Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Thinking (3)

Watch deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk video on 'Taking Care of our Thinking'. 
https://www.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/videos/vb.7691064634/10154446854299635/?type=2&theater
The followings are excerpts from the above video.

Quotes:
(from -42:15)
We used to allow our mind to chase after the pleasant and to try to avoid the unpleasant. And our thoughts follow the habit, the patterns of thinking. And these patterns follow the principle of running, following, searching for the pleasant, and trying to run away, avoiding the unpleasant. And because of that, we lose all our freedom. Because we are running, we are avoiding, we do not know that we are running after something and we are trying to avoid something. We are carried away by our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions.

(from -40:30)
Imagine the airplane on automatic piloting. They don't need a person in the airplane. And the plane can go very well to the destination and can do the things that has been asked to do. And there is no man, no human being on a plane. Very often we behave like that. We are on the automatic piloting. We are not there in order to witness what is happening. And the practice that is proposed by the Buddha is to be thereto stay present to be truly aliveWhen you are truly there, truly present, you can be fully alive at the same time. You know what is going on. And you know the value of each thought, of each feeling and of a perception. 

You know that there are territories that has not been discovered within yourself. You don't allow yourself to be carried away. You want to be yourself. You don't want to be on automatic piloting. You want to be there by yourself. And every time there is a thought, there is a feeling that you want to be there in order to control the situation. You don't want to be carried awayYou allow yourself to smile to your thinking, to smile to your feeling, to smile to your emotions. You don't to want to react either way to the thought, to the feeling, to the perceptions. Because that is the habit energy in you that try to push you to respond right away to the feeling, to the emotion, to the thought that has arisen. And this is extremely important

You tell yourself that "Well, this is a thought. This is a feeling. This is emotion. I know they are in me but I am not just the thought, that feelings, that emotions. I am much more than that. I have a treasure of understanding, compassion, love, wisdom in me. I want these elements to come in order to help me to sort out, to solve, to help me to be on the right path."

You give yourself the time to breathe in and out. You don't hurry to react to take action. And why you are breathing in and out? You give a chance to the wonderful, positive element within yourself to intervene. There is a computer within. And the computer has a lot of power and give you know-how to use to make use of these powers. You can transform the situations. You can bring a lot of light, a lot of joy, a lot of compassion into the situation. 

By being there, by not allowing yourself to be carried away to react right away, you give yourself alternative perspective from which you can see things more clearly. You are not in a hurry to react to jump to a conclusion that you have to do this, you have to do that. You just notice. You just become aware of the situation, what is going on, what is manifesting in you and around you. And the practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking allows you to have space. And that space is for the positive element to intervene. You allow the Buddha a chance. You allow the Kingdom of God, of the Buddha in you to have a chance. 
:Unquote

(To be continued)

(My Commentary)
It is ego (separate self) who is carried away by the thoughts, feelings and perceptions. And true self (non-separate self, awareness) who can witness what is happening is covered up by ego. That's why the clue is to release ego for true self to be uncovered. 

The practice of mindful breathing and mindful walking may be effective to have space for the positive element to intervene. But for mindful breathing and mindful walking, it is essential for ego to stop thinking. 

For that, I understand that the only solution is to understand the root cause of suffering through insight. Without that insight, we can never stop thinking. So, mindful breathing and mindful walking sounds easy but is actually very difficult to practice.

I understand that nobody (including the Buddha and Thay) has taught the concrete method to attain insight of the root cause of suffering. Before looking deeply into the suffering, non-thinking must be attained by ego to revive true self. 

If such a concrete method is shared, this planet will change for the better soon. Through my experience, I understand that the key is to be fed up with sufferings and to determine to change oneself. And I understand that true self is God or the Buddha.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/human-mystery


Thay's calligraphy