Today is the second day of our hybrid urban retreat. It's the 27th of November 2022. And we're going to continue reading from and commenting on "Our Appointment With Life: The Buddha's Teaching on Living in the Present." In this is translated and with a commentary by Thich Nhat Hanh into the Vietnamese, and then from Vietnamese into English by Annabel Laity.
And we were just sort of getting an overview yesterday. But the central teaching of this little really collection of different sutras, mostly from the Pali, is this can be summed up in this following verse.
Let go of what is past. Let go of what is not yet. Observe deeply what is happening in the present moment, but do not be attached to it. This is the most wonderful way to live alone.
And just for people who weren't here yesterday, for teisho, this living alone really refers to being say all one, it's in his he's the Buddha is correcting people's view that it means actually living, living away from other people and realizing that actually, it's all about sort of internal landscape, you could say. These, these lines are very helpful instructions for Zen practitioners, let go of what has passed, let go of what is not yet that pretty much sums up a good percentage of all of our thoughts, as we've sitting. We so often dwell on the past or, or fall into worrying about the future or planning things. So just to break it down in these into these two categories. If it's, if it's, if you're thinking about the past, going over what happened in a certain time or situation, then to let go of it. And if you can't catch yourself, planning or worrying to let go of that hasn't actually happened yet. It's something we're just creating in our minds. So it can it can help to, to break down our thoughts into these two major categories, in order to catch ourselves when they when they take us over. And then thirdly, observe deeply what is happening in the present moment, but do not be attached to it. This really sums up what our practices are designed to do to to help us facilitate us getting into the present moment what is happening right now what is that got to be overwhelmed by it, but to have enough spaciousness in the mind that we can, that we can appreciate what is happening right now. And in the verse ends, this is the most wonderful way to live alone.
Now we'll turn now to the commentary. And this first section that we'll be reading from, is called is heated up, do not reject the world and society. To live alone does not mean to reject the world and society. The Buddha said that living alone means living in the present moment deeply observing what is happening. If we do that, we will not be dragged into the past or swept away into thoughts about the future. The Buddha said that if we cannot live in the present moment, even if we are alone in the deepest forest, we are not really alone. He said that if we've fully alive in the present moment, even if we're we are in a crowded urban area, we can still be said to be living alone. Really this this urban retreat that we're having is affirming this this truth that we can we can practice in the midst of all the busyness of the city and have our own lives, we can find a way to live alone as if we were in the deepest forest. The the going back and forth that we do in an urban retreat between our homes and the Zendo. Is is part and parcel of what we're working with when we come to treat it like this. How do we keep on an even keel when faced with all the demands of our of our lives, things that have to be done people who need things, to be able to respond from a centered place, a place that a stable place we get we get tested when we're moving back and forth between environments in this way.
Buddhist meditators know the importance of practicing in a community. That is the meaning of the phrase I take refuge in the Sangha. Probably for most of us, the place where our practice is is most tested is in our relationships how do we respond to someone's need when we when we're busy and already feel like we've got enough on our plate how do we respond when the people we live with don't live up to our expect test expectations in one way or another?
If we can see, the community that we live in and the people that we live with, as a field for practice, as a place where we we make real aspirations to wake up and live kindly. Then it can completely transform how we live with others. That hand goes on to say a Vietnamese proverb goes soup is to a meal what friends are to the practice, to be in touch with a community to learn from its members and to take refuge in a community is very important to discover the weight of being of being alone in a practice community is something we need to do.
It is important to have a Dharma community that we can practice with it's it's very easy to
get caught up in the date or day to day activities and lose sight of why we want to meditate why we want to practice and having contact with regularly with a community can help to remind us and keep us on track.
Living quote in close quarters with others for instance in a sesshin or in a residential training setting is can be very challenging. When you're when you're training with with people in a in a structured environment and working together, eating together sitting together it can that that
be being unable to kind of stood walk away just as we the same thing in a family. You You don't always What do they say you choose your friends but not your family? Well, that probably isn't a Buddhist Buddhist notion because in some sense, we do choose our family in the sense that we are karmically linked to them deeply.
But when we, when we can't get away from difficult people, this is when practice is truly tested. I was talking to somebody about this, and she she is associated with a church community, and sort of half joking issues. She was saying, Well, if we, if we had to be without each other 24/7, we might not think we were such a loving community. In You know, it's easy, it's easy, or fairly easy to be friendly with somebody you see once a week. But how can we keep that up? Can we be can we live out of a place of forgiveness around people who we are with very much more than that. It day in day out. We'll say we'll say more about forgiveness later. But it's in terms of the first of these admonitions from the Buddha let go of what is past forgiveness plays a very important role. And we'll come to that later.
So as he says, he says to discover the way of being alone in a practice community is something we need to do. And then he's referring to this, the monk Terra that we were hearing about yesterday, the monk Darrow was part of a practice community. But he was determined to live alone. He believed in the idea of a solitary life, because he had, at some time heard the border praising the practice of living alone. So he kept his distance from everyone else. He begged arms alone, he turned, he returned alone, he ate alone, and he meditated alone. He was like a drop of oil, in a bowl of water, unable to mix with his fellow practitioners. Because of this, the big who's thought there was something abnormal about him, and they expressed their concern to the border. So that's why they, they felt that somehow something's out of balance in their behavior, this particular monk he was unable to mix. If we live, if we live in community, and we live closely, we will have consistently over many years, then there's bound to be conflict at what sooner or later disagreements, misunderstandings, this is the stuff of community really. And, and, and our job as practitioners is to, to realize that the Buddha's teachings of compassion and, and awareness in community if we if we still find ourselves, shying away from being around others or avoiding avoiding interactions, then we still have work to do a lot of work to do on ourselves.
The Buddha was very kind, he did not criticize there. He only said that there his way of living alone was not the best way of doing so. Because many other monks were present Buddha took the opportunity to teach there have a better way of living alone, a way in which it is still possible to associate with the Sangha of big who's to learn from and take refuge in them. is noticeable when we were reading this sutra yesterday that how gentle the Buddha was and his his feedback that he gave to Thera. He, you could say he was practicing right speech and not not speaking in a harsh way that that this this monk would not be able to hear
what's the point of giving somebody feedback in sync would be hard feedback for them to hear. If they aren't able to take it in, then it just becomes an exercise. It's kind of vain exercise for ourselves if we're just carelessly speaking one of the aspects of the precept about speech is not to speak harshly. Most of us don't don't respond well to to harsh speech. Though there are some occasions when when somebody put it, a shout is better than a thesis. Then he looks at the, the those who were practicing in way opposite to the Thira. There were beggars who were different from the Thira, who would always gather in small groups and fritter away their time chatting and joking. The conversations were not about the teaching and the Buddha frequently reprimanded them.
When we, when we when we hear the these references to monks, we can we can just translate that for ourselves into people who seriously want to practice or who are practicing seriously. Then if we are practicing seriously, then if we're in a in a in a training environment, then we'll we'll want to do use that time in the best way that we can. We won't be wasting our time in idle chatter or surfing the web or things like that. But we'll be taking those moments to come back to the mind to keep touching the mind to to keep investigating the mind. It doesn't mean that there's that one should never engage in small talk. Somebody once said, when we talk about the weather, it's not the weather we're talking about. Small Talk as a way of connecting with people, but to to know when is the right time is for such talk and when silence is the right thing.
He continues, there are stories throughout the sutra at suitors, in which the Buddha advises or chides the monks who act in a noisy and undisciplined way, not knowing how to keep body in mind and check not knowing how to spend their time usefully in practicing walking and sitting meditation, and absorb observing deeply things as they are in the present moment. When I first became a monk, my master gave me a copy of the book, words of discipline of master key song. I will never forget the sentences in which master key song reprimands practitioners who, after the midday meal, gather in small groups and talk about meaningless things. Key signs, words of advice have often come back to me and served as a reminder. When we live in a practice community, there should always be at least one or two people who serve as role models. Sometimes we only need to watch them standing, walking, speaking or smiling and mindfulness. And we feel steady and in our own practice, the fact that we know the better way to live alone does not prevent us from enjoying and benefiting from the presence of such people. On the contrary, it is because we know the better way to live alone, that we have the ability to observe them and deeply appreciate them.
To have examples, people who not don't necessarily overtly teach the Dharma but people who, who live it, to have to see such people to to live with such people is so helpful and to just associate with them to have a community that where you feel when you come into it that you're you're you're uplifted by by the people there
as I said there are times When talk can be very helpful, we don't have to be aloof or silent all the time. But to direct our thoughts to direct our awareness to the Dharma as much as we can, when we're around others who have like a like minded example of
a time when talking can be very helpful is after retreats or Shanes, we have often will often have tea or for seven day sesshin, we have both a dinner and then a brunch the following day. And I think this is a really important time for people to get a sense of not being alone in the struggles that we have, when we practice to hear from other people about their struggles and, and
get sick get a sense of, of what's what the normal kinds of things that come up in, in intensive practice.
But even even recognizing the value of those times, of connecting with our dharma brothers and sisters, we can also go too far after sesshin we get can get become kind of intoxicated by how wonderful it is to talk to people, after seven days of silence, and then fritter away that meditative concentrated energy that we've built up over those that time. So it is a matter of being being careful, how does that how and put it keeping our mind and body in check.
To be in touch does not mean just to talk with the other person. When we are in touch with the blue sky, for example, the white clouds, the Greenwillow or the rose, we do not communicate with them only in words, we recognize and accept these things and feel the warmth. Confidence springs up in us. And we learn a lot from the prisons. In this way we are able to profit from the third jaw, the practice community. So he's continuing to talk about, about these people in the in, in a practice community, who can serve as role models. The the importance of having mentors in practice, not just the teacher, the teacher who may you may feel as is somewhat remote, but people closer to us that that are maybe more our age or similar experience. For for Richard and me would do a two suites at the center when we were first training that were fulfilled that role for us, of of people further along in their practice, that we could really relate to as as friends. And that was these relationships are so important and heaven is so profound.
He goes on if we practice the better way of living alone, we spend most of our time quietly practicing walking and sitting meditation. And our presence will make a real contribution to the community. Unlike Thira, who all were the ones who gather after meals to talk about things that are not important. Every step we make adds to the quality and stability of the practice in the community. This is this is so true and especially when we're sitting together in in retreats we become very, very aware of of each other and the energies that are being put out. So to really understand that in terms of for instance, not moving while wandering around that it is it's we're doing it not only for ourselves so that we can constantly Right, and gather our minds more fully, but also so that others can do the same thing that people were sitting with, with. Our whole practice in in a retreat setting like this is one of gratitude. The bow that we make at the end of a sitting for instance, is just acknowledging and we do this again and again, acknowledging the help that we get from the selling of other people. The the, the pooled concentrate of energy that we can realize in in a silent practice together
the Buddha knows that if every individual in the community knows how to live alone, in other words, not letting go of the past and letting go of the future, the quality of life in the community will be excellent. When all the members of the community contribute to that quality, the community has a strong foundation, and many people can benefit from it. To live alone means to live in mindfulness, it does not mean to isolate oneself from society. If we know the better way to live alone, we can be in touch with people and society. And we will know what to do and what not to do to be of help. So not to leave. Sitting today and going home and then thinking that, that you're in a place that's just full of distractions, but rather, being more able to really be in touch with people and respond to the needs and the needs of the situation.
Next section is headed up the richness of the spiritual life comes from living alone. If we live in forgetfulness, if we choose if we lose ourselves in the past or in the future, if we allow ourselves to be tossed about by our desires, anger and ignorance, we will not be able to live each moment of our life deeply. We will not be in contact with what is happening in the present moment and our relations with others will become shallow and impoverished. We can, we can be so caught up in our thoughts about the past or the future that we can't really hear or see other people. And we may completely misread a situation because of that, because we were caught up in our own thoughts about ourself often. And then we we kind of project that out onto our environment.
Some days, we may feel hollow, exhausted and joyless, not really our true selves. On such days, even if we try to be in touch with others, efforts will be in vain. The more we try, the more we fail. When this happens, we should stop trying to be in touch with what is outside ourselves and come back to being in touch with ourselves to being alone. So he's saying here there are there are times to withdraw, physically withdraw from from our surroundings
we should stop trying to be in touch with what is outside ourselves and come back to me in touch with ourselves to being alone. The more literal sense, we should close the door onto society come back to ourselves and practice conscious be breathing, observing deeply what is going on inside and around us. We accept all the phenomena we observe, say hello to them smile at them. We do well to do simple things like walking or sitting meditation, washing our clothes, cleaning the floor and making tea and cleaning the bathroom and mindfulness. If we do these things, we will restore the richness of our spiritual life. I think this is this is very good advice. If we find ourselves particularly you know, in a place of ill will or anger or or agitation to to know that that If we're out of sync, we're out of touch with our inner life and to take some time, quiet time to reconnect there and then we'll be ready to return to relationships and all the Hurly burly of our daily lives. And it's a way also of understanding our sesshin sessions are not done just for their own sake but so that we can we can return to life and be responsive and loving.
The Buddha was someone who lived in awakened life, dwelling constantly in the present moment in a relaxed and steady way. There was always a richness about him a richness of freedom, joy, understanding and love, whether he was seated on a rocky crag of bulge at Vulture Peak, in the shade of the bamboo groves of V nirvana monastery, or under the thatched roof of his hut. In Jetavana, Buddha was Buddha, an agitated content and a few words, everyone could see that his presence contributed greatly to the harmony of the community, he was the main pillar of the community, for the monks and nuns just to know that he was nearby had an act of influence on the community I
think this is this is one of the ways in which the being a teacher in a community works is that the people they living with somebody or being around somebody who they feel is there. So, you could say some spiritual better or or role model, then that that, that they lift their own behavior. The there may be quite a bit of projection involved in it, but it can be healthy, to look up to people in the community and, and live up to those those values that they have.
Many students of the border including hundreds of senior disciples, inspired similar confidence in those who observed them. King precedent nurtured of Kosala once told the Buddha that what gave him so much confidence in the Buddha was the unhurried calm and joyful way of life of the monks and nuns who were practicing under his guidance. This confidence that we can get from from from being around people who who are living the way to some degree it is talked about by Master Dogan. He says the student even though he may not possess the mind that seeks the way should associated with a good person, become involved in good circumstances, and hear and see the same thing any number of times. Don't think that because you have seen or heard something once there is no need to hear it see it again. It's referring it's reassuring to hear this from Dogon because the teacher often will be saying the same thing over and over again. But that's that's what we need. Sometimes we we need to hear something many times before we truly have it sink in. For those who have really already aroused the mind that seeks the way each hearing serves to polish the mind and make for progress, even though the subject may be the same. Those who do not have this mind may not gain very much on the first or second hearing. But if they keep listening steadily, it will slowly slowly soak in as a garment that gradually gets damp from walking through the fog and do if they hear the words of a good person many times shame naturally arises for not having the mind that seeks the way and that mind will truly arise of itself. Therefore, no matter how familiar they are to you, you must look at the sacred scriptures many times. Although you may have heard the words of your teacher many times times, you must listen to them again and again. Gradually your mind will be stirred to greater depths, do not repeatedly draw near to anything that hinders the practice of the way, no matter how painful or difficult it may be drawn nearer to a good friend and practice the way. It's a beautiful image, this sense of walking through a mist. And without our even knowing it, our clothing becomes damp, we, we assimilate something we absorb the teaching and then it, it starts to be really active in our lives.
If we live in mindfulness, we are no longer poor. Because our practice of living in the present moment makes us rich enjoy peace, understanding and love. Even when we encounter somebody poor and spirit, we are able to look deeply and discover that person's depths and help him or her in an effective way. This is this is so important, especially when we've we encounter behavior to which we may feel averse in one way or another. But if we look closely, when we look at somebody who's very aggressive, for instance, which can be hard for us to handle, to just try and see what is behind that aggression, see the fear that that often is behind it, or the pain that is there behind addictions of different kinds, or the ignorance, delusions that can be around rudeness that we may experience. So, so this is what looking deeply means, to to go see beyond appearances beyond the surface. When we watch an unwholesome movie, or read a bad novel, if we are already poor and heart and mind and weaken mindfulness, that movie or book may irritate us and make us even poorer. But if we are rich in mindfulness, we will discover what lies in the depths of the film or the novel, we may be able to see deeply into the inner world of the person who directed the film or wrote the novel. looking with the eyes of a literary or film critic, we can see things that most people do not see. And even a bad movie or book can teach us. Thus, we are not impoverished by reading that novel or watching that film, maintaining full awareness of each detail of the present moment, we are able to profit from it, this is the better way to live alone. Think this is true up to a point but we might also just become aware of how short life is and him and not wanting to at least not want to seek out bad movies or novels. Choose what we read, choose what we expose our minds to. But, but if we do do encounter something like this, you know, to, to extract what we can from it by by looking into what might be behind the bad film or movie or book. Next section is entitled, internal formations. The knowing the better way to live alone gutter begins with the line, do not pursue the past. Pursue the past means to regret what has already come and gone. We regret regret the loss of beautiful things of the past which we can no longer find in the present. The Buddha commented on this line as follows. When someone thinks how his body was in the past, how his feelings were in the past, how his perceptions were in the past, how his mental factors were in the past, how his consciousness was in the past. When he thinks like that and gives rise to a mind which is enslaved by those things which belong to the past, then that person is pursuing the past. Now, again, for people who weren't here yesterday, these these five things means that the Buddha mentions that people dwelling on meaning pursue the past, or the Skandhas, or the the the different elements that make up our, our experience of being alive body and mind, essentially. We can take one of these just give an example. So
when someone thinks of his body of what somebody thinks how his body was in the past, so I actually caught myself doing this this morning, as I was doing some stretching exercises of feeling in a getting into a certain posture and feeling like, Oh, I'm, I'm more stiff, and I'm less flexible today than I was yesterday. And that's, you know, that's just an observation, but then we can attach a story to it, or worry about, okay, if I'm like this now, what how will I be in the future, you know, a story about having a degenerative disease and so forth. And, and that is pain producing. And it's disempowering, because it's, I can't do anything about the future. But I can do something in the prison, I can make sure I don't skip my exercises, so that I stay as flexible as I can. That's just being being in the present to do that, that's empowering. And you see how that one starts as a comparison with something that's past that the body was yesterday. But then it also quickly gets into what the body will be like tomorrow, or many days after that.
And we can, if we dwell on these things, we can come enslaved by them.
The Buddha taught that we should not pursue the past, because the past no longer is, when we are lost in thoughts about the past, we lose the present, life exists only in the present moment. To lose the present is to lose life, the Buddha's meaning is very clear, we must say goodbye to the past, so that we may return to the present, to return to the present is to be in touch with life is this week This can be helpful to to recognize this, that every time that we in our practice of the colon or the breath or shikantaza, every time we we release thoughts and feelings that we're experiencing, and come back to the breath or the con, were returning to, to life with with touching life. So this is the whole point of of having a practice having a way to do this to come back to our lives. Well, I think we'll have time is up we there's much more good material here and we'll continue continue with this and the next and the next teisho. And we'll stop now and recite the four vows. We're going to do the vowels now in English. But then at the end of the setting before the tea break, we can do them in today as we normally do.
All the things without number two, liberate
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