BUDDING FLOWER SANGHA
A Mid-Hudson Valley NY Sangha, located in
the Newburgh/New Paltz/Poughkeepsie
area and inspired by
the teachings of Zen Buddhist
Master
Thich Nhat Hanh.
When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.
Thich Nhat Hanh
November 2009
| Contacts | Sittings | Sangha Talk | |
|
Edward Pierce 914-805-3284 |
Linda Anderson 845-706-7944 |
| Russ Karp(Treasurer), Jamie Rusek 845-462-0916 | Dori Dangerfield 845-440-6969 |
| Carolyn Cronin 845-561-4123 |
Jennifer Lim 845-549-2235 |
- Sitting and walking meditations,
- Dharma readings by Thay and discussion
Mondays in November
Sittings every Monday at Union in Newburgh(7:15-8:45pm)
November 2 ~ Carolyn leading
November 9 ~ Rich leading
November 16 ~ Ed leading (Recitation of 14 Mindfulness Trainings)
November 23 ~ David leading
November 30 ~ Beverly leading
Fridays in November
Sittings every Friday morning from 10:00 to
11:30AM
at
the New Paltz Reformed Church Ed Building on Huguenot St .
Carolyn leadingNovember 6 -
November 13 -
Anne
leading
November 20 -
November 27 - (Recitation of 5 Mindfulness Trainings)
Day of Mindfulness
Saturday -
November 2110:00 a.m. ~ 2:00 p.m. @
Focus on one of Thay’s books at a time, beginning with The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching. Meet once a month, on the first Thursday at 7:30pm, to share and listen deeply as our sangha brothers and sisters reflect on the how the reading for the month lives inside of them and how it has impacted their practice. The evening would begin with a short sit, then there would be an opportunity to share and listen mindfully as we do with dharma discussion, and we will end the evening at 9pm.
The first meeting: Thursday November 5th at 7:30pm at Beverly and David’s home. (17 Redondo Drive, Poughkeepsie 845-471-9631)
Subsequent meetings will alternate between Mihai and Anne’s home and David and Beverly's. Other people are invited to host as well. For the first session please study through page 23. If you have any questions, please give David a call.
Next group will meet at Mihai and Anne’s place, 25 Croft Rd. Poughkeep, 845-463-5606, on Thursday December 3rd at 7:30pm. We will be reading pages 23-46 of The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching.
Day of Mindfulness
Blue Cliff Monastery
Nov. 15 (Sun) at 9:30am.
It will be a full DOM.
November 22 will be the opening of the winter retreat, and all are invited to the ceremony at 9am.
Sangha Talk & Dates to Reserve

The following is a link to the Dharma Talk by Thay
Spring 2009 - Thursday, May 21st, 2009
TNH Dharma Talk in English - part 1 of 2 (24.85 MB)
You can support our Sangha poetry (song) page and share more of yourself with your Sangha family.
So please start writing and sharing !! The Sangha poetry starts HERE.
The latest poems added are from Diane, and they can be seen
HERE.
Please send along your poems, songs, Sangha notices, humor and anything else of relevance
that you want "published" (no 'commercials' please). That's to: bodhicitta6(at)yahoo.com
UNION CHURCH /
New Paltz Reformed Church Ed Building We meet most Friday mornings at New
Paltz Reformed Church Ed Building.
We put out a basket and request that a three dollar donation be offered to cover our expenses/contribution to the churches.
For directions click here
For the latest available details on all of Thay's schedules,
Dharma talk
transcripts .....and a lot more, please check the Web site at
We meet most Monday nights at Union Church on Balmville Road with its lovely garden for walking meditation.
PLUM VILLAGE
MINDFULNESS BELL, the journal of the art of mindful living is a wonderful source for practice
and always has a Dharma talk by Thay as well as articles by lay and monastic practitioners.
It is 18 dollars a year : CML Deer Park, 2496 Melru Lane, Escondido CA 92026
Guest Corner
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
It may be a truism of psychology that the desire for happiness is the most fundamental human drive, but it is important to note that this desire generally operates within the bounds set by another drive just as deep and pervasive. This other drive is the need for security. However insistent the raw itch for pleasure and gain may be, it is usually held in check by a cautious concern for our personal safety. We only feel at ease when we are sealed off from manifest danger, comfortably at home with ourselves and with our world, snugly tucked into familiar territory where everything seems friendly and dependable.
When we come across the Buddha's teaching and begin to take that teaching seriously, we often find that it provokes in us disturbing waves of disquietude. This feeling arises from a clash -- a sensed incompatibility -- between the picture of the world that we hold to as the essential basis for our normal sense of security and the new perspectives on existence opened up to us by the Dhamma. We may try to shun the vistas that trouble us, we may pick and choose from the Dhamma what we like; but to the extent that we are prepared to take the teaching in earnest -- on its own terms rather than on ours -- we may discover that the insights which the Buddha wants to impart to us can be quite unsettling in their impact.
The first noble truth was never intended to be a comfortable truth; indeed, it is the discomforting quality of this truth that makes it noble. It tells us frankly that the routinely placid and predictable surface of our everyday lives is extremely fragile -- a shared delusion with which we lull ourselves and each other into a false sense of security. Just beneath the surface, hidden from view, turbulent currents are stirring which at any time can break the surface calm. From the moment we are born we are sliding towards old age and death, susceptible to various diseases and accidents that may hasten our arrival at the appointed end. Driven by our desires we wander from life to life across the sand dunes of samsara, elated by our rises, shaken by our falls. The very stuff of our lives consists of nothing more than a conglomeration of five "heaps" of psychophysical processes, without any permanence or substance. Perhaps the Buddha's most poignant statement on the human condition is his image of a man being swept along by a mountain torrent: he grasps for safety at the grasses along the banks only to find that they break off just as he takes hold of them.
However, though the Buddha begins by drawing our attention to the uncertainty that encompasses us even in the midst of comfort and enjoyment, he by no means ends there. The discourse on suffering is expounded, not to lead us to despair, but to awaken us from our complacent slumbers and to set us moving in the direction where our ultimate welfare can be found. Far from undercutting our need to feel secure, the Buddha's teaching unfolds from that very same need, turning it into a sustained inquiry into what genuine security actually means.
Ordinarily, our benighted attempts to achieve security are governed by a myopic but imperious self-interest oriented around the standpoint of self. We assume that we possess a solid core of individual being, an inherently existent ego, and thus our varied plans and projects take shape as so many maneuvers to ward off threats to the self and promote its dominance in the overall scheme of things. The Buddha turns this whole point of view on its head by pointing out that anxiety is the dark twin of ego. He declares that all attempts to secure the interests of the ego necessarily arise out of clinging, and that the very act of clinging paves the way for our downfall when the object to which we hold perishes, as it must by its very nature.
The Buddha maintains that the way to true security lies precisely in the abolition of clinging. When all clinging has been uprooted, when all notions of "I" and "mine" have lost their obsessive sting, we will have no more fear, no more worry, no more anxious concern. Touched by the fluctuations of worldly events the mind remains stable, "sorrowless, stainless and secure" (Sn. 268).
While ultimate security lies only in the unconditioned, in Nibbana "the supreme security from bondage" (anuttara yogakkhema), as we wend our way through the rough terrain of our mundane lives we have available a provisional source of security that will help us deal effectively with the dangers and difficulties that beset us. This provisional security lies in firmly committing ourselves to the Dhamma as our source of solace and guidance, as our incomparable refuge. The word "dhamma" itself means that which upholds and supports. The Buddha's teaching is called the Dhamma because it upholds those who live by it: it wards off the dangers to which we would be exposed if we were to flout it, it sustains us in our endeavor for the final good if we revere it and make it the foundation of our lives.
The Dhamma provides protection, not by any mystical blessing or downpour of saving grace, but by indicating the sure and certain guidelines that enable us to protect ourselves. Beneath the apparent randomness of visible events there runs an invisible but indomitable law which ensures that all goodness finds its due recompense. To act counter to this law is to invite disaster. To act in harmony with it is to tap its reserves of energy, to yoke them to one's spiritual growth, and to make oneself a channel of help for others who likewise roam in search of a refuge.
The essential counsel that the Buddha gives us to secure our self-protection is to shun all evil, to practice the good, and to purify our minds. By the pursuit of non-violence, honesty, righteousness and truth we weave around ourselves an impenetrable net of virtue that ensures our well being even in the midst of violence and commotion. By cultivating the good we sow the seeds of wholesome qualities that will come to maturity as we continue on our path throughout the samsaric journey. And by purifying our minds of greed, hatred and delusion by mindfulness and diligent effort we will find for ourselves an island that no flood can overwhelm -- the island of the Deathless.
Buddhist Publication Society Newsletter
cover essay #15 (Spring 1990)
Copyright © 1990 Buddhist Publication Society
For free distribution only
Ego - Thich Nhat Hanh
The Eye of the Buddha Retreat
A 21-day retreat in Plum Village
June 2nd - 22, 2000
Teachings from Thich Nhat Hanh
Tape 1, June 2nd , 2000
Transcriber: Tenzin Namdrol
Edited by: Susan O’Leary
Good morning
dear Sangha, good morning friends, welcome to the retreat of twenty-one days
with the theme The Eye of the Buddha.
Many of us have come from Europe, America and elsewhere, and your coming has
modified deeply our Sangha here in Plum Village. You have brought with you your
wisdom, your insight, your solidity, your happiness, your sorrow, your
suffering. The Sangha of Plum Village is no longer the Sangha of Plum Village.
You are now a larger Sangha. This is a new Sangha for all of us. The coming
together of the Sangha is a great event always. We are attracted to each other
because we share the same concern, the same interest, the same kind of joy.

When
scientists have studied about the social behavior of animals and insects, they
have spoken of inter-attraction. Living beings are like bees, termites and
ants. They feel wonderful being together. They are social animals; they want to
be with each other, they feel more secure, they feel happier being together.
You cannot keep a bee alone or isolated because after a few hours, a few days,
it will dry up. Without the bee hive, a bee cannot be a bee any more. In
Vietnam we used to say that a practitioner who has left his or her Sangha is
like a tiger leaving his mountain. After having left the Sangha, the
practitioner who abandoned his or her practice may in just a few months die as a
practitioner, like a bee without the community of bees. When the tiger leaves
her mountain to go to the lowland, she will be caught by humans and killed. A
person who is without a Sangha, a practitioner who is without a Sangha, cannot
continue his or her practice. That is something we feel very strongly. Our
practice is nourished and grows deeply only in the context of the Sangha, and
that is why each of us feels that we should be a Sangha builder. Because it is
with the Sangha that we feel more solidity, security, joy and happiness.
So, as practitioners we want to be with each other, something that is the
equivalent of interattraction. We are motivated by the same desire to practice
for our transformation, for our healing, and for transformation and healing in
the world. We know that a solitary ant cannot do much. She just goes around.
She does not look as if she has a mind or a thought or any imagination or
ideas. But when we put one hundred ants together, they behave as a new organism
and you begin to see them operating as an organism, with intelligence, with
thinking, with planning. A solitary ant has only a few neurons strung together
by fibers. If we look at her we don't see intelligence manifesting, we don't
see thinking, we don't see ideas. But when the ants get together, something
begins to manifest. If you observe an anthill with thousands and thousands of
ants working together, you can see clearly the intelligence, the ideas, the
thinking, the talent also.
Human beings are a kind of social animal. When we observe the bees or the ants
we have the impression that we can learn something from them. Scientists have
used the word "super organism" to describe the life, the reality of these
communities of social insects: "super organism." Why? Because each individual
bee or ant can live his or her life as individuals, but they always live the
life of the community, of the organism. They live together at the same time as
a cell, as a tissue of the same body. And interestingly enough we observe, when
we observe them, that there are no egoistic acts, there is no jealousy, there is
no anger, there is no discrimination. Every individual works naturally for the
well-being of the whole community, and the ant and the bee do not dream much of
the future. They do not get caught in the past. They are there living the
present moment and doing whatever they need to do for the well-being of the
whole community.
We know an ant hill can last for many, many years, maybe 60 years or more, but
the life of the ant is only for one month or so. In one month also the whole
generation of ants vanish; every day they die at the rate of three or four
percent, and yet they don't think of the future. They are doing their best. They
don't think whether they will be there when the anthill is finished and they
don't care whether at some distance another hill is being built.
When we observe the bees, the termites and the ants, we see that they are
perfect in the way they lead their daily lives. They do not have egotistic
acts. Everything they do is for the good, the well-being of the whole community.
Therefore there is no jealousy, there is no fear, there is no discrimination.
But there is something lacking in the community of bees, of ants, of termites.
That is the awareness that they are there, alive, living for themselves, for the
community and for others.
This
is something you can notice when we observe a Sangha. Members of a Sangha can
very well live their individual life, but at the same time they can play the
role of a tissue, of a cell of the community. As Sangha builders, as people who
live 24 hours a day with the Sangha, we continue to learn a lot about Sangha as
an organism. When you live in a Sangha you try to be like a cell in a body, you
try to be like a bee in the bee hive for the well-being of the community. And
because there is well-being in the community, there is well-being in every one
of us, and the Sangha can serve as refuge for many, many people who come. That
is our practice every day - how to live your individual life at the same time
with your life as an organism. And when you are capable of living like that you
are no longer the victim of your jealousy, your anger, your discrimination, your
fear because you are the organism. The Sangha has become your body and
therefore besides having the individual body you have the Sangha body, the
Sanghakaya.
It is strange that in the teaching of Buddhism we speak a lot about Buddhakaya,
the body of the Buddha, and we speak about the body of the Dharma, Dharmakaya,
but we have waited until the end of the twentieth century in order to speak
about the Sanghakaya, the body of the Sangha. The Sangha is our body. It is
like the beehive is the body of the bee, the anthill is the body of the ant. And
when we are able to live in that spirit, considering the Sangha as our body,
most of our suffering will vanish. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not an
expression of faith, it is a practice.
Taking refuge in the Sangha means learning to live as well in the organism
called Sangha. Living as a tissue - and this is something possible. We who
live in Plum Village twenty four hours a day, we know that if we are able to
look at the Sangha as our body most of our suffering will vanish and we will get
a lot of joy. Seeing the Sangha body as your Sangha is a practice, and
mindfulness is the kind of energy that helps you to do so. This is something
that we can do.
Bell
It looks like the purpose of the bees is to build a hive, it looks like the
purpose of the ants is to build a hill. That is inscribed in their DNA; every
cell of the body is there to build communities. When we observe these insects,
we see the intelligence, we see the intelligences; we see the experiences, we
see the wisdom that has been transmitted to them by many generations of bees and
ants or termites. When we observe humans doing something together we can see
also the wisdom, the intelligence, the experiences handed down to them by many
generations of humans that have come before. The social insects, they too have
means of communication. They don't use language like us but they do
communicate. The bees can dance, they can release pheromone messages in form of
chemicals that can communicate very well and sometimes perfectly. The ants can
also dance and make sonorous vibrations to communicate, and they also release
pheromone, tiny particles of chemicals that can communicate so well. We humans,
we use language. We know how to store information, we know how to process and
how to retrieve information. We know how to communicate. We use language, we
use fax, we use email, we use telegrams and telephone and so on, but sometimes
communication is difficult.
In a practicing Sangha we communicate with each other also, but the base of our
communication is silence. We have Dharma discussion sessions, but Dharma
discussions are not the only way in which we communicate with each other. We
communicate in several ways, and mostly in silence. When we come together and
sit we don't say anything, but we communicate and the message is very clear: "My
dear brothers, my dear sisters, I am here for you. I feel so glad to be
surrounded by you members of my Sangha. I feel secure, I feel safe, I feel
happy, I feel solid when I find myself surrounded by my Sangha." That is the
kind of communication that we make during sitting meditation and that is only
the basic one. Because in sitting meditation we learn how to really be there,
with our full presence. We learn how to establish ourselves in the here and the
now. We know that life is available only in the here and the now. That is why
sitting for us is to be in a position where we can touch life deeply and all the
wonders of life are available to us from inside and from outside at the same
time. This is a very powerful communication. Dear Sangha, it is wonderful that
we are there as a body, the Sangha body. I don't have to strive any more, to
fight any more, to run any more. I feel at home with my Sangha. With the
Sangha body I feel a lot of energy. I will not dry up like a bee when kept
alone for half a day or two days before my body is here, my Sangha body is here
with me all the time.
Sitting in a Sangha - even if you don't do anything - makes you alive, makes you
solid, makes you happy, but only if you know how to allow yourself to be your
Sangha. Only if you know how to allow yourself to be penetrated by the Sangha
so that communication becomes possible. Communication yes. In the modern
world, we have very sophisticated instruments and means for communications, but
very often we feel stuck.Sangha communication is based on freedom - freedom
from discrimination, freedom from a notion of self because we know how to allow
ourselves to be the Sangha. We know how to allow our bodies to become part of
the Sangha body and the Sangha body to be our body. The bees are always doing
something: building the hive. The ants are always trying to do something:
building the hill. We humans, we members of the Sangha, maybe our spiritual
vocation, our biological structure tells us that we are there also to build some
kind of hill, some kind of hive, but we don't do it by our work alone. We don't
do it by action alone, we do it by non action, namely, being Because doing is
not the only thing we can do as humans and as members of a Sangha. Being is the
basic action. It can be called non action, but that is the foundation of all
meaningful actions. So when you observe the organism of a Sangha, you see there
is action but you see there is non action. That means being, and being is an
art. When we come together and sit like this, we are not doing anything, but
our being together, our confidence in the Path, in the practice, in the Sangha
is a tremendous source of energy that is able to heal us, to transform us and to
bring us a lot of solidity, freedom and joy. So, non action, being, is the
foundation of all kinds of actions.
When we practice walking together we don't do anything, we just enjoy every step
we make. When you see the centipede walking with so many feet, we are like
that, we are just one body with so many feet walking at the same time. And
where do we go? We go nowhere because our destination is the here and the now
where life is available right now. And therefore every step brings us to the
here and the now, to life and all its wonders that are available in that moment.
So when we do walking meditation we don't do anything. We don't fight, we don't
strive for anything, we just learn to be. Touching the earth at our feet deeply
and realizing that we are alive as an organism, as a Sangha, that is wonderful
enough. That is good enough for our transformation and healing. The healing
elements can be found not only in the action but mostly in the non action, our
being. And the quality of being is what we learn from the Dharma. The moment
when you arrive in Plum Village you become a cell of an organism. There are
monks, nuns and other people who live in Plum Village permanently; each of them
is also a cell of the organism. The monks, the nuns and the lay men and women
in Plum Village they do not consider themselves to be the host and you to be the
guest. No, they look upon you as members of the Sangha. They do not hesitate
to invite you to share the full life of the Sangha. A nun is a cell of the
Sangha body, each of you are also a cell of the Sangha body. Learn to be, learn
to practice so that you can really be an organism called Sangha. And thanks
to the Dharma, thanks to the practice, our body, our Sangha body, our organism
can be something like a super organism, if you wish, a holy organism, because it
is, essentially, holy.
What makes the Sangha a holy entity is the energy of mindfulness, the energy of
concentration and insight. Mindfulness is the kind of energy we generate every
day, every hour, every minute, every second by the practice of mindful
breathing, mindful walking, mindful sitting, mindful looking, mindful
listening. Holy life is something possible, something that you can observe,
that you can witness to. In our daily lives we often live more or less in
forgetfulness. We are caught in our regret and sorrow concerning the past, we
are caught in our anxiety and fear concerning the future. We are caught by our
craving, our despair in the present moment. But with the energy of mindfulness
we can establish ourselves in the here and the now. We can be free from our
regret concerning the past, our fear concerning the future or the craving or the
despair that can come up in us in the present moment. With the energy of
mindfulness, we can touch the wonders of life within us and around us. With the
energy of mindfulness we can recognize and embrace our fear, our anger, our
craving so that we can bring relief and the joy of life into ourselves, into our
Sangha. This is something that is happening all the time during our daily life
of practice and this is the element called holy in the holy Sangha, the holy
Sangha. A Sangha that is inhabited by the energy of mindfulness is a true
Sangha, and we know that if mindfulness is there, concentration is there, and
insight is there, also. When you are inhabited by the energies of mindfulness,
concentration and insight the Buddha is there; the Buddha can be touched through
the Sangha and of course the Dharma. And of course the Dharma can be touched
through the Sangha. The Sangha carries within herself the presence of the
Buddha and the Dharma, and that it is why it is so important that we take refuge
in the Sangha. Maybe if you don't like to use the word super organism we can
use the word holy organism because the Sangha is a jewel.
The Sangha is not just a group of people - the Sangha is something much more
than a group of people. Members of a Sangha have the same kind of affinity, the
same kind of aspiration, the same kind of need, the same kind of practice, the
same kind of concern. They are aware that suffering is there and there is a need
to understand deeply the nature of suffering. Members of the Sangha are aware
that the cessation of suffering, that transformation and healing are all
possible. They are aware of the fact that there are ways to transform and to
heal. Members of the Sangha have confidence in the way of the Eightfold Path
(called Marga in Sanskrit), which leads to the cessation of suffering, to
transformation and healing. This way can be seen in the daily practice. When a
member of the Sangha walks, she walks in such a way that makes life possible
right in that moment. With her foot she touches the earth, she touches so
deeply that you can see the energy of concentration, of mindfulness in her,
emanating from herself. She really invests herself into the act of making a
step and when she does that she communicates. She does not need to release any
pheromone, she does not need to talk, she does not need to telephone, to send a
fax. She just walks like this, and with each step she makes, she cultivates
more freedom, more solidity and more joy. And she can do this every time she
needs to move from one place to another place. We humans, we need to move from
one place to another place many times during the day, and therefore we have
plenty of opportunities to practice so that every step can bring more solidity,
more joy and especially more freedom. Because every step you make like that
helps you to reclaim the freedom that you have lost in the hectic kind of life
out there in society.
The permanent residents of Plum Village are instructed to walk like that every
time they need to move from one place to another place - whether they are monks
or nuns or lay people, they are instructed to do that. When they do that, they
do it for themselves, they do it for the whole Sangha and they do it for the
greater Sangha that is there, that is out there everywhere. We build a hill not
only for the sake of the hill itself, we build a hill for the sake of the whole
world because the Sangha is a holy refuge. People suffer so much they do not
know where to turn to, and Sangha building is the most noble task. The
twentieth century was characterized by individualism, a lot of destruction, a
lot of sorrow, of fear, of alienation. The twenty-first century should be
different, we learn to live like bees in a beehive. Here at Plum Village, we
learn to live like cells in the same body, our practice is Sangha building.
Taking refuge in the Sangha. "Sangham saranam gacchami." That is our practice.
So you have arrived. You have become a cell of the body. You can do Sangha
building by your walking, by your breathing, by your sitting and bring yourself
a lot of joy, a lot of relief, of peace, of freedom. You can offer the Sangha a
lot of joy, a lot of peace, a lot of liberty also. And you don't have to strive.
You allow the Sangha to transport you, to protect you like the bees. They
really take refuge in the beehive, as the ants take refuge in the anthill. Even
if you have come with a lot of pain, sorrow and fear within yourselves, allow
yourself to be embraced by the Sangha. "Dear Sangha, I have come with a lot of
pain, a lot of sorrow, a lot of fear. Please embrace me, please embrace my fear,
my sorrow, my pain. I surrender to the Sangha." If you are capable of
practicing like that, transformation may be obtained in just a few hours.
If you continue to suffer because you are still caught in your notion of self,
you think that is your suffering, that is your pain, that is your sorrow.
Now if you are capable of seeing yourself as a cell in the body of the Sangha,
if you trust the Sangha, if you surrender yourself to the Sangha together with
your intelligence, your talent, your sorrow, your fear then the energy of the
Sangha will be able to take you in, to embrace you, to transform you. And you
will get relief right away, right away. And your relief will be the relief of
the Sangha.
I said in the beginning that your coming has modified very deeply the Sangha at
Plum Village because you have brought your wisdom, your insight, your happiness
and your sorrow and fear. Everyone of us - whether we are permanent residents of
Plum Village or whether we have just come - all of us become a cell in a new
body, a Sangha body. And if you know how to trust, how to authorize yourself to
be home, to be held by the Sangha, to surrender to the Sangha, if you know how
to be just a cell of the Sangha body, I promise that that kind of relief and
transformation can take place in just a few hours.
When we come together and enjoy breakfast, this is also a practice. You don't
need breakfast for yourself alone, you eat for the Sangha. When you chew the
food, chew it for the Sangha please - it is possible to do so. I remember one
day we had a picnic in the mountains not far from Montreal, we were on a retreat
there. I took a walk, and I saw a member of the Montreal Sangha. He was eating
his bread, sitting at the foot of a tree and when he saw me I asked him, "What
are you doing?" and he said, "Well, I am feeding you, Thay, I am feeding the
Sangha." That was a good answer. Your well being is the well being of the
Sangha. Everything you do is for the Sangha; you do it for every one of us and
for yourself. That is the behavior of the bees; that is the behavior of the
ants.
If you can get out of the notion of self, suffering will vanish very soon, very
soon. And a twenty-one-day retreat is something very rare. You cannot afford
to have a twenty-one-day retreat several times a year, and therefore we should
treasure this opportunity. Noble silence is a wonderful means in order for us
to enjoy deeply our twenty-one-day retreat, to acknowledge that twenty-one-day
retreats always bring transformation and healing to many, many people.
If you had been there in St. Michael College two years ago, you would have
noticed that the suffering was at first immense. But after twenty-one-days
practice, so many people felt release from the suffering thanks to the power of
the Sangha. It is the Sangha that heals you, that allows you the opportunity to
transform. And who is the Sangha? The Sangha is you. Therefore, during the
twenty-one-day retreat here please do not think of the monks, the nuns and
other lay people in Plum Village as your host and you are only the guest. No.
We are looking on you as members of our Sangha, and your joy, your happiness
will be our joy and our happiness. We can learn something from the bees. We
can learn something from the termites. Then we are no longer subject to our
individual sorrow and fear and discrimination and pain. We give up, we become a
cell in the body of the Sangha, and suddenly we feel much, much better. We can
release all these negative energies. It is much easier than you have thought.
Bell
If during breakfast you get caught in your worries, your fear, eat for the
Sangha and release that fear, that sorrow. Eating for the Sangha I have to enjoy
my breakfast for the Sangha expects me to do so because eating breakfast while
swallowing my fear and sorrow is not healthy for the Sangha. The Sangha is
there to support you, to remind you that eating breakfast is a way to nourish
the Sangha with stability and freedom. That is the way we should eat our
breakfast - which is something you are going to do very soon now (laughter).
Enjoy every morsel of your breakfast like that. You know you are feeding the
Sangha and you know what the Sangha needs - not sorrow, not fear but stability,
joy and liberty. So, eating breakfast is a deep practice, and if you allow
yourself to be touched by the Sangha, if you know that the Sangha is there
surrounding you, embracing you, you will eat your breakfast with a lot of joy.
This is not difficult at all. Eating breakfast is a deep practice. After that
we enjoy walking together. Eating breakfast cannot be described as work, just
as walking meditation cannot be described as work. Both practices can be very
pleasant, very nourishing and healing. So, walking, not as individuals, we walk
as an organism. Your feet are my feet and your feet are my feet. I walk in the
best way I can, I enjoy every step I make, not only for myself, but for you. And
if you are released from your suffering and your fear, and if you can touch the
earth with joy, then you nourish me, you nourish the whole Sangha.
I have arrived. That is my insight when I breathe in and make two steps. I
have arrived, I have arrived. Peacefully, gently, but very determined. We have
been running for all our life, it is now time to stop. If you are not capable
of stopping, how can you enjoy touching the earth with your feet? The miracle
is not to walk on water or on fire, the miracle is to walk on earth, and any one
of us can perform this miracle. The miracle is to walk on earth, that is a
statement made by the Zen master Lin Chi, or Rinzai. If you can establish
yourself in the here and the now, and make a step and touch the wonders of life
in the here and the now, you are performing the miracle. "Le miracle c'est
de marcher sur terre." (The miracle is to walk on water.) That is the title
in French of Thay’s book, The Miracle
of Mindfulness. Walking on earth, you walk in such a way that the Kingdom
of God is available to you right here and right now. This is possible. With
the support of the Sangha, this is possible - to walk in the Kingdom of God, to
walk in the Pure Land. There is not a day that I do not walk in the Kingdom of
God. There is not a single day when I do not walk in the Pure Land of the
Buddha. You need some freedom, you need to release your sorrow and your fear in
order to do so and it is exactly with the Sangha that you can perform that
miracle. The Sangha has a tremendous source of energy if you know how to take
refuge, to surrender to the Sangha, to allow the Sangha to take care of
everything. You just enjoy being a cell of the Sangha; that is enough. And
please don't say that you cannot do that.
When you signed up for the retreat you expressed
the intention to be here. Taking refuge in the Sangha and enjoying every step
you make, nourishing the Sangha, healing the Sangha with your steps, you are a
Sangha builder now. Later on, wherever you find yourself you will continue to
be a Sangha builder because our world, our society, desperately needs the
presence of Sangha builders to offer refuge for so many living beings who are
getting lost every day! I have arrived because the destination I want to
arrive in is life, and life is available only in the here and the now. When I
take one breath, breathing in I bring my body and my mind together. And in that
state of being I am available to life and life is available to me. The oneness
of body and mind realized by just one in-breath can make you available to life
and its wonder, and make life and its wonder available to you. Just one
in-breath, and during that in breath you make two steps, "I have arrived, I have
arrived." That is enlightenment, that is awareness already, and suddenly you are
capable of stopping, of being there in the here and the now. That is the fruit
of the practice. You don't need to practice several days or several years in
order to have that. Just one in-breath and suddenly you are there, fully
present, body and mind. You need to take just one step in order to enter the
Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is ready, is available. Only sometimes in
our state of forgetfulness we are not ready and therefore mindful breathing
brings us back to the here and the now, body and mind united. We only need one
step to enter the Kingdom of God: "I have arrived, I have arrived," Arrived
where? At the Kingdom of God, at the Pure Land of the Buddha in the here and
the now. Life available in the here and the now, and when you breathe out you
say, "I am home."
Many of us have been searching for our home, for our true home, and we have not
found it. The Buddha told us our home is in the here and the now. If you want
to get in touch with your ancestors, if you want to get in touch with the
Buddha, with the Kingdom of God, then go back to the here and the now, and
mindfully enough, concentrated enough, you will be able to touch everything you
look for in the here and the now. To me, the Kingdom of God is now or never.
The Pure Land is now or never. The practice is clear. When you practice, "I
have arrived, I am home," you stop running. Our ancestors have been running and
in our turn we continue to run. The Dharma says, "Stop! Be alive! Be in the here
and the now."
Not only in sitting, but in walking you realize that. And later on, while you
wash your dishes, you realize that also. It is wonderful washing dishes and
arriving in the here and the now. It is very nice washing the dishes in the
Kingdom of God. There are those of us who wash dishes in hell. (laughter)
it is much nicer, much more pleasant to wash dishes in the Kingdom of
God. "I have arrived, I am home, in the here in the now," because the here and
the now is the real address of your true home - the address of all Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas, the address of the Kingdom of God. here-now@ com.fr
If you want, you can go home very easily because
your home is the here and the now. And as a Sangha it is not difficult to go
home because the Sangha energy is powerful. I know that. No matter how
talented you are if you are only a solitary being, you dry up. With the Sangha
you have an opportunity to express all your talent and nourish the Sangha, heal
the Sangha with your talent and get the nourishment and the healing from other
members of the Sangha. In the here and the now, I am solid, I am free. If you
know how to stop, to arrive, to enjoy each step you make, the element of
solidity and the element of freedom become a reality; this is not auto
suggestion. You have made a few steps in mindfulness and concentration if you
are able to arrive in the here and the now. There, solidity and freedom will
become a reality, and that will make your joy, your happiness grow. Solidity
and freedom are the two characteristic of Nirvana. The Buddha said, "You can
touch Nirvana in the here and the now even with your body." The body can touch
Nirvana by touching solidity and freedom. Every step you make helps to
cultivate your solidity and your freedom because no happiness can be possible
without some solidity and freedom. All of us know that.
In the ultimate I dwell. There are two dimensions to reality. The historical
dimension and ultimate dimension. We have historical concerns - we are
concerned with our health, with our success and the well being of our family,
our society, yes. That is called historical concern, but deep in us there is an
ultimate concern. We want to touch the absolute, we want to realize our true
home, and in the teaching of the Buddha the two dimensions are not separate from
each other. If you know how to touch the historical dimension deeply, with
mindfulness and concentration, you can touch at the same time the ultimate
dimension. Therefore with solidity and freedom you can very well touch the
ultimate - your nature of no birth and no death, the nature of suchness. That is
something you will develop later in the retreat. So let us memorize these words
because they can let us enjoy sitting meditation and walking meditation. You
can use this while doing things like dish washing, bathroom cleaning, also.
Everything we do or we do not do in our daily life is for the practice of
nourishing the Sangha, nourishing ourselves and the Sangha. We know that is the
refuge of the world. And as good practitioners each of us has to take the vow to
build Sangha. That is the most noble task of our century. Shall we sing
together?
Please send any updates to bodhicitta6(at)yahoo.com
We
hear from Dan Sedia in Albany of the
Community of Mindful Living
of the Capital District.
Their initial Homepage can be seen by clicking HERE
Quiet Mountain Sangha. is a women's Sangha in lower Westchester County. they would like to invite new members to join them at their monthly gatherings, and practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn. For more information, please visit their page HERE.
Judy Myerson updatess us news of the Gentle Mountain Sangha which meets at her home in Nanuet (Rockland County).
Sangha Name: Gentle Mountian Sangha
Address: At the home of Judy Myerson
City: Nanuet (Rockland County)
Zip: 10954
Contact names: Debbie, Susan, Judy
Email: prplwolf2@aol.com
Phone: 845.356.3613, 845.627.1575
Meeting:
Every Sunday, 9:30 - 11:30 AM
The Community of Mindfulness/NY Metro has a beautiful Homepage, you can access it at http://www.communityofmindfulnessnewyorkmetro.blogspot.com/ I have also included below links to some of their other wonderful Dharma pages. A deep bow to you all for a lovely job.
Tuesday evenings :
Riverside Church sittings. Contact Marjorie Markus 212-787-1473 or David Flint
917-543-6485
Peace Walk every third Sunday of the month in Central Park. Contact Marjorie Markus.
Catskill Mountain Sangha
meets every Thursday. For info please contact Roberta Wall:
Robertaindia(at)yahoo.com or 845-246-5935/845-853-4788 (C)
Kingfisher Sangha gathers to practice
together on Tuesday Evenings in Greenwich, 7 to 8 and Sunday Afternoons, 4:30 to 6
in Schenectady
More information may be found at www.kingfishersangha.com
"Being Peace" Meditation with Thay
Driving Directions For All Sittings
Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings