Dharma
Talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh on August 6, 1997 in Plum Village, France.
Walking
into the Kingdom of God
© Thich
Nhat Hanh
Good
morning, my dear friends.
Today
is August 6, 1997, and we are in the Upper Hamlet of Plum Village. This morning
in Hiroshima, a few hours ago, 30,000 people gathered in the Hiroshima Park.
They meditated together. The Prime Minister of Japan was there this morning, and
in his speech, he demanded that all atomic bombs be destroyed. Thirty thousand
Japanese gathered today to
commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the first atomic bomb, the bomb that
fell on Hiroshima exactly on the sixth of August. It was a small bomb, but it
was a new kind of bomb that had the power of killing a lot of people. At that
time in 1945, the United States of America was the only country that possessed
atomic bombs. Japan and Germany were associated closely with each other. The
first atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima killed 140,000 people right
away. In less than 30 seconds, more than 140,000 people. Not many countries on
earth have atomic bombs, but the bombs they have now are a thousand times more
powerful. The atomic bombs of today can destroy a whole city of Paris, of New
York. They can kill millions of people in just 20 seconds. The little bomb in
Hiroshima only killed 140,000 people, but after that, the Japanese who were in
Hiroshima, if they did not die right away, continued to die until several
decades later. I was there. I met with these people who were dying, several
years after the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. On the eighth of August, two days
later, another bomb was dropped in Nagasaki and the destruction was equivalent
and Japan surrendered. If you visit the Hiroshima Park today, you will come to a
place where there is a little arch and inside, if you look carefully, you will
see an inscription in Japanese. The inscription said, "Please lie still. We
shall not do it again. Please be still there. We promise that we will not do it
again." We promised not to do it again, but we have manufactured so many other
bombs and nuclear warheads. Now, not only the United States of America has them,
but France has them, Great Britain, India, China and many other countries. We,
mankind, have the power to destroy humanity, to destroy the earth. That is why
the Prime Minister of Japan this morning called on all the other nations to
abolish the nuclear bombs and warheads.
The
Upper Hamlet, where we sit now, was also a site of fighting between the Germans
and the French during that time.
Several French Resistance members were placed against the wall that is
close to the Listening to the Rain Veranda and shot by German soldiers. The
inhabitants of Thenac, including used to think about their village, which now
includes the Upper Hamlet of Plum Village, with that kind of horror, sadness,
anger, within them.
Plum
Village was set up fifteen years ago. This year is the 15th anniversary of Plum
Village. And during these fifteen years, we have practiced the walking
meditation, touching the soil of the Upper Hamlet with love, concentration,
understanding and reconciliation. Among us there are many German friends. The
German people have come here to Plum Village. They did not bring any guns; in
fact, they brought their hearts, and together, with French people, with Dutch
people, with American people, with British people, with Vietnamese people, we
have practiced walking meditation in the Upper Hamlet every day, every night.
We
have kissed the earth of the Upper Hamlet, we have kissed the soil of the Upper
Hamlet with our feet, mindfully. We want to print our peace, our compassion and
our love on this piece of land. And there has been a great transformation here.
The inhabitants of the village of Thenac have told us that they could feel that
peace radiating from Plum Village, and now every time they think of Thenac, of
the Upper Hamlet, they no longer have the feeling of horror, resentment and
anger. Thanks to you all who come from more than twenty countries, who have come
and practiced peace, practiced forgiveness, practiced reconciliation, Thenac has
become a land of peace. And Thenac will continue to offer itself as a land of
peace, a place where we can come together, hold each other's hand and walk
together in peace. There are times when there are retreats when many hundreds of
people gather and practice, but there are times when there are only permanent
residents of Plum Village who are there to practice. We are about 100 people,
but we do practice every day, every night. We do bring our peace and joy and
reconciliation and compassion to the land of Thenac every day and every
night.
In
the last fifteen years, French people have come here to practice and also German
people. They have come, they have taught each other, they have practiced
sitting, walking, drinking tea together, beginning anew with each other. It is a
very beautiful and meaningful act. Also, we have Japanese who have come all the
way from Japan to practice here. There were times when we had more than twenty
Japanese people practicing with us here. We had to have the dharma talk
translated into Japanese. I myself had tea meditation with only Japanese
practitioners in my hut.
Today
we I have the privilege of having one Japanese citizen who is here. She was born
in 1958, thirteen years after the Hiroshima war event. She had heard of it and
she suffered also, like the rest of us. Today we have Americans with
us--Americans who were born in 1943, '47, '48. It is wonderful that Japanese and
Americans come to Plum Village and practice. Japan and America have been working
together in many areas, especially economics. I don’t know whether true
reconciliation has been made, at a deeper level.
If
we have learned from the lesson, then, Japanese and Americans will be able to
keep the promise not to do it again, to themselves and to other people on earth.
If Germans and French have learned that lesson, we should be able not to do it
again to ourselves and to each other. Again, France and Germany are very closely
associated in the enterprise of Europe, but deep inside, I don't know whether
true reconciliation has been made. That is why today I beg all of you to look
deeply, to go very deep to touch the wound that is still in there. To smile at
it, to take each other's hand and we represent our people. The Japanese friend
here will represent the Japanese people. The American who sits near to me, she
will represent the American people. Both of you look deeply into the most
profound level of your heart, touch the wounds, the wounds of your ancestors,
your own wounds, and maybe the wounds of your children and their children, if
you don't practice and heal the wound today. We shall ask the lady who represents
Japan and the lady who represents America to do hugging meditation for us. All
of us are Japanese; all of us are Americans, and we should be able to reconcile
and heal the deep wounds in us.
I
think I would like to invite one Vietnamese to come up, also, and do hugging
meditation with one American. Vietnam and America have been destroying each
other to a very deep level, although now there is an embassy of America in
Hanoi, but that does not mean that we have been reconciled. The wound is still
there very deep in the country and in the hearts of the people, both American
and Vietnamese. So, we shall ask one Vietnamese person to do hugging meditation
with one American person, touching deeply that wound and breathe in, breathe out
deeply for all of us to heal the wounds. Then we will ask a French person
representing the French people, and one German person representing the German
people; they have been doing business with each other very well, but deep in
their hearts, the wounds are still there.
I
know of a person who survived a bomb dropped close to his house. He told me that
he will never forgive the Germans. No matter what I taught him, he still cannot
release his anger. I did not have a chance to be with him a lot, so I could not
teach him and help him transform his hate. So this is an occasion for us to
learn on this sixth of August, how to look deeply, how to embrace each other,
how to forgive each other. If we are not able to heal the wounds within us, we
will transmit the wounds to future generations and they will continue to suffer
like we have.
We
shall ask the monks and the nuns to invoke the names of the Buddha and of the
Bodhisattvas to pray for the 140,000 Japanese, to pray for all the French people
and all the German people who were killed in the war, and to pray for millions
of people who have died in the war in Vietnam, including children.
Now
I would like you all to join your palms. I will light a stick of incense for the
140,000 Japanese who died in the bomb. And I will ask the sisters and the
brothers to invoke the name of Shakyamuni Buddha, Avalokitesvara, Manjushri, and
Samantabhadra. Let us listen to the bell.
[Bell]
[Thay
leads chant paying homage to the bodhisattvas.]
[Bell]
Now,
I would like to ask our Japanese sister and our American sister to come up here
and practice hugging meditation. I will tell you how to do it. You join your
palms. You breathe in and breathe out three times in order to be really there,
and you open your arms. When you take the other person within your arms, you
breathe in and you say, "In the name of the American people and nation," then
you breathe out and you say, "We promise not to do it again." "In the name of
the Japanese people, we promise not to do it again; we promise not to hold any
anger.” And we do that three times while everyone joins their palms and breathe
in and breathe out and support them in their practice.
Breathing
in, in the name of the American people, or the German People, or the Dutch
people, or the Vietnamese people, because we are all responsible for what
happened to some extent. When we breathe out, we say, "We promise never to do it
again."
We
have been learning about the six Paramitas. The Six Practices in order to cross
over to the other shore, the shore of well being, the shore of non‑fear, the
shore of solidity, the shore of freedom. As we do not enjoy to be on this shore,
the shore of anxiety and sorrow, anger, that is why we want to cross to the
other shore. The teaching of the Six Paramitas have been presented to us as a
means to cross to the other shore. We have learned about the practice of
Dana Paramita, giving. We have learned about the practice of
Prajna Paramita, understanding. We have learned the practice of
Sila Paramita, Mindfulness Training. We have learned the methods of
Dhayana Paramita, the practice of meditation, of coming and looking
deeply. And during this week we will learn about the last two Paramitas,
namely, ksanti and vira.
Today
I would like to begin with the practice of arriving. It can be said that the
practice of Plum Village is the practice of arriving. Because we have been
practicing running all the time, and we have not arrived. Coming to Plum Village
you have to arrive. Otherwise we will run for all our life and their children
will continue to run for all their lives, and several generations will continue
to run and never find our true home. How to practice in order to arrive and to
feel at home, that is the point. While you are in Plum Village, you are invited
to practice the Bell of Mindfulness. Every time we hear the bell ringing, even
the bell hanging on the Walnut tree or the one in the Medicine Hall or the
Church bell nearby, we are invited to stop. To stop thinking, to stop talking,
and to go back to our in‑breath and our breath. All of us have been severed from
our home. Unless you arrive, you cannot be happy, you cannot rest. Not only the
Jewish people have been wandering around for many thousands of years, looking
for a home, but all of us have been wandering for so many thousands of years
looking for a place where we can feel completely at home. Many of us have not
found it. A number of us in this community, a very few, have found it, and they
have peace. They have happiness, they have solidity. So we can say that the
practice in Plum Village is the practice of arriving. If you have not arrived,
if you have been running a lot, if you have been very tired, it is time for you
to try the practice of arriving.
When you hear the bell, stop running. Because we continue to run in our
daily life, even when we sleep. We run sometime not with our feet, but we run
inside. You never get rest.
The
Buddha said our mind is a monkey, monkey mind. Always on the move, never
stopping. Monkey mind. Always searching, never finding. We have to know how to
embrace the monkey and to teach it to rest. In Plum Village you are offered
techniques, methods in order to embrace the monkey within, so you have the
chance to arrive. When you hear the bell, you stop talking, you stop thinking,
you stop doing the things you are doing, you break in and go back to yourself by
means of your breathing. Your in breath is a vehicle. And you ride on that
vehicle in order to go home. You listen intently to the sound of the bell, like
the only sound in the world, like the voice of someone calling you deep, deep
from within yourself. You most beloved one is calling you. Your mother, your
father, your ancestors, the Buddha, Jesus, Moses. The voice of the most beloved
one, the voice of home is calling you. And you just stop everything and listen
to the bell, any kind of bell. Even if you don't have a bell, you listen to the
sound of the telephone. It can be any bell.
In
Plum Village every time we hear the telephone we practice the same; we stop
talking, we stop thinking, we listen to the telephone and we go back to
ourselves by the transportation of our in-breath. Then you pronounce the words
within you, “I listen, I listen.” And you listen intently to the sound of the
bell, like you listen to the voice of your most beloved one that you have lost
trace for many thousands of years. Now he is calling, she is calling. In the
Buddhist tradition they consider the sound of the bell the voice of the Buddha
calling you back to your true home. That's why when you hear the bell, you
breath in, listen, I am listening. When you breath out you say, “This wonderful
sound brings me back to my true home.” And you do that at least three times. If
you like it, why don't you continue.
If
you are a beginner, you may get irritated when you hear the sound of the bell,
because the bell compels you to stop. You are telling your friend a very
interesting story and suddenly the bell rings and it does not allow you to
continue. In Plum Village you are supposed to stop, nothing is more important
than the voice of your most beloved one calling you. If you are a beginner you
may revolt against the bell. But if you practice well, in just two seconds you
begin to enjoy breathing in and breathing out. Everyone who practices listening
to the bell will have that kind of experience. So please, every time you hear
the bell, stop whatever you are saying no matter how important it is. Even if
you are giving a Dharma Talk. Even if you are telling another person a very
important thing. Stop and listen. Listen to yourself, listen to the Buddha
within. Listen to God. Listen to Jesus within. Listen to your ancestors calling
you. You have been a wanderer for such a long time. You begin to enjoy breathing
in and breathing out and go back to your true home.
There
is an island, very safe, very green, where you can find lots of beautiful trees
and streams of fresh water and birds, you can take refuge in that beautiful
island. If you look deeply there must be love at once right there inside of that
island. The Buddha land is in there; the kingdom of God is in there; your mother
is there; your sister is there; Jesus is there; the Buddha is there. The island
is called the Island of Self. The Buddhist expression is Self Island. It is
inside you, available. You have been running; you have been searching. You think
that your home is out there in space or in time, but in fact, your home is
within and you have the capacity of touching it. Learn to listen to the bell.
Learn to listen to the telephone, to the clock playing every quarter of the
hour. In Plum Village, all of us practice listening to the bell, enjoy breathing
in, breathing out, and go back to that beautiful island that is within us.
When
you are away for several months, you long to go home. You get tired of
traveling, especially after the airplane, you have to take the train, and after
the train, bus, and sometimes you have to wait in Ste. Foy La Grande for hours.
So, in you there is a desire, "Well, in just ten days, I'll be home."
And
when you come home, you are so happy: home, sweet home. Yes, there is a kitchen
in there, you can do whatever you want. You can cook anything you want. There is
a bed, you can lie on it. There is a TV, you can turn it on at any time. But
after a few days being at home you get bored, especially the young people, they
want to go again. So, what you call home is not true home yet, because if it is
true home then you feel completely satisfied, you feel safe, you feel happy, you
feel love, you feel embraced. But why do you feel so restless once you are home?
Some voice is calling you to leave home again, to go somewhere, and we are
looking for our true home. In fact we are looking for our self. We are looking
for our true self, and our true self is our true home. So, the verse concerning
the bell can be, "Listen, listen. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true
self."
There
are people who prefer true home. To meet the true self is true home. What you
call a self may not be a true self. A true self is not like that; is not
miserable like that; is not in disorder like that. A true self does not possess
worries and war and conflicts like that. A true self must be a true home.
We
have the impression that we have lost our true home and that is true. Many poets
believe that they have been exiled on earth. They have to undergo that term of
exile and suffer quite a lot before they can be brought home again. Poets in the
West and poets in the East also, in Asia, they always feel that they are an
angel, they are a spirit that has been exiled, and they long for the moment when
they can go home.
In
fact, each of us has spent time in a place where we felt very safe. No worries
at all. All of us have had that experience, to be in a place where there were no
worries. You don't have to clean up your breakfast, your lunch, your dinner. You
don't have to think about your clothes. Everything is taken care of just like in
the kingdom of God. God has taken care of everything. You do not have to worry
about anything. You long to go back to that space, because you have had that
experience, and that experience you can touch.
The
palace where you stay during that time, in Chinese they call it the palace of
the child. You have been that child, in the womb of your mother. You have spent
nine months in that palace and totally safe. You did not have to worry about
your breakfast, your lunch, your dinner. You didn't have to worry about the
heating system. Your mother drank for you, ate for you, breathed for you, did
everything for you. And that is why that experience is still alive. You long to
go back to that state of no worries. You don't have to think. How wonderful. And
that is why in every one of us there is feeling that I have been there, and I
have lost it. Now I suffer so much and I want to go back to it. But it is
impossible for us to go back to the womb of our mother. Shall we be in exile
forever? Is there any hope that we can go back to that state of safety and
comfort and no worries, no fear? The answer is yes!
Your
true home is always there. If you know how to handle the monkey within yourself,
how to stop running. Each of us is like a hungry ghost. We are hungry for love,
we are hungry for understanding. We are hungry for stability, for freedom, and
that is why we have been running all the time. We have not had a chance to stop
and rest. That is why the practice of meditation is first of all the practice of
stopping and resting in order to go back to your true home. That is the real
meaning of samatha. Samatha means stopping, calming.
Sam
has the meaning of lulling, it is like a lullaby, to take care of it like a
baby; to calm it down; to stop its crying; to make it feel peaceful. Samatha is
like that, because there is a child in us always suffering, always agitated.
That is the other aspect of the monkey, always agitating, always suffering,
always crying, and samatha is the practice to stop, to calm and to embrace.
There
is a child that suffers in us. There is a monkey who is restless in us. But we
need someone to take care of the child, to take care of the monkey, to embrace
them. We have to provide that person that will do the work. We cannot let the
monkey be alone. We cannot let the hungry ghost in us, the hungry child, the
suffering child in us, to be alone. We have to come home and take care and
embrace. That is the practice of samatha.
The
Chinese ti means to stop, to stop the suffering, to stop the agitation.
You can bring a lot of peace, of comfort, through the practice of samatha. When
you are calm, when you are comforted, then you can practice the other part of
meditation which is vipasyana. It means looking deeply. Looking deeply in
order to understand. When you are concentrated, you are calm, you are in a
position to look and to see, that kind of vision will have the power to
liberated you from the rest of the suffering in you. These are two elements of
Buddhist meditation. When you come to Plum Village, your purpose is not to learn
Buddhist philosophy or Pali or Sanskrit or Tibetan or Vietnamese. Your purpose
in coming to Plum Village is to learn how to embrace the suffering child within
you, the hungry ghost within, the turbulent monkey within. That's samatha.
So
learn the practice. There are many forms of practice that can help you to do
this. And after you have held it in your loving arms, you'll be able to look
deeply and to get the kind of wisdom, to get the kind of understanding that will
liberate you. Liberation in Buddhism is liberation by insight, not by grace.
That insight would not be possible without the practice of looking meditation.
Dyana, meditation, has two components: embracing, calming and then
looking deeply into the nature of what is. And these are two elements of
transformation and healing.
[Bell]
I
am home. I wish that you are also. We need some kind of energy to do the work of
calming and embracing. The monkey is there, turbulent. The child is there,
suffering. We need someone who will do the work of calming, stopping and that is
the energy of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the energy that has the power of
calming, stopping and healing, and by practicing walking meditation, breathing
mindfully, eating mindfully, doing things mindfully, then we can generate that
energy to embrace. That energy is considered to be the substance of a Buddha. I
would call it the holy spirit.
Mindfulness
is the capacity of being aware of what is there in the present moment. When I
drink some water, I can drink mindfully or I can drink while thinking of other
things. When I drink my water mindfully I am real. I am myself, body and mind
together, 100 percent. Because I am there 100 percent of myself the water
reveals herself to me 100 percent also. So both me and the water are real and in
that moment of water drinking life is real. By drinking my water in mindfulness,
I am going home. In that home I touch myself and I touch the water I drink. It's
not abstract. In our daily life we eat, we drink, we shake hands, but we are not
really there. We are lost in the past, in the future, lost in our worries, our
fear. We are not really there. Everything is superficial, everything is like a
ghost. To practice mindfulness is to produce your true presence. Your true
presence means the presence of you body and your mind together in the here and
the now. You can train yourself by drinking your water. Drink your water in such
a way that you become real--100 percent.
One
day my teacher said, "My child, would you go and get me a bamboo stick." I was
very eager to satisfy the request of my teacher so I went out and I didn't close
the door mindfully behind me. You love your teacher. You want to love. But you
don't know how to love. You are very eager to help him, to serve him. My teacher
called me back. "Novice." I came and I joined my hands. "You did not close the
door behind you mindfully. Please do it again.” So I got the teaching, so I took
time, became myself, pulled myself together and made mindful steps in the
direction of the door. Holding the knob, I breathe in, I open it, I step out
mindfully, I close it, I breathe out mindfully, and from the door to the place
where I find the bamboo stick I continue to practice walking meditation. I have
learned how to love my teacher. To love a teacher means to be what the teacher
would like to be. A teacher by yourself. My teacher did not have to teach me a
second time. I always know how to close the door properly.
In
1966, going to America to plead for a stop of the bombing, I visited American
Trappist monk Thomas Merton. I spent one day, one night with him. I was
scheduled to give the monks a talk. But I lost my voice, because the speaking
tour was very hectic, and I had to work too hard. So I only had time with
Thomas. Instead of me giving the talk he gave the talk for me. I just sat and
listened. He said, “Dear brothers, when I saw Thich Nhat Hahn closing the door I
knew he was a real monk. A monk can understand a monk.” And someone in Germany,
very deep in her Catholic tradition, she managed to hear that talk. She wanted
to come to Plum Village in order to see how Thich Nhat Hahn closed a door. She
came last winter, during a retreat and she stayed for nearly one month, and she
observed. She observed the monks, the nuns, and she observed me. I did not know
she was trying to observe how we close our doors. In the last day of her stay,
we had a formal lunch here in this Still Water Hall and she said some special
words to say goodbye. She told us the story of why she had come to Plum Village.
She stayed in the New Hamlet, she enjoyed it a lot.
So
when you come to Plum Village, please do learn how to close the door properly.
How to drink your water properly. How to walk properly from your tent to the
kitchen, from the toilet to the meditation hall. Never go without mindfulness.
That is the training here. Don't make any step without mindfulness, breathing in
and make one, or two or three steps, like you want, and breathing out you do the
same. Breathing in you make one step, two step. In the beginning you look like
you pretend to be peaceful, to be relaxed, because the monkey in you is pushing
you. It pushes even during the night. But you know, to tame the monkey, to tame
the horse, to tame the wild elephant, it what the Buddha taught us to do. A mind
that is not tamed creates a lot of suffering. A mind that has been tamed can
bring a lot of happiness.
So
practice walking in such a way that you can arrive in every step. Breathing in,
breathing in, breathing out, breathing out. You walk like you walk in the
Kingdom of God. Right here, right now, don't wait until you die. In America one
time I give a talk in a big church and I said "You don't need to die in order to
enter the Kingdom of God, in fact you have to be very alive in order to do so.
Breathe in, become mindful, become truly alive, and you make one step, only one
step can bring you into the Kingdom of God, right here, right now." That's what
we should do while we are in Plum Village. Every time you make a step, please
make it mindfully, so that the land you tread will be the Kingdom of God, will
be the Pure Land. It is the land of hell, or the land of God. It depends on your
way of walk, not on the geological conditions. You have heard that the Kingdom
of God is in you. You have heard that the Buddha land is in you. Touch it, make
it real, walk in such a way that solidity and peace and non-fear can be
possible.
Train
yourself. I myself, monks, nuns and permanent residents in Plum Village, we
practice walking meditation all year round. Not only during retreats, all year
round. With retreat or without retreat. We make a place into our true home. We
learn to stop. I will offer you a short gatha for your practice of walking and
sitting. When you breathe in, you pay attention to your in-breath, that is all.
That is not a thought, there is no thinking. Pay attention to your
in-breath--that is called the practice of mindfulness of breathing. Breathing
in, I know that I am breathing in. It is like, drinking water, I know that I am
drinking water. Mindfulness: conscious of what is going on, in the present
moment. And when you breathe in, you enjoy your in-breath, because it is
enjoyable, your in-breath. It is enjoyable, breathing in. Remember there was a
time when your nose was stuffed, and you could not breath in and out. Remember
the asthma crisis. Remember when you were locked in a room where there was no
fresh air.
You
want to breathe freely, the wonderful fresh air, clean air. This is available in
Plum Village. You have a nose that is not stuffed. You have lungs that can pump
the air. All conditions are sufficient for you to enjoy your breathing. One day
you lie down on your bed, and you can no longer breathe, and no matter what
people do to you, you cannot breathe again. So breathe in and feel that you are
alive. It is a wonderful thing. You don't need to be trained for ten years in
order to breathe in, you can succeed today. In breathing in enjoy the fact that
you are breathing in. Wonderful. Mindful breathing. You may use a few words to
guide you: "I have arrived."
Arrived where? At least I arrive to myself, I am going back to myself, because I
am restoring myself, body and mind together. In our daily life our mind and our
body are seldom together. That is the state of distraction. Our body is here,
but our mind is elsewhere. Caught in the past, caught in the future, caught in
our worries, our anger. Therefore, the practice of breathing in is to bring mind
and body together. Suddenly you have home to go back to. You can produce your
true presence. I have arrived. And when you breathe out, you say "I am home". In
French you say "Je suis chez moi, je suis arrive".
Your
home is in the here and the now, because life is in the here and the now. This
is a very important teaching of the Buddha that many people neglect. In a sutra
the Buddha said "Don't cling to the past, the past is no longer there. Do not
get upset about the future, the future is not yet there. Only the present moment
is available, and the wise person lives mindfully and happily in the present
moment." That is a text teaching us how to live deeply each moment of our daily
life. According to the teaching, life is available only in the present. Your
appointment with live is in the present moment. If you get lost in the past and
the future and miss the present moment, it means you miss your appointment with
life. What a pity. We miss our appointment with life so many times a day. We are
not truly there. We sit there, yes, but our child comes and she does not find
us. Our body is there but are absorbed in our thinking and worries and projects.
Our child is disappointed. We are not really there for him, for her.
[Bell]
To
love means to be there for the person you love. The most precious gift you can
make to the beloved one is you presence. So you need to breathe in and breathe
out and there you are in the present moment. Your home is available only in the
present moment. Breathe in and breathe out, bring your mind back to your body,
smile. There you are home, your home in the present moment. Everything you are
looking for is in the present moment, including God, including the Pure Land,
including the Buddha. The blue sky, life, especially life, can only be touched
in the present moment. When could life be touch? Where else? Only the present
moment. So the practice here in Plum Village is to go back to the present
moment, every time, and to go back by the techniques of walking and breathing.
Always go back to the here and the now, because it is the only place where you
can find your home, your address. Your true address is: body, mind, united here
and now. You don't need any zip code.
It
is also the address of God. It is the address of Kingdom of God, it is the
address of our ancestors, all our beloved ones are there. The address of love.
The address of compassion. The address of freedom, also. It is written the same:
body and mind united, here and now. You go back to it every time. By the
techniques of breathing and walking. I have arrived, I am home. Suddenly you
don't feel the need to run. You have run for many lifetimes. Because you don't
know that your true life, your true home is in the here and the now.
You
think you cannot be happy in the here and the now. That is why you continue to
run. Somehow you think that happiness in not possible in the here and the now.
You still need more conditions. You think that in the future, maybe, you can
find them. That is why you continue to run. But if you go home, you'll find that
you have more than enough conditions to be happy. You can be happy right now,
right here. Remember the teachings of the Buddha: “It is possible to live
happily in the present moment.” You may say, “But how can I be happy when I have
lots of pain, worries in me?’ The
Buddha said "yes, it's possible to be happy with some pain and sorrow and worry
in you." The garden may have some garbage within, but that does not prevent the
flowers from blooming. If you know how to make compost, you cherish this
garbage, because without the garbage you have nothing with which to make compost
to nourish the flowers. The Buddha would smile, "My dear ones, you need some
suffering, you need some garbage in order to help the flowers in your garden to
bloom." So let us not be too worried about the pain, the sorrow, the
difficulties in us. It is still possible to live happily with some suffering,
some pain, in us.
You
know a boat. When you throw a rock into the river it will sink to the bottom of
the river. No rock can float on the surface of the water like a flower. But if
you have a boat, you can put kilograms of rocks in it and the boat will still
float. So with this amount of suffering in you, if you manage to have a boat,
then you can still float. You can enjoy your rowing back and forth across the
lake or the river. Learn the art of generating the energy of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the boat that can embrace, that can transport, that can
transform. You know you can do it.
Don't
lose any minute of your day. Each minute of your day is to generate the energy
of mindfulness: walking, breathing, sitting. You breathe in, you enjoy your
breathing and you say, "I have arrived." The purpose is to stop running. When
you breathe out you say "I am home". Your home begins to reveal itself. If you
are a beginner, you have not explored entirely your true home yet. But at least
you already have access. You touch it and the more you touch it, the more your
true home will reveal itself to you. You don't have to take a long time. The
moment when you know how to breathe in, some peace, some joy, some stability is
already born in you. That is the characteristic of the dharma. It does not need
a lot of time. You can see the effect of the practice right now, right here.
Breathe
in, allow yourself breathe in naturally. Don't try to struggle in order to
breathe in. Why do you have to struggle breathing in? If you struggle like that
after a few minutes of breathing in and out you will be exhausted. So learn how
to breathe. Allow yourself to breathe in and out naturally. Don't try to make it
longer or deeper. Just breathe normally, like when you sit in you living room,
or when you enjoy your garden behind the house. Only turn on the energy of
mindfulness, and become aware of you in breath and out breath. If it is short,
you know that this is a short breath. If it is long, then you know this is a
long breath. That's all. To recognize your breathing as it. Don't interfere,
don't try to bend, to correct, to do anything, leave it alone. Only observe it.
In our daily life, we breathe but we don't breathe mindfully. In our practice we
continue to breathe but we learn to breathe mindfully. No effort should be made
in the breathing. There should be only the practice of being aware of your
breathing.
When
you breathe in you may feel more peaceful. Especially when you come to the
second or third breath. Naturally,
if you breathe mindfully for three of four times, the quality of your
breathing will be improved, without your effort to improve it at all. Those of
us who have practiced, we know about this. So, I have arrived, I am home. You
sit on your cushion practicing sitting meditation, you may enjoy just this: “I
have arrived, I am home.” There is no need for me to run anymore. You can feel
the effects of stopping in you. If you feel that the restlessness in you is
diminished and you enjoy doing nothing, just sitting and breathing, you have
made progress. A few minutes later you must shift into the second line of the
poem: “In the here and the now.” In
fact, this second line is exactly the same as the first one. It means the same
thing. “Where do I arrive?” I arrive in the here. Where is my home, my home is
in the now. Because life is in that moment. The beautiful sunset, the beautiful
vegetation, the full moon, the person you love, the fresh air, the plum.
Everything has to be touched in the present moment. If you are not in the
present moment, these things are not for you.
Suppose
you are standing with ten people, looking in the direction of the sunset. The
sunset is beautiful. Many people enjoy the sunset. How colorful, how glorious
the sunset is. But you don't see the beautiful sunset, because you stand there
with other people, but you are absorbed in you worries. Your mind is thinking of
tomorrow after tomorrow, or the past. So the sunset is not for you. The sunset
is for those who are present in the here and the now. The condition, the basic
condition to enjoy the sunset, is to be there, body and mind united, and that
condition can be fulfilled by just one mindful in breath and out breath. Do you
have to make any special effort to enjoy a beautiful sunset? Not at all. Just be
there. When you breathe in and breathe out mindfully, all the thinking, all the
worries are eliminated. Your true presence is needed for the sunset to reveal
herself.
So
in the here and the now is our true home. You might enjoy: “Breathing in I feel
I have established myself in the here, breathing out I dwell solidly in the
now.” You are touching life in the present moment. That is the purpose of your
sitting meditation. Don't try to become a Buddha, don't try to become something
else, someone else. Be yourself, totally alive on your cushion. Do not think,
because breathing in, breathing out is not that hard. The practice is not to be
lost in your thinking. “I think therefore I am not.” To be and not to think. To
think is not to be. To be means to
be something. To be your true home, or to be your worries, your running, your
sorrow. And to be your true home, this is not thinking.
“I
am solid, I am free.” Solidity is the basic condition for happiness. Solidity,
stability, that is what we have to cultivate. In a sitting position, you
cultivate the solidity of your body position. The lotus and half lotus position
are the best, otherwise, you will have to look for the chrysanthemum position.
The chrysanthemum position is whatever position that you are most comfortable
in, and you may have to look for a cushion or two; you have to find out your
chrysanthemum position. That is an alternative to your lotus or half lotus. You
may spend one or two hours with every kind of cushion until you find it. When
you find it, you can be comfortable for half an hour of sitting.
Solidity
of the body and sitting still is one of the ways of cultivating the stability of
the body. When you have stability of the body, the stability of the mind will
increase, and vice versa. If you have stability of the mind, you can sit very
still; and if you can sit very still, you will be able to be more peaceful and
solid in your mind. So the two things help each other.
"I
am free." Free from what? This is not political freedom. This is free from
worries, from attachment to the past, from worries about the future. We are
assailed by many thoughts, by many worries, by many kinds of anxiety and fear.
We are not free and that is why we are not happy. When you have come back to
yourself, you will touch so many of the conditions that can make you happy. You
will that it is possible to be happy right here and right now, in the sitting
position, in the walking meditation, while making my breakfast, while cooking
for the community, while washing the dishes, while washing my clothes. I can be
happy washing my clothes. You see, when you do your dishes, you might like to do
it quickly so that you can sit down and enjoy your coffee, so the time of
washing dishes is lost. You have to learn how to enjoy dish washing.
When
I was a novice, I had to wash dishes for one hundred monks. I did not have hot
water, soap. I had to boil the water. I had to use ash and coconut skin, and
together with the other novice we had a good time washing dishes, because we had
learned the art of mindful dish washing. When I came to the West, I wrote a book
to tell people how to enjoy washing the dishes. Some of you may have read it; it
is The Miracle of Mindfulness. You have to be alive and joyful and happy
when you wash your dishes.
You
have to make life possible, worth living, during the time of dish washing,
otherwise, when you sit down for tea and coffee, you will not be able to enjoy
your tea and your coffee. You will think of anything else. You put your coffee
down and go and look for the telephone book for some telephone number and call
and leave your coffee cold. You know about this. So we can never be happy. We
postpone happiness until later on. Never. So the principle is: how to be happy
right now. If someone asked you, "Has the most wonderful moment of your life
arrived yet? The best moment of your life, has it arrived yet." You may be
embarrassed. You may say, "It seems that that wonderful moment of my life has
not arrived yet, but I believe
strongly that it will arrive soon, sometime in the future." We want to cling to
that belief. We want to be happy some time. It is absurd that we would be
unhappy for all of our life. We all believe like that. And you know very well
that if you continue to life in forgetfulness, like you have lived the past 20
years or 30 years, and then that wonderful moment will not happen within the
next 20 or 30 years, or ever. So the teaching of the Buddha is clear. Don't
wait, make the present moment into the most wonderful moment of your life. That
is possible, with the energy of mindfulness. Breathing in, dish washing is
wonderful. Because I am alive, my eyes are in good condition, my feet are
strong, I have a roof to live under. There are so many conditions of happiness
available to you now.
Go
home and you will see. Go home and you will know that you are lucky, that living
happily in the present moment is possible. That is the only way to help you to
stop, otherwise you continue to run. Stopping is the basic condition of
happiness. Solidity and freedom are described as the two basic characteristics
of nirvana. When you are solid, when you are free, afflictions can no longer
bother you, nonfear is in you, and you enjoy every moment in your daily life.
These two kinds of energy, solidity and freedom, have to be cultivated. Your
practice of breathing and walking, of doing everything in mindfulness, to go
back to the present moment and to establish yourself in the present moment, is
the practice of cultivating solidity, stability and freedom. You know, people
who are not solid, people who are not free, they suffer a lot. Free from anger,
free from illusion, free from misunderstanding, free from despair. That kind of
freedom is the base for our happiness.
So,
you are touching nirvana, you are touching your home, you are touching the
Kingdom of God, while practicing. You don't mention your true home, your don't
mention the kingdom of God, you don't mention nirvana, but you are touching
nirvana with your body, with your feelings. The Buddha said, "You can touch
nirvana with your body, in the here, in the now." If I translate into the
language of Christianity, you can enter the Kingdom of God, right here, right
now. God is available to you 24 hours a day. “God is your happiness.” There is a
French writer who wrote these lines. His name is Andre Gide.
"In
the ultimate, I dwell." The ultimate is your true home, where there is no birth,
no death; no being, no nonbeing; no up, no down. You are totally safe, no fear
at all. And this is available to you in the here and the now. Am I too
optimistic?
Look
at these waves on the ocean. [Thay draws on chalk board.] Wave Number One, Wave
Number Two, Number Three, Number Four, etc. To live the life of a wave is very
hard. Each of us is a wave. There is a certain moment when you believe that you
were born, and there must be a moment when you will die and will no longer be
there, right? These are the things that continued to assail us every day. "I did
not exist before that. I will vanish completely after that point. I am. Before
that, I was not and after this, I will not be." These ideas, you are not free
from them, and they create your fear and your whole block of fear in here, and
you become a philosopher.
Second
question, "What can I do to be like the other waves?" He is so superb. He is
admired by so many other waves. Why God has created me as a small wave and he a
big one? So jealousy, discrimination, are born here and you want to become a
revolutionary. You want to make everything equal. So, the ideal of high and low,
more or less beautiful, all these things continue to assail you as you continue
to live the life of the wave. You are not solid; you are not free. But there is
another dimension of you that you have not touched. You have touched the
dimension of waves. It is called a historical dimension, where there is birth,
death; up, down, being and nonbeing, but you have not touched the other
dimension that I mentioned, the dimension of the water. So you go down to
yourself. You get back to yourself, to your true home, as a way of your looking
for your true home. You want to arrive, but you never arrive. Your true home is
right there, into you, the water.
It
is possible for a wave to live the life of a wave and to live the life of water
at the same time. That is our practice. We have to live our ultimate dimension
right here and right now. And it is by going back to the here and the now that
we can touch the ultimate dimension, our ultimate dimension. Looking from the
phenomenal aspect, you see a wave, and each wave is different from all the other
waves. There is a self, there is nonself. But when you get down to your true
home, water, you are no longer afraid. As water, I can never die. There is no
high, no low; no more beautiful, no less beautiful. How wonderful. Water is the
true nature of waves, and at the time you realize that you are water, you become
solid. You become free. No ideas, no fear, no craving can assail you
anymore.
In
fact, water is available to the wave 24 hours a day. The ultimate, God, is
available to you, nirvana, the world of no birth and no death is available to
you in the here and the now. You have to trust. You have to surrender to the
ultimate reality. God is your true happiness. Enjoy God 24 hours a day. What you
are looking for, the kingdom of God, the Pure Land, the true home is in here, if
you know how to breathe in and go back to the here and the now. If you train
yourself to be solid, to touch deeply life in the present moment, you touch the
ultimate reality, also. You are cultivating the Kingdom of God; you are
cultivating your solidity and freedom. The ultimate is made of solidity and
freedom. As I said, nirvana is made of solidity and freedom. If you have these
two elements, you won't suffer any more. Birth is okay; death is okay; small is
okay; big is okay. No longer any discrimination, because you dwell in the
ultimate.
I
have made this gata for my own practice more than a decade ago and I find if
very helpful, very, very effective. Shall we sing together in English?
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.
l
am solid. l am free.
I
am solid. I am free.
In
the ultimate I dwell.
In
the ultimate I dwell.
[Thay
leads Sangha in singing French language version of the gatha.]
This
gatha is also available for your walking meditation. You pick up one of the five
exercises and when you practice, you breathe in and you make two steps or three
steps. In the meditation hall, we make only one step, because we can afford to
do so, but outside it would look more natural if you walk a little bit quicker.
When you have mastered the walk, you can run mindfully, also. But you can only
run mindfully if you already know how to walk mindfully.
So
breathing in, you can make, say, two steps. It is good for beginners. “I have
arrived, arrived.” When you breath out, say, "I am home. I am home." And do it
again. And don't just say the word. Live it. When you pronounce the words, "I
have arrived," you have to arrive. You have to stop running: running within;
running without. You don't run anymore as you walk slowly, yes, but who knows
that you have stopped inside? So, you have to stop running. You have to arrive.
And, you have to train yourself. We are all here, around you to support you,
because we all doing the same. If you lose your step and you get lost, and the
monkey takes the lead. Then you see us and you go back and you embrace your
monkey again. And say, "Dear monkey, let us walk together."
You
know, in Plum Village, all of us have signed a treaty with the stairs. Many of
us live in buildings with stairs, and we always practice climbing up the stairs
in mindfulness, enjoying every step going down. I have stairs in my hermitage. I
have practiced going up and coming down the stairs for twenty years. Never,
never, have I betrayed my commitment. So, you may like to sign a treaty with
your stairs.
When
you begin to take the first step, you can breathe in and out in such a way that
peace and joy is possible. Life is possible and the stopping is possible. Be
determined to do so. When you are a beginner, the habit energy is very strong.
The horse is to be tamed. The elephant has to be tamed. The monkey has to be
embraced. And we are there to support you. If half way, you realize that you
have not been mindful in walking, you stop, go down and you begin again.
The
monks and the nuns in Plum Village, all of them have signed the peace treaty,
the mindfulness treaty. Those of us who don't live in a place where there are
stairs, we sign with a section of the path, from this tree to the that rock in
the garden, 50 or 100 meters, according to you. Any time you pass that path, you
have to walk mindfully each step and if half-way, you get lost, go back. You
don't need to hurry to go to the meditation hall, because you are meditating
right here, right now. So don't run to the meditation hall.
We
have climbed the mountain where the Buddha lived. We have climbed the mountain
in Wu Tai Shan, and we received a lot of pleasure climbing these mountains. They
are sacred. But everywhere we go offering retreats, we walk in the same way.
Everywhere is the Gridhrakuta Mountain. Everywhere is the Wu Tai Shan mountain.
Everywhere is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is really available if you
know how to walk.
One
day, climbing into an airplane in Asia in a country of the Third World, I
noticed I was climbing on aluminum stairs, not very solid. But I climbed with
the same kind of quality of practice. I enjoyed every step. I climbed into the
airplane just like I climbed the Gridhrakuta Mountain or walk in the Upper
Hamlet. So be determined not to lose any more of your life, of your time. Stop
and enjoy every step you make.
The
Zen master Lin Chi said, "The miracle is to walk on earth.” Not on water, not on
the burning charcoal, but to walk on earth. So please perform the miracle every
time you use your feet and you will learn the art of stopping and living deeply
each moment of your life. And you walk like that, not only for you, yourself;
you walk for all of us. You walk for all our ancestors and our children and
their children, also. So, please this morning, my friends, you have learned how
to listen to the bell; how to breathe in and out and arrive, and how to enjoy
our walking. When you practice for one week, you'll see the difference.
Dear
Friends,
These dharma
talk transcriptions are of teachings given by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh in
Plum Village or in various retreats around the world. The teachings traverse all
areas of concern to practitioners, from dealing with difficult emotions, to
realizing the interbeing nature of ourselves and all things, and many
more.
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