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Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is a wonderful moment.
Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma)
Anything that can help you wake up has Buddha nature.
Reality, ultimate reality, is free from all adjectives, either pure or impure.
Sometimes if we don’t do anything, we help more than if we do a lot. We call that non-action.
That is also an aspect of Dharmakaya: not talking, not teaching, just being.
When we shout at the oak tree, the oak tree isn’t offended. When we praise the oak tree, it doesn’t raise its nose. We can learn the Dharma from the oak tree; therefore,
We can learn from everything that is around, that is in
Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.
we never see the sun in the present, we only see the sun of the past.
He said that in order to understand, you have to be one with what you want to understand.
“The practitioner will have to contemplate body in the body, feelings in the feelings, mind in the mind, objects of mind in the objects of mind.”
We cannot destroy the energy; we can only convert it into a more constructive energy.
Perception should be free from emotions and ignorance, free from illusions.
In Buddhism, knowledge is regarded as an obstacle to understanding,
For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.
“Sometime, somewhere you take something to be the truth. If you cling to it so much, when the truth comes in person and knocks at your door, you will not open it.”
Understanding means to throw away your knowledge.
The Buddhist way of understanding is always letting go of our views and knowledge in order to transcend.
MEDITATION
to prepare for a reentry into society.
The kind of suffering that you carry in your heart, that is society itself. You bring that with you, you bring society with you. You bring all of us with you. When you meditate, it is not just for yourself, you do it for the whole society. You seek solutions to your problems not only for yourself, but for all of us.
If we are uprooted from society, we cannot transform it into a more livable place for us and for our children.
Meditation is not an escape from society. Meditation is to equip oneself with the capacity to reintegrate into society,
if I leave society, I will not be able to help change it.
We must practice in a way that removes the barrier between practice and non-practice.
seven practices of reconciliation has evolved.
first practice is Face-to-Face Sitting.
The second practice is Remembrance.
The third principle is Non-stubbornness.
The fourth practice is Covering Mud with Straw.
The fifth stage is Voluntary Confession.
Each monk reveals his own shortcomings,
The sixth and seventh practices are Decision by Consensus and Accepting the Verdict.
the Tiep Hien Order, the Order of “Interbeing.”
derives from the Zen School of Lin Chi,
form of engaged Buddhism. Engaged Buddhism is Buddhism in daily life, in society, and not just in a retreat center.
“Tiep” means “to be in touch.”
Tiep Hien as interbeing. In the sutra it is a compound term which means “mutual” and “to be.”
“I vow to develop my compassion in order to love and protect the life of people, animals, plants, and minerals.”
“I vow to develop understanding in order to be able to love and to live in harmony with people, animals, plants, and minerals.”
Peace can only be achieved when we are free from fanaticism.
The way of nonattachment from views is the basic teaching of Buddhism concerning understanding.
help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness through compassionate dialogue.
spirit of free inquiry.
The only way out is to consume less.
“Learn to look at other beings with the eyes of compassion” is a quote from the Lotus Sutra
the human person was said to have three sources of energy: sexual, breath, and spirit.
Buddhist monks in many countries have helped curb the birth rate.
“Don’t just do something, sit there.”
