How to correct and repair the past

Listen deeply to the following Thay's Dharma talk through Podcast from 55:50 to 1:03:37.
http://tnhaudio.org/2010/04/20/your-heart-is-like-a-flower/
The followings are excerpts.

Quote:
And we can assure a better and more beautiful continuation. It is now at our hands. With the practice of mindfulness, we can begin to purify our action to assure a better future. 

(sound of the bell)

But what if yesterday I already produced a thought of hate and discrimination? I don't want to continue with that. What if yesterday I have said something very mean to my father or to my friend? I regret but I already have said that. I have already done that. 

Can we do something in order to repair the wrong thinking, the wrong speaking that have been created by us in the past? And the answer is yes, we can do something. Yesterday you may have said something not kind to her. Today you recognize that is not right speech and you want to repair and ground it in the present moment. You want to practice right speech. 

You breathe in, you breathe out. And you pick up your phone or turn on your computer and write and mail a letter to tell her that you are sorry, that you really want her to be happy, that you regret to have said such a thing. And in the present moment you can do it. Because as soon as you produced the thought of reconciliation, the thought of lovingkindness, that thought begins to heal you and to heal the other person. 

And what you have done yesterday, what you have said yesterday, your karma will be transformed by the action of today. The action of today, the thought of today will catch up with action and thinking of yesterday, embrace it and transform it. The Buddha said, "Everything comes from the mind." If the mind changes, everything will change. 

Suppose while your grandmother was alive, you said something that was not nice to her. Now you want to say, "Sorry" to her. But she is no longer there for you to say, "I'm sorry, Grandma. I have said something mean to you. I was stupid. I was not mindful. I didn't mean to say something like that." But she is no longer alive for you to send a letter and to call. 

The practice of mindfulness is wonderful because you can even correct the past, repair the past. You sit down and look deeply, you breathe mindfully. With that, you get insight that your grandma is still alive in every cell of your body. Your grandma is still there. And you are part of karma of your grandma. (lol) You are the continuation of your grandma. It's very clear that you are somehow the continuation of your grandma. 

So, you can practice like this.

Breathing in, I see you, grandma, in every cell of my body.
Breathing out, I smile to you, grandma.

And your grandma is available in the here and the now. Thinking that your grandma is no longer there, is wrong thinking. It's wrong thinking. Thinking that your grandma belongs to the past, is wrong thinking. Your grandma is always there in you and around you. And you can talk to her at any time, "Grandma, I'm sorry. I promise you that I will never say something like that anymore in the future." And you can see your grandma smiling in you. And you are healed. This is something wonderful about the practice. With the present moment, you can heal the past, you can create the future. 

So, actions taken in the here and the now can modify, correct, transform the past and transform the present and the future. So, it is possible in the teaching of the Buddha, to assure the better future and beautiful future, just by thinking, just by speaking just by acting, and you have the sovereignty to do that. Your free will is possible. And it will be easier with a good environment, with a sangha. 

(My commentary)
Above Thay's Dharma talk is to correct and repair the past within ourselves. It has nothing to do with repairing the problem with our counterpart. Our own problem can be solved through the practice of mindfulness. So, we will be liberated from stress. This is a merit. However, if our counterpart does not practice the same thing, his or her problem can not be solved. Then the problem between the two will remain. Only if both sides correct and repair the past, the relation between the two can be restored.

(Cf.) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NYEP04

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Reincarnation and Karma

Watch deeply the following video of Thầy Pháp Đăng's answer to the question about Reincarnation and Karma.

The followings are the key phrases excerpted from the video.

< Key phrases >

Usually we think about reincarnation means you die and you reborn. But actually reincarnation is every moment of your life. Your body dies, your body born. You know. Hundred thousand cells die, hundred thousand cells born again. So, we are reincarnated in every moment of our life. That's for the body. Our mind also, our mind activity dies, then our mind activity born again.

By the law of karma, when you listen to the sound of the bell and you are really practicing in and out, so the sound of the bell is the cause, and breathing in and out is the practice, and bringing peace and happiness is the effect. So, the law of cause and effect is happening every moment of our life. It's the action that we relate to what is happening in the environment. 

So, everything in life just goes according to the law of cause and effect. And reincarnation doesn't mean you die and you reborn. But reincarnation is every moment of your life. The moment of death is just one of the moments of death. So, if we understand like this, we understand very clear about the nature of impermanence, no self, cause and effect. What comes out to the consequences depends on how you lived your life.

In Plum Village, Thay doesn't say this word (reincarnation) but actually in the essence there is a lot. Reincarnation, law of karma is always there. But he doesn't say the actual word. 

(My commentary)

I understand that Thầy Pháp Đăng explained about reincarnation according to the interdependent co-arising, or the ultimate truth in the historical dimension (phenomenal world), using the notion of birth and death. I wonder why he didn't answer according to the ultimate truth in the ultimate dimension (noumenal world) in addition. Birth and death are just notions. The truth is that there is no birth and no death. Nothing can be born and die according to the law of conservation of energy and mass. So, there is only continuation in different forms. Reincarnation is also just a notion, not the reality if it means that the soul leaves the body upon death and enters into a new body. As Thay said, only karma may be true reincarnation. 

And I understand that the reason why Thay doesn't use the word of reincarnation and karma is to avoid the deluded Buddhism like Tibetan Buddhism. It explains that the soul leaves the body upon death. But the truth is that the body and mind are always together.

(Cf.) 
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/implicate-order-explicate-order
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NYEP04

Thích Nhất Hạnh and Thầy Pháp Đăng

We are our actions.

Read deeply the following Thay's words on actions (karma).
https://www.facebook.com/mindfulnessbell/posts/1075397465885157

"Every thought we produce, every word we produce, every physical act we do never dies. Nothing dies. Those actions continue always. That is your continuation. You think you’re just this physical body—that is not Right View. You are much more than this body. You are your actions. What I think, what I say, what I do, those are my continuation, and they will bring consequences. And whether those consequences are beautiful or not depends entirely on the quality of the actions." 
– Thich Nhat Hanh, "Interbeing, the Four Noble Truths, and Right View"

(My commentary)
We sow or plant the seeds of mental formations in our store consciousness (alaya) through our physical, verbal and mental actions (karma). And when those seeds are watered or touched, they will manifest in our mind consciousness as mental formations. That's why our actions (karma) never die and continue always. So, all actions (karma) are our continuation. This may be called as the true reincarnation. What we should do is the selective watering to the wholesome seeds through mindfulness, and the transformation of the unwholesome seeds to the wholesome seeds by embracing our mental formations and understanding the root cause through deep looking.

Read deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk summary on Interbeing, the Four Noble Truths, and Right View.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_vcianSBGpHOVV0eXU3b1VNWnM/view
The followings are excerpts.

"Dear friends, in classical science represented by Newton, things are separate. The seed is outside the plant; the plant is outside the seed. But in quantum physics, we begin to see things differently. Things are no longer outside of each other but are actually in each other."

(My commentary)
I understand that the seed is liken to awareness and the plant is liken to body. David Bohm said, "The implicate, or the enfolded order unfolds into the explicate order, or everything separate." 
(The explicate, or the unfolded order enfolds into the implicate order.) And I understand that the implicate order means awareness in the noumenal world (ultimate dimension) and the explicate order means body in the phenomenal world (historical dimension). In other words, David Bohm said, "Everything is internally related to everything. Everything contains everything." David Bohm also said, "Now, the implicate order would help us to see that, to see everything enfolds, everybody, not merely depends on everybody, but actually everybody is everybody in a deeper sense. See, we are the earth because all our substance comes from the earth and goes back."

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/implicate-order-explicate-order

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Reincarnation, Rebirth and Continuation +α

Watch the following Thay's Dharma Talk deeply.

The followings are the excerpts that I feel precious.

(from 1:00:23)
So, the insight of impermanence, the insight of no self can help everyone, including the judges, politicians and so on. Nothing can remain the same forever, even for two consecutive moments. 

In the beginning, we had another verse for listening to the bell. 
  "I listen, I listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my 
  true self." 
  (I, me, my = ego or separate self, true self = non-separate self) 
But many people did not understand the word, 'self'. The Buddhism does not teach, does not acknowledge the existence of 'self'. Why do you say, "I listen, I listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true self."? I think if we should not be dogmatic, we can speak about the self. If we understand that self is made only of non-self elements. Self the self if there is a self. And then the self is made only of non-self elements. So, it's equal to non-self. So, we should not be caught in words. To say there is no self, that is correct. But to say there is a self, that is correct also if you understand that self is made of non-self elements. You see? So, you don't have to fight. Buddhism is very tolerant. If you are not tolerant, you are not open, you are not a Buddhist. You don't claim that you alone retain the truth. 

(from 1:09:08) 
So, things are always changing and taking new forms. That is reincarnation. That is rebirth. And you don't need to wait until disintegration of this body in order to be reborn, to be continued.  ... 

So, if you are a student of Tibetan Buddhism, you don't need to wait until your teacher dies in order to go and look for his rebirth. He is around already. He is maybe in you. And you can identify him while your teacher is alive. You can identify his continuation while he is still alive with his present body.  ... 

So, we have to learn to see ourselves differently. We should not identify ourselves as this body only, this feelings, emotions, perceptions and mental formations only. Everyday you produce a lot of thoughts, speeches and actions. And these (karma) will continue you. ... 

You continue always with your karma like the clouds continue always with the river, with the ocean, with the snow, with the tea and with your ice cream. ... 

Birth and death happen in every moment. This very moment, many thousands of thousands of cells are dying in their bodies. That is happening now. Don't think that death will be later on. It will be when you reach the age of 80 or 90. No. Death is taking place right in this moment. You are dying now, in the here and the now. 

Why are you so afraid of dying? Because you are dying in every moment now. Many cells are dying so that many other cells are born. And this moment you are born. You have a happy birthday all the time. A happy moment every time. 

We are so busy. We don't have a time to organize funerals of our cells. We don't have a time to celebrate birthdays of our new cells. The birth and death are always together. Without one or the other can not be. Birth goes with death all the time. ... 

So, you are reborn in every moment of your daily life. And meditation allows you to see your rebirth. Every time you produce your thought, you are reborn for the better or the worse. And we are responsible for our actions because every thought, every speech and every action carries our signature. You are a river and you have a name.

(from 1:24:52)
If you are a skilled practitioner, and with only one in-breath you can transform a painful feeling into joy. A mindful in-breath can shed a lot of light on that, on the suffering. 

(My commentary)
As Thay said, we need to be careful about Tibetan Buddhism because the rebirth must come after the death in their understanding. They believe that the subtle consciousness leaves the body after the death. 

We need to understand that there are two versions of self. One is ego = separate self, and the other is true self = non-separate self, or awareness. Enlightenment or awakening means self-transformation from ego to awareness.

Thay explained about Right Thinking. I understand what it means. But the word, 'Thinking' is very confusing. That's because all thoughts cause separations which brings about afflictions and sufferings. So, every thinking is Wrong Thinking and non-thinking is Right Thinking. In this sense, in order to avoid misunderstanding, 'attaining insight' is much better than 'Right Thinking'.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/spiritual-ancestors
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/3-versions-of-oneself

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Deluded Buddhism (Reincarnation and Rituals)

Read the following interview with Thich Nhat Hanh.
http://www.lionsroar.com/be-beautiful-be-yourself-january-2012/

The followings are excerpts regarding Reincarnation and Rituals.

Quote:
Q: Do you have to believe in reincarnation to be a Buddhist?

A: Reincarnation means there is a soul that goes out of your body and enters another body. That is a very popular, very wrong notion of continuation in Buddhism. If you think that there is a soul, a self, that inhabits a body, and that goes out when the body disintegrates and takes another form, that is not Buddhism.

When you look into a person, you see five skandhas, or elements: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. There is no soul, no self, outside of these five, so when the five elements go to dissolution, the karma, the actions, that you have performed in your lifetime is your continuation. What you have done and thought is still there as energy. You don’t need a soul, or a self, in order to continue.

It’s like a cloud. Even when the cloud is not there, it continues always as snow or rain. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. You don’t need to wait until the total dissolution of this body to continue—you continue in every moment. Suppose I transmit my energy to hundreds of people; then they continue me. If you look at them and you see me, well, you have seen me. If you think that I am only this (body) [points to himself], then you have not seen me. But when you see me in my speech and my actions, you see that they continue me. When you look at my disciples, my students, my books, and my friends, you see my continuation. I will never die. There is a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death. I continue, always.

That is true of all of us. You are more than just this body because the five skandhas are always producing energy. That is called karma or action. But there is no actor—you don’t need an actor. Action is good enough. This can be understood in terms of quantum physics. Mass and energy, and force and matter—they are not two separate things. They are the same.

Q: Can a ceremony make someone a Buddhist?

A: No, it’s not by ceremony that you become a Buddhist. It is by committing to practice. Buddhists get caught in a lot of rituals and ceremonies, but the Buddha does not like that. In the sutras, specifically in the teaching given by the Buddha right after his enlightenment, he said that we should be free from rituals. You do not get enlightenment or liberation just because you perform rituals, but people have made Buddhism heavily ritualistic. We are not nice to the Buddha.

Q: What do you think makes someone a Buddhist?

A: A person may not be called a Buddhist, but he can be more Buddhist than a person who is. Buddhism is made of mindfulness, concentration, and insight. If you have these things, you are a Buddhist. If you don’t, you aren’t a Buddhist. When you look at a person and you see that she is mindful, she is compassionate, she is understanding, and she has insight, then you know that she is a Buddhist. But even if she’s a nun and she does not have these energies and qualities, she has only the appearance of a Buddhist, not the content of a Buddhist.
:Unquote

(My commentary)
I really feel that Thay's teachings are authentic Buddha's teachings. And I also agree with Thay that reincarnation and too much rituals are two examples of the deluded Buddhism. I know that Tibetan Buddhism teaches that the subtle consciousness leaves the body upon so-called death. And surprisingly, I also know that even Thay's one disciple (a Dharma teacher) stated, "the Buddha said that when we leave this body, we take with us the consequences of our actions." As Thay mentioned, that is the deluded Buddhism. The body and consciousness inter-are. Consciousness is always with the body, so can't leave the body. Consciousness can't exist alone apart from the body. That is the authentic Buddha's teaching. 

As for rituals, I entirely agree to the Buddha's words, "We should be free from rituals." And I entirely agree to Thay's words, "It’s not by ceremony that you become a Buddhist. It is by committing to practice. ... You do not get enlightenment or liberation just because you perform rituals." Thay's words of "Buddhism is made of mindfulness, concentration, and insight" is simple but very persuasive.

(Cf.): 
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/spacetime-continuum-in-4-ways
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/spiritual-ancestors

Seeds of Consciousness

Thay mentioned the followings regarding the seeds of mental formations.

"According to the Buddha, the birth of a human being is not a beginning but a continuation, and when we’re born, all the different kinds of seeds—seeds of goodness, of cruelty, of awakening—are already inside us. Whether the goodness or cruelty in us is revealed depends on what seeds we cultivate, our actions, and our way of life." (Excerpted from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Introduction to “Love’s Garden: A Guide to Mindful Relationships”)
(Cf.) http://www.lionsroar.com/growing-together/

"His anger will be stored in the depth of his consciousness as what we call an "internal knot". This knot is what becomes a grudge or feeling of resentment. It's like having a cold. When we become sick, if we do not take the right medicine or let someone give us a massage, our cold may go deeply into our body and becomes much more difficult to cure. When our anger goes deeply into our consciousness, it creates an internal knot that might cause us to have agressive gestures or unpleasant behaviour without our knowing it." (Excerpted from Thich Nhat Hanh’s 'Joyfully Together')

(My Question)
Why and how does this happen? Have Thay explained it before?

(My Commentary)
I remember Thay said that we carry our ancestor's burdens and gifts. I can understand that we are the continuation of our ancestors (not only humans but also animals, plants and minerals), but I want to know why and how this continuation happens. Seeds of consciousness are the key. However, I don't know if Thay has mentioned the mechanism of this continuation. I guess Thay may not have mentioned that mechanism because it has not been proved scientifically. Thay has been very careful to mention about past karma of our previous manifestations because he doesn't want to teach deluded Buddhism. So, when that mechanism (why and how the seeds are sown in store consciousness) and the relation between body and consciousness (every particle enfolds into consciousness, and consciousness unfolds into body) is proved scientifically, Thay may begin to talk about it.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/seeds-of-consciousness
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/seeds-in-subconscious
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/spiritual-ancestors

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Wholeness: A Coherent Approach to Reality

Watch the following video. What David Bohm says is exactly the same as what Buddha said by emptiness.

Wholeness: A Coherent Approach to Reality – David Bohm

“I think the difficulty is this fragmentation.. All thought is broken up into bits. Like this nation, this country, this industry, this profession and so on… And they can’t meet. That comes about because thought has developed traditionally in a way such that it claims not to be effecting anything but just telling you the way things are. Therefore, people cannot see that they are creating a problem and then apparently trying to solve it… Wholeness is a kind of attitude or approach to the whole of life. If we can have a coherent approach to reality then reality will respond coherently to us.”

The following is a transcript for the video “Wholeness & Fragmentation,” a short excerpt from David Bohm’s presentation in Amsterdam, in 1990, as featured in the documentary Art Meets Science & Spirituality in a Changing Economy.

“We are internally related to everything, not [just] externally related. Consciousness is an internal relationship to the whole, we take in the whole, and we act toward the whole. Whatever we have taken in determines basically what we are.

I think the difficulty is this fragmentation, first of all. Everybody, all thought is broken up into bits. Like this nation, this country, this industry, this profession and so on… And they can’t meet. It’s extremely hard to break into that.

But that comes about primarily because thought has developed traditionally in a way such that it claims not to be effecting anything but just telling you “the way things are.” Therefore, people cannot see that they are creating a problem and then apparently trying to solve it.

Let’s take a problem like pollution, or the ecology. See, the ecology in itself is not a problem. It works perfectly well by itself. Its due to us, right? It’s a problem because we are thinking in certain ways by breaking it up and each person is doing his own thing.

Therefore the ecological problem is due to thought, right? But thought thinks it’s a problem out there and I must solve it. That doesn’t make sense because simultaneously thought is doing all the things which make the problem and then tries to do another set of activities to try and overcome it. See, it doesn’t stop doing the things which are making the ecological problem, or the national problem, or whatever the problem is.

The earth is one household really, but we are not treating it that way, so that’s the first step in economics is to say the earth is one household and all that depends on, its all one you see…

Now, the implicate order would help us to see that, to see everything enfolds, everybody, not merely depends on everybody, but actually everybody is everybody in a deeper sense. See, we are the earth because all our substance comes from the earth and goes back. I mean, its wrong to say its an environment, just surrounding us. That would be like the brain regarding the stomache as part of its environment.

The word com-passion is to feel together, and if people have the same feeling together, they are responsible for each other, then you have compassion.

I don’t think that there is such a thing as original sin. I think it has developed more and more with the growth of our society. There is no evidence that people in a hunter/gatherer society were all that competitive. But the more you made society big and you had organization, and you had to get to the top, and people on the bottom would suffer. There was a drive to compete, naturally. It’s not a weakness, it’s a mistake.

So the first thing we have to do, in the long run, is to look at our way of thinking, which has developed over so many thousands of years. I don’t think it was the original way of thinking of the human race at all, but for many complex reasons it came about.

Now, that means that people have to participate, to make a cooperative effort, to have a dialogue, a real dialogue, in which we will not merely exchange opinions, but actually listen deeply to the views of other people, without resistance.

And we cannot do this if we hold to our own opinion and resist the other. It doesn’t mean we should accept the other, but we have to be able to look at all the opinions and suspend it, as it were, in front of us, without carrying them out, without supressing them.

Wholeness is an attitude or an approach, but can be given a scientific realization, because of relativity and quantum theory, we can if we wish look on the world as a whole.

Consciousness is really our most immediate experience of this implicate order. You may think of nets of consciousness that are finer and finer, or we may think of capturing finer and finer aspects of the implicate order. I think there is an intelligence that is implicit there, a kind of intelligence unfolds. The source of intelligence is not necessarily in the brain, you see, but much more enfolded into the whole. Now, the question of what you want to call it God, that depends on what you mean by the word, you see. Because taking it as a personal God might restrict it, in some way.

I think science has begun to replace religion as the major source of the world view, and therefore, if science takes a fragmentary world view it will have a profound effect on consciousness.

Science is whatever people make of it, science has changed over the ages and it is different now from a few hundred years ago, and it could be different again. There is no intrinsic reason why science must necessarily be about measurement. That is another historical development that has come about over the last few centuries. It is entirely contingent and not absolutely necessary.

Einstein eventually moved toward a view of field theory where everything was one field, all fields merging, so it was a step toward wholeness. It was a limited step, but still it was the beginning.

Wholeness is not a place you can get to, wholeness is a kind of attitude or approach to the whole of life. It’s a way. If we can have a coherent approach to reality then reality will respond coherently to us.

But Nature has been tremendously affected by our way of thinking on the earth. Nature is now being destroyed. There is very little left on the earth which wasn’t affected by how we were thinking.

[If we have coherence] we will produce the results we intend rather than the results we don’t intend. That’s the first big change. Then we will be more orderly, harmonious, we will be happier. I think we can put all that in there. But the major source of unhappiness [on our planet] is that we are incoherent and therefore are producing results that we don’t really want, and then trying to overcome them while we keep on producing them.”

David Bohm; Amsterdam, 1990

Art Meets Science & Spirituality in a Changing Economy Conference

“David Joseph Bohm (1917 – 1992) was an American theoretical physicist who contributed innovative and unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, philosophy of mind, and neuropsychology. He is considered to be one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century.” (wikipedia)

(Cf.) https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/wholeness-a-coherent-approach-to-reality-david-bohm/

David Bohm

Karma (2) カルマ (2)

Karma By Thich Nhat Hanh

In a former time, we were fish, we were birds, we were reptiles. And our ancestors are fully present in us, in the here, in the now. We continue as a reptile. We have many reactions that belong to the reptile species. We want to say that we are created by a God in his image. But in fact, we have many ancestors. When a fish swims happily in the water, it is very proud of its talent for swimming. And a fish has the right to say that God must be the most wonderful swimmer in the world. And a rose can say, “God is the most beautiful rose in the world, because he has created me like this.” If you are a mathematician, you tend to think God must be the best mathematician in the world. Your notions of God are anthropocentric. If you are a gay person, you may think that God is the best gay person in the world. Why not? The fish has that right, the rose has that right, so we all inter-are. We continue our ancestors in us now. We are human, but we are at the same time a rock, a cloud, a rabbit, a rose, a gay, a lesbian. We are everything. Let us not discriminate or push away anything, because we are everything. Everything is in us. That’s the right view.

If we see that everything is in man and man is in everything, we know that to preserve other species is to preserve ourselves. That is deep ecology, that is interbeing. That is the teaching of the Diamond Sutra. A good Buddhist should be an ecologist, trying her best to preserve the environment, because to preserve the environment is to preserve yourself. Man contains the whole cosmos.

On the phenomenal level there seem to be birth, death, being and non-being, but ontologically, these notions cannot be applied to reality. Birth and death are just notions. The true nature of a cloud is the nature of no birth and no death. The scientist Lavoisier says that nothing is born, nothing dies. He agrees completely with this teaching. A cloud manifests as a cloud. There is no birth of a cloud, because before being a cloud, the cloud has been the tree, the ocean, the heat generated by the sun. To appear as a cloud is only a moment of continuation. And when a cloud becomes a river, that is not death, that is also a continuation. We know that there is a way to continue beautifully, and that is to take care of our three aspects of karma – thinking, speaking and acting.

Being and non-being are more wrong views. Non-being is a wrong view, but being is also a wrong view. The absolute reality transcends both being and non-being. Before you are born, you did not belong to the realm of non-being, because from non-being, you cannot pass into being. And when you die, you cannot pass from being into non-being. It’s impossible. To be, or not to be – both are wrong views. To inter-be is better.

The dynamic consciousness is called karma energy. Karma energy is not abstract. It determines our state of being, whether we are happy or unhappy. Whether you continue beautifully or not so beautifully depends on karma. It’s possible to take care of our action so that we don’t suffer much now and we will continue to do better in the future. There is the hope, the joy.

(end)

(Cf.) http://www.mindfulnessbell.org/wp/tag/karma/ 
(Within Dharma Talk: The Buddhist Understanding of Reality)

「カルマ」 - ティク・ナット・ハン

昔、私たちは魚でしたし、鳥でしたし、爬虫類でした。そして、私たちの祖先は今、ここで、私たちの中に完全に存在しています。私たちは爬虫類として継続します。私たちは爬虫類の種に属する多くの反応を持っています。私たちは神のイメージで神によって創造されたと言いたいです。しかし、実際には私たちは多くの祖先を持っています。魚が水の中で楽しく泳ぐ時は、水泳の才能を非常に誇りに思います。そして、魚は神は世界で最も素晴らしい泳者であるに違いないと言う権利を持っています。そして、バラは「神はこのように私を創造しましたので、世界で最も美しいバラです」と言うことができます。あなたが数学者であれば、あなたは神が世界で最高の数学者であるに違いないと思う傾向にあります。神についてのあなたの概念は人間中心主義です。あなたが同性愛者であれば、あなたは神が世界で最高の同性愛者であると思うかもしれません。それはそうでしょ？魚は権利を持っているし、バラは権利を持っているので、私たち全ては相互に依存しています。私たちは今、自分の中で私たちの先祖を続けます。私たちは人間ですが、同時に岩だし、雲だし、ウサギだし、バラだし、同性愛者だし、レズビアンです。私たちは全てなのです。私たちは全てのものであるのですから、何も差別しないように、押しのけないようにしましょう​​。全てのものが私たちの中にあります。それが正しい見方です。

全てのものが人間の中にあり、人間が全ての中にあることを理解するなら、他の種を維持することは自分自身を維持することだと私たちは知ります。それは深い生態学であり、興味深いことです。それは、金剛般若経の教えです。環境を維持することは自分自身を維持することであるため、善い仏教徒なら環境を保全するために最善を尽くしながら、生態学者であるべきです。人間は全宇宙を含んでいます。

現象レベルでは、生、死、存在、非存在があるようですが、本体論的には、これらの概念を現実に適用することはできません。生と死はただの概念です。雲の本質は不生不死の性質です。科学者のラヴォアジエは、「何も生まれないし、何も死なない」と言います。彼はこの教えに完全に同意します。雲は、雲として顕現します。雲になる前に、雲は木、大海、太陽によって発生した熱でしたので、雲の誕生はありません。雲として現れることは、継続における一つの瞬間でしかありません。そして、雲が川になる時、それは死ではなく、それもまた継続です。私たちは、美しく継続する方法があることを知っており、それは思考、発言、行為というカルマの三つの側面の世話をすることです。

存在と非存在は、更に誤った見方です。非存在は誤った見方ですが、存在もまた誤った見方です。絶対の現実は存在と非存在の両方を超越します。あなたが生まれる前に、あなたは非存在の領域に属していませんでした。なぜなら、あなたは非存在から存在へ通り抜けることはできないからです。そして、あなたが死ぬ時、あなたは存在から非存在へ通り抜けることはできません。それは不可能です。生きるか死ぬかの両方共、誤った見方です。相互に存在すると言う方がより良いです。

動的な意識はカルマのエネルギーと呼ばれます。カルマのエネルギーは抽象的ではありません。それは、私たちが幸せか不幸かという私たちの存在の状態を決定します。あなたが美しく継続するか、あまり美しくなく継続するかは、カルマに依存します。私たちは今、あまり苦しまず、将来的にもっと上手くやることを継続できるように、自分の行動の世話をすることは可能です。そこに希望、喜びがあります。

（おわり）

（参考）http://www.mindfulnessbell.org/wp/tag/karma/
（Dharma Talk: The Buddhist Understanding of Realityをご参照）

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Karma (1) カルマ (1)

Karma By Thich Nhat Hanh

We began our talk with the notion that both consciousness and object of consciousness are manifestations of consciousness. Consciousness is a dynamic force that is at the base of manifesting living beings and the world. In Buddhist insight, the world is a manifestation of consciousness. Many scientists have begun to agree that the cosmos is a manifestation of consciousness. As a scientist, you cannot stand outside as an observer; to really understand, you have to be a participant.

In Buddhism we speak of karma as the threefold aspect of action; thinking, speaking and acting. When we produce a thought, that thought can change us and can change the world in a good way or in a bad way. If it is right thought, if that thought is produced in line with right thinking, then it will have a healing, nourishing effect on our body and on the world. Just by producing right thinking you can change the world. You can make the world a better place to live, or you can transform the world into hell. That is karma, action; this is not something abstract. For example, the economic crisis is born from our thinking. There is a lot of craving and fear, and the value of the dollar, of the euro is largely created by the mind. Everything comes from the mind. That is why thinking is action and speaking is action. Speaking can release tension and reconcile, or speaking can break relationships. Speaking can destroy someone’s hope and cause that person to commit suicide. Physical action is also energy.

There is individual karma that has an effect on everyone. Everything that happened to you happened to the world. You produce that thought, you are affected by that thought, and the world is also affected by that thought. There is also collective karma. During this twenty-one-day retreat, the friendship, the joy, the healing, the transformation is the work of everyone. Each one of us contributes through our practice, through our insight, through our speech. In Buddhism, we do not believe in a God that arranges everything, but we don’t believe in coincidence either. We believe that the fate of the planet depends on our karma, on our action. It does not depend on a God, it does not depend on chance, it depends on our true action. Karma is the dynamic force that underlies everything. I think that scientists will have no difficulty accepting this.

Man is present in all things and all things are present in man. Man just arrived yesterday in the history of life on earth. Looking into a human being, we can see our non-human elements, namely our animal ancestors, our vegetable ancestors, and our mineral ancestors. In our past life we were a cloud, and we were a rock. Even in this moment, we continue to be a cloud, we continue to be a rock. There is a mountain in us, do you see? There are many clouds in us, do you see?

(to be continued)

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/karmic-cycle

「カルマ」 - ティク・ナット・ハン

意識と意識の対象の両方が意識の顕現であるという概念から、私たちは話を始めました。意識は顕現している生きものと世界の基盤にある動的な力です。仏教の洞察では、世界は意識の顕現です。多くの科学者が宇宙は意識の顕現であることに同意し始めています。科学者としてのあなたは、観察者として外部に立つことはできません。本当に理解するには、参加者でなければなりません。

仏教では、思考、発言、行為という行動の三重の側面としてカルマのことを話します。私たちが思考を生成する時、その思考は、良きにつけ悪しきにつけ、私たちを変え、世界を変えることができます。それが正しい思考なら、その思考が正しい思考に沿って生成されているなら、それは私たちの体に、そして世界に癒しと栄養の効果があります。正しい思考を生成するだけで、あなたは世界を変えることができるのです。あなたは世界を生きるのにより良い場所にするか、または地獄へ変えることができます。それがカルマ、行動です。これは抽象的なことではありません。例えば、経済危機は私たちの思考から生まれます。多くの渇望と恐れがあり、ドルやユーロの価値は主に心によって創造されます。全てが心から来ています。ですから、思考は行動であり、発言も行動なのです。発言は緊張を解放して和解できるか、または関係を壊せます。発言は誰かの希望を破壊し、その人に自殺させる原因になり得ます。肉体的行動もまたエネルギーです。

皆に影響を与える個々のカルマがあります。あなたに起こった全てのことは世界に起こったことなのです。あなたはその思想を生み出し、その思考の影響を受け、世界もその思考の影響を受けます。また、集団的カルマもあります。この二十一日の瞑想会では、友情、喜び、癒し、変容が誰もの仕事です。私たち一人一人が、実践を通して、洞察を通して、発言を通して貢献しています。仏教では、全てのものをアレンジする神を信じませんが、偶然もまた信じません。私たちは、地球の運命は私たちのカルマに、私たちの行動にかかっていると信じています。地球の運命は神に依存せず、偶然に依存せず、私たちの真の行動に依るのです。カルマは全ての根底にある動的な力です。科学者がこれを受け容れるのに何の困難もないだろうと私は思います。

人間は全てのものの中に存在し、全てのものは人間の中に存在しています。人間は地球上の生命の歴史の中で昨日到着したばかりです。人間の中を調べると、人間以外の要素、即ち私たちの動物の祖先、私たちの植物の祖先、そして私たちの鉱物の祖先を見ることができます。過去の生命では、私たちは雲でしたし、岩でもありました。この瞬間においてさえ、私たちは雲であり続け、岩であり続けます。私たちの中には山がありますが、あなたは見えていますか？私たちの中には多くの雲がありますが、あなたは見えていますか？

（つづく）

（参考）http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/ss-42683194

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