Meditation & Enlightenment

Listen deeply to the following Thay's Dharma talk about "Meditation".

https://tnhaudio.org/2017/05/18/happiness-found-present-moment/

If you are asked, "Why do you meditate?", Can you answer, "Because I like it."? If you can, your meditation is in the right track. That's because meditation is an enjoyment. We don’t force it, but we enjoy it. It is an act of love.

We can get enlightenment just by eating because we can get in touch with the nature of reality, no self. When we eat, we know that we are made of non-we elements, or the whole cosmos (water, air, earth, sunshine). We are not separate existence, we are empty of separate self (no self). 'No self' is the nature of 'emptiness' in terms of space, while 'impermanence' is the nature of 'emptiness' in terms of time. This insight enables us to transcend the duality and attain the wholeness. We can throw away all notions such as birth and death because we are convinced that all notions are wrong. When we attain the extinction of all notions, we won't think anymore, we won't separate anymore. We will dwell in nirvana (ultimate dimension), touching the wonders of life, touching the true nature of reality inside and around us.

For enlightenment, we don't need to be ordained, we don't need to get the lamp transmission. It is possible right here and right now.

(cf.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NYEP04

Thich Nhat Hanh & his disciples

Walking meditation 歩行瞑想

Watch deeply the following video of the walking meditation led by Sister Peace. 
https://www.facebook.com/SXSWFestival/videos/10154410993583994/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

次のシスター・ピースに導かれた歩行瞑想のビデオを深くご覧下さい。
https://www.facebook.com/SXSWFestival/videos/10154410993583994/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

The contrast between the walking meditators and ordinary walkers is interesting. It is expressed in the following beautiful trailer ('walk with me') as those who have arrived and those who have been running a lot but have not arrived.
http://walkwithmefilm.com/trailer/

(Cf.) https://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/walking-meditation-62204227

歩行瞑想者と一般歩行者のコントラストが興味深いです。そのコントラストは、到着した人と、いっぱい走ってきたが到着していない人として、次の美しい映画「walk with me」の予告編に表現されています。 
http://walkwithmefilm.com/trailer/

（参考）https://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/ss-62242338

Precious message from Thich Nhat Hanh

Watch deeply the following video of  Thich Nhat Hanh and Br. David Steindl-Rast and Disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh.

The followings are excerpts from the video. I totally agree.

(2:35～: Peace march)
And they shouted from behind, "Can you walk (faster)?" 
And some of them overtook us and looked back at us and saw the way we were. And they transformed. 
They see (that) we are doing peace, (that) we are not demanding peace. If we are not able to be peaceful and happy in every step, peace march is not a peace march. ... 
The peace movement should be a practice of a community. Peace is a practice. ... I think the peace movement should be a community of practice where people live together in brotherhood, sisterhood.

(7:10～: Walking meditation)
Gratefulness can be felt with every step. You are alive and your feet are still strong enough for you to make steps on this beautiful planet. So, with mindfulness of breathing, mindfulness of walking, every step you make brings you home to the here and the now so that you can get in touch with all the wonders of life. And every step like that can be nourishing and healing. 

During walking meditation you stop the thinking. I think, therefore I'm not truly there. You can feel the contact between your foot and the ground. Mother Earth is there, Mother Earth is in you. And there is a communion between you and Mother Earth. Mother Earth is the mother of all the Saints, all the Buddhas, all the Bodhisattvas. 

You carry the Mother Earth in you. You can not die, you can transform. It's like a cloud transforming herself into the rain. A cloud can never die. There is no birth, no death. We spoke about birth and death that is on the superficial level. But go deep down, the nature of everything is no birth and no death. From something you can never become nothing. From someone you can never become no one.

(10:01～: Power)
These kinds of powers (money, fame) can not be real powers. And you can become victims of these powers. But there are other kinds of powers that can make you strong.

1. Power of cutting off
The first power is power of cutting off. You are attached to, you are bound to a number of things. And that makes you lose all your freedom. You know that it is destroying you, it makes you not free, but you have no courage in order to cut off. And that is the freedom. And there are those of us who are bound to a number of things that make us powerless. You may think that you can not survive without it, without him, without her, without that kind of position. But maybe it is the very obstacle for your true happiness. So, how to release, cut off. You need power. And that is the first power that is needed for you, that can set you free. 

2. Power to forgive and to love
The second power is to forgive and to love. Even that person is not lovable but you can still love him or her because you are capable of seeing suffering in him or in her. And your love grows, you become more powerful. And that is love without frontier, without discrimination. That's true love. That is the love of God, of the Buddha. And you have to train yourself in order to love like that. You don't leave anyone outside of your love. All embracing.

3. Power to understand
And the third power is the power to understand. You are no longer afraid. When you understand, you are no longer angry and fearful. And that needs meditation, contemplation. Looking deeply, and then you get the insight, the vision of interbeing, the vision of interconnectedness. And that kind of knowledge removes all kinds of discrimination, separation and deserves very powerful kind of energy. 

If in our community there are those who have these kinds of powers, it's certain that we can make history, we can change history.

(21:51～: Summary)
If in our community there are those who have these kinds of powers, it's certain that we can make history, we can change history. And not fame, political power and wealth. 

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/walking-meditation-62204227

Thich Nhat Hanh and Br. David Steindl-Rast

The 7 Factors of Awakening (4)

Listen deeply to the following Dharma talk on The 7 Factors of Awakening by Thay Phap Dang. http://deerpark.libsyn.com/2016-12-04-br-phap-dang-the-7-factors-of-awakening

The followings are excerpts from the podcast.

Quote:
(from  54:45) 
The sixth factor of enlightenment is concentration. Concentration goes along with mindfulness, samadhi. We all need concentration. All schools of meditation come to play of concentration. No concentration, no enlightenment. Whether you belong to zen school or belong to the school of tantric, all need concentration, samadhi. Samadhi is equivelent to Samatha which means that your mind comes to rest and your mind comes to concentrate, focus. Your mind comes to the body. You don't fix your mind but you get a feeling that is always resting, that is always there for you. 

So, the continuity of mindfulness is actually concentration. So, the spectrum of mindfulness is actually concentration of the mind. The longer mindfulness you have, the longer concentration you have. And your mind comes to tranquility all day long. Quietness and tranquility. We need quietness because we are so active in the end. 

So, we need concentration in order to see our mind. Because most of the time we are controlled by the seed in our mind. It (seed) actually tells us what to do. We have no control. Like when you are lonely, "I need somebody to talk". ... Actually we are manipulated by our own mind. That's why the Buddha said, "You are riding by the horse but your own mind, you, actually have no sovereignty." 

So, concentration helps us to have concentrated sovereignty of it, freedom, liberation. We see what is happening here. We see the thought before it becomes energy. We see the emotion before it becomes a strong emotion. We see the attachment before we send our energy. Sometimes attachment is so strong and we send our energy out. "I like you. Don't you see me beautiful?" It goes like that. 

(from  1:00:38)
The last one (the seventh factor of enlightenment) is equanimity. This is very important. Equanimity means letting go. ... This factor is so important to be free and to be enlightened. Because most of the time we attach, we hold. Underneath, we want to hold more, grasp more. We want everything belongs to us. So, letting go. 

But the deep down is the fear from attachment. You are afraid of losing them. You are afraid that one day you have to let them go. But you will have to go. One day you have to die. So, the final liberation is actually to let go, to let go of attachment (things belong to myself). Even this body has to let go. And actually when we look deeply, we see this body is the process of birth and death. You are always constantly dying and constantly being born. And this is the law of impermanence. 

There is nothing called you in that moment because you change all the time. People don't have this practice, so they don't see this process of everlasting changing. So, they are afraid of dying. They are afraid of being sick. They are afraid of departure from the loved one one day. You are like that, or your loved one is like that. 

So, that's life. That's why we need to devote our time into this practice of enlightenment, enlightenment of every step we make. If in each step we don't have enlightenment (no joy, no tranquility), something is wrong. We are wasting our time. Some monks and nuns, or lay practitioners, we don't fulfill our aspiration. We don't continue the career of the Buddha and the teacher. It's so sad to put them down. 

So, the practice is throughout the day. It's not just when you come to the meditation hall. We said training the horse within. So, don't let the horse ride you. You control the horse. In zen, they say that you ride the buffalo, (you should) not allow the buffalo ride you. Actually there must be another animal, a monkey. I said that my consciousness was a monkey. The buffalo is just the alaya consciousness. The seeds, the totality of our behavior, of our mind, so that is called the buffalo. And usually it's very dark because of the negative energy. 

But the one who lives, who controls our life, is the monkey, the monkey who fabricates our life, who creates things in our life, who brings us hell or heaven, who brings us love or hate. So, the monkey is the one who is very intelligent. We need to pay attention to him. So, shine the light of mindfulness on the monkey. Make the monkey sit quiet. Tame the horse to be calm and relaxed. And that is our practice. 

You don't need to look for the true nature of the beginner's term of purity or whatever. Who cares about that? You don't need even to look for the Buddha outside. You don't need to get enlightenment at the end of the vow. You can get enlightenment in every step you make. 
:Unquote

(End)

(My commentary)
I understand that equanimity is the most difficult factor of enlightenment. That's because equanimity means non-discrimination, non-separation, non-duality, inclusiveness, the wholeness, or unconditional love and compassion. So, other 6 factors of enlightenment are means or tools to attain the 7th factor as the fruit. 

Non-thinking for 24 hours a day is essential for the full enlightenment. So, the extinction of all notions is essential for that. We must throw away all notions to stop thinking completely. And for that we need to understand the ultimate truth of emptiness, or interbeing through insight. In other words, we have to understand that all notions made up by ego are wrong because all notions cause separation, discrimination, or the duality. 

When we attain the insight, we are fully enlightened and can stop thinking completely. So, there will be no more separation, discrimination, or the duality. And no afflictions such as fear and anger will arise anymore. Therefore, sufferings will be eliminated completely. Or, I should say that there will be no notion of sufferings made up by human ego. All animals, plants and minerals enjoy living like that. Only most humans are the living dead (corpse) except for little children.

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

The 7 Factors of Awakening (3)

Listen deeply to the following Dharma talk on The 7 Factors of Awakening by Thay Phap Dang. http://deerpark.libsyn.com/2016-12-04-br-phap-dang-the-7-factors-of-awakening

The followings are excerpts from the podcast.

Quote:
(from 35:07)
The second enlightenment factor is investigation of the Dharma. It means that you have to look for the right Dharma, the right Dharma door. ... So, we learned the practice of mindfulness, of concentration, of insight we bring into our daily life to practice. And then we investigate, look. So, investigation is more like looking deeply, Vipassanā. We bring the mind to stop to the present moment. And then we look into our body, into our feelings, into our perceptions. Because we need to understand what is our body. There is a very deep secret in our body. Our body has a vast area to learn.

If we don't understand, we suffer but we don't know why. We create more suffering for the body. We don't know why. So, mindfulness goes along with the investigation of the Dharma. ... But for sure, mindfulness is the way, the Buddha way. No mindfulness, no enlightenment. ... You like or dislike, is very projective. It's not because of him or her. It's the manifestation of our mind.

(from 42:02)
The third factor of enlightenment is energy. We need energy to continue this way of life. So, this energy is like a force, the energy of diligence. So, no energy, no enlightenment. Laziness, it doesn't work. Can you get enlightenment if you become so lazy? ... You have to generate the energy on regular basis. It's just like we need. 

So, spiritual life is like that. We need to be diligent. We enjoy doing it. Because we know this is the most important thing in our life. It's the generating energy of mindfulness, concentration, clear mind. If not, we just go back to the same pattern, or autopilot. Confusion. Habitual energy. And we have a tendency to bring suffering to oneself and others. So, energy is needed. ... Energy makes us stable. The energy you know what is negative, you don't do it. You know what is negative energy, negative thought, negative mental formations, you don't do it, watering it. ... So, watering good seeds is happiness and joy.

(from 50:03) 
Joy is the fourth factor of enlightenment. Sometimes they call it rapture. Can you believe that a depressed person can get enlightenment? No way! So, we need to have some joy. We like to do it. You enjoy to do the practice. You feel the joy. Joy is a skill of way, is like mindfulness to be in touch, to experience. So, it's not auto-suggested. But you feel the joy. We sit quietly and you feel joy. ... Joy comes from tranquility, clear mind.

(from 51:15) 
The fifth factor of enlightenment is relaxation and tranquility. ... True mindfulness is no thinking. True concentration is no thinking. So, tranquility is very important. ... Just sit there. Just be yourself. The most suffering of human beings is that you can not be yourself. Is that right? You are looking for a love but you can not love yourself. You want somebody else to love you but you can't love yourself. You want somebody to pay attention to you but you can not pay attention to you. That is the most suffering of humans. 

So, go back (to yourself) and be relaxed. Be relaxed in the body. Be tranquil in the mind. We have this quality. And actually this is the factor, the energy very straight into enlightenment. Actually you have enlightened. You are the Buddha to be. I hope that everybody can be a Buddha because as human beings we create a lot of sufferings. But when you become a Buddha, you are radiating the energy of relaxing and tranquility. Your mind becomes more clear. That means your perception is more clear and more direct.

(from  54:13)
When you come to the place of perception, we color a lot. Because the bottom of perception is the mind. On top of the perception is the person. So, we color the person with our own mind. Whether we like or we don't like is very projective, very subjective. So, that's why the tranquility of the mind, relaxing the body is very important. 
:Unquote

(To be continued)

(My commentary)
We must keep the following phrases in mind because it is very important and very true.

"You like or dislike, is very projective. It's not because of him or her. It's the manifestation of our mind."
"So, we color the person with our own mind. Whether we like or we don't like is very projective, very subjective."

The above phrases mean that we see our mind, namely ourselves in the other person. So, the way we see depends on the way we think. If we blame the other person, we are actually blaming ourselves.

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

The 7 Factors of Awakening (2)

Listen deeply to the following Dharma talk on The 7 Factors of Awakening by Thay Phap Dang. http://deerpark.libsyn.com/2016-12-04-br-phap-dang-the-7-factors-of-awakening

The followings are excerpts from the podcast.

Quote:
(from 16:00)
So, if we are practicing mindfulness, we are on the right track. Nothing to be confused. Nothing to be worried about. Sometimes we have learned this very important practice (mindfulness) from Thay and from the Buddha, but for a while we begin to feel like we are not trust, we are not confident in our practice. Because the way Thay makes the practice is so simple. And we thought that it (mindfulness) doesn't work. Something simple, it doesn't work. Something sophisticated, something mystic, it will work because the enlightenment is something high. So, that is a trick that we easily fall into a trap of doubt (maybe this doesn't work for me). Exactly like what I did when I was at a monastic after 4 years. 

(from 17:18)
And mindfulness, anybody knows mindfulness and you already practice mindfulness, it's also like an enlightenment, not an idea. It's not a notion. It's not a thought. Mindfulness is the energy you can do it, you can generate. Mindfulness is the spiritual energy that we like with it. You can define as the clear awareness that you can see, you can hear, you can feel. And you can really touch this energy. So, this is the right teaching, right practice of the Buddha who passed on his disciples and now it comes to us. So, I'd like to share with you like this, so that you would have faith in your own practice. 

(from 18:27) Mindfulness is defined as body and mind come together. One breath, breathing-in, and if we are aware of the in-breath from the beginning to the end, that is mindfulness. You know it. You can feel the energy. And mindfulness is not just the breathing, the way of breathing. Mindfulness is also to see the flower. You see the flower. That's exactly like that. That's mindfulness. You feel the wind resting your body. And that feeling that (?) of the refreshing of the wind. That is also mindfulness. And you walk in the nature. You feel the sunshine on your face, your shoulder.That is also mindfulness. It's the spiritual energy. It's very clear in our mind. It's a clear awareness. It's the essence of the Buddha. People talk about the Buddha nature. But this is the real Buddha nature. You can touch it. It's not a thought. ... 

Mindfulness is something that the Buddha really did almost every day and his monks were practicing every day. The steps feel the earth. That is mindfulness. So, mindfulness sometimes does not come from the head (brain). Mindfulness comes from the body. You know, more like you feel it, you touch it, experience it. Not above for sure. So, actually thinking about mindfulness, is not mindfulness.

(from 21:05)
That's why there is a state of Dhyana, the second state of Dhyana. There is no thinking. I said thinking is confusing. Thinking is taking us away from life. We are sitting there, thinking a lot of things. And the flower right in front of us, we don't see it. 

(from 25:10)
So, mindfulness is that mind goes back to the body and stays in the present moment. Mindfulness is that you do whatever you have to feel it. It sounds simple but it takes a lot of training because our mind likes to do many things at a time. Multi-tasking. Our mind likes to run away into the distant, into the past, into the future. Our mind is very good at thinking and planning. And the Buddha said that our mind is like a white horse running and running. 

(from 26:55)
The Buddha said the horse is like our mind. Training mindfulness is actually the training of mind to come to play of stopping, stop running, stop even thinking. It's nothing wrong with thinking. But we think too much. Most of thinking is not productive. And most of our thinking is very negative. It has a lot of anxiety and fear in it. A worry.

So, mindfulness is just to be. Just do one thing at a time. ... Really just to be. Because our mind is very crazy. So, just to be is a training, not easy at all. Training a horse, the horse within, is mindfulness.

(from 34:28) 
The second enlightenment factor is the investigation of the Dharma. So, the Buddha was very clear in defining enlightenment. The first is mindfulness, to come back to oneself to be in the present moment. The body and mind come together. So, without mindfulness, no enlightenment. O.K.? For sure. So, moment to moment awareness. Mindfulness is real enlightenment. Real life!
:Unquote

(To be continued)

(My commentary)
Mindfulness is to stop thinking. When we concentrate on our action (intransitive action such as breathing and walking is the best to stop thinking because the objective, or the object of mind is not required.), we can stop thinking and awareness automatically revives upon non-thinking. Then we (awareness) can touch the wonders of life and the true nature of reality inside and around us. So, we can attain insight and generate love and compassion anytime. As a result, our mind is always calm and clear, which brings about peace, joy and happiness. However, this stage is still the temporary enlightenment, not the full enlightenment through the extinction of all notions.

In order to be mindful by stopping thinking, we need to understand the root cause of our fear and insecurity through insight. That's because we can't stop thinking unless we understand the root cause. And I understand that conscious breathing or walking is helpful for stopping thinking temporarily and attaining insight of the root cause of suffering as a supplemental method. But conscious breathing or walking is not so easy for those who have fear and insecurity. That's because it's very difficult for them stop thinking even during conscious breathing or walking.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/walking-meditation-62204227

Thích Nhất Hạnh

The 7 Factors of Awakening (1)

Listen deeply to the following Dharma talk on The 7 Factors of Awakening by Thay Phap Dang. http://deerpark.libsyn.com/2016-12-04-br-phap-dang-the-7-factors-of-awakening

The followings are excerpts from the podcast.

Quote:
(from 9:18)
I thought maybe Plum Village practice doesn't work for me. ... After 4 years as a (novice) monk, I became a young bhikkhu (fully ordained Buddhist monk). I went to Thay's room and said, "Thay, I would like to leave you. I would like to leave the monastery and leave you. I want to go to Dalai Lama to learn the different practice. Because after 4 years, I don't find anymore peace. At the beginning I do had a lot of peace, joy and happiness. ... But now I feel very exhausted and very sick with my body. I want to go. Maybe your way of practice doesn't work for me. I need something like mantra in a something more complicated, more mystic than this breathing in-and-out and walking meditation." (lol)

And you know what Thay said? "Can you do the mindful breathing from the beginning to the end at the sitting?" I said, "No, I can't do that." "Can you do the mindful step? Can you really feel the earth from the beginning of the walk to the end of the walk?" (Usually we have about 45 minutes (of walking meditation) in Plum Village.) And I said, "No, I can't do that." And he (Thay) said, "You have to stay." (lol) That means that he doesn't give me the permission to go. And it's true because I hadn't trained yet. I had not been training fully this simple practice yet. And I already wanted to go because I was confused. I faced a lot of sufferings in me and I was running away from my sufferings. I had been running away from my own sufferings, thinking I need to go to the different traditions to learn more sophisticated way of the practice, mystic mantra, tantric (tantra).

(from 11:55)
Now after 27 years as a monk, I always ask a question to myself, not "who I am", but "What am I doing?" "What am I doing right now?" And that question brings me back right into, you know, the basic practice. "What am I doing here?" And "What am I doing for my life in the monastery?" So, it brings me back right away to the basic practice; breathing in, breathing out, walking meditation, eating meditation. 

My mind kept wandering. ... Sometimes searching for enlightenment. My aspiration to become a monk was to become a Buddha. ... Because I wanted to become a Buddha, I wanted to get an enlightenment. So, that tendency of "who I am", you know what is the purpose in life as a human being, is to become a fully enlightened Buddha, which was very deep in me. It doesn't help at all in my daily practice. 

But it is very deep anxiety (that is) running, looking for the state of mind where identified that I'm completely enlightened. But it's nonsense. It doesn't work that way for sure. Because I know now that enlightenment is not the state of mind. Enlightenment is not ideas. Enlightenment is not that you go deep inside, searching inside. No. 

Enlightenment is a daily moment to moment practice. And what are we practicing? The practice of mindfulness. That's why mindfulness is the first factor of enlightenment. You know the Buddha spoke about enlightenment in seven factors, seven characteristics of enlightenment. Very concrete, very clear. And the first one is mindfulness.
:Unquote

(To be continued)

(My commentary)
I understand that Thay Phap Dang is fully enlightened (one of several fully enlightened persons in the Plum Village tradition). He is very open and frank to have shared his very concrete experience before his full enlightenment. His method to be mindful was to bring him back right away to the basic practice by asking "What am I doing?". And he seems to have attained the full enlightenment through his daily moment to moment practice of breathing in-and-out or walking meditation. I want to ask him, "Is that all?" Because I understand that it's not so easy to remove the deep anxiety. My guess is that he must have understood the root cause of his very deep anxiety during the basic practice. That's because unconditional self-acceptance, or self-love is essential to remove the deep fear and anxiety. By the way, my self-inquiry method of asking "Who am I?", was very successful as below.

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

Thích Nhất Hạnh and Thay Phap Dang