not on the same level with the formations because it is the base of all formations.

0:13:45 Like the water, it's the base of all waves. You cannot compare the waves with the water. You cannot consider water to be one of the waves. Although water is a wave, but you cannot water is a wave. So space and time are not separated entities, space and time is also a pair of opposites. In the process of interpenetration and interbeing, maturation of Alaya takes place in every moment.

0:14:52 Maturation means the combination of many elements that can bring about a final result. It's like you put different kinds of ingredients in a pot You wait, or you cook, and after some time, it becomes something delicious that you can drink, you can eat. It is also like an orange, born from the orange blossom. And you have to wait for the rain and the sunshine and time and space to work on it, in order for the orange to mature.

0:15:44 So, our actions, bodily actions, our thinking and our speech, when they are combined together, positive actions, negative actions to bring about the result of our... the quality of our being. Happy, more or less happy, more or less painful. That is the maturation. Because we are the author of our destiny, of our being.

0:16:29 Like the French philosopher Jean Concert, He said: "Long a la somme de ses acte". Man is the sum of all his actions. So action here, in Buddhism, we call it karma. Karma means actions. Actions in three forms: thinking, speaking, and doing. So we are the sum of all our actions. And when our actions come together and lead to a maturation, we'll be manifested. And the quality of our being depends on the quality of our previous actions.

0:17:21 So that is called maturation. But maturation, if you look deeply, Maturation of Alaya takes place in every moment. Because yesterday, there was another maturation, but through a night of deep meditation, a new enlightenment mechanism. And today, you are born again. You are newly born. And this is a new maturation. So maturation does not take place once in every 100 years like we may imagine a life plan, but maturation can take place overnight.

0:18:09 36. Beans manifest themselves when conditions are sufficient. And when conditions are lacking, they are no longer upright. Like a cloud. A cloud is a bee. A cloud manifests itself when conditions are sufficient. And when conditions are no longer sufficient, we no longer see the cloud. But that does mean that the cloud is non-existent. You can still touch the cloud by touching the river because the cloud may have become part of the river. So don't quickly term the cloud as non-existent.

0:18:57 The person we loved dearly yesterday does not seem to be there anymore. We call her non-existent, dead, dead. But that is our vipanka, vikanpa way, our discriminative mind. If we know how to touch deeply, we can still perceive her presence. There is truly no coming or going. No coming and no going. Because coming into existence and going to non-existence that is just another pair of opposites.

0:19:50 The Buddha is described as someone who has come from suchness. And who goes to suchness? But what is suchness? Suchness means reality as it is. And suchness, you cannot trans... You cannot describe suchness as 'here' or 'there' in terms of 'coming' and 'going'. That is why 'coming from suchness' means 'coming from nowhere'. 'Going to suchness' means 'knowing nowhere'.

0:20:36 So the expression 'tathagata' means 'coming from suchness' and going to suchness. It means: no coming, no going. There is truly no coming, no going, no being, no non-being. Because being and non-being are categories, mental categories that we use to grasp reality. Our mental categories such as beginning, end, coming, going, being, non-being We use these notions in order to grasp reality.

0:21:32 But reality is free from all these notions. That is why the true nature of reality is nirvana. Nirvana means free from all notions. And that is why to be or not to be, that is not the question. The 37th, we learned about the four kinds of conditions that help something to manifest. To manifest does not mean to begin to be.

0:22:20 When a seed brings about an event, that seed is called a primary cause. In Vietnamese it is like a seed of corn. If you plant the seed of corn in the moist soil, it will bring about the plant of corn. So for the plant of corn, the seed of corn is the primary cause. But the primary cause is not sufficient. In order to bring about the plant of corn, You need the soil, you need the air, you need the sunshine, you need the minerals, you need the water. The subject of cognition depends on the object of cognition.

0:23:10 This is the second kind of cognition. Because consciousness is possible only when subject and object manifest together. If no object of cognition, there will be no cognition. There is no subject of cognition, there will be no cognition. That is why the second condition that is so essential is that the object of cognition be there. The subject of cognition depends on the object of cognition that is called object goals.

0:23:58 Object means object of cognition. Because you are there, I am here. 38. Conditions that are neither favorable, that are either favorable or obstructing. and gross the word non are called supporting causes, favorable or obstructing. We should not retain the word non because these are two opposite things. These are conditions to help the seed of corn to grow into a plant of corn.

0:24:53 Like the sunshine, like the rain, like the minerals, like the farmer. They are not the primary cause, but they are the supporting causes. There must be a variety of supporting causes. And there are things, there are causes that look like, look as favorable. But sometimes there are conditions that do not look like favorable, that look like an obstruction. And yet, thanks to them, the result, the effect will be stronger, like the difficulties we encounter on our way.

0:25:42 Sometimes, thanks to that difficulties, they become stronger and our success becomes more remarkable. That is why, although they obstruct us, they stand on our way, they play a role of supporting goals also. Like Devadatta, in the life of the Buddha, Devadatta causes a lot of difficulties for the Buddha. And yet the Buddha always considers him to be a supporting goal. Without difficulties, you cannot achieve greatness. That is why the suffering, the difficulties, the pain within you, although they seem to look like something obstructing, but if you know them, how?

0:26:32 And then these negative things will become supporting causes, like the garbage, can transform into the compost. And that will be very essential for the growth of flowers. In Vietnamese, "thuẩn duyên" and "ngịch duyên". Thịnh, "thuẩn duyên", favorable, "ngịch duyên", obstructing. But in fact, both of them can be used in order to further the growth. The fourth type of condition is the immediacy of the continuity.

0:27:20 In Vietnamese, Thứ Để Dư. It means all the supporting causes are there. But if there is no continuity, and then it can be halted, stopped. Like when you videotape something. A series of images has been taken and there must be a continuity. And if there is a stop in between then it will not lead to a good result.

0:28:18 It's like when you use your computer and halfway the electricity is cut and you did not save it, so you lose everything. So, that is called the fourth condition, the immediacy of the continuity. You need, each second, to follow each other in a very close way in order for the result to take place. Otherwise, it will be discontinued. So, these are four main conditions that are discussed within the Buddhist circles.

0:29:05 the primary cause, the object cause, the supporting causes and also the immediacy of the continuity. And every formation would need at least these four conditions in order to manifest itself. The co-dependent manifestation has two aspects. the deluded mind and the true mind. The deluded mind is our consciousness overloaded with ignorance, delusion, anger, fear.

0:29:56 It is called the deluded mind. And the true mind is a consciousness that has been transformed Where there is the capacity of seeing and reaching the ultimate reality, the Nishpana. So, co-dependent manifestation should be viewed in two aspects: deluded mind and true mind. And if the manifestation is based on deluded mind, there will be a lot of suffering and confusion. Look at one person, a group of persons, and their way of life, their way of living, the daily living.

0:30:42 You can see that they suffer quite a lot. There's a lot of hate, of dismation, of pain, of sorrow. And that is a manifestation based on a collective consciousness. It's quite deluded. But look at another person, another group of persons. They live happily, they live with a smile, they love each other, they support each other. And that group of people is a manifestation of a mind that can be called a true mind. Because their way to pursue things are very close to the ultimate truth. They know how to look, how to feel, how to touch in the life of the interview.

0:31:31 and interconnectedness. The limited mind is imaginary construction, depends on the way of thinking. Imaginary constructions, always being caught in pairs of opposites, always being caught in notions and ideas, and not able to touch reality in itself. True mind is from the full-filled nature. The full-filled nature is the nishpana, nishpana as opposite to the parakampita.

0:32:22 If one is capable of touching the realm of things in themselves, And then one's mind has become true mind already. The 40th: Construction implicates the mind with seeds of delusion. That's bringing about the misery of samsara. One of the functions of our consciousness is to construct, to imagine all kinds of things. Hell is constructed by us. And therefore, with that kind of discrimination, that kind of imagination, that kind of construction, We water the seeds of delusion in our consciousness every day.

0:33:31 And by doing so, we bring about the misery of samsara. Samsara means going round and round in the vicious circle of suffering and delusion. The full field opens the door of wisdom to the realm of suchness. When we are able to touch the fulfilled nature of reality, namely nishpana, and then we can open the door of wisdom and we can establish ourselves in the realm of suchness, free from all delusion and suffering. 41. Meditation on the nature of interdependence can transform delusion into illumination.

0:34:17 That is the practice of Paratantra. Paratantra is the word situated in between the word Nishpana and Paravikkanpita. This is the process of learning and training to look, to touch and to think in terms of inter-being. That kind of training can transform delusion into illumination. We begin to see things more deeply, differently. We are no longer caught in pairs of opposites and notions.

0:35:04 Samsara and suchness are not different. With that kind of deluded mind, there is only samsara, that is samsara. But when the mind has been purified and become a true mind, the same thing is transformed into suchness, into nirvana. It is like it depends on the way we walk, that the ground beneath our feet becomes the kingdom of God or health. It depends on our way of walking.

0:35:48 So samsara and suchness are not different. They have the same ground. The ground is our consciousness, our mind. 42nd: A flower is already present in the garbage. And the garbage is already present in the flower. You don't need time. If you know how to look, you can see it already in the here and the now. You see one in the other. Flower and garbage are not two. Not two is a very nice way of saying it. Instead of saying one, flower and garbage are one.

0:36:32 So "not to" is not quite the same. So we play with words in order not to be caught by them. The flower and garbage are not to delusion and enlightenment interact. It is not by running away from delusion that we can attain enlightenment. It is by looking deeply into the nature of delusion that we can touch enlightenment. 43. There is no need to run away from birth and death. We only need to look deeply into events.

0:37:18 Let us change it into formations. We only need to look deeply into formations. When the true nature of interdependence is seen, the truth of interbeing is penetrated. And of course, the realm of birth and death is now perceived as the realm of no birth and no death. A Vietnamese teacher of the 13th century used to tell his disciples to practice diligently in order to touch the realm of no birth and no death.

0:38:03 And one of these disciples asked a teacher, "Where can we find the realm of no birth and no death?" And he said that right in the realm of birth and death. So when you say the kingdom of God is at hand, You understand what it means. The kingdom of God is available in the here and the now. It depends on you. Don't dream of having it in the future because it is available only in the present moment. You need to wake up, your mind to be true, no longer deluded in order to touch it.

0:38:53 And just with one step, you can enter into the kingdom of God. 44th: Practice conscious breathing to water the seeds of enlightenment that is already in us. Right view is like a flower that blooms permanently on the field of mind consciousness. store consciousness, it's like the garden. And the seed of right view, it means the seed of insight is buried in it. And if you know how to practice mindful breathing, how to practice mindful lifting, and water the seed of enlightenment in yourself, And then, one morning, understanding, insight will come up and bloom like a flower in the field of mind-consciousness.

0:40:01 Forty-five: Just as sunlight shines on vegetation and makes it grow, once mindfulness is lit up, it can transform all the other mental formations. It's wonderful that we have that source of energy in us. It is like the sunshine. All vegetation is sensitive to sunshine because the sunshine can help all vegetation to transform. The green color of the vegetation is a product of the sunshine. So if all vegetation is photosensitive, then all mental formations are also sensitive to mindfulness.

0:40:56 With mindfulness as energy, you can embrace all mental formations. When you embrace a positive mental formation, It begins to grow up like a joy and peace. When you embrace a negative formation like anger, you bring a relief and you can transform it. So every mental formation when touched by mindfulness can get a transformation. Every mental formation is sensitive to the mental formation we call mindfulness.

0:41:41 Mindfulness is the energy of God that is in us. Mindfulness is the Holy Spirit. And we know by our own experience that the seed of mindfulness is there, not as an idea. Because you are able, every one of us is capable of drinking our water mindfully, of walking mindfully. So mindfulness is not an idea, it is something that we can touch in our daily life, that we can cultivate, that we can help to grow, and that is our practice. And we should allow ourselves to be alive in the presence of God, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, namely in the presence of mindfulness.

0:42:44 Because we should be aware of what is going on in the present moment. We should be able to live deeply each moment of our daily life and the energy of mindfulness. Help us to do so. 46. We recognize the internal knots and latent tendencies in order to transform them. The internal knots are the blocks of pain and sorrow and fear and depression within us. Latent tendencies, here means the habit energies that have been transmitted to us by our ancestors, that are always there and that need us to recognize and transform.

0:43:48 "When all habit energies are gone, the fruit of transformation at the base will appear." Transformation at the base, it means transformation not on the level of mind consciousness, but down there on the depth of our store consciousness. The sensitive term is ashraya paravritti. Ashraya means the base. Paravritti means transformation. Transformation at the base is a key word here. That the real transformation is the transformation of the base where your samyoshana, your internal knots, your blocks of suffering are sleeping. The habit energies are dwelling.

0:44:42 And if you cannot touch these things and transform them, a true transformation has not taken place. And that is the practice of transformation of the base. Asraya is the base. Asraya Paravritya. Transformation of the base. 47. The present moment contains the past and the future. If you know how to look deeply, the past is still available. The future is already available. The secret of transformation of the base is the way we handle this very moment.

0:45:26 So our practice is to learn to train ourselves to handle the present moment. If we know how to handle the present moment, not only we can live deeply each moment of our life, but we can transform the past and we can build the future just by taking good care and in a very deep way, the present moment. Forty-eight: Transformation takes place in daily life. If we take refuge in and practice with the sangha, the work of transformation will be realized. we can add "more easily".

0:46:16 Because in the original, that word does exist. Kung fu dễ tìm thầy. It means the result will be obtained more easily. Because practicing without the Sangha, it is possible, but it is not so easy. So taking refuge and practice with the sangha is very important. 49, nothing is born, nothing dies. A French scientist, his name is Lavoisier, he said exactly the same thing, using the same words.

0:47:08 "Riena sur kre, riena sur pè." Nothing is created, nothing dies. He was not a Buddhist. He was just a scientist and trying to look deeply into the nature of reality. And he discovered by himself that nothing is born, nothing dies. And that is in the Heart Sutra that we chant this morning. There is no birth, there is no death, no production, no destruction. Nothing is born, nothing dies. There is no need to grasp or to abandon anything. Usually, we try to grasp life and we run away from death, because we are caught in our notions and in pairs of opposites.

0:48:07 That is why we are inclined to run away and to run after something. Since samsara is itself nirvana, the object of attainment is not to be attained. Because everything, according to the light of detection, has been nifanized from the non-begining. And why should you have to go and look for it? Because there is a beginning, there should be an end. And if you're skillful with the word "since there's no beginning" then you don't have to encounter the end.

0:48:59 In the ultimate dimension, there is no beginning, there is no end. Before, we think that there is something that we should attain and that something is outside of us. But everything is there. When we transcend the word, the notion of inside and outside, we know that the object of attainment is already there within us. Why do we have to go in, to search for it in space or in time when you know that it is already available in the here and the now?

0:49:47 That is why in the Buddhist teaching, the contemplation on no attainment is very important. No attainment. The object of attainment is not to be attained. You don't need to attain anything since you only have it. You are already it. The fifth fear, one's afflictions are no longer than enlightenment. Because affliction and enlightenment, they are the same. When you have a delirious mind, afflictions are there.

0:50:31 But when you have the true mind and then afflictions are no longer there instead, that is enlightenment. We can ride on the waves of birth and death in peace because we are no longer afraid of birth and death. And birth is no longer birth, no longer birth. Death is no longer death because we have touched the true nature of interbeing. Bodhisattvas are described as beautiful people who are riding on the waves of birth and death with no fear, absolutely no fear. And that is why they can help so many people.

0:51:16 They have great freedom, freedom from fear. We can travel on a boat of compassion through the ocean of delusion with the smile of non-fear. In fact, non-fear is the greatest gift you can make to the people you love. Nothing is more precious than non-fear. And if you have practice, and if you have touched the ultimate dimension of your reality, and then non-fear is your attainment. There are three kinds of gifts. The first kind of gift is material resources. The second kind of gift is the Dharma.

0:52:06 To show the people the way. But the greatest gift that you can make is the gift of non-fear. And you cannot offer that gift unless you have it. So if you are a therapist, a counselor, Someone who practices to accompany a person who dies. someone who would like to help the other person to die peacefully, without pain, without fear.

0:53:11 You have to practice this. Unless you have solidity and non-fear in you, you cannot be your best in practicing this. The other person needs the presence of stability, the presence of a non-fear, in order to be able to die calmly, peacefully. And if you know how to touch the ultimate dimension of reality, if you know what is the reality of no birth and no death, and then you transcend all kinds of fears, and there you are sitting there, you are a great source of inspiration for the other person who is dying.

0:54:02 And the practice of non-fear is the greatest practice within Buddhism. And unless you can touch the ground your being, you can train yourself to look into the light of interbeing, you cannot get rid of your fear of your discrimination. When we send the Heart Sutra, we know that Avalokiteshvara, because of the fact that he is able to look deeply into the nature of the five elements, he discovers the nature of emptiness, and he suddenly overcome all kinds of afflictions, and he gets the energy of non-fear.

0:54:52 And that is why he has become a great being and has been able to rescue so many living beings just because he has the energy of non-fear within himself. Once afflictions are no longer there, when afflictions are no other than enlightenment, we can ride with joy on the waves of birth and death. We can travel on the boat of compassion and rescue people through the ocean of delusion with a smile of not fear. Many of you may like to know who is the author of these 50 verses.

0:55:45 I would like to tell you But in the light of this practice we have to tell you who are not the author of the 50 verses. In the time of the Buddha, the Buddha was the living Dharma. And that is why there was no need to systemize the teaching. But after the Buddha passed away, there was a need.

0:56:41 Many monks were able to memorize the discourses of the Buddha. But the teaching of the Buddha had not been systemized. There is no such thing as a systematic Buddhism. But about one or two decades after the Buddha's Paris Nirvana, there was the need to systemize the teaching, to organize the teaching in a systematic way.

0:57:29 And when the dharma is presented systematically like that, it is called Abhidharma, the Superdharma. In Vietnamese, Thang Pháp. In Chinese, also. And people begin to create works in the field of Abhidharma, Superdharma. To the extent that we had monumental works on the Abhidharma that can discourage us.

0:58:23 Because there's so much to learn. There's so many manuals and great monumental works. That is why towards the beginning of the 5th century of our area, there was a tendency to summarize. And we began to have a very concise, compact work on the Abhidharma. And I can mention to you a few ones that are most popular, that are being used in a basic Buddhism institute. like the path of purification by Buddha Gosar that was written in the Pali language, the 5th century.

0:59:26 On the 5th century, there was the Visuddhimagga, by Buddha Ghosha. Translated as "The Path of Purification". And it is now available in English. It has been translated into Chinese lately.

1:00:24 And the Visuddhimagga and the author Buddha Gosha belong to a school of Buddhism that migrated to the south. And they settled in the island of Sri Lanka. In the beginning, the name of the school was Tamrasatya. The school where monks wear the robes with the color of copper, red-yellow. But later on, they prefer the word "Theravada", "The School of the Elders". In the 5th century, in northern India, around Kashmir, There was a person whose name is Vasubanthu.

1:01:51 He did the same in the Sanskrit language. He compiled a magnificent summary of the Abhidharma called the Abhidharma Kosha Sastra. Kosha means the treasure, the treaty on the treasure of the Superdharma. Vasubankdu, after having learned Buddhism and practiced Buddhism in many other schools, came to a school called Sakvastivala that established itself in Kashmir for 1,000 years.

1:02:54 And he learned the teaching of Sakvasitivada. And after that, he combined the teaching of his former school and the teaching of Sakvasitivada. And he offered this work which has been translated into French and English, available to you. But at the same time, his brother who was also a monk studied and practiced Mahayana Buddhism. And the two brothers went into different directions because Vajwabandhu was still in the line of the multi-school Buddhism.

1:03:53 Because there were about 20, 22 schools of Buddhism at that time. And Mahayana Buddhism began to prosper at that time already. And his brother, Asanga, wrote a very superb treaty on the Abhidharma according to the insight of Mahayana called the Mahayana Samgraha Sastra. Samgraha means the compendium, the summary, the essence of Mahayana.

1:04:57 The Vietnamese is "Nhiếp Đại Thơ Luân" and Asanga is "Vô Trước". And this Mahayana Samgara Shastra discuss deeply on the teaching of store consciousness. Store consciousness provided the foundation for the object of cognition. This also has been translated into English and French. So you have plenty of materials to use in your own language.

1:05:46 In my time, I had to study all this in Chinese. And the other versions, Sanskrit, English and French, were available much, much later. And then Vasubandhu was influenced by his big brother. And that is why he began to build his Abhidharma with the interaction of Mahayana Buddhism, the renewed Buddhism. And that is why he produced the two works that have become classic in the studies of manifestation of consciousness.

1:06:33 The first word is the 20 verses on manifestation of consciousness. Bang Du. Vimshika means the 20.

1:07:23 The 20 verses, karika means verses, on the manifestation. Vishnapti means "manifestation", "matra" means "only". There is only manifestation of the mind. You can translate Vishnapti, Matrata as "manifestation only" or "mere manifestation". This word "matra" is equivalent to the English "ism", like idealism or materialism, it is "ism" only. So you might like to use the word "mere manifestation", "Vishnapti manifestation".

1:08:10 So the 20 verses are "mere manifestation". And this has been translated also into English. Very difficult. You will not understand unless you have a teacher sitting beside you. the 50 are very easy. The 50 are the easiest. And then later on, he produced the Trimshika. Trimshika. Trimshika Vishnapti Matrata Karika Vasubandhu. And when I was a novice, I learned the trim shika by heart. I had to.

1:09:07 The 30 verses. The 30 verses have been commented by many Chinese doctors. And many works on the commentaries on the 30 verses are available in the Chinese language. and I profit a great deal from these commentaries from previous teachers. In the 7th century, there was a Chinese monk who went to China. His name is Xuanyang, the pilgrim.

1:10:01 And he stayed many years in India. It happened to come to Nalanda University near Parthas. And at the time when the study of Vishnati Matrata, of manifestation of consciousness was in flourishing. So he stayed there several years and learned this teaching. And the rector of the university, His name is Silabhadra. Yai Hiyan.

1:11:14 is the last of the 10 well-known doctors of the school of Vishnapti. And these 10 great scholars have left behind many commentaries, many works on Vishnapti matra. And when the Chinese monk Huỳnh Trang came and met with Shilaprada, he learned from him and he got from him the commentaries offered by the nine great scholars that had come before him. So, Huyang Trang is his name.

1:12:20 And when he went back to China, he tried to find a score on manifestation of consciousness. And he wrote many treatises, And among them, a very short, a very compact 3 verses. Only 3 verses. But they are still difficult. It's called the standard. verses on manifestation of consciousness.

1:13:13 Here is his name pronounced "Chuan Yang". And when I was a novice, I learned this, of course, in Chinese. It's nice because there are rhymes in it, so it's very easy to memorize. The 50 verses, if you study them in Vietnamese, it's nice because there are rhymes in it, and he can memorize very well. And then, if a decade after Chuan Yang, there was a person, there was a monk whose name is Fa Chang. Pha-cheng.

1:14:15 He tried to help. He tried to help by pushing ahead the teaching of Vishnapti-matra. Because the teaching of Vishnapti-matra as presented by Vimshika It's just newly born from the archaic school of Buddhism. And although it belongs to Mahayana, the tradition of Mahayana, but that is only halfway Mahayana, not entirely mature yet. And that is why Fa Chang tried to bring the teaching of the ava namsaka into it to make it clear, to emphasis on the teaching that one, the one contained the all, the one reflected the all.

1:15:16 But the effect of Fa Chang was not very long lasting. After Phá Chang, it seems that nobody tried to continue like that. And Phá Chang was known for his work on the wondrous meaning of the Avatamsaka Sutra, The wondrous meaning of the Avatamsaka Sutra. In Vietnamese, Hoa Nghiêm Huyền Nghĩa.

1:16:16 When I was a young monk, I already had insight that if we can open this Dharma door, many people can enter the Dharma and practice easily. This is the study of the mind. And if one understands how our mind operates, then the practice will become much easier. In fact, on the 13th century, a Vietnamese monk has already said that. He said that if we understand how our mind functions and then the practice will become easy.

1:16:59 If not, we will stumble a lot. That is why I was determined that when I grew up, I will open this door and offer the practice from using the psychological entrance, the door of mind studies. And that is why I have used all the insights that I have learned from all these works: Visuddhimagga, Abhidharma, Kosasastra, Mahayana, Samgrahasastra, the 20, the 30, the standard verses, and I offer the 50 verses.

1:17:47 So, the 50 verses are the work of many people. And I have taken all the jewels from the 30 verses or the 20 verses, and from other works, in order to offer you the 50 verses. So you can find in the 50 verses, the best of all these classics. And my contribution is more on the way I present the verses. They are very easy, they are not complicated. And I try to get rid of technical terms as much as I can.

1:18:37 And I think if you go home and have time to listen again to the tapes, you will understand all the 50 verses. Because the seeds in you have been watered, but it may not be enough yet. So you need to practice, continue the watering in order for the seeds to have enough conditions to sprout. In his lifetime, the Buddha had a disciple, a lay disciple, whose name was Sudatta. On his first meeting with the Buddha in the kingdom of Rajagraha, the young businessman Sudhatta felt in love with the Buddha.

1:19:42 He became his disciple. He invited the Buddha to come to his country in order to share the Dharma. And the Buddha agreed his country is in the north, on the other side of the Ganges River. The name of the kingdom is Kosala, and the capital is Shravasti. That was about three or four years after the enlightenment of the Buddha. He settled in a bamboo grove near the capital of Rajagraha.

1:20:31 And Suddhatta had a family with three lovely children. And his heart is so good that he uses a lot of his time and material resources to take care of hungry children, dissoluted, lonely people, and so on. He was so helpful that the people loved him so much that they gave him the title "Anatta Piddika". "Anatta Piddika" means the one who takes care of the destitute, the people who are left alone. And when he had the acceptation of the Buddha, he was so happy.

1:21:18 So he went home to the city of Travasti and tried to find a place to host the Buddha and his monks. And then he bought a beautiful park from a prince called Jeta. And he managed the park into a monastery. The Buddha came after that. And it became the second Dharma center in the life of the Buddha. And the king of Kosala later became a disciple of the Buddha. About 30 years later, Anathapadhika died.

1:22:11 The Buddha visited him when he heard that Anathapadhika was very sick. And after that, he assigned the very venerable Shariputra, He is a senior disciple to make regular visits and to help Anathapenika. One day, Shariputra learned that Anathapenika was dying. So he asked his younger brother in the Dharma, Anandatera, to come with him. And when they arrived, they found Anathapadhyika lying on his bed.

1:23:08 Anathapadhyika tried to sit up, but Sariputra said, "Dear friend, don't try. Please, remain in your bed. We will bring a few shares and we will be with you." And when the monks are seated, Shai Buddha asked, "Dear friend, Anattapedika, how do you feel within your body? Is the pain within your body increasing or decreasing?" And Anattapedika said, "Dear Venerable, the pain in me does not seem to decrease. It is increasing all the time." And when Shariputra heard that, he said, "In that case, let us practice the meditation called the Recollection of the Three Jewels.

1:24:06 Let us concentrate on the Buddha, on the Dharma, and on the Sangha." Shariputra knew very well that Anathapenika took a great deal of pleasure in serving the Buddha, serving the Dharma and serving the Sangha. His happiness is made of service to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. That is why it would be beneficial if he can help Anattapidika to concentrate his mind on the objects of his happiness. And therefore, the two monks were sitting and doing guided meditation so that Anathapedika could concentrate his mind on the three rules.

1:25:03 And this is a very intelligent. When you are dying, someone should be there in order to help you to concentrate and water the seed of your happiness. Because the seeds of your happiness, if they are watered, they will be able to restore the balance, to make the pain in your body bearable. Sariputra knew how to do it. And after 10-15 minutes, he asked. And then Anattapidika said, "Now I'm alright." Because the pain has lessened in his body, just because the seeds of happiness have been touched and watered.

1:26:01 And then Sri Buddha said, "Let us continue. Let us meditate on our body. Please, do it with us. We are here supporting you in the practice. Breathing in, I know that I am not this body. I don't identify myself with this body. I am not only this body. I am more. I am more than this body. And of course, he followed the way of the Buddha. "These eyes are not me. I am not caught in these eyes." "I am life without boundaries." "I have never born." "I have, I will never die." And after having meditated on my eyes, come to the ears.

1:26:50 "These ears are not me." "The snows are not me." "The thang are not me." "This body is not me." "This mental consciousness is not me." "I am not caught by this mental consciousness." I'm life without boundaries. These are only manifestations depending on conditions. And then, dear friends, let us meditate on the elements. The element of earth in me is not me. I'm not caught into it. The element of fire is not me. The element of water is not me. The element of air is not me. I'm not caught by these elements, I'm free from these elements.

1:27:40 The 16 elements of elements are not me. The eyes are not me, the form is not me, nose is not me, smell is not me, tongue is not me, taste is not me. "I am free from all this." Until Anattapidika can release the body, can release the elements, and do not grasp the body as himself. It's very important to help the dying person not to identify himself or herself with this body. He may know it intellectually, But at that moment, he needs someone lucid style to remind him in order for him not to be caught in the idea that he is this body.

1:28:45 If you want the person to die peacefully and with freedom, you have to be able to help him or her to see that. Anattapinika, please, let us continue. When conditions are sufficient, the body manifests itself. And people call it existing. When conditions are no longer sufficient, The body does, is no longer there. We call it non-existent, that is not right. There is no coming, there is no going, there is no being, there is no non-being.

1:29:34 And everything has its nature of inter-being. Everything has the nature of being empty, of a separate self. So slowly, Shariputra led Anathabhika to touch the realm of no-birth and all that. And at one point, they saw tears begin to run down. The Venerable Ananda, who was much younger, he was surprised. He said, "Dear friend, why are you crying?

1:30:26 Do you regret something? Do you fail in the practice?" Ananda Pinika smiled and said, "No, Lord Ananda, I do not regret anything." "In fact, I practice very well. I cry because I'm so moved. I have been serving the Buddha and the Sangha in the last 30 years, but I have never received and practiced such a wonderful teaching." Ananda said, "This teaching, this teaching, the Buddha used to give us mangsa nuns almost every day." Anattapiddhika said, "Lord Ananda, please go home and tell the Lord that we lay people, many of us, although we are caught in our busy life, that there are many of us who are capable of receiving and practicing this wonderful teaching of no birth and no death." And the Venerable Anatta accepted the commission.

1:31:38 And just a few moments later, Anatta Penika died very peacefully and happily, thanks to the assistance of the two monks. And this story, you can have it whole, the whole story, in a discourse called "The Discourse to be Offered to the Dying Person" in the Shenting Book published by Paranax Press. And please, please study the text and practice accordingly in order to be able to cultivate our solidity, our freedom, our non-fear for our own sake and for the sake of the people who are subjected to a lot of fear and suffering, especially when they die.

1:32:47 About eight years ago, I was on the way to Rhinebeck through the Omega Institute to lead a retreat. I was traveling with Sister Chen Khok, Therese, Annie, and many other friends. We had a van, and started from New York, and we learned that our friend, Anfred Hasler was dying in a hospital nearby.

1:33:44 Anfred Hasler was the director of a peace organization called Fellowship of Reconciliation. And he was so active during the war in Vietnam. He was active in helping us, campaigning for stopping the war, stopping the killing. And he had become a very dear friend of us because of this kind of action for peace. And since we are on the way and we decided to stop and help him and visited him, it was a Catholic hospital.

1:34:38 And when we arrived and climbed to that floor, Anfad was in coma and he was being fed with glucose and things like that. [His wife] was there. His daughter, Laura, was there. Laura used to work in our office in Paris as a volunteer. We had a delegation called the Vietnamese-Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Paris Peace Talk. I was the head of the Vietnamese-Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Peace Talk.

1:35:23 And we provided people, enterprises with materials that the warring parties did not want to provide. We represent the victims of the war and not a warring party. When [his wife] and Laura saw us, they were so happy. They did not expect that they could come like that. Because we were the closest friends of his family. We worked so closely with each other to end the war in Vietnam. And Laura tried her best to wake An Phat up, but she did not succeed. "An Phat, An Phat Thay is here! Sister Trang Khang is here!" But he did not go back.

1:36:16 So I asked Sister Trang Khang to sing to him. The song that I wrote, based on Buddha's discourse on No Birth and No Death. These eyes are not me. I'm not caught by these eyes. I'm life without boundaries. I have never been born. I will never die. Look at me. Look at these galaxies, stars and moon. They are all manifestations of our collective consciousness. Since time immemorial, I have been free. "Birth and death are only threshold by which I go in and go out." "And it is only a game of hide and seek." "So take my hand, smile to me." "We'll see each other again right now and later on." "Because we are always with each other." So that song I asked the teacher to sing to him.

1:37:23 because we believe that he could listen. And in fact, when she sang it for the third time, Anfret came back. He opened his eyes. And Laura was so happy. "Daddy, you know that Thay is here. Daddy, you know that Sister Trang Kong is here." And Anfret could not talk, but his eyes proved that he was aware. And then Sister Tiang Kong began to talk to him. "Andre, do you know? Do you know? Do you remember the time you were in Vietnam trying to bring our messages to the Hai monks in Vietnam? You sat on the door of the Venerable Thich Kuk Tri Khoang.

1:38:11 You wanted to see him, but he did not want to see any Westerner because Americans just decided to born North Vietnam. He did not want to see any Westerners, either hawks or doves. He refused to see them. And you wrote down a message on a piece of paper. You slide it in and you said that: "I'm a friend. I'm here to support you, to offer my help. "I will sit here and fast until you open the door." And you remember, Alfred, that only 15 minutes after that, he opened the door and smiled to you and invited you to go eat.

1:39:03 Alfred, do you remember the time we organized a demonstration in Rome? 500 Catholic priests wearing the names of 500 Buddhist monks who were in jail in Vietnam because they refused to be drafted into the army. And she continued to remind Anrette of all these images because we knew that would water the seeds of happiness in him because his life was devoted to work for peace. And at that same time, I was doing massage to his feet. And Laura said, "Daddy, do you know that Thay is massaging your feet?" Although he did not say yes, but his eyes proved that he was aware.

1:40:04 When someone is about to die, the body might become numb and you might not be aware that your body is numb. So it might be helpful if you can do massage to remind and to prove that there is a contact. Contact is still possible. There is a relationship between the person you love and you and yourself. And a few minutes later, Anfet just opened his mouth and pronounced the word "wonderful" "wonderful" two times.

1:40:49 And after that, he sunk back into a coma. Very surprising. He was fully aware that we were there and our presence has helped restore his balance. And he could recognize that moment as a wonderful, a world-wonderful moment of friendship and of support. Wonderful, wonderful. He said it twice. Annie was not with us. Annie was sitting in the car, Therese and other friends. And we know that we have to arrive at Omega before night, before too dark, it's too dark.

1:41:41 And that is why we have to live. But we told [his wife] and Laura to continue the practice. Even if Alfred is in coma, you should continue to talk to him. Talk to him, there is a way that he can communicate with you, with a small consciousness. He does not need the mental consciousness in order to communicate. Just talk to him, and continue to water the seeds of happiness, the positive seeds. And if he wakes up, then you continue like Sister Jung-kun. And we left.

1:42:26 And early the next morning, we receive a telephone call from the hospital. Amphit passed away just a few hours after our visit, peacefully. So we can learn a lot from our practice. We can learn a lot from the previous generations in their practice. and we can cultivate the energy of stability, of solidity, of peace inside in us. And we will be able to support and to help many other people.

1:43:12 I think these materials are available for your continued studies and practice. If you write to Pallax, to the community of Mindful Living, to the Association of Mindfulness Practice Centers, they will be able to offer you a much information that you need. Dear friends, our retreat is about to end. It has been a pleasure for all of us to be, from privilege to be here with you this time. And I hope that each of you will be able to maintain the light, the thought in you, alive. You are very essential to the well-being and improvement of many who are around you.

1:44:07 Please keep being a torch, keep being a light. allow mindfulness to accompany you in order for us together to have a chance to make this world into a better place for us, for our children and their children. Thank you. Thank you.