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Good morning, dear friends. The practice and the teachings that we receive here was the practice and the teachings that people received during the time of the Buddha - it is very basic. It is very practical. There is nothing abstract about it.
There is a Sutra called the Sutra of Mindful Breathing that all the monks and nuns know by heart. And then there is a text about practicing mindfulness recognizing what happens in the body, our feelings and our perceptions. All of these texts are learned by heart by many monks and nuns.
During this retreat we use these basic texts, these basic teachings and practices. In the Sutra on Mindful Breathing, the Buddha proposes 16 basic practices that can take care of our mind, and our body - it is very practical.
#1 - Recognizing In-Breath, Out-Breath...
The first exercise is to recognize our in-breath as an in-breath; and to recognize our out-breath as an out-breath. So in our exercise, “Breathing In, I know this is my in-breath.” You just identify your in-breath as an in-breath. You recognize what is happening and what is happening is that you are breathing in..
So breathing in, “I know I am breathing in,” and your mind focuses entirely on your in-breath. And when you breathe out, you focus your attention on your out-breath. There is no thinking. There is just awareness that an out-breath is going on. This is the kind of practice called, “simple recognition.” You recognize what is going on - and what is going now is one in-breath and one out-breath.
Mindfulness as an energy is generated during the time when you breathe in. And that energy of mindfulness allows you to recognize that an in-breath is taking place, and at the same time the energy of concentration is born because you are concentrated only on your in-breath. So mindfulness and concentration are the two kinds of energy that can be generated during the time you breathe in - and you release everything else. You release the past, the future, your projects, your anger, and you become freer - much freer in just a few seconds. You become a free person.
So the first exercise is to identify your in-breath and your out-breath. It is called, “The In-Out Exercise.” And when you sit on the bus or on the train, while we drive our car we might want to enjoy recognizing our in-breath and our out-breath. The practice can go very deep also. It can bring insight because the three kinds of energies in meditation are mindfulness, concentration and insight.
Mindfulness and concentration always bring insight, and insight has the power to liberate, to transform.
Suppose you breathe mindfully, you bring your mind home to your body and during the time you breathe in you establish yourself in the here and the now. You can get an insight that you are alive - you are truly here - truly present in the here and the now.
To know that you are alive is already an insight, is already a kind of enlightenment, a kind of awakening. You are awake to the fact that you are there - alive. And when you breathe out you can enjoy being alive.
So your out-breath may be a celebration of the fact that you are alive.
This very simple exercise can be a very deep practice, and it can bring joy and happiness in just a few seconds - right away.
#2 - Follow Breath From Beginning to End
The second exercise of mindful breathing is, “Breathing in, I follow my in-breath from the beginning to the end.” The purpose of this exercise is simply to follow. The first exercise is to identify, the second is to follow. Suppose this marker is my in-breath. It begins here (on one side) and ends here (on the other side) - it may last 3 or 4 seconds. And suppose this finger is my mind, and with my mind I follow my in-breath from beginning to the end without any interruption. During the 4 or 5 seconds you are fully aware, mindful, and concentrated. You are really concentrated on your in-breath. So this helps to cultivate more concentration.
“Breathing in, I follow my in-breath all the way through.” There is mindfulness and concentration. “Breathing out, I follow my out-breath all the way through.” During all of these seconds, mindfulness and concentration are cultivated, and it is enjoyable also.
So the first is to recognize, and the second is to follow.
#3 - Awareness of Body
The third is to recognize your body; “Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body.” During your in-breath you bring your mind home to your body and you unite the two. Your mind and body are together - you are truly “there” in the here and the now.
In our daily life very often our body is here, but our mind is in another location elsewhere. Very often our body is without our mind. Our mind is caught in our projects, in our anxieties, in our fear, in the future or in the past. The body is there, but the mind is not there. So mindful breathing is to bring the mind home to the body. And this is one of the exercises that is helping us to do so. “Breathing in, I am aware of my body.”
Between the mind and the body there is the breath which is a bridge that links the body and mind. When you are dispersed, your mind and body go in different directions. But the moment you focus on your in-breath and breathe in mindfully your mind and your body come together. And it takes only one, two, or three seconds to bring the mind back to the body.
When the mind and body are together, you are no longer lost in the past or in the future. You are established in the here and the now; it’s like a miracle. It happens very quickly, taking only one, two, or three seconds. It is a kind of resurrection, because you are alive only when you are truly “there” in the here and the now. And in order to be truly alive and fully present, only one in-breath taken mindfully is enough. So it’s a miracle!
“Breathing in, I’m aware of my whole body. Breathing out, my mind is with my body - I am established in the here and the now.”
#4 - Release Tension in the Body
The fourth is to release the tension in the body; “Breathing in, I release the tension in my body.” When we come home to our body we may notice that there is tension, and pain, and stress. Naturally, we’d like to do something to help the body so we breathe in and allow the tension to go.
With the third exercise we come home to our body, and with the fourth we release the tension from our body. In a lying or sitting position, or walking meditation with mindful breathing we can always release tension in our body.
Scanning the Body
In the Sutra of the Contemplation of the Body, the Buddha recognized that we can release the tension by observing our body and the different parts of our body. He says, “Suppose a farmer goes down to the cellar and opens a bag of seeds with many different types of seeds. And with his eyes in good condition, he recognizes the kidney beans, corn, and every kind of seed.” So with the practitioner in a lying or sitting position, he or she passes in review all parts of the body.
“Breathing in, I’m aware of my eyes, Breathing out, I smile to my eyes,” and heart, liver, etc. And you smile to all parts of your body from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. It is like scanning your body but not with an x-ray; with the ray of mindfulness. You become aware of every part of your body, and you send your energy of tenderness, of compassion to that part. And insight can come.
Maybe it is the first time that you have paid attention to your heart. Your heart functions day and night in order to pump the blood and nourish all of the cells. You have 5, 6, 7 hours to sleep but your heart functions non-stop. And you may have not been very kind to your heart; you smoke, you drink alcohol, you stay up too late in the night. So now, “Breathing in, I’m aware of my heart,” and my mindfulness and concentration allows me to see that I have not been very nice to my own heart. And that is why when I breathe out I send my energy of love, “Breathing out, I smile to my heart with compassion.” And with that kind of awareness, or enlightenment, I vow to eat, to drink, and to live my life in such a way as to not give my heart a hard time. That is already a meditation on love - directed to your heart.
So the Buddha proposed that we go from the top of our head and down to our heels, and recognize every part of our body just by breathing in and out, scanning the body with mindfulness and every time we come to a place or a spot that is painful in the body like the liver or the kidney, you stop and stay with that and you breathe in and out and send the energy of kindness to that part. It is very healing.
Medicine and the Body’s Way
Of course, you might like to continue taking your medicine (chuckle). But do not count on your medicine alone, because the body has the capacity to heal itself but only if you allow the body to do so. Release the tension, and give your body the capacity to heal - this is very important.
We know that animals in the forest, they still do that. Every time an animal is wounded, deeply wounded, it knows to stop, and find a quite place and lie down. Because the only way for them to heal is to rest. They know that they should not run after another animal. They know that they should not try to find something to eat. What they need is to find a quite place and lay down, until it heals.
We humans, we used to have that kind of wisdom but now we have lost it. We don’t know how to rest anymore and to allow our body to heal itself anymore. We allow fear and anger to take place, and we only rely on medicine. So it is very helpful to practice mindful breathing, to release the tension in the body, and to allow our body a chance to heal itself.
Relaxing Tension (cont’d)
The fourth exercise is to release the tension in the body. If we allow the tension to accumulate for too long in the body, all kind of diseases will manifest. That is why it is very important that we know how to release the tension in the body. Each practitioner should master the art of releasing the tension. You are sitting in the car, on the bus why don’t you allow your body to relax? Why do you stay tight like that?
So the practice of mindful breathing is very helpful. It allows ourselves to bring our mind home to our body and help us to release the tension. And as the tension is released the pain in your body can be reduced. If you have chronic pain in your body you can reduce the pain just by allowing your body to have less tension. So walking from the parking lot to your office, why don’t you walk relaxingly in order for each step to allow you to release some tension. That is the practice. And we have to train ourself.
Why do we have to run all the time when can be happy with every step, releasing tension and touching the wonders of life that are available in the here and the now.
So the third exercise is to be aware of the body, and the fourth is to release tension in the body.
#5 - Generate a Feeling of Joy
For the fifth exercise, we learn how to generate a feeling of joy. This is recommended by the Buddha because we need joy and happiness for nourishment. We may have pain and sorrow to transform, but if we are too weak, if we don’t have enough joy and happiness then we may not be strong enough to handle the pain inside of us.
It’s like a patient before going into surgery - the doctor should know that she or he is strong enough to undergo the surgery. So we have to learn the art of nourishing ourselves with feelings of joy and happiness, before we are strong enough to handle the block of pain inside of us.
And how to generate a feeling of joy? The Buddha proposed many ways. Using mindfulness and concentration you can generate joy and happiness.
First Element: To Release, To Let Go...
The first method is to let go, to release. Joy and happiness is born from letting go. There are many things we cannot let go of, and that is why joy and happiness is not possible. You believe that you cannot let go of this or that because it is essential for your survival. But maybe it is just the opposite. It may be the main reason why you cannot be joyful and happy - and that is why we have to learn how to release.
Suppose you have an idea of happiness. You believe that you can be happy only if you can get this or that. So you try your best in order to get this or that. You cannot be happy right now. You think you can only be happy if you get that diploma, that position and so on. And that’s your idea. Or you may have the idea that you cannot be happy unless you can get rid of this or that. So all these are ideas. And it is because of those ideas that you continue to suffer. And for that reason it is important for you to learn how to release the idea. This is a very deep practice. Generating joy and happiness by the practice of releasing is the first proposal by the Buddha.
Suppose we live in a very noisy, polluted city like Los Angeles. And we want to get out, Saturday, Sunday we want to get out - we want to go the countryside, to the beach. But we cannot; we think that we cannot go because there are things that we have to do - so you stay. But that day a friend comes to you “well, you can postpone that until next week, come with me”. And that friend takes you out of the city. It takes about one hour or more to get out of the city and now you feel the breeze, the fresh air, the hills, and you are so happy, so joyful. From where has that joy come? You are experiencing joy because you were able to leave the city behind. You were able to let go. To release something is very important, so that joy and happiness become possible. The practice of mindfulness and concentration helps us to release.
There are things to be released if you want joy and happiness to be possible.
The first thing to release is our idea of happiness. If you are not happy it may be that you have an idea about happiness and if you can get rid of that idea, happiness may come right away.
Second Element: Mindfulness
The second element that can bring happiness is mindfulness. The word mindfulness is composed of two parts: the above means the present moment, and the below means the spirit, the mind, the heart - “your mind going back to the present moment.” That is called mindfulness. You are not caught in the past, in the future, elsewhere. It goes back to the here and the now, where you can touch the wonders of life in the here and the now.
With the energy of mindfulness you bring your mind home to your body and when you are truly “there” you recognize that happiness is possible right now. There are so many conditions of happiness that are available already - you don’t have to wait for another condition. There are more than enough.
Mindfulness is one of the factors that brings joy, that brings happiness. In the tradition of Buddhist practice we know that mindfulness is a source of happiness. Because with mindfulness we go home to the here and the now and we recognize that we are very lucky - much luckier than many other people. With these conditions of happiness available we don’t have to wait - we can be happy right here and right now.
Just breathe in, just take one step, and just open your eyes in order to get in touch with the paradise of forms and colors around us. Happiness is possible with mindfulness.
Third Element: Concentration
Concentration is also a source of happiness and joy. Suppose you are having a dear friend over for dinner and you cherish his presence. You want to turn off the television in order for you to focus entirely on your friend. If you keep the television on, your mind is dispersed, you have to pay attention to this and that and the other. So you try to just focus on one thing. Like when during the time of dinner you turn off the t.v. in order to enjoy the food on the table more fully. And that is why concentration is also a source of happiness.
With Mindfulness and Concentration we don’t have to go and buy them in a supermarket - they don’t sell these things. Mindfulness and Concentration we have to generate by ourselves with the practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking and so on. It is an Art of Happiness - cultivating mindfulness and concentration and the capacity of letting go.
So when there is a feeling of joy, your mindfulness recognizes the existence of the feeling of joy so that you enjoy more. And if there is no feeling of joy, you can generate a feeling of joy just by using the practice of releasing or practicing mindfulness and concentration to get in touch with the conditions of happiness that are already there.
#6 - Generate a Feeling of Happiness
The sixth exercise on mindful breathing is to generate a feeling of happiness. In Buddhism we distinguish a little bit between joy and happiness. In joy there is still some element of excitement. But in happiness the excitement has died down and we are more calm.
The image given is a person walking in the desert, and he has run out of water and is very thirsty. Suddenly he sees an oasis in front of him. He knows that in half an hour he can arrive and he can take refuge in the shade of the trees and he can drink water - so that is joy. And half an hour later when he is kneeling down and cupping the water in his hands and drinks - that is happiness.
A good practitioner is someone who has the capacity to generate a feeling of joy, and a feeling of happiness whenever she wants - just by using mindfulness and concentration, and letting go.
Exercise #7 - Recognize a Painful Feeling
The seventh exercise of mindful breathing is to handle a painful feeling. When a painful feeling arises, the practitioner the practitioner knows how to recognize and embrace it tenderly.
If we are not a practitioner and when a painful feeling arises, we try our best to run away. We play music, we open the refrigerator to find something to eat to forget. We read a book. We do anything possible in order to cover up the suffering. But as a practitioner we should be able to recognize the painful feeling or the painful emotion and try to listen to it and embrace it tenderly. Because we can learn a lot from it and we can also reduce the tension, the suffering.
It is like in the domain of the body you are aware of your body and the tension in it, the pain it. On the realm of feeling, breathing in you recognize the painful feeling the painful emotion that is there and you say, “Hello my little pain, my little anger, my little despair I know you are there. I will take good care of you. I am not running away from you - I will take good care of you.”
It’s like a mother working in the kitchen who hears the baby cry. She will put down anything she is holding and go into the room of the baby. The first thing she does is pick up the baby and hold the baby tenderly in her two arms. And that is exactly what a practitioner should do when a painful feeling arises. We have to stop doing things. We have to go home and tend our own baby - which is a painful feeling, a painful emotion. Because our pain, our sorrow, our fear is our baby. We have to be there for it.
The mother does not know yet what is wrong with the baby. But the fact that she is holding with tenderness the baby in her arms the baby can get already some relief, the baby will suffer less. Because the energy of tenderness from the mother has already begun to penetrate into the body.
Remember when you were small and you had a fever, and you were very lonely and you suffered a lot. When your mother came and put her hand on your forehead, she hasn’t done much to help you and yet the presence of her hand on your forehead has brought already some relief. So this is exactly what a good practitioner should do - we do not know what is the root of our pain, our sorrow, our fear yet but our capacity of recognizing our pain and embracing tenderly our pain can already help bring some relief. Don’t run away from it; recognize it and embrace it.
Exercise #8 - Embrace a Painful Feeling
The seventh is to recognize and the eighth is to embrace. After having held the baby for a few minutes, the mother finds out what is wrong with the baby. The baby may be hungry, the baby may have a little fever, and with mindfulness the mother can recognize what is wrong with the baby and she can fix the situation very quickly. So the first thing a practitioner would do is to embrace, to recognize the pain in himself and then embrace the pain.
There are two kinds of energies. The pain or anger in you is the first energy that manifests. And as you are a practitioner you don’t try to run away from it, you don’t try to cover it up - you practice mindful breathing. And generate a second source of energy called mindfulness and you embrace that first energy.
Practicing mindful walking you generate mindfulness of walking, practicing mindful breathing you generate the energy of mindfulness. And it is exactly with that second energy that you recognize and embrace the first energy - this is the mother embracing the baby. And you get a relief after only a few minutes of practice. In the sitting position, or walking meditation you continue to practice mindful breathing, and you continue to recognize and embrace the pain - and you get a relief.
Store Consciousness - Explained
In Buddhist psychology we know that there are at least two layers of consciousness. The base of our consciousness is called the “store” consciousness. And in the depth of our store consciousness there are seeds called “bija” seeds. There’s a seed of anger, fear, despair, of violence, jealousy and so on. But there are many good seeds in it; the seed of joy, of love, brotherhood/sisterhood, the seed of non-discrimination, the seed of mindfulness, concentration, and so on.
Suppose the seed of anger has the chance to manifest up in the Mind Consciousness. From a seed it becomes a mental formation. The seed of anger gives rise to the mental formation of anger. It is a kind of energy.
When anger manifests as an energy up in the Mind, the landscape of the mind is not beautiful anymore - we suffer. And that is why a practitioner would not allow that situation to continue, but she does not try to suppress, or to fight against that - because that is violence. Therefore, she invites the seed of Mindfulness to come up. With the practice of mindful breathing, she invites the seed of Mindfulness to come up and then there is another mental formation called the mental formation of Mindfulness. In fact Mindfulness is a mental formation - a good one. Mindfulness energy recognizes and embraces the energy of anger. This is the first step of the practice and she can get a relief.
If she maintains mindfulness longer and concentration becomes very powerful she can have a deep look into the nature of the anger and that kind of insight can help liberate and transform anger but that is the object of another exercise to follow - but here the practice is only to recognize and to embrace.
Importance of a Community of Practice
As a beginner in the practice, our mindfulness might not be strong enough in order for us to recognize and embrace our pain. That is why it is very helpful to belong to a community of practice; called a sangha. A sangha is made of several members who know how to practice mindful walking, mindful breathing generating a collective energy of mindfulness.
So if your mindfulness and concentration is not strong enough you may like to come and sit with us and profit from our collective energy. You say, “Dear Sangha; here is my pain, here is my sorrow, here is my anger - it’s too big for me to embrace because I am just a beginner.” So you allow the sangha to transport you, to embrace you. Sitting in the sangha you entrust yourself to the sangha. It’s like a drop of water allowing herself to be transported by the whole river. Don’t stay as a drop of water - allow yourself to be embraced and transported by the sangha, by the river. And then the collective energy of mindfulness of the sangha will be able to help you recognize and embrace your pain.
You feel better and better sitting in a sangha because you know how to borrow - to allow the collective energy of the song to help recognize and embrace your pain and sorrow. And that is why in the Buddhist tradition, taking refuge in the sangha is very important, “Sanghum Sarunam Gachami” - I go to the Sangha for refuge. Because the sangha has the collective energy that can help me in the beginning to help me recognize and embrace my pain.
When we practice we have brothers and sisters in the dharma and they can help us - support us in our practice. That is why a good practitioner always seeks to build a group of practitioners called sangha, a community - to maintain practice, to continue with the practice. Even the Buddha after enlightenment he knew that a sangha was needed to help him help people. So the first thing he did after enlightenment was to go and look for members of a sangha. And the Buddha was a very excellent sangha builder. In no time at all he built a sangha of 1,250 monks - mostly young people and they began the career of a Buddha. A Buddha without a sangha cannot do much. And we as a practitioner, we should know that a sangha is needed in order to keep our practice strong.
Instructions on Handling a Painful Emotion
The young people who do not know how to handle a painful emotion like despair, anger, and many of them believe that the only way to stop the suffering is to go and kill themselves. That is why there are so many young people committing suicide. In Hong Kong, the young people jump from high buildings to their death. There are many young people in Japan and the United Kingdom - just because the young people do not handle a painful emotion.
In the light of this practice, an emotion is something impermanent. An emotion is something that comes, stays for some time, and then it will have to go. And you are much more than emotion. Why do you have to do because of just one emotion? That is why we have to tell the young people, we have to transmit to them the way to handle a strong emotion. And if they know how to handle a strong emotion they will not have to go and kill themselves. And how; with the practice of mindfulness and concentration.
When a strong emotion is about to come - you know. You stop thinking, you stop talking, you stop doing things - you go back to yourself and practice mindful breathing in a sitting position or a lying position. Don’t stay on the level of your head. Don’t continue to think. The more you think the stronger the emotion may come. We should not stay on the level of the intellect. We have to bring our mind down, down to the abdomen. There’s a spot slightly below the naval called the dan tien - this is the spot where you have to focus your concentration.
It’s like a tree standing in a storm. It is vulnerable to be at the top of the tree. If you go down and embrace at the base of the tree you are safe. And the trunk, our trunk is down here. So when the emotion comes, it is like a storm. You don’t think, you don’t look, you don’t listen. You stop everything. You stop feeding that emotion. You go home, and practice generating the energy of mindfulness and just become aware of your in-breath and your out-breath. “Breathing in, my abdomen is rising, breathing out it’s falling, rising, falling.” That’s the only object of you mind.
No thinking, no looking, no listening. Just become aware of your in-breath and out-breath. Concentrated entirely on the rising and falling of your abdomen. You may stay in the lying position. You may like to put your hand on your stomach and feel the rising and falling of your abdomen - just that. And then you can survive the emotion easily. An emotion can stay for 15 minutes or half an hour or even an hour. But you are safe with the practice. Because there is awareness that an emotion is only an emotion. An emotion is impermanent. It is something that comes, stays for a while, and then finally has to go, “I don’t have to die just because of one emotion.” And if you have that in mind, with mindfulness you are confident enough. And when the emotion is gone, you are happy. You say that next time that it comes, you just do that and stay firm and not blown away, carried away by the emotion.
And let us not wait until we have a strong emotion before we begin the practice, because we will forget. So let us try every day the practice of deep listening, abdomen breathing, belly breathing and become aware of the rise and fall of our abdomen. After about three weeks it will become a habit, and it is enjoyable also. Every time a strong emotion comes, we remember to practice and we can very easily survive a painful emotion. If you have a child teach her, teach him. “Darling, hold my hand shall we practice together? Breathing in my abdomen is rising, breathing out it is falling - don’t think - just pay attention to..” and you channel your energy of mindfulness established to your child because your child may have a crisis also. And if you are a practitioner you have the energy of mindfulness, of concentration, and holding the hand of the child you can channel that energy to him or to her and support him or her in breathing and you educate him or her. And your child will know how to overcome a painful feeling or emotion.
Information About the “Wake-Up” Movement
Plum Village is trying to make this kind of practice available to the young people. We have organized a movement for young people called Wake Up in every country and the young people are learning these kinds of things. We’ve begun to train school teachers. This kind of practice we want to make into a secular form with no religious flavor. We have the conviction that parents and teachers have to master the practice so that they can transmit the practice to their students in their class. We have already begun training school teachers in Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Germany.
We are training the first groups of school teachers, and we want to talk to ministries of education so that in teacher’s schools there will be that kind of training for school teachers so that they can transmit to their students at every level. In Germany, now we are having a course for school teachers where we transmit this kind of practice; how to release the tension in the body, how to generate a feeling of joy, of happiness, how to handle a painful feeling, how to use loving speech and deep listening to restore communication. These are applied ethics, drawn from Buddhist teachings and practices. It is entirely possible to present it as a non-religious, secular practice.
