Recorded live at a five-day retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, September 1st through the 6th, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California. Tape number TNG1, an introduction to the retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. Thirteen hundred or so. Thirteen hundred. Dear friends, let us enjoy breathing in and out with the bell. Thank you.

[01:15]

Thank you. My dear friends, suppose someone is holding a pebble and throws it in the air.

[03:16]

And the pebble begins to fall down into a river. The time when the pebble touches the surface of the water it allowed itself to sink slowly into the river. And it will reach the bed of the river without any effort. And I think that the way to reach the bed of the river is the shortest. because the pebble would allow itself just to fall down without making any effort. And then once the pebble is at the bottom of the river, it continues to rest.

[04:28]

It allows the water to pass by. So during our sitting meditation, we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We allow ourselves to think naturally, without effort, to the position of sitting, the position of resting. Resting is a very important practice. And we have to learn the art of resting. Resting is the first part of Buddhist meditation. You should allow your body and your mind to rest. Even if you do not have any wound in your body, Even if you do not have any wound in your mind, in your consciousness, you should allow yourself, your body and your mind to rest also, because our mind as well as our body need to rest.

[05:37]

And if we have wounds within our body, And if we have wounds within our mind, our soul, then we should learn how to allow our body and our soul to rest. Because only if we know how to allow them to rest, that our body can heal itself, our soul can heal itself. The problem with us is that not many of us know how to allow our body to rest and to allow our mind to rest. We are always struggling. And the struggling has become a kind of habit. And we cannot resist against being active, really struggling all the time. We struggle even during our sleep. And we have been struggling like that for a long time.

[06:45]

That is why it is very important to realize that we have the habit energy of struggling. And we have to be able to recognize that habit when it manifests itself. Because if we know how to recognize our habit, our habit will lose its energy and will not be able to push us anymore. About ten years ago, I was in India visiting the ex-untouchable community of Buddhists. And a friend who organized for me, he also belonged to that caste, He was sitting on a bus and I was enjoying the landscape outside, contemplating the palm trees and the vegetation.

[07:55]

Suddenly I turned inside and looked at him and I saw him very tense. There was no reason why he had to be tense like that. I thought that he was trying to make my visit pleasant. And that may be the reason why he was so tense. I looked at him and I told him, Dear friend, I know that you want to make my trip pleasant, but I am already very happy. I enjoyed already the trip, so why don't you sit back, smile, and relax?" He said, He sat back and he tried to relax. I was pleased and I turned my face toward the window again and I enjoyed the palm trees and other things.

[09:03]

But a few minutes, just two minutes after, when I looked back at him, he was as tense as before. He was not able to relax, to allow himself to relax. I knew that he belonged to that... a section of the population who had been struggling for many thousand years, you are discriminated against. You have suffered so much, your ancestors, and yourself, and your children. So, the tendency to struggle has been there for many thousand years. And that is why it's very difficult for him to... to relax, to allow himself to rest. We have to practice in order to be able to transform the habit in us, because the habit has become a powerful source of energy that is

[10:22]

shaping our behavior, our reaction, and also our action. When an animal in the jungle got wounded, it always knew how to find a quiet place and lie down. and doing nothing, because the animal knows exactly that that is the only way to get healed. Laying down and just rest. Not thinking of anything, including hunting and eating. Not eating is a very wonderful way of resting, allowing your body to rest. We are so concerned about how to get the nutrition.

[11:26]

That is why we are afraid of resting, allowing our body to rest and to fast. The animal knew that it does not need to eat. What it needs is to rest, doing nothing. And that is why a number of days later it restores its health and begins to be active again. We humans We used to complain that we don't have enough leisure time, free time. We need free time in order to rest. But when we have some free time, it does not seem that we know how to rest. We take a vacation, and maybe after the vacation we get more tired than before the vacation.

[12:35]

That is why it's so important for us to learn how to rest. First of all, to allow our body to rest. There is what we call the energy of restlessness in us. We cannot be at peace with ourselves. We cannot be peaceful, we cannot sit, we cannot lie down. There's something in us pushing us to do this, to do that, to think of this, to think of that. And that kind of restlessness makes us unhappy. Therefore, we have to learn how to deal with our energy of restlessness. In our consciousness, there are wounds also, blocks of pains.

[13:37]

And our consciousness needs also to rest in order to restore itself. Our consciousness is just like our body. Our body knows how to heal itself if we allow it the chance to do so. When we get a cut in our finger, We don't have to do anything except to clean it and to allow it the time to heal, because our body knows how to heal itself, provided that we allow it to do so. The same thing is true with our consciousness. Our consciousness knows how to heal itself if we know how to allow it to do so. But we don't allow it. We always try to do something. We worry so much about healing, and that's why we do not get the healing that we need. And that is why we have to learn. And those of us who first come to a meditation retreat have to learn these techniques, these methods of allowing our body and our consciousness to rest.

[14:54]

Among us, there are those who are used to meditation retreat. And when they arrive at the retreat, they seem to be able to relax right away. And they can already enjoy walking slowly, slowing down, and allow themselves to sink gently into the retreat like a dead pebble. But there are those of us who are new to Buddhist meditation and we worry about the retreat. We don't know what to do and we wonder whether we can do like other people and we are struggling. We continue to struggle. The first thing we should do to make our retreat successful is to give up all struggles. I would like to offer you some instructions about walking meditation.

[16:07]

The first thing that we shall do early tomorrow morning is to practice walking together. And we call it walking meditation. Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy walking. And that means walking is already stopping. And that needs some training. Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go somewhere. And walking is only a means for an end. And that is why you do not enjoy every step you make. Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking.

[17:12]

You enjoy every step you make. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step you make. The Zen master, Ling Chi, said that the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal, or in the thin air, on the thin air, or on the water. The miracle is just to walk on earth. You breathe in, you become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive. And you are walking on this beautiful planet that is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. And we have to awaken ourselves to that truth that we are there, alive.

[18:17]

We are there, making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle. We have to be there. in order for the miracle to be possible. You have to bring yourself back to the here and the now in order for each step we make to become a miracle. And if you are able to walk like that, each step will be very nourishing and healing. You walk as if you kiss the earth with your feet, as if you massage the earth with your feet. There's a lot of love in that practice of walking meditation. You cannot hear well.

[19:25]

Yeah, I try to speak louder. No, it's okay. The Buddha said that the past is gone and the future is not yet there.

[20:38]

Let us not regret the past. Let us not worry about the future. and go back to the present moment and live deeply the present moment. Because the present moment is the only moment where you can touch life. Life is available only in the present moment. That is why walking meditation is to go back to the present moment in order to be alive again and to touch life deeply in that moment. In order to be able to touch the earth with our feet and enjoy walking, we have to establish ourselves firmly in the present moment, in the here and the now.

[21:40]

And walking, we walk like a free person. This is not political freedom. This is the freedom from afflictions, from sorrow, from fear. Unless you are free, you cannot enjoy walking. I would like to propose to you a short poem that you might like to use for walking meditation. I have arrived. I am home in the here, in the now. I am solid. I am free. In the ultimate, I dwell. When you breathe in, you may like to make two steps. And you say, I have arrived.

[22:44]

I have arrived. And when you breathe out, you make another two steps and you say silently, I am home. I am home. Our true home is really in the here and the now. Because only in the here and the now could we touch life. As the Buddha said that life is available only in the here and the now. So going back to the present moment, to the here and the now, is to go home. That is why when you breathe in, you make one step or two steps, and you get awakened to the fact that you have arrived. I have arrived. Arrive. And you have to arrive really in the present moment.

[23:47]

And if you are able to arrive and then you stop running, running within and running without. Because in our daily life, we have the habit of running. So it's very important to stop, to be able to live in the present moment. I have arrived. And when you breathe out, you make another two steps and you say, I am home. I am home. I don't need to run anymore. There is a belief in us that happiness cannot be possible in the here and the now. We have to go somewhere. We have to go to the future in order to be able to really be happy.

[24:52]

That kind of thinking has been there for a long time. Maybe that impression, that feeling has been transmitted to us from our ancestors and our parents. That is why we have to wake up to the presence of that tendency of that habit energy in us and to do the reverse. The Buddha said that it is possible for us to be peaceful and happy in the present moment. That is the teaching of drstadharma sukha vihara. It means living happily right in the present moment. When you are there, body and mind united, you have an opportunity to touch the conditions of your happiness that are available in the here and the now.

[26:03]

And if you are able to touch these conditions of happiness that are already available, you can be happy right away. You don't have to run anywhere, especially into the future. When we practice walking, we might be aware that we still have strong feet. Our feet are still strong enough for us to enjoy running and walking. And that is one condition for happiness that is available. When I breathe in and I become aware of my eyes, I encounter another condition for my happiness. Breathing in, I'm aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I smile to my eyes. This is an exercise, a very simple exercise, helping you to realize that you have eyes which are still in good condition.

[27:14]

You need only to open your eyes in order to see the blue sky, the white clouds, the luxurious vegetation. You can see all kinds of forms and colors just because you have eyes still in good condition. Your eyes are one another condition for your happiness. And we have so many conditions like that for our happiness. And yet we are still unhappy. We still want to run away from the present moment, hoping that we will find some happiness in the future. Breathing in, I am aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my heart. That is another exercise. When you practice like that, you touch your heart with your mindfulness. And if you continue for half a minute or one minute, you realize that you have a heart that still functions normally.

[28:27]

It's wonderful to have a heart that still functions normally. There are people who don't have a heart like that. And the deepest desire is to have a heart like you. So conditions for happiness may be more than enough for us to be happy, but we are not able to be happy because of that tendency to run away from the present moment. Therefore, to take an in-breath, to smile, and to touch the conditions of happiness that are available there is something that all of us can do. And because of that we can stop and establish ourselves in the present moment. That is the teaching of living happily in the present moment.

[29:28]

When you break in, you make two steps, one step or two steps, and you say, I have arrived. Arrived. When you break out, you make one or two steps. I am home. I am home. Please, train yourself to make the present moment, the here and the now, into your true home. That is the only home that we have That is the only place where we can touch life. Everything that we are looking for must be found in the here and the now. That is why walking meditation can be a great pleasure. And walking meditation can be very healing.

[30:32]

Do you have to make any effort while walking? Do you have to make any effort to practice walking meditation? I don't think so. It is like... When you drink a glass of orange juice, do you think that you have to make an effort in order to enjoy the orange juice? No. Walking is like that. To really enjoy a glass of orange juice, you have to be there 100% mind and body together. If you are there, mind and body together, firmly established in the present moment, then the glass of orange juice will become a real thing for you. You are real. That is why the juice is also real. And there, life is real.

[32:06]

Life exists. Life is deep during the time you drink your orange juice. When you contemplate a beautiful sunset, do you have to make any effort? I don't think so. You don't have to make any effort in order to enjoy a beautiful sunset. You need only to be there. To be there, mind and body together. Because if your body is there and your mind is in the past or in the future, then the beautiful sunset will not be for you. So go back to the present moment and have your mind and body together and then the beautiful sunset will be for you. No effort. You only have to be there. To meditate means, first of all, to be there. To be on your cushion, to be on your walking meditation path,

[33:12]

And eating also is meditation, if you are really there, present, to 100% with your food, with the sangha surrounding you. So the essential is to be there. There is a kind of energy that helps you to be there, body and mind. together, that energy is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is the capacity of being there, body and mind united. When you drink your orange juice, drink mindfully, and then you enjoy your juice. Because while drinking your orange juice, you are really there to 100%. When you contemplate the beautiful sunset, if your body and mind are united, it means that you are mindful.

[34:26]

And mindfulness helps you to be there in order for the beautiful sunset to be there too. While you walk, if you allow yourself to be there, mind and body together. And then walking will become mindful walking, and walking will be healing and refreshing, nourishing. So please, when you practice walking meditation with us, don't make any effort. Allow yourself, like that pebble, to rest. While you are walking, you are resting. While you are sitting, you are resting. We talk about the pebble. The pebble is resting at the bottom of the river.

[35:27]

And the pebble does not have to do anything If you struggle during your sitting meditation or walking meditation, you are not doing it right. The Buddha said, my practice is the practice of non-practice. It means a lot. Give up all struggle. Allow yourself to rest. And this, we need a little bit of training. And the Sangha is there to make the training easy. Because surrounding us are so many brothers and sisters who are doing exactly the same thing. They allow themselves to be and to flow in a stream of the Sangha. Don't do anything, just allow yourself to be with the Sangha.

[36:33]

And the energy of the Sangha will carry you along, supporting you. We shall be walking more than 1,000 people. Don't worry about what is right, what is wrong. Don't worry about people looking at you. Allow yourself to enjoy walking. The only thing that is important is that you be there. You don't allow yourself to run anymore. to get caught in the worries about the future, to get caught by the regret about the past. And each step helps you to reclaim your freedom. Because without freedom, there will be no happiness. When you are able to dwell peacefully in the present moment, you are a free person.

[37:36]

And happiness becomes something possible. Breathing in, you make two steps. I have arrived. I have arrived. It means I don't have to run anymore. I have run all my life. Now I want to be different, to live my life deeply. I don't run. I don't like to run anymore. That is the meaning of the word. I have arrived. And when I breathe out, I say, I am home. I am home. It means exactly the same thing again. My home is the here and the now. Why do I have to run all the time like that? I run in my sleep. I continue to run and to struggle, give up running, give up struggling. That is our practice.

[38:37]

We know that we are able to drink our orange juice mindfully. That is something that all of us can do. Why don't you allow us to do that with not only the orange juice, but with the beautiful sunset, with the walking meditation, with the sitting? I sit on my cushion. I consider it to be something very pleasant. I don't struggle at all on my cushion. I allow myself to rest. I don't make any effort. And that is why I do not get any trouble while sitting. While sitting, I do not struggle. And that is why all my muscles are relaxed. If you struggle during your sitting meditation, you very soon have pain in your shoulders, a headache, and things like that.

[39:48]

But if you allow yourself to be rested on your cushion, you can sit very long. And each minute is a delight, refreshing, nourishing, and healing. It is not the problem of sitting for a long time, sitting in order to struggle to get enlightenment. No. Sitting first is all for the pleasure of sitting. Walking, first of all, is for the pleasure of walking. And eating is for the pleasure of eating. And the art is to be there. One hundred percent. When I was in my office, I learned how to light a stick of incense in mindfulness. You see, when you light incense, you think that the purpose of lighting incense

[40:52]

the incense pervading the Buddha hall. But lighting the incense is just for lighting the incense. You pick up a stick of incense mindfully, and you enjoy that, because it is by itself an act of meditation. And during the time you pick up the stick of incense, you are mindful, you are concentrated. You are real. Because your body and your mind are together. And the stick of incense is real. And when you strike a match, you do the same thing. During the time you strike a match, you only strike a match. You don't do anything else. You don't think of other things. You are perfectly mindful of the act of striking a match.

[41:57]

You are concentrated on it. And you enjoy the act of lighting the incense. When you hold a stick of incense, it is the same. And when I When I stick it into the incense burner, I put my left hand on my right hand. That is the tradition. Everyone in the Buddhist monastic tradition light incense in that way. The stick of incense is very light. One hand is enough in order to hold it. Why do you have to put your left hand on your right hand? Because it means that you are doing it with 100% of your body and your mind. Be there truly. Be there 100% of yourself. That is the essence of true Buddhist meditation.

[43:01]

In every moment of your daily life. And each of us knows that we can do that. So let us train us to do that, to live each moment of our daily life deeply by being there to 100%. That is why I like to define mindfulness, first of all, as the energy that helps us to be there 100%. The energy of true presence, of your true presence. And of course, while we practice walking meditation, we have to be there. 100%. And that is the basic condition to make us happy while walking. It is wonderful to be alive and to be walking on earth with a community of brothers and sisters.

[44:04]

Walking meditation is always a delight for me. Whether walking with a sangha or walking alone. Whether walking on the Greedakuta mountain or walking at the airport. It's the same. I enjoy every step I make. Even in the supermarket, I don't go to the supermarket very often, but it happens that I have to go there and buy some soap, a box of nails, something like that. I always practice mindful walking. I enjoy every step I make. It has become a good habit. For me, running has no fun at all. Except when I practice jogging meditation, mindful jogging. Because you can jog, you can run mindfully also.

[45:08]

And when you run mindfully, you also practice stopping. Because if mindfulness is there, you have already stopped. You are yourself. I have arrived. Breathing in, I have arrived, I have arrived. Breathing out, I am home, I am home. Home is in the here and the now. And after a few minutes, you may switch into the certain line in the here and in the now. Breathing in, In the here. In the here. Breathing out. In the now. In the now. Although these are different words, but they mean exactly the same thing. I have arrived. In the here. I have arrived. In the now. I am home. In the here. I am home.

[46:09]

In the now. And while you practice like that, you practice stopping. Stopping is the basic Buddhist practice of meditation. You stop running. You stop struggling. You allow yourself to rest, to heal, to calm. And after a few minutes of practice, you may switch into the third line. I am solid. I am free. Breathing in, you make two steps. I am solid. Solid. When you breathe out, you make two steps. You say, I am free. I am free. This is not auto-suggestion. Why? Because if you have succeeded in arriving in the here and the now, you are much more freer now.

[47:16]

You are free from the past or the future, from the future, from your worries, from your fear. And you become much more solid. Your steps become more solid. And you, yourself, become more solid in your body and in your mind. Solidity has become a reality after a few minutes of arriving at being at home, at being home. I am solid, I am solid. And you are aware of the amount of solidity you have got after a few minutes of walking. And when you breathe out, you say, I am free, I am free. You are really much freer before your practice. Because you are not caught in your worries. in your fear, in the past, in the future, in your projects.

[48:21]

Solidity and freedom are two characteristics of nirvana. Nirvana is not something abstract. The Buddha said we can touch nirvana with our body, with our own body. So while you practice walking meditation, you can begin to touch Nirvana already with your body and with your spirit. The time when you feel that you are more solid, a little more solid, a little more free, then you have begun to touch Nirvana with your body and with your spirit. And the more you practice, that solidity and that freedom will grow. Because solidity and freedom are the two base for your happiness and well-being. No happiness, no well-being is possible without solidity and freedom.

[49:30]

And the last line of the Gatha is wonderful. In the ultimate, I bow. In the ultimate, in the ultimate, I dwell. I dwell. The ultimate here is your true foundation, the true foundation of your being. Let us visualize the waves on the ocean. the several waves appearing on the surface of the oceans. There are waves that are big, there are those that are small. And each wave seems to have its own life. A wave may have ideas like, I am a wave, I am only a wave among many waves.

[50:34]

I am smaller than the other wave. I am less beautiful. I last less than the other wave. And ideas like that. A wave can be caught in jealousy, in fear, in discrimination. But if the wave is able to bend down, and touch the water within herself. The wave will realize that while it is a wave, it is at the same time water. And water is the foundation of the wave. And while the waves can be high and low, more or less beautiful, the water is free from all these notions.

[51:41]

And that is why if we are able to touch the foundation of our being, and then we can release our fear and our suffering. Touching the foundation of our being means touching nirvana. Our foundation is not subjected to birth and death, being and non-being. A wave can live the life of a wave. But a wave can do much better than that. Why living the life of a wave? A wave can live the life of the water. And that is the door for emancipation, for the greatest relief. And the more our solidity and our freedom grows, the deeper we touch the ground of our own being.

[52:54]

If you come from the Christian background, that ground of being is God. God is available to you 24 hours a day. God is the foundation of your being. If you allow yourself to be your foundation, why should you have to be afraid to suffer that much? The French writer André Gide said, God is available to you 24 hours a day. And God is your true happiness. That is why practicing walking meditation can be very deep. Not only it can help you to nourish yourself, to get the healing, but it can also help you to touch the foundation of your being.

[54:00]

I have arrived. I am home. In the here, in the now. I am solid. I am free. In the ultimate, I dwell. That poem of four lines can be a very deep practice. You can use it while practicing walking meditation, you can use it while practicing sitting meditation. It's wonderful. And if you are sitting on a bus, you might like to enjoy breathing in and out, to bring yourself back to the present moment and enjoy the practice, which is healing, transforming, and nourishing. We can sing together that short poem in order to memorize it. Let us do it together. I have arrived, I am home In the here and in the now I have arrived, I am home In the here and in the now

[55:31]

I am so ugly, ugly and pretty. I am so ugly, ugly and pretty. I am so ugly, ugly and pretty. I have arrived, I am home In the near and in the now I have arrived, I am home In the near and in the now I am solid.

[56:36]

I am free. I am solid. I am free. I am solid. I am free. I am solid. I am free. During the time we are together, working meditation is what we practice every day, not only collectively, but at any time we need to move from one place to another, even if we need only to make three or four steps to arrive.

[57:48]

There is only one walking style that is mindful walking and if you can walk like that five days it may become a good habit so i would like to to propose to all of us that during the time we are together here we only practice walking meditation and not other kind of walking If you want to go from your room to the meditation hall, to the dining hall, even to the toilet, always walk mindfully, using the same poem, the same gatha to practice. Even one step. You know, in Plum Village, the whole year round, all year round, we practice mindful walking.

[58:57]

In retreats and out of the retreats, we always practice mindful walking. All the monks and the nuns who are present tonight, they practice like me. Every time they need to go somewhere, even three or four meters, they practice walking, mindful walking. And that is a wonderful way to learn how to live deeply in the present moment. I tell you how I... how I use my stairs. In the place where I stay, there is a stair. And the very moment when I come to that place, I sign a treaty with that stair.

[60:02]

And I always walk going up the stairs, mindfully, each step. And I always go down the stairs, mindfully. And the monks and the nuns here, they practice the same. Because stairs are everywhere. And you can sign a treaty with the stairs. It means that you always make steps, mindful steps, while climbing up or going down. If it happens that halfway you realize that you have not made the steps mindfully, you stop. You go back. And you start again. It's a wonderful practice. Because after some time, you get a good habit.

[61:04]

And not only why you climb the stairs up and down, you walk mindfully, but everywhere you go, you walk mindfully. I have climbed that stairs 20 years without a single time violating my treaty with the stairs. If in your home there is no stairs, then you can sign a treaty with the exception of the path of fountains from the door of your home to the bus stop, something like that. You always practice mindful walking. And if halfway you realize that you have not walked mindfully, you have lost one or two steps, and then you go back, and you start again.

[62:07]

You don't have to make it very long, the distance. But you begin with such a distance, and you succeed in walking always mindfully with that. And then later on, you can walk mindfully everywhere you go. And now you know how to live deeply each moment of your daily life mindfully. Now it is very easy for us to be initiated in the walking meditation practice because surrounding us are many people who practice the same. Everyone is reminding us to do the same. And that is why we should be able to succeed during this retreat to learn the habit of walking mindfully. Don't allow any step of yours to be to be in forgetfulness.

[63:12]

Forgetfulness is the opposite of mindfulness. Don't allow a single step of yours to fall into forgetfulness. Every step you make on purpose. Every step must be mindful. Because if the step is mindful, you are real, you are alive, and life is available to you. The teaching is simple, the practice is simple, and you have a big sangha around you to support you to do that. So tomorrow we shall practice walking meditation together, but tonight, after this orientation talk, we can already start to practice walking meditation back to the place where we will sleep. I will be there for you because I promise that I will do it.

[64:12]

And all the sisters and brothers who are with me tonight, they also promise to do that. I'm very happy that this time I come there are 34 brothers and sisters from Plum Village with me. You will see them around during the whole retreat. and they will support you in the practice of walking meditation, sitting and breathing, and so on. Of course, every time we hear the bell, That is an opportunity for us to go back to the present moment. And you may like to practice the same exercise. You breathe in and you say silently, I have arrived.

[65:15]

You breathe out, and you say, suddenly, I am home. And you smile, because you have really arrived, and you are really home. Every time we hear the bell, we stop our talking, we stop our thinking. We just enjoy breathing in, breathing out, and arriving. And the clock here on the campus, they play music every hour. And every time you hear the sound, just go back to your Breathing, enjoy your breathing, enjoy the sound. That is the sound, the voice of the Buddha calling you back to your true self, to the here and the now. We transform the sound of the clock into the bell of mindfulness, into the voice of the Buddha.

[66:24]

There is a Buddha inside of us. That is the capacity of being there, fully alive. And if we practice walking, mindful walking, mindful breathing, we touch the Buddha within. We allow the Buddha within a chance to be with us. The essence of a Buddha is the energy of mindfulness. You know that you are capable of being mindful. Therefore, the Buddha in you is not something abstract. It is the capacity of being mindful, of being alive. And if you continue to practice, the Buddha nature in us will be more and more apparent, protecting you, nourishing you, and helping you to transform the suffering within and to get more joy and happiness.

[67:29]

In Plum Village, every time we hear the telephone ringing, we practice the seal. You know, a bell needs a bell master. But for the telephone, many people around the world help us to go back to ourselves and practice breathing and smiling. It's wonderful. There are so many bell masters. Eating. Eating is a wonderful practice, deep practice. While we have our breakfast or our lunch, allow ourselves to be there. Don't allow ourselves to be caught in our projects, in our worries, in the past, in the future. Allow ourselves to be there with the Sangha, the community of brothers and sisters surrounding us. Allow ourselves to be with the food, and to be with the Sangha, Eating for the sake of eating, having breakfast can be very joyful.

[68:46]

And that is why I can allow myself to chew 30 times, 40 times a mouthful of food. I am aware of what I am chewing when I pick up a piece of I look at it with my body and my mind together, and because I look at the piece of bread like that, I am totally present, and the piece of bread becomes totally present also. And when I put it into my mouth, I know what I am putting into my mouth. A piece of bread. And when I chew, I only chew the bread. I don't chew my worries, my projects, my fear. It's very simple. The practice is to be mindful of what is going on in the present moment.

[69:53]

If my mindfulness is not strong enough, looking at a piece of bread, a string bean, I cannot see it very clearly, because my mind is caught by a thought, an idea. In that case, I would not put it in my mouth. I may like to call the piece of bread by its true name, bread. of string beings. And suddenly it reveals itself to us as a piece of string being. Do you know the piece of string being is a miracle also? It is an ambassador of the cosmos. Because looking deeply in a piece of string being, you can see the sunshine, The cloud, the farmer, the great earth, the minerals, everything in the cosmos are present in the piece of string bean.

[70:58]

And if you call the name of string bean like you call the name of your beloved one, then the piece of string bean will reveal herself to you in depth. And only when it is real that you put it into your mouth. And you are now showing really a piece of string bean and not your thought, your idea, your projects. The practice is simple. You know, in the celebration of the Eucharist, you are offered also a piece of bread. And the piece of bread is... You are taught that the piece of bread is the body of Christ. And if you receive it, you receive life. The piece of string bean is also the body of the cosmos.

[72:00]

If you know how to look at it, if you know how to see it mindfully, you also have life, real life. So the piece of string bean is also a piece of bread. And it contains the whole cosmos in it. It is the body of the cosmos. And it is what you come in touch with while eating. And then chew every morsel of your food, of your breakfast or your lunch in that way. Enjoy. Enjoy your lunch. Enjoy your breakfast. Don't let any thinking to come and disturb you and prevent you from being alive when you eat breakfast. Please, only eat your breakfast. That is the secret of the practice. Eat your breakfast.

[73:02]

with mindfulness. Enjoy your breakfast. Because to have the time to be there and to enjoy your breakfast is wonderful. That is a deep practice. And there you are surrounded by many brothers and sisters. And they are all doing the same thing. And they are supporting you to enjoy your breakfast. We don't have to struggle, to fight, to make any effort. As I said in the beginning, we just have to allow ourselves to be body and mind together, to touch deeply life in the present moment. That is our practice. If there are things that should be said tonight, if there are things that I have not said tonight, I think the Dharma teachers who are here will help to tell you.

[74:51]

After this, we will go to sleep. I will be... walking with you early in the morning, 6.30. Thank you for being there. I am flying Amen. [...] O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

[76:04]

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Thank you. Thank you. And I am free.

[77:23]

You must be. You must be. You are free. [...]

[77:30]

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