The Power of Cutting Off & Letting Go | Dharma Talk by Br Phap Dung, 2018 07 29

[Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] the respected teacher dear noble Sangha the family we are you know last week like my brother share of a summer retreat it's the only month where we have children lots of children come and there are monks and nuns very very grateful for you to bring your family here to children although we do see it is very challenging for some parents to be here but it is it's good to be challenged here in the Sangha so we hope that you find a way to learn to be with your family with your children with your partner with yourself more compassionately more time as you are a parent as you are a husband a wife a partner whatever that relationship is but hopefully you'll stay here you'll learn to be more time to yourself and do that you can be kind to your your loved ones so this is what I hope for the summer retreat that's all you know we somewhere retreat this is a family practice and so this is the reality of being in in life in the world and we thank you for having children because we've chosen the life to help no children so we get to play with your children and to give you your children back when they cry okay mommy yesterday I walk around and any new baby in the village and opera Hamlet I always come when I touched the head of the baby and I pray the baby will have you know a nourishing growth so there was one six months only sometimes they bring the baby even younger while it's still in the womb so I can't do the forehead so I have to touch my head and you can feel the energy of the baby so we this is a beautiful environment that teacher Tai has created that meditation and mindfulness and the practice is there's nothing separate from our life our daily life including our family including children crying including boys running and falling and getting bloody nose and even boy is fighting so we learn how to deal with that mindfully kindly compassionately so this is the practice so the practice is not something separate from your family from your relationship from your daily life some people think that this is practice and then something else so more and more I see the or Thais vision is to use the practice and to really apply it to our daily life including the challenges the suffering whatever we face in our business in our work in environment that we're in so this is whatever you're here for this is very important to try not to make that distinction this is my time this is now this is family time yeah your family time is your practice so being with the children and those who are here who don't have children please practice with that because that's our future our children this is a very important element in plum village practice we we try our best to apply every aspect and don't underestimate the ordinary things as you see we only sit maybe 30 minutes in the morning and maybe 30 minutes in the evening and I always ask well what happens to the rest of the hour the 10 hour of the 20 hour outside of the meditation hall that is a very good question so some time we are in interested in meditation and we think it is in the hall or is when we're sitting like this so please reinvasion the practice as and when I learn most that really stood out for me was washing the dishes we wash out this we eat three times and we wash our dishes three times and you know as a parent you might think that's a chore or as anybody you think is something to get rid of so you can go have your tea and then do your practice but tires is very unique to have a place like this to have you come here and you do dishes what can you imagine one day the monks and nuns asked I type we should go get washing machines to wash dishes quickly so we have more time to practice I have a feeling tire would say he would smile [Music] so why do we have to ask while we asked to wash dishes why is there a sanitation team so in a way we're making the monastery more more kind of like what you have at home not of course all of it so in your time when you wash dishes we're taught when we learn overseas to wash it like the baby Buddha or Jesus or Allah or something your loved one so we wash your dishes and we enjoy washing our dishes as if it is the most important thing for us to do so it's not in the meditation home that's easy part you're away from your children they have not woken up and you're but what's more interesting is you begin to apply the mindfulness practice into the ordinary things getting a cup of tea you don't need to rush you just get your top cup of tea you wash your dishes you wash your ball you don't need to rush to do it you breathe in and you take your time you put the bowl over you put the dishes you know you're pushing the dishes over you wash the spoon you put your spoon over you see the ordinary or was it what does this have to do with anything about my life and this is what I learned from plum village from early start when I came here it is very challenging because in my mind I thought it was something to get rid of to finish and then go do you know you're the real thing whatever it's work or practice so it's a real challenge to wash the dishes so this is something I want to just offer it to you to use this week to retrain yourself or to train yourself to wash the dishes and your bowl and your spoon in mindfulness and relaxation I mean don't do it like like so like like you're practicing that the whole line is looking at you you know be ordinary don't stick out okay just just do it smile enjoy you know the baby boo they can mmm so just don't overdo it okay don't over practice but do it at a leisurely plate mainly is to enjoy it don't rush it so that's one habit that I learn and my early day first coming here to plum village and I also invite you for those who are new here or those who have been here before even to look at this week as a week for you to train a new habit okay so you have a few days here maybe five six days so it's enough time and it could be walking could be washing the dishes okay be opening the door mindfully all right it could be sitting yeah whatever that is sitting still but besides sitting still look at your other parts outside of the most meditation hall so use this week to recognize that maybe something you'd like to be alone it's a habit you have you're afraid of people or you don't like crowds it might be for you to sit in the near the tea house and just enjoy people you see the that new habit so look at this week to see if there's a habit you recognize that you'd like to cultivate and this is the mindfulness practice it is not separate from whatever it is you recognize so this is something Ty's vision for bringing meditation in engage applied meditation this is something like and to invite all of you for this week we will be exploring three elements that are very important in food Buddhist practice they call them virtue or powers it is very very important aspect like spiritual power and these three aspect a very this is how we qualify or we see the character of a spiritual person like a monk or nun or a teacher or spiritual teacher or in society a leader a member who you know people who looked up to so these are the elements that we call virtue character or in Buddhist term we call we can call them like the power there's three elements that help us in Buddhism we don't look like power when you think of power normally people think of wealth Fame right or political power these kind of like you're you're in control of some other element below you but in the spiritual training we look at in in terms of compassion okay um Duke oh it's like a compassion love and look is a kind of virtue or power so that's the first kind of thing we'll one another element we'll explore this week and the other is wisdom understanding or insight you see the qualities that make a spiritual person they use these three to kind of praise the Buddha and the Bodhisattva so compassion wisdom or understanding and insight mighty look these are the three things that help you gauge yourself and the third one we'll explore today is called on look and that is the power of the virtue of I would say cutting through I remember ty when he first introduced it his hand went like this you cut through and it's quite powerful another word letting go and what that virtue is is your freedom see so you qualify a spiritual practitioner by the amount of compassion they have the amount of wisdom they have an amount of freedom I mean imagine this is the leader of our nation you look and you look Wow so wise so compassionate yeah so free wow what a president yeah and so if you're part of any organization if you're a leader please reflect on yourself what kind of power do you use is it based on fear is it pace on politics your status where you act so these are the typical power that we learn in school in politics in history right but in as you are a spirit on a spiritual journey now these three qualities is what really makes or or breaks I they say in in America is what makes you or breaks you we don't and you are seeing that now in society the kind of freedom people really have the kind of power so it looks like they have a lot of power but in the end somehow the power became a temptation and it becomes a big scandal or a big break so these are things we have to be aware of so I'll use the board now all right for you the first one is we say um Duke alright minimis is compassion and these are the three virtues or power T Duke and then today we'll explore gone look this is cutting through or we can say freedom hmm in the Buddhist practice in normal life we think accumulation is what we learn is accumulating knowledge accumulating things and that's like what we are taught right in school to learn more in life work so you can have more in the spiritual practice is actually is to release is to eliminate more it's not to accumulate more women accumulate views in Buddhism you remove youth you see the the is a very interesting thing so if you are on the practice and you're starting to accumulate a lot of things all plum builders I know them now I get it oh I understand everything about theis teaching now be careful when you on the line of becoming very dogmatic so you learn it helps you and you let go so the Buddhist practice is like medicine it helps us it frees us I mean you don't go holding on to it so this is the freedom of cutting off and what are we cutting off mainly the three afflictions the first one is our craving that's just a big term for maybe you say craving off you know it's what's so harmful about craving for chocolate is okay you know but there's other subtle it represents a whole class and there are three class that are huge in Buddhist practice and the I think you know this one there's time right in Vietnamese and then there's some craving and this would be anger craving hatred you can say anger sounds more close to us and then our ignorant now round beers someone who craving might be too much for you maybe you don't have craving but you have attachment so anything to do in this category involves grabbing it could be chocolate it could be views it could be greed I notice in Upper Hamlet we is very Sephora and then this is where mindfulness practice you can help you see stuff the brother is this season just this summer retreat for the summer retreat we bought new yellow chairs they're really good high-quality yellow chairs and so all of a sudden they appear and they don't look like all the other chairs there's the white one which is like 20 years old there's the green one which is about 10 years old and then there's the black one which is about five years old and then people know you know a yellow chair and then you know some people are very you know before you know their family gathering for dinner they make sure they get all the yellow chair or at least some woman I just put some green ones so is uh they look like you're so greedy I know that's probably not it's the wrong perception but just in case that's happening with you that's in the category of craving you see it's very subtle but this is a these things are they don't cause a suffering much right this little thing no chocolate what's but if you're careful you you'll see the subtlety of it sometime if we're a little stingy pride is also a kind of craving you don't want to admit it you don't want to let them know so you hold on to it you see you don't want to apologize you don't want no big deal see it's very subtle so craving me sounds like but there's also stronger ones like urges addictions these are entering into mental illness obsessive obsession neurosis what is it the attention this you know kind of like so it's a kind of it becomes a little bit more most obvious is was it sexual craving or less this is a huge problem right now and it's wonderful that the I guess the people the society is waking up to that a lot of people in power very easily tempted to abuse that power and our craving is the most primal kind of energy that will tempt us this as you see in the news in the last year is really for the good it's a kind of beginning a new for a society to look at the kind of structure we have and the type of what we allow and this is not to blame anyone is we are involved as well we have created a society where we water the seed of craving a lot of lusts of and so on so this is these are victims people are in place of power that they don't have the spiritual power of letting go of true freedom it looks like they have power but there is something eroding so this is a good way to understand where this fits in as a spiritual characteristic of of a person of someone who's on the spiritual path in Buddhist practice the when we say cutting off there's also a practice of equanimity of staying mere awareness is a quality of love so these things kind of overlap so cutting off is a kind of a kind of freedom of just watching and recognizing things as they are so this is a hard practice because we're usually in a place mmm and for parents this is very interesting because you're in a position where you do have some relationship to your children to your family so you do have a little bit of of that but as you know some sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't and so this one's for parents you can practice this also equanimity being aware and we've developed that we call it non parenting or non you have a relationship with your partner like maybe a couple or father with the son a mother with a daughter and we learned to be free from that as well so learning to cut and be free from that because you see you do the mother thing with your child a lot there's a kind of suffering that you produce for yourself and probably others I don't know that is very clear but is that it's also a habit the things that we have these kind of like make us lose our freedom so we have a reaiiy with something like we identify that we're in a position you see and therefore we we feel like we have some kind of power over something and this is for me this is where you have to play with it a little bit you have to not be the parent or not be the boss so this is a kind of letting go of cutting off that relationship normally when we in society we we run after you know wealth power Fame sex these things are related to power and if we don't you know use the training so mindfulness training to really examine what these elements are they all have a hook so this is the the the part here I would remind us that or in the sutra the the temptation but to have wealth is perpetually that never ends is a hook to it and a big a Lu you lose your freedom that way and then same thing with sex the pleasure is short but a kick I can become weaker overwhelming or sometime lead to even perversion so this is the we must remember this in our society we don't we don't teach this we don't teach the the danger of of these the money wealth normally we praise that way we put it on the high ground and this is a kind of society that I grew up with and only to the mindfulness practice through stopping and looking at the reality of what this is doing to me making me lose my freedom and that was a a kind of a awakening or wake-up call for me to reexamine my life as a young person I remember thinking there is because it's very difficult to do to to let go and I remember having thoughts like god I wish I never met ty all the practice everybody anybody ever have that thought yeah I said God my life is so fine until now I have to look at everything and reexamine everything and this is a challenge too so maybe you might want to choose you know go somewhere else because this will how you have to look at things that you might want not want to look at and the power cutting off also includes our views views about ourselves views about happiness there's a story in the Sutra of a monk who who is in the forest sitting meditation and he somehow got a little excited and doing his meditation and he yelled out I think somewhere you know this story I love this story it's just like oh oh my happiness he's so happy and so the the way he yelled it it disturbed all the other monks and so they thought he went kind of maybe local or something strange you know because he yelled it too loud or something and so they reported it to the Buddha and and then they came and talked to the Buddha and they found out later that he was actually a very wealthy man before he became a monk he was like a real good business person he had you know mansions and so on probably a nice car you know two three nice cars and a garage with security camera you know I'm skipping time just in case it relates to you and he was a when he became a monkey released all that he no longer own the house car and all these things and he didn't own a bank account he didn't own a credit card he didn't have to go to the ATM every month pay a check to his bank and yeah oh my god Oh what happiness I know that sounds very strange but this is a lot of us who choose the path of a monastic life we thought you know owning a lot of things especially a bank account was a great happiness especially every month when it the numbers get higher yeah that's the way they you're your top right and so the power of letting go the happiness from letting go please don't do that if you have a family please do you know you know yeah please look at your condition so don't let go all your cows I would say is a cow releasing cows right so you have to look at what kind of towels you have the physical powers do you really need all that do you need another car do you need so on so this is a practice to help us look deeply and how simple our life is because sometimes those things we have idea that they make our life better but it actually takes away our time or quality time with our family with ourselves so please reexamine and releasing cow also the is not just the material things there's also views ideas which is very important our ideas about ourselves this is a challenge in as we practice we identify ourselves as a certain way and we hang on to that we cling to them and that could might even be a meditator or a spiritual traveler right so these kind of things are like traps so the power of stopping and looking at ourselves if you're still enough you can begin to see the little subtleties of your yeah what you you view yourself you brand yourself you box yourself in and this is not how is preventing youth is an obstacle to your freedom we also have views about other people our father our mother our loved ones our brothers and sister and they become an obstacle because we're not able to let them go so the practice is to recognize to calm to look deeply and to let go you know the 16 exercises the tithe teaches often the the last four involves letting go and not that it's like accumulative right but it is very important one is non desire and one is letting go and so when we begin to look at ourselves and look at the nature of reality the things that were attached to we want to protect you know this is a a tendency we have and the thing is that we don't want things that we don't have we crave for the things we have we are insecure about so identify these things because they will relate to your freedom I'll tell you another funny story in the monastic area when Christmas all the brothers got cups I like to tell this one because it's still happening and they have our names on them you know those cups are we drink these cups you know they don't have a identifier they didn't have any markings when I was first here Titus has them and they're all the same you know and then this one says bow you Mon it but some sister learn how to engrave or some brothers and they engraved our name on them on on these cups before you know the brothers whoever had the cup in the rooms okay you take it and you go the room is fine and it just goes around and eventually it goes out but as someone for one Christmas gave each brother a cup with our name on it you know so now you go into other rooms and you kind of see oh that's my name on it you know and then before no problem right you know but now it has my name on it and hmm how did I get here it should be my room and the same thing with the chair you know so it's very interesting you see identity yourself yeah I am Bob I am Michelle you say something about Michelle I don't like I get hurt so this is our views are very interesting and if you're on the path this is all fun okay so don't make it too serious another view we have that we won't let go is our suffering where some of us maybe might be in the habit of making ourselves suffer or watering that seat so we have to be careful that some of us whom we tend to want to be there or we we can't handle a month without drama so it could be a habit of yours so how to be still have to be not be too disturbed this is cutting off why do I have the habit of always being involved in some kind of drama every month it is a new object this month is this person next month is that situation so this is the practice of cutting off cutting off our habits our views are things letting go and the more we let go the more freedom we have and that is the power of dong-wook you understand why that is value is your freedom and in Buddhism that is very high it's not about whether you're happy joyful or its freedom and peace are you able to be in the front of suffering to be free and then you are able and be in a position to help if you're not a free person you will be pulled in and the drama and you have you lose your stability that's why freedom and equanimity is very pretty high up there much more and then happiness I would say is you know you go to joy happiness and then there's peace peace in front of happiness or suffering there's compassion you see so don't just look for oh I'm happy or I'm suffering oh I'm happy I'm suffering you know that is there those are the elements but look also okay I am suffering can I be at peace with it can I be calm can I be free in the face of suffering your child is crying don't let that suck you in just then you're able to help your child or else you will just perpetuate what is it that relationship this is an observation so we need to learn how to be with each other to actually offer a kind of freedom a kind of fearlessness in front of suffering in front of obstacles and things so the power of cutting cutting off is an element that we can cultivate and we cultivate that with the present moment of we're mere awareness versa so you stay still you take you train yourself to breathe in the front of a craving a front in front of a things a habit that's then you just breathe and you watch you slowly train in that the calm and then you look at it so that's the power of letting go [Music] [Music] so the like tree or nice haircut mmm next topic I share with you that might be helpful for you to as you practice is my two element we called venom easy called then bow which is kind of like your your the same nature your nature or more technical is the our main retribution these are technical but what it explained that it is a it's basically your body and mind it's your individual your five skandhas it's what your parents your ancestor has I've given you your giving you this life this body this mind and you're a particular way where whether you like it or not you're very similar to your mother and your father some of us don't want to admit it but slowly as you get older you probably recognize it yesterday in our lunch or dinner lunchtime we introduced ourselves and each one had to say one habit that we have of our mother and one habit that we have of our father our father and then the person that went first he he listed a few I only asked one but you get excited and you and so this is the kind of things so they've only not as given us their genes the two chromosomes each right but they've also given us a little bit of their character like I said that I have quality of my my mother being by like social she she will meet strangers and we would be so embarrassed like we would walk anywhere my mother would like just make friends with anybody and as kids we were like it would embarrass us as children you know because she's uh she has that ability to treat everyone kind of like like best friends you know like not here not here no and I and I recognized I kind of have that I do that with especially with babies I think everybody is baby is mine you know I take home and the mother is like yeah and I put them on the tree and your mom was like oh no she's played I say something because maybe not my baby so I have that quality of my mother and my father I have he's got creativity well sort of my father but this is something that's very helpful very helpful in my practice because some time now when I cook oh when I do something like I sold my clothing I think of my grandma and she's in me yeah and he's wonderful so you begin to do things with this in mind this is your what you're continuing at them there's another aspect we call a bow and this is kinda in I guess in science' corner cherry our environment this is the environment as retribution and see the tree the visionary tree is very helpful for us we are each like a living organism and we're interacting with the environment we're a particular kind of tree we could be a pear and apple but each one of us is interacting so this is a wonderful way to see yourself as a kind of a interacting system and one way we interact with the world is through our thoughts you know like maybe our speech and our bodily action this helps us become more aware when we say practicing mindfulness it's not just you know doing things mindfully but also we become mindful of our speech mindful of our listening mindful listening you see what the how the words coming in affect us so these are ways that we interact we continue ourselves our speech could be like leaves action more fruit so this is what we we give out right and the environment is what is affecting us and the environment here how we get nourished we can remember help us remember is the for nutriments edible foods I'll just I won't go over this in detail but just for your sense impression our volition and our consciously so this is kind of like the output how we interact how we affect how we continue ourselves I think one of the gotta be to reflect on about Oh H sickness and death but the only thing you can you know that will continue you when you die is your these energies it is very helpful to begin to see your practice as these things is what you give out your action is very obvious right your speech but also your thought as an energy and I think that's the as you practice more and especially watch that in Dharma discussion this week this is a happening a lot in Dharma discussion how you listen and what you spot talk about while you're listening there are thoughts triggering so this is a way we interact and give out output and these things are the things that input the energy the things we eat the drink the things we watch here and think you know see on the news internet and so on I will listen our spiritual it's like our will our desire and then consciousness which is kind of an individual there's the individual consciousness I hope this is not this is quite I don't know it's okay for first day and then our collective so our individual consciousness and our collective consciousness so this is a way we can begin to be more mindful when you practice mindfulness is this is what you're being mindful of what's happening inside and what's happening around you so this is a way to look at it there's something upsetting in the stomach what did I eat today all right something restless in my body what have I been paying attention with in my thought you see so this is a way to study yourself too deep look deep looking this is what you're looking at output input so when you're mindful so the practice of mindfulness help us come back to the present moment while we're walking while we're washing the dishes and in each moment if we can maintain the concentration we can be aware of what is happening in the present moment so it's very base crucial that it's established on the present moment I'm washing dishes you recognize a family come with the children a thought comes out like [Music] something something bother you you know yeah you recognize yeah okay and you come back to the dishes right you move over it because you're present you're aware what's happening within you and without you so this is a way of looking another way of describing the relationship is is this is our individual and this is the environment and there's a relationship so we have to be aware of that especially if we're moving from environment here you come to plum village the environment here is different and you have to know how it affects you and I think you know how affects you somewhere you arrived the other day how many you felt something changing in your consciousness you know like our son huh yeah when I go on tour with the brothers and the sisters and I come back to plum village is the first thing I recognize yeah so much stimulation outside and you have to be aware of this not that we need to run away from the city and the the stimulation but we need to be trained ourselves to recognize this interaction with the environment and how it affects us so that's mindfulness you're aware what is happening in your surrounding so we're aware of the the not so you're aware of yourself your five skandhas your body your feelings your perception your mental formation your consciousness that's if your practitioner this is your training to always keep this in mind how's my body doing how's my feelings how's my emotions right how am i perceiving things am i having mental formations what kind of mental formations am I having am i angry am i resentful am i holding a grudge my irritable right now am i angry so you begin to I think this many of you are are doing that there's another person here so the individual and the environment is very linked so a person a person B they share the same environment but they also have their own nature right their own individual rich retribution right they each of their own selves and they also each other's environment so we're at one time we're our self and we are also other people's environment this is very important to know as you that's why we encourage so many people to build Sangha to build community it's very important to have someone walking mindfully and enjoying my mindfully or eating silently in the morning breakfast and you're eating breakfast and you see the other person with their family eating that becomes your nourishment so in a way we are helping each other as a collective to create an environment that actually waters and nourishes all the good so we each have a responsibility to take care of ourselves and our practice and when we do that and we were enjoying it and happy with it a peace calm nonreactive we are also affecting the other people that's very obvious right so as a person maybe in the media or in a position to create environment maybe you're a head of a company please look at that be how to set up your environment so that it is a nourishing for everyone so this is a kind of if you're in that position please be aware of that in our society now there's a we don't pay attention to that enough I think we value freedom too much in terms of freedom to you know especially freedom of expression freedom in media in movies and the Internet and and so on so these kind of creates an environment that is watering maybe the wrong seeds know recently on net and I was looking for how to fix a telescope because it was broken in storage and I went on the internet to see how to fix it to realign it because there was a Blood Moon a couple of day so I was fixing and I went to internet to figure and then they actually had the a video of someone fixing that same telescope and how to realign and then the day afterwards I went online and I think you know this already but it was really scary like I started seeing all kinds of telescope advertisement everywhere I looked I looked I tried like duck Duck Duck music look another 1,000 and everywhere it was like telescope know like wow I mean I heard about it but is the first time it happened to me and it's quite uh luckily I didn't have any money you know I don't have a credit card so I'm a little bit more protected mmm so we need to look at this for our children especially and schools and if you're in media please really look at this when we write an article what are we creating so this is a very important that we know our purpose what is the most important thing what I would call our ultimate concern our freedom our compassion our wisdom our kindness so we write we we create an environment where the seeds are water this is all this we don't need to you know get enlightened or whatever but as a collective we all can contribute to creating an environment like this where we can take care of our suffering we have time to be and learn how to suffer and be with our suffering and not run away with from our suffering so this is a task but mostly our society now it's watering our green eye I want desire so as plum village you come here you you feel that here you know we don't worry much of your seed of competition or last week we had a soccer game watch World Cup will quite rooting for the French so that was like a rare moment of actually actually choosing aside just for fun you know we've watched it you know and the kids ago but most of the most of the thing we we tried to keep it so that you can to take a break from that right and there's not a lot of you know violent and and hurtful things here so you take a break then we create an environment for you to not be distracted I see that's Ty's main intention you know a lazy day is for you to be with yourself and to be with your family to be with your loved ones it's not to be distracted hmm as we envision plum village maybe growing maybe needing more rooms and more places every year there we have to turn down so many families because they cannot come because we no more room and we have to put a limit because of our our system we have but in you know as we grow how do we want to grow plum village see we have a swimming pool with slides maybe you know one of those rise and you go fast and get excited and then maybe shooting range you know entertainment you know a vacation place you know do you see this as your vacation to go do that we don't have anything for you to do here just sit around and and look at the flowers right wash your dishes lay in the grass if you're lucky you have a hammer yeah so this is not an attraction place this place is not here to get you to do something but it's here for you to learn how to be this alive that tree doesn't need to be more than the tree the tree just needs to be a tree but our society asked us to always be more right can we just be human can we just be who we are where we are this is a question for ourselves as we setup our society and I know this is somebody you're thinking well and it's great for you you live in plum village some people have said that to me and but we need to help we need to create a Sangha we need to go back and practice so that we have that kind of freedom now we can be a refuge for other people and create a little community environment where as a collective we know what is important so this is a me the most noble thing to do for us to practice to transform ourselves and then help other people gather people so we hope you have a wonderful week these don't be more kind to yourself don't demand yourself too much just take it easy you're on this path for you know just see it is more than you know it's take your time so please don't be too harsh on yourself some of you come here with certain pain certain suffering learning to be with it learn another way to be with it be more gentle with yourself going to love yourself some of us we try too hard from the way we were raised on our family from our society and they can sometime come into the practice so please if you need to find a place and sit by yourself find a spot in the forest learn to be with yourself to be with your suffering as one aspect and the other aspect mmm also nourish yourself with joy this is this the secret it's not all suffering is not all about suffering and suffering is not enough there's more to life you're alive you have healthy lungs your breathing your eyes are in good condition so we also came to we we said change the habit to not look for the big happiness or the enlightenment or these great kind of big things but like simply like mmm my eyes are in good condition I have the time to wash dishes ya know some people don't have time huh that's what it means yeah you have the time to take a walk slowly in the forest so look at the ordinary things simple things that you forgotten this is a new habit tie as a poem about we have a diamond in our pocket but we don't know and we think we are very poor and always running and always in need but we have we're the richest person on earth and we don't know and that's what it means it means you're alive you can see the moon at night you see the stars so please make the time for that to nourish yourself with nature with your breath with students it's quiet and this will give you the energy to be with the pain be with your challenges we hope you have success and put your whole heart into the practice thank you [Music] [Music] [Music]

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Keywords: Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh, mindfulness, zen, The Three Virtues, Compassion, Wisdom, Cutting Off, Dharma Talk

Id: ewXqVUVY9vs

Length: 74min 11sec (4451 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2018