Coming Home to the Here and Now | Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh, 2013 07 22 скачать в хорошем качестве

Coming Home to the Here and Now | Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh, 2013 07 22

In this talk, Thay introduces to us the practice of mindful breathing, listening to the bell, mindful walking and eating meditation to help us cultivate mindfulness, concentration and insight. The practice of listening to the bell can be very deep and very powerful. When we listen to the bell, we breathe in and recite this gatha: I listen, I listen. This wonderful sound of the bell brings me back to my true home. When you breathe in, you recite the line “I listen, I listen”. When you breathe out, you recite the line “This wonderful sound of the bell brings me back to my true home”. My true home is not located in space and time. My true home is the here and now. What you have longed for is in the present moment, including peace, happiness, the Pureland of the Buddha or the Kingdom of God. We can invite every cell in our body to listen to the bell, deep listening. The sound of the bell, the present moment, the awakening can penetrate into every cell in us. Our ancestors are in every cell of our body. When we invite all our cells to listen to the bell, all our ancestors are invited at the same time. We and all our ancestors are listening to the bell. Breathing in, calming. Breathing in, smiling. Instead of saying “I listen, I listen”, we can say “we listen, we listen”. All our cells, all our ancestors – blood ancestors and spiritual ancestors. Suppose there is a little wave on the surface of the ocean, being caught in the notion of coming up and going down, being there and not being there, birth and death. If the wave is being caught in these notions, she is scared. If the wave breathes in and touch the ultimate dimension, she knows that she is water. The moment she realizes that she is water, she is no longer afraid. She enjoys going up and going down. The notions of being and non being, beginning and ending, coming and going do not bother her anymore, because she knows that she is water. In Christianity there is the notion of resting in God. The wave is resting in water. She knows that she is water. Our nature is the nature of no-birth and no-death. If we can touch this nature, we are in the Kingdom of God. This is the first Dharma talk (Main Talk) of the third week of the Summer Opening Retreat, held in Dharma Cloud Temple of Plum Village in the Dordogne, France, on Monday, the 22nd of July, 2013.