We
are the Continuation of our Ancestors
©
Thich Nhat Hanh
Good
morning my dear friends.
Today is
the twenty-first of July 1997. We are in the Upper Hamlet. I have a picture of
me as a baby monk I want to share, to show you, especially the young people. I
was seventeen. And then I have a picture of mine when I was sixteen. You see the
difference after one year of practice. I have to tell you that I was a novice
practicing with other novices and I had a great time. I was a very happy novice.
I think it is very important to be happy when you are a novice because if you
are happy as a novice, you will be happy as a monk. So you might like to pass it
around and look closely at the baby monk. Maybe we’ll have to print several
copies for the children.
A few
years ago there was a reporter. He is of American origin, but he lives in
Denmark. He is a film maker, also. He came to my hut and interviewed me with his
big, huge camera. One of the questions he asked is this, “Thay, if today the
Buddha and Jesus met on the street, what do you think they would tell each
other?” And this is my answer. “There is no if, because they are meeting each
other every day. They are telling each other many things. Because you don’t look
deeply, you don’t listen deeply, that is why you have not seen them meeting
every day and exchanging every day.” I said that because in my mind it is clear
that the Buddha is here and Jesus is also here.
We are
the continuation of the Buddha and of Jesus. The son is always the continuation
of the father. Everyone has to agree upon this fact. Scientist or nonscientist,
theologian or nontheologian, they have to accept the fact that the son, the
daughter, is the continuation of the father. and also the mother. In fact, they
are the father and the mother. So it is absurd to say, ”I don’t want to have
anything to do with my father.”
There are
people who get angry with their father and make the declaration, “I don’t what
to have anything to do with him.” That would be impossible, because he, whether
he wants or not, he is the continuation of his father. He is his father. That is
why the only thing for him to do is to practice reconciliation within. Because
his father is within him, there is no way of getting rid of his father. There
are people who are angry with their mother, and they feel the same. They want to
forget her. They don’t want to have anything to do with her. Is that possible?
No. They are the continuation of their mothers. They are their mothers. They
cannot escape. That is why the practice is to go back and to reconcile with the
mother within and with the father within.
We have
blood parents, we have blood ancestors; but we have also our spiritual parents,
our spiritual ancestors. The Buddha is my spiritual ancestor. I was born from
him. I am his continuation. I am him. Later on in life I have adopted Jesus as
another spiritual ancestor. In me they are alive. I do not have any conflict
with them as I do not have any conflict with my blood parents and ancestors.
This is a very important practice.
I am the
Buddha and you are the Christ, because I am the continuation of the Buddha and
you are the continuation of Jesus Christ. And we are seeing each other every day
and we are talking with each other every day. And, it’s silly to say, “If today
the Buddha and the Christ met each other, what would they say to each other?”
They have to meet each other. They have to say things to each other every day,
because that is also for the sake of peace. If people of different religious
affiliations do not see each other, do not meet each other, do not talk to each
other, then peace will not be possible. So, I told the reporter that they are
meeting every day and I wish them success.
Now,
children, let’s listen to this. You might wonder whether the Buddha is a person
or where he is, because in the drawings you make and give to me you like to draw
the Buddha. Where is the Buddha now? How can we touch him, see him and talk to
him? Is he a he or maybe a she? Is there one Buddha only, or are there many
Buddhas? These are very interesting questions and you have to ask yourself and
to ask your friends.
There is
a Buddha whose name is Shakyamuni, and I have adopted him as a teacher, but I
know that besides him there are many other Buddhas. And there are part time
Buddhas, there are full time Buddhas. We have to get rid of the idea that the
Buddha is a god. No, the Buddha is not a god. The Buddha may be a human being
like you and I. But the Buddha may be a deer or a squirrel. Because anyone,
anything that is animated by Buddha nature can be described as Buddha. Buddha
nature, what is it? Buddha nature in Sanskrit is Buddhata. Buddha nature is inherent in
every one of us, not only humans, but nonhumans as well.
I’d like
to tell you about the Buddha nature that is in us. It is like electricity. I
believe that electricity is. There is such a thing as electricity because I have
seen electricity manifested in many forms. In the dark, you turn on the light
and you have light. That is a manifestation of electricity, right? It is very
hot, and you turn on the fan, and you have the wind. Well, that wind is made by
electricity, so electricity is seen in the form of the wind. And when you open
your refrigerator to take some ice cream, you see that the cold in there, the
capacity to retain the cold, to keep your ice cream not melting, that is also
electricity. When you drive your car, if the car can run like that it means
electricity is there. There is something that can help generate electricity and
that electricity can propel your car or your airplane.
I know
that electricity exists because I have seen light, I have seen the wind, I have
seen the cold, I have seen the force driving the car. You cannot say that
electricity is just the light, or electricity is just the wind. No. So,
Buddhahood, Buddha nature, can be seen in a person like Shakyamuni but Buddha
nature can be seen in other forms. You yourself, you have the Buddha nature in
you. If you know how to touch it, if you know how to nurture it, then the Buddha
nature will manifest in you and you have more peace, more joy, more stability,
more freshness. That is why to practice meditation is to touch the Buddha nature
in you and to help it manifest so that you feel much better. That is why I have
offered you the practice of pebble meditation.
Yesterday
I talked about what you can give. First of all, I said the most precious thing
you can give to the people you love is your true presence. In order to be truly
present, you have only to breathe in and breathe out and become fresh like a
flower. And you go to her, go to him, the person you love, and say, “Darling,
I’m really here for you.” This is a gift. I also said that you have to offer
your freshness. In order to be fresh, you know what to do. Relax, breathe in,
breathe out, smile. Put down your worry, your anger, and you become fresh. That
is something you can offer to people you love.
There is
a young practitioner among us and his name is Bao-tich and he is four years old,
or four years young. He just celebrated his fourth birthday a few days ago and
he has a very nice practice. Every time he gets agitated, his mother invites him
to sit like a Buddha. My dear little boy, it does not seem that the Buddha
nature in you is so evident. So, would you like to sit down in the lotus
position and practice breathing and smiling so that the Buddha will come back
into your heart? And
Bao-tich always listens to his mother, and
practices sitting down. He sits very beautifully and after a few minutes, he
says, “Mommy, touch me to see whether the Buddha is already clear.” And his
mother will touch him and say, “It begins to be clear, so continue sitting for
another minute.” So after Bao-tich
has become still and serene and peaceful, his mother will touch him again and
say, “Now the Buddha in you is very clear, so go and play, my darling.” So
Bao-tich is very glad and runs and plays again. He is there. He promised that
next year he will speak English.
I would like you to
practice the same. You may recuperate the Buddha nature in you very quickly. We
have made a song for you to practice. “Flower - Fresh. Mountain - Solid. Water -
Reflecting. Space - Free.” You need only to use four of your pebbles—one pebble
for Flower; one pebble for Mountain; one pebble for Water; and one pebble for
Space. This can be practiced with music.
Suppose this is the
pebble for Flower. You put it on the palm of your hand and you practice
breathing in, breathing out three times with the flower in mind. “Breathing in,
I see myself as a flower.” You do it in such a way that you become a real
flower. It is not difficult: if you want to be a flower, you will be a flower.
Relax. Smile. Smile with your eyes. Smile with your mouth. Smile with your ears.
Smile with your body. You can do it. “Breathing in, I see myself as a flower.”
In fact, we are all flowers. Human beings are a kind of flower. If you don’t
look exactly like a flower it is because you have not taken good care of
yourself, you have cried too much, you have dried yourself up. You have allowed
sorrow and worry to enter you and destroy you. So, recuperate. Restore your
flowerness. This is one of the ways to do it. “Breathing in, I see myself as a
flower.” This is not imagination. You are a flower. You have the right to
recuperate your flowerness.
There are many of us
when we grow old—sixty, seventy, eighty—we are able to retain our flowerness.
Congratulations to you who are able to do so. I have seen people eighty, ninety,
still very fresh. We have to admire these people. We have to follow their
example. We have to learn from them how to retain our flowerness. “Breathing in,
I see myself as a flower. Breathing out, I feel fresh. You know, a flower does
not seem to do anything, but without flowers, life would seem very sad. So you
don’t have to do anything. If you can be a flower, you serve the world.
“Breathing out I feel fresh.” You do that three times, you pick up the pebble
and you put it on your right.
Now you pick up
another pebble. This pebble’s name is Mountain. You know that stability is very
important. A stable child, a stable adult, can inspire people and make them
happy. Stability is very important. The image of the mountain can help you to
practice. “Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain.” Nothing can assault me. If
you have a stable position for your body, if you know how to sit erect; if you
know how to enjoy your in-breath and out-breath, and become the master of
yourself, then any provocation, any sorrow, anything you imagine cannot shake
you. So you stay solid like a mountain.
“Breathing in, I see
myself as a mountain. Breathing out, I feel solid.” Solid as a mountain, that is
our practice. You learn to be solid in your sitting position and then you will
learn to be solid in your way of walking. You will be solid in your way of
driving. You will be a solid driver. When you cook your dinner, you can practice
your solidity, also. Three times. “Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain.
Breathing out, I feel solid.” And you put aside the second pebble.
Now you pick up the
third pebble. The name of the third pebble in this practice is Still Water. Not
just water, still water. There are times when you look at the water you see it
very still. So still you can see the blue sky and the white clouds in it. You
can see the trees reflected in it, exactly like up there. If you have a camera,
you just aim at the surface of the lake and take the picture. When you develop
it people might think that you took it from up there because the image is so
faithful. So when your mind is calm, still like that water, you will reflect
everything as it is. You don’t distort things. You don’t have wrong perceptions,
because wrong perceptions make you angry, make you suffer.
The Buddha said wrong
perceptions are the ground of all our suffering. The other person does not want
to destroy us but we still think that she is trying to destroy us. The other
person is not trying to make us suffer, but we believe that his intention is to
punish us. When we see a piece of rope in the twilight, we might think that it
is a snake, but it is not a snake. In the twilight, you are walking and suddenly
you see a snake. You scream and you run away. When your friend brings in a
torch, you realize that it is not a snake at all. It is only a piece of rope.
That is what we call a wrong perception. A wrong perception always makes us
suffer and that is why we have to learn to see things as they are and not
distort them. It is very important to practice being calm like still water
because still water can reflect things as they are. Breathing in, I see myself
as still water. Breathing out, I reflect things as they truly are.
Lastly, freedom,
space. “Breathing in, I see myself as space. Breathing out, I feel free.” People
who have space within don’t suffer. People who have space around them, they
don’t suffer. It’s like the moon. Look at the moon traveling in the empty sky.
It has a lot of space around it. The moon is serene, happy. But we, sometimes,
we don’t have space inside. We are full of worries, of anger, of fear, of
projects, of desire. We don’t allow ourselves to have space inside, and there is
no space outside at all. We don’t feel that we have the time. We don’t feel that
we have space to move around. What kind of life are we having? When we love
someone, we love in such a way that we no longer have any time, any space and we
deprive the person we love of space and time, and love becomes a prison for us
and for the other person. That is not true love. If you love someone and if that
someone isn’t capable of moving any more, that’s not love. So space is a very
big gift. You have to offer him space if you want him to be truly happy.
Offering him space inside. Offering him space outside around him. This is a very
important practice. We will learn how to put more space inside and to arrange so
that we have plenty of space around us. That is very crucial for our happiness.
“Breathing in, I see myself as space. Breathing out, I feel free.”
Many people in their
lives buy a lot of ropes and tie themselves up and finally, they cannot move.
First they think that these ropes are very much needed for their happiness. I
would not be happy if I don’t have that rope. The rope of fame. The rope of
wealth. There are many kinds of ropes. I would not be happy if I could not buy
that rope. So we buy all kinds of ties. Not only one to put around our necks but
several kinds of ties to put around our bodies, our feelings, our perceptions
and finally we can no longer move. We have no space. Happiness is impossible.
That is why we have to practice to free ourselves and to put into ourselves a
lot of space and around us also. This is a technique of liberation. “Breathing
in, I see myself as space. Breathing out, I feel free.”
During the practice
we develop our flowerness. We develop our solidity. We develop our calm,
stillness and we develop our freedom. These qualities combined together we call
Buddha nature. If Bao-tich sits
still, that means he wants to recuperate, to restore some of his Buddha nature
so that he becomes more calm, more joyful, more loving. All of you can do like
him and also, even better, you can become like a Buddha. So the Buddha is not
something outside. The Buddha may be a person like Shakyamuni. But the Buddha
nature should be in you and if you practice well you can touch that Buddha
nature in you and you will develop your flowerness, your solidity, your freedom
and your stillness.
Let us ask someone to
sing “Breathing in, Breathing out” for us. Let us sit beautifully and practice.
We don’t sing with her. We just practice the song. And, I am doing the
movements. If you like you can do the movements, but the movements are not
enough. We have to breathe and become a real flower and to become a real
mountain. When I breathe in, I see myself as a mountain, I really feel I am a
mountain.
Breathing in, breathing out,
Breathing in, breathing out,
I am blooming as a flower,
I am fresh as the dew.
I am solid as a mountain,
I am firm as the earth,
I am free.
Breathing in, breathing out,
Breathing in, breathing out,
I am water, reflecting,
What is real, what is true.
And I feel there is space
Deep inside of me,
I am free, I am free, I am free.
You see, meditation
can be fun. There are many ways of practicing meditation, and you can meditate
in music as well. Now I would like to offer
Bao-tich, the young people, and the less young the practice of
visiting the Buddha within. Don’t think that this statue is the Buddha. It’s
made of clay only. We want the real Buddha. The real Buddha is made of these
four elements: freshness, solidity, stillness and freedom. And you know that
these elements are within. I like to touch the real Buddha and not the clay
Buddha. A clay Buddha is sometimes helpful because it helps us to go home to
touch the real Buddha.
You may sit down
beautifully and you breathe in, breathe out a few times and you put your right
hand on your heart and you say, “Hello, Little Buddha, are you there?” You ask
first the question, “Hello, my little Buddha, are you there?” And you listen.
You listen with all your heart. If you are too agitated, too troubled, you might
not hear the little Buddha answering you very clearly. So you ask him for the
second time, “Hello, little Buddha, are you there?” If you pay attention, you
will hear his voice or her voice, “Yes, I am here.” But it may not be very
clear. The voice of the Buddha becomes clearer and clearer as you become calmer
and more solid. You may ask for the third time, “Hello, little Buddha are you
there?” And you listen. This time the Buddha’s voice is very clear, “Yes,
surely, I am always there for you.”
Remember the first
mantra. The Buddha is practicing the first mantra. “I am always there for you,
my darling.” And then when you hear the voice of the Buddha in you, you say, “I
am very glad. You are my freshness. You are my flowerness.” And the Buddha says,
“Yes, I am your freshness, your flowerness.” Do try to cultivate your
flowerness. And then you say, “Dear Buddha, you are also my stability. You are a
mountain in me.” And you listen, and the Buddha says, “Yes, I am your stability.
I am you solidity. I am the mountain in you.” You hear it. You hear the Buddha
answering you very clearly. Sometime if you speak English, the voice will be in
English. If you speak German, the voice will be in German. I am sure, because
that is your Buddha.
“Dear Buddha, you are
my stillness, my calm, is that right?” And the Buddha says, “Yes, I am your
stillness. I am your calm.” You become glad and you say, “Dear Buddha, you are
my freedom. You are space within me and around me.” And the Buddha in you will
say, “Yes. I am your freedom. I am space in you and surrounding you. And you
say, “Dear little Buddha, I am very glad that you are there for me.” And the
Buddha says, “Yes. I am always there for you. I am glad that you visit. Come and
visit often.” You say, “Dear Buddha, I need you very much. Without you, I would
suffer.” And the Buddha says, “Yes, I will try my best to be with you all the
time, and I also need you. If you visit me often, I will be clearer. I will be
more apparent and I can help you better.”
Visiting the Buddha
at least once a day is important. If you get agitated several times a day, it is
very important to visit your Buddha several times a day. This is the end of your
Dharma talk. When you hear the bell, stand up, bow to the sangha and go out to
continue your learning and practice.
[Bell, the children
leave]
My dear friends, it
is very important to make a connection with our ancestors and the future
generations. Alienation is a kind of sickness. There are people who don’t feel
they are connected with anything at all and they suffer from being cut off, from
loneliness. There is no understanding. There is no love that can nourish them.
Therefore, to practice restoring the connection is very important.
I always feel that I
am the continuation of my ancestors. Every day I practice touching my ancestors.
In my country every home has an altar for ancestors, blood ancestors and
spiritual ancestors. An altar is just a table, but it is very important. You
place that table in the central part of your house and you focus your attention
on the table as the point of contact between you and your ancestors. Usually
every morning we come and offer some incense to our ancestors. Our ancestors do
not need to smell incense, but we want to light a stick of incense to our
ancestors because the practice of lighting incense focuses our attention on the
presence of our ancestors. During the time you strike the match, you light the
stick of incense, you offer the incense on the table, you have an opportunity to
touch your ancestors within yourself. You realize that your ancestors are always
alive in you because you are the continuation of your ancestors.
In your sitting
meditation you can practice like this, “Daddy, I am your son. I am your
daughter.” That is a fact. You know it so well, but you don’t feel it sometimes.
You feel that your father is one person and you are another person. But in fact
that is not so. You are a very real continuation of your father. It is like the
plant of corn is the continuation of the seed of corn. Although the statement is
very simple, you have to perceive it, to feel it, to live the reality of it.
“Daddy, I am your daughter, I am your son.” No matter how hard it is for you to
make the statement, you have to make it because that is the truth. Even if
between you and your father there is a lot of difficulty, you still are his
continuation. You are still him. All the sufferings that he endured may be still
in you, and it is up to you to work for the transformation. If you are able to
transform the suffering in you, you have your father in you, you practice for
both of you.
Maybe when you were
young, you suffered so much already you are determined to be very different from
your father. You will never do what he has done to you. You were so determined,
and yet because you don’t know how to transform the energies that has been
transmitted by him to you, when you grow up, you have the tendency to behave
exactly like he did. That is called the wheel of samsara, the vicious circle. We know we
hate that. We don’t want to do it, but we still continue to do exactly that. We
make our children, our partners, suffer also.
The habit energy is
transmitted from generation to generation. The only way is to recognize that you
are just the continuation of your father, your mother; you are him, you are her,
and you are determined to practice to liberate you, to liberate him at the same
time. That is your blood ancestor. Your ancestors have transmitted to you many
positive seeds, but also many negative seeds. It is up to you to practice to
develop the positive seeds and to diminish and to transform the negative seeds.
The essential is to learn how to do it, learning from the Dharma, learning from
the Sangha.
We know that the
practice here is to cultivate mindfulness to be able to recognize the tendency,
the habit energy, every time it begins to show itself. Not fighting, not
suppressing, but just recognizing and embracing it with the energy of
mindfulness so that it will not continue its course of destruction. If you allow
it to go on its way, there will be damage done to you and to the people you
love. You did not want to say that, you did not want to do that, but you said
that, you did that anyway because you don’t know how to take care of that habit
energy. That is why there must be continued practice in order to generate the
energy of mindfulness for the recognition and transformation of this habit
energy.
And then there are
your children and your grandchildren, your blood children. You know that they
have inherited some of your habit energies. The habit energies you have received
from your ancestors and also have transmitted to them. In each cell in your body
you can find everything. Each cell of our body contains all the habit energies
of all generations of ancestors.
You have heard of the
techniques of cloning, and now we are in a position to be able to clone humans.
They just take one cell and arrange to have that cell be in a position to
reproduce another you. And that once again proves the teaching of the Buddha to
be very close to the scientific findings of our times, that one contains the
all. That is the teaching of the Avatamsaka, that one contains the all. So
one cell in our body can contain the whole universe, can contain all our former
generations, our ancestors. So you have transmitted all of that to your children
and grandchildren. You don’t know. It’s very quick. But you have transmitted
millions and millions of things to them in just one second or less. The positive
and the negative at the same time you have transmitted. You are a link between
your ancestors and your children. You have received and your have transmitted.
You know that your children, if they are lucky, they will meet someone to help
them to nourish the positive things and to transform the negative things.
Otherwise, they’ll carry you very far into the future without any chance of
transformation and healing.
If you have the
chance to practice, to do the work of transformation and healing, you may be
able to help your child, your children, your grandchildren to do so. Because, if
you are the continuation of your ancestors, your children are a continuation of
you and you help link your children with your ancestors. You help your ancestors
to link with your children.
The same thing is
true with our spiritual ancestors. When I teach a young monk or a young nun or a
young lay person, I always have the image that that young person is going to
continue me and to continue my spiritual ancestors. So that the main thing for
me to do is to transmit the best things I have received from my spiritual
ancestors, only. I survive with my disciples. They will be my continuation. That
is why I focus so much attention and energy and time and love toward the
teaching, because that is the only way to be kind to my ancestors’ transmission,
transmitting the best.
There are two ways.
My disciples, my students, are my continuation. My student, my disciple needs me
to get connected with his or her spiritual ancestors. In me I carry the Buddha,
the patriarch, my teachers and it is that sense of the Buddha, the patriarch,
the teachers that I transmit to my disciples. So, my disciple needs me to get
linked with all the ancestors. I serve as the link. And I need my disciple to
get linked with the future generations, because without him, without her, the
best things I received from my ancestors will not be transmitted. I rely on my disciples to continue the
lineage and to transmit the best things from the lineage of ancestors down to
further generations. We need each other. My disciple needs me to get linked with
all spiritual ancestors and I need him or her to continue me, and ancestors in
the future. We need each other. This should be true with our blood family
also.
When you practice
meditation, which means to practice looking deeply into yourself, you see that
your ancestors are still there in you. They are still there in you, alive, just
because you are there. Look at this hand. You will say that this is my hand.
Right, but not enough. This is also the hand of my mother. This is also the hand
of my father. This is the hand of my ancestor. Remember when you were a small
child. You had a fever and your mother came and she put her hand on your
forehead, and felt so good. Your mother may have passed away, and you remember
that lovely hand, that gentle hand, and you miss it. Still, if you look deeply
into your hand, you see this is also your mother’s hand. “Breathing in, I know
this is also the hand of my mother. Breathing out, the hand of my mother is on
my forehead.” So, the hand of your mother is still available at any time. The
hand of your father, the hand of your ancestors is always available, because
your hand is there.
The idea of me and
mine may be an obstacle. Yes, there is me, there is mine, but this is also him
and his, her and hers. That is the fruit of the practice of looking deeply. This
hand is also the hand of the Buddha. These feet are also the feet of the Buddha,
because without the Buddha, I would not be able to make peaceful steps on this
planet and to get the nourishment I need and all of us need. Without the Buddha,
without my teachers, how could I have been able to walk peacefully with
stability, with freedom and solidity, and with joy? This foot is my foot. This
foot is also my mother’s, my father’s and of the Buddha’s. Where else do I have
to go to find my mother, my father and the Buddha? No, I don’t have to go
anywhere. I just touch myself deeply and I touch them all. They are always alive
in me.
If you practice like
that, alienation will no longer be a problem. You think you are too alone.
Everyone has let you down. No, that is not true. That is an imagination. That is
an illusion. The Buddha is always with you and Jesus is always with you. Your
ancestors are always with you, your children also. They are always with you.
Touch yourself and you can already touch your children. When you contemplate a
lemon tree in spring, although you don’t see any lemons yet, you may see some
lemon blossoms, but you know the lemons are already there. Because the lemon
tree is there, the lemon blossom is there, the lemons are there as fruit. So,
even if you are a young person, you are not married yet, but if you touch
yourself deeply, you can already see your children and grandchildren. A young
monk, a young nun, who hasn’t become a teacher, if he or she practices well, and
she can touch herself and see already the presence of her disciples and grand
disciples and great grand disciples in her. So, touching the present, you touch
all the past and you touch all of the future, because the present moment
includes all the past and all the future. If you touch one cell of your body,
you touch all of your ancestors and you touch all your children and their
grandchildren. This is the teaching of Lord Buddha, that one contains the many,
touching the one deeply you touch the all. Touching the present moment, you
touch infinity.
[Bell]
Whether you have some
problems with your parents or not, I would propose that tonight in sitting
meditation, you try this. “Breathing in, I know that I am the son of my father,
or the daughter of my father.” And we are not contented just with pronouncing
the sentence. We have to see it. We have to see us as the true daughters of our
fathers. We have to see the relationship, the oneness. You have only the time
for an in-breath to visualize that, to touch the fact that you are truly his
daughter, her daughter. If you don’t succeed, try again. “Breathing in, I see
myself; I know that I am your daughter.” “Breathing out, I smile.” I smile at
the fact that I am your daughter, I am your son.” Do it for a few times. Then,
“Breathing in, I know I am your continuation. Breathing out, I know I am your
continuation.”
You don’t need to
imagine anything. You need only to touch reality as it is. Meditating does not
mean dreaming, getting away from reality. To meditate means to touch reality as
it really is, to touch suchness. And then, “Breathing in, I know I am you, my
father. Breathing out I know I am you, my father.” Sometimes it is hard, but you
have to succeed. Because that is true, hard fact. No one can demonstrate the
opposite. “Breathing in, I know your difficulties, my father.” You have to see
his difficulties; you have to really see them. There were things he did not want
to say, but he said it. There were things that he did not want to do to you, but
he did it. You also have done it to your children, to your beloved ones, so why
do you have to condemn, to blame your father? We are weak. We are overwhelmed
with our difficulties, our problems; and we do things that we don’t want to do.
“Breathing in, I know, father, you have your difficulties,” and try to see these
difficulties.
If you begin to see
the suffering, the difficulties of your father, or your mother especially, then
naturally, compassion will be born in your heart, because you have learned that
understanding creates love, compassion. Try to see the difficulties, the
suffering that that person has endured in his childhood, in his life, and that
is the practice of looking deeply. If needed, you continue to practice for five,
ten minutes or even fifteen, you have to succeed, because this is very important
work. “Breathing in, I know there are things you wanted to do but you were not
able to do.” You had a dream, father, not fulfilled, and you want me to fulfill
that dream for you.
A father always has
dreams for his son or daughter. He was frustrated; he could not fulfill that
dream, that desire. Silently, unconsciously, he wants you to be able to do it.
In the beginning, that desire is very strong. Later on, the suffering might
coverup the desire, but the desire is still alive. All fathers and mothers have
that kind of desire. And you also. So you have to find out that kind of dream
and desire, and you say, “Father, I’ll do it for you.” If your father did not
have a chance to practice mindful breathing, mindful walking, to get the calm
and the transformation, you will do it for him. If your mother did not have the
chance, you’ll do it for her. You practice for both. You practice for all of
them, your ancestors. Cut through the wheel of samsara. Do not allow it to make you go
around. Don’t allow it to be transmitted to your children, to your disciples,
for your children are somehow your disciples.
Have you practiced
touching the earth? Touching the earth may look like a ritual, but it is not
necessarily a ritual. There are times when you lie down flat on the earth and
you surrender everything. The earth is my mother. I surrender myself entirely to
her. I have come from the earth and I will go back to the earth. Lie flat on the
grass and be one with the earth. That is touching the earth. In Plum Village we
practice the three earth touchings. The first one is to connect ourselves with
our ancestors and with our children and their children. A vertical line. In the
position of earth touching you have to get linked to your ancestors and to your
children before you stand up. You might use all kinds of methods, like the one I
just proposed to you, “Father, I am your daughter, I am your son. Father, I am
your continuation; I am you. Ancestors, I am your continuation. Ancestors,
father, I vow, I promise that I will try to do what you have not been able to
do, to end all of these afflictions, frustrations and to open up for freedom and
transformation.”
When you bow down
like that and touch your ancestors, you see that you have lost your identity as
a separated existence. Why? Because you realize your position in the river of
being. You are only a continuation. You are only a transition. Above you there
are ancestors and below you there are children and grandchildren. So you become
one with the river, and suddenly you lose your solitude of being a separated
existence, because you know that you are your ancestors; you are your children.
You become immortal.
First you might think
that some of your ancestors are not to your liking. They made mistakes. They did
wrong things. Yes, they made mistakes, they did wrong things; but they are your
ancestors. Your parents are your youngest ancestors. They may have done wrong to
you and to other people, but they are your ancestors, your parents. You,
yourself, you are not perfect. You have done good things, yes, but you have done
also wrong things: to you, to your ancestors and to your children. Who are you
not to accept them as your ancestors, as your parents? The ancestors, I know,
some of you are perfect. I can look up to as my example, but some of you were
weak and have made mistakes, but I recognize all of you as my ancestors. Because
in myself, I realize that I have strength and also weaknesses. I also make
mistakes. I also make people suffer; so who am I not to accept you? So you
accept your parents, you accept your ancestors. So you feel much better.
If you suffer because
of your children: first you think that your children will do exactly what you
tell them to do, but finally you find out that they have their own ideas, their
own desires and they do things not to your liking at all. You feel a distance, a
separation between you and them. Sometimes you say, they are not my children; my
children are not like that. I do not recognize them as my children. My children
must be like this, like this, like this. Parents have a tendency to think like
that. But in fact, if we look into ourselves we say, “Sometimes I did things
that did not please my parents. I have shortcomings within myself. I am not
perfect. Why do I have to expect my children to be perfect?” So if you realize
that you forgive your children, you will love them again, accept them
again.
The first earth
touching is very healing. After having touched your ancestors and accepting them
entirely as your ancestors, you begin to touch your children and your
grandchildren and realize that although they make mistakes and sometimes they
are not very kind to you, but they are really and truly your children and your
grandchildren. You have to allow them a chance—because you yourself, you want to
have a chance for healing and transformation—so you get into good terms with
your children again. I don’t have blood children, but I have a lot of spiritual
children, and I have to practice that way, too. I cannot expect my students to
be perfect. Sometimes they make terrible mistakes but I continue to love them,
to help them, to give them a chance. That is my practice. Only in that way can
you help them. So if you have problems with your parents, if you have problems
with your children, your grandchildren, this is the practice. Learn more.
Practice diligently every day and learn more from your own practice. And after
one week, two weeks, you’ll feel much better. Peace will be in your heart and
between you and them.
I can tell you that
there are people who attended only one session of earth touching and get that
transformation. They cry a lot, a lot, during the practice and after they feel
very light and they connect again with their ancestors, their fathers, their
mothers and their children. You may practice earth touching in many ways. Use
your intelligence and creative ideas to practice. But the principle is to touch
and to look deeply to see that you are only a continuation. You serve as a link
between your ancestors and your children.
Now I would like to
offer you the second earth touching. It is symbolized by a horizontal line. It
has to do with living beings that are now around you. When you touch the earth
for the second time, you practice to link with everyone who is alive in the
present moment. People in your family, people in your society, people who are
happy and people who are unhappy. You have to see the interconnection between
you and all of them. In the process of the practice, you might suffer a little
bit, but that suffering is very helpful.
First of all, you try
to touch the great beings that are around you, mahasattvas. The great beings are around
you, if you know how to look mindfully you will see that you don’t need to go
back into the past to find them. They are around you. Great beings are bodhisattvas: mindful beings who have the
capacity of being solid, being joyful, being compassionate. You know that around
you there are such people—and you need to recognize them, that is very
important.
There are those who
are now among the poor and oppressed everywhere in the world who continue to
work for the liberation, for the improvement of the life conditions of living
beings. They work during the day; they work during the night. They encounter a
lot of misery, oppression, pain. And yet, they can still retain their energy and
hope. They don’t give up because they have a large heart. They can endure, they
can embrace, they can include. They are great beings. And don’t think that they
are in the sky; they are around us. There are those whose names we hear, but
there are countless of them that are not known to you, but they are there. Not
only Mother Theresa is one. We know a few names, but there are a multitude of
them, a little bit everywhere in society. In this assembly there are many of
them I know personally, because they are motivated by a great desire, not a
desire to consume, to get famous, but a desire to serve, to help, and that
energy in them makes them very happy. They are animated by that desire to help,
to bring relief, to bring joy to people. They are mahasattvas, great beings. They don’t give
up when they encounter difficulties. They continue. They have solidity in them.
They have freshness in them. They have space in them. Even if the people they
try to help shout at them, they can still smile. They don’t get angry at them.
I know there are many
nurses on their graduation holding a candle like this. They feel the vow to help
patients as a source of tremendous energy in them, but they have not encountered
the fact that the patients, the sick people, are sometimes very difficult to
love. They are very demanding, very difficult at times. So these nurses who
started with a very refreshing, strong desire to help sometimes have to
withdraw. They were not trained in nursing school about shanti paramita, how to embrace, how to
include, how to forbear. So in medical school, I think we have to learn the six
paramitas, to learn how to open
our heart to make it big in order for us to be able to embrace and not suffer.
So great beings are those who are able to embrace, to include and not to suffer.
And we should be able
to connect with them—very important for our support. Every time we think of them
we feel the energy coming in again and that is why during the second
prostration, the second touching of the earth, you have to be able to touch
them. If you get to know some of them, personally, that would be very helpful
and in the process of practice, to get to know more of them and you will get the
comfort that many of them are out there. You get a strong source of support. So
you fill yourself with a lot of energy and you become a great being yourself.
In the later part of
the practice, you see you are one with oppressed people, with the people who
suffer. You see yourself as a frog singing happily in a clear pond and you see
yourself as a grass snake silently advancing in order to feed itself on the
frog. You are the frog and you are the grass snake. You are the poor child in
Uganda, having nothing to eat. Their legs are as thin as a bamboo stick. You are
him but you are also the merchant of arms selling deadly weapons to Uganda. Our
countries, America, France, Germany, produce everyday products, guns, to sell to
these countries. We know that the little child does not need guns. They do need
something to eat. We are that child, starving, and we are also the arms merchant
who is trying to sell arms to Uganda. We have to be one with all who suffer. We
are those who have to survive with drugs. And we are those who try to prevent
the drugs from being brought into the country.
We are everyone. The
suffering is immense. And we have to identify with all of them. And yet, we do
not get drowned into the ocean of suffering because we have all the bodhisattvas, great beings, with us.
Everyday we have to touch the earth in order to see that oneness, the
interconnectedness between us and all these living beings. Out of that
compassion will flow. We will know what to do and what not to do in order not to
make the situation worse, to bring relief to the situation. I practice touching
the earth every day. And I wish that my friends also would practice touching
earth every day in order to get connected. When you get connected, all of your
mental problems, mental disease will vanish. You will no longer feel cut off and
alienated from the world.
[Bell]
The third
prostration, the third touching the earth, is represented by a circle and this
consists of giving up ideas. You know that ideas make us suffer a lot, so we try
to give up ideas. Like, your idea of happiness. You have one idea of happiness
and you have to look deeply into that idea to see whether that idea of happiness
has made you happy or has made you unhappy. That idea may be adopted by a
nation. One nation may think that this the only way to get their country happy,
the people happy, and then that country is committed to that idea, that ideology
for fifty years, seventy years. And there is no happiness. And finally, they
release the idea. It may be too late, but I don’t think it’s too late, because
when you abandon the idea, you have a chance. You think in order to be truly
happy you have to be this, to be that, to have this, to have that, and that is
very dangerous. You are committed to one idea of how to be happy and you get
stuck. Happiness can come from every direction. You have to allow yourself to be
free, because you have many chances to be happy. Happiness can come in one or
another form, several kinds of forms. If we are committed to only one idea of
happiness, we lose a lot of chances. Have you thought of looking deeply into the
nature of your idea of happiness? Maybe if you can abandon your idea of
happiness, you will become happy very soon.
The third touching
the earth is the practice of giving up ideas. There are many ideas to be given
up and today we have a chance to consider only a few. This is very important in
Buddhist teachings. First of all, this body is me. The idea that this body is
me, is mine, is one that we have to get rid of. You can succeed very easily,
because you have already practiced the first touching and the second touching.
You have begun to see that this body is not your body. This body is the body of
your ancestors as well and this body is the body of your children and
grandchildren. The young people in the West, they make declarations that I
cannot understand. They say that this is my body. I can do what ever I want with
my body. I am free. I am adult. I am more than 18 years old, so I have the
freedom to anything with my life, namely with my body. So, to use drugs to
commit suicide, that is my right. But according to this teaching, you don’t have
that right. I think legislators have to think about this. I would plead with
you, those who make legislation, to reconsider, because to my insight, this body
is not me, is not mine. This body I have received from my ancestors, my parents,
and I have to take good care of it. Otherwise, I betray my ancestors, I betray
my parents. If I use drugs; if I use alcohol; if I destroy myself; if I commit
suicide, I betray all my ancestors and my parents and I also betray my children
and my grandchildren. The laws in many countries supports the idea that I have
sovereignty over this body. I don’t think that this is a good insight. You have
a duty to take good care of your body, to keep it healthy and to transmit it to
your children and grandchildren. The law should be on that line of thinking.
The Buddha said,
“This body is not me. I am not confined to this body. I am life without
boundary.” So when this body is no longer there, I continue because I am not
this body. I am much larger than this body. I am my ancestors; I am my
disciples; I am my
friends. I have transmitted the best of me to them, so why do I have to stop to
be? So the idea that this body is me, this life span is me, you have to remove.
The idea that I was born on this date. On this date I began to be. And in the
future, on such and such date, I will die, I will stop being. Life span is an
idea that we have to give up. Before this birth date I did not exist. And after
this death date, I will no longer exist. I exist only from here to here—what an
idea! The idea about a life span, the idea that this body is me. This life span
is my life. Most of us are caught in that.
In fact, you are not
bound to this body. You are not bound to birth and death. Your true nature is
no-birth and no-death. And that is the best thing you can realize with Buddhist
meditation. You have to touch your true nature of birth and death. The wave has
to touch water. The wave has the right to be a wave, yes, but a wave has the
right to be the water also. But if the wave knows she is water, she will not be
upset anymore. She will not be afraid anymore of the so-called birth and death.
So you think that from here to here you are and from here on, you are not. This
is to be and this not to be. Who said, “To be or not to be, that is the
question?” The Buddha said, “To be, or not to be, that is not the question!” The
question is whether you know the nature of interbeing. So, the third prostration
is very deep. It consists of releasing the idea of you are this body and this
life span is the only time when you are, when you can be. Our ancestors are
there alive. Our children are already there alive. This prostration, this
touching the earth will help you touch the ultimate dimension, touch nirvana,
touch the kingdom of God. Please train yourself. Practice more, learn more about
the three prostrations and do them every day. You will release a lot of your
pain, suffering and fear.
Today everyone is
requested to participate in walking meditation. I will offer some instructions
on walking meditation. We will gather around the linden tree, and there will be
a microphone with which I can give some instructions on how to enjoy walking.
Then after that we will participate in a formal meal, because today we want to
show you how the monastics eat a meal during the retreat season. The monastics
have at least one long retreat every year, called rain retreat, and in Plum
Village we make the winter our three month retreat. Some of you have been on
winter retreat here in Plum Village. In Buddhist countries we always have this
kind of formal meal, at noontime, during the rain retreat.
We will eat together
in this hall, and we eat in such a way that the energy of the sangha will
penetrate into every one of us. We eat in silence. We focus our attention on the
food and on the sangha. We eat in such a way that peace and joy is possible and
we have reduced the rituals to the minimum, but still you can see something. If
you have learned, you know what to do when you fill your bowl with food,
practicing breathing in, breathing out. There is a poem for you for when the
bowl is empty. There is a poem for you to breathe in and out when you serve the
food. And there is a poem for you to sit down beautifully. In Buddhist monastic
life, poetry is everywhere. You use poetry as a means of practicing mindfulness.
When you put your
bowl in front of you, you begin to practice like sitting meditation, enjoying
the sitting, the breathing, while waiting for other brothers and sisters to come
in. Don’t lose any minute of your time waiting, just enjoy breathing in,
breathing out, enjoying the fact that you are here in Plum Village practicing
with the sangha. There will be some chanting in the beginning. The monks and
nuns will offer food to all the Buddhas in the cosmos and to all living beings
in the cosmos. That’s a way of linking to every living being. They will hold
their bowls like this. They use their left hand and make this mudra and they will place the bowl on the
two fingers and these two fingers will serve to make it stable. And they hold
the bowl on the level of their eyes, like this. And with their right hand they
make the mudra of peace, and they
put it like this and they chant, “I offer this food to all Buddhas and mahasattvas in the whole cosmos. I offer
this food to the living beings in the realms of humans, animals, vegetables,
etc. And you will notice that they have a spoon and the spoon is usually made of
wood. Nowadays, they make it in plastic. To avoid the noise, you see. If you are
using your fork or a spoon, please double your mindfulness. Because in monastic
sitting, the meal is very quiet, very soft.
So every movement
should be followed by mindfulness and it must be beautiful. It must be mindful,
and we chew our food 30 times at least and we know what we are chewing. When you
chew, don’t chew your projects, your sorrow, your fear. You only chew what is
inside your mouth, namely carrots, tofu, rice and bread and be aware that this
is an ambassador coming from the cosmos to you, helping to nourish you. Just put
your attention on your food and from time to time stop and look at the sangha
and realize that you are protected by the sangha. You are among brothers and
sisters who practice the same and you get the energy you need. Eat every morsel
of food like you eat the piece of bread in the Eucharistic celebration. In each
piece of bread there is the sunshine, there is the cloud, there is the earth,
there is everything. And if you chew like that that is meditation, very deep.
And you should radiate happiness and joy and all of us will profit from your
presence. The spoon, before the offering, will be facing outward. Suppose this
is the spoon and the monk will place it in the bowl facing outward. And after
the offering, he will take it and place it inward. Now the food is for him, but
before, it is for an offering. And then there will be a novice bringing a
container of water and a few grains of food to the window and recite a gata to
offer that food to living beings who are hungry. This is a symbol that when you
eat, you have to think of the people, the animals who are starving.
In the time of the
Buddha, one day a small snake came to take refuge close to the Buddha because
there was a big bird trying to eat her. And the Buddha said to the bird, “ Go
away,” but the bird did not accept this. So the Buddha said, “I will share with
you some of my food, but leave that snake alive.” And then the bird accepted.
So, this story is known. The Buddha said before you eat, you put aside a little
bit for the animals. It has become a tradition that in formal meals we always
offer some food to the ants, the birds and so on. So the novice will be going to
a window an chanting a gata in four lines and you will see it. And then the Five
Contemplations. We have reduced the ritual to a minimum because you are not used
to it, and I hope that you enjoy the formal meal. We organize a one here every
week during the summer retreat. So everyone is invited for the walking
meditation and the formal meal, all around. This is the only day of the retreat
that all the hamlets are here together..
[Bell]
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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