I would like to give you some instructions as how to eat our breakfast, to walk and to breathe tonight. Of course, you know how to do these things, but it's like on the plane, you have to fasten your seatbelt, then I have to remind you of doing it. So, usually we know in principle that peace is important. We should have peace and our children also should have peace. But in fact, peace is like everything else. It is relative. We have more or less peace in the present moment. The peace that can be enjoyable. I would like to say first that peace is important,

[01:09]

but our capacity of enjoying peace is even more important. If you do not have the capacity of enjoying peace, then what is the use of having peace? The practice of Buddhist meditation, I think, is to get the capacity to enjoy peace. It's like your toothache. Every time you have a toothache, you are enlightened. You know something very important, that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. But when you do not have a toothache, you don't seem to enjoy it. That is the problem. Peace is there, right there in the present moment.

[02:13]

But we find it boring. That is why we are looking for something more exciting. And because of that, we got into trouble. And that is called non-peace. When young people look for things like alcohol, or sex, drugs, because they think of peace as something boring, that is why they want to seek for something else. When we smoke, or when we drink alcohol, we feel that we need something in order to feel better.

[03:21]

And we are not satisfied with having peace. So there must be a way of recognizing peace in the present moment. There must be a way of enjoying peace. And if we know the art of enjoying peace, we will solve a lot of problems. To recognize the element of peace, to recognize the element of happiness and of joy that is present there, is very important. Otherwise, how could we enjoy being peaceful? How could we enjoy our happiness?

[04:22]

The Sutra of Conscious Breathing is a very important text that has been studied and practiced by Buddhists of many generations. That sutra gives us ways in order to enjoy peace, to live peacefully. I would like to present to you the first exercise that is proposed by the Buddha in that sutra. Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out. Quite simple. The idea is that while you breathe in,

[05:30]

you recognize your in-breath as in-breath, and you recognize the out-breath as the out-breath. And since there are so many words in these sentences, we can just retain two words, in and out. When you breathe in, you just say in silently, and when you breathe out, you just say out silently. And the words in and out are there to help your concentration, and we should not be stuck in the words. When I see someone, and if I can call his name or her name, that someone seems to appear more clearly to me. When I eat my lunch, and I pick up a piece of tofu,

[06:32]

I might like to call tofu by its name. And by doing so, I make the piece of tofu more real. That is part of the practice of mindfulness, to call things by their names. You don't have to call them loudly, you can call their names just in your mental. But by doing so, you make the thing appear more real to you. So when you practice breathing in, you say in, in order for your in-breath to appear to you in a more real way. And when you breathe out, you say out the words to do this. The practice is very simple, but to me it is very important and very effective.

[07:35]

First of all, it can stop the thinking. When you breathe like that, you focus all your attention to the breathing, and you become your breathing. You become your breathing. You are your breathing. And when you are your breathing, you will find out that you are more than your thinking. Usually people think a little bit too much, and most of their thinking is not very useful. And in fact, they can be harmful. And when we think too much, we worry too much, we cannot sleep. And in order to stop the thinking,

[08:36]

the best way to me is to practice conscious breathing. You just breathe in and you say in, you just breathe out and you say out. And if you practice like that for five minutes, you give yourself a five-minute rest. Because the in and the out is not thinking. In and out are words. They are mantras in order to help you to focus your attention on your breathing, and you become your breathing. So the first function of conscious breathing is to help you to stop thinking, because thinking very often is less than being. I recall one time I read a newspaper published in Providence. I saw a cartoon in which the character is holding a finger in front of a horse.

[09:40]

And he is saying very solemnly, I think, therefore I am. And then the horse asks back, You are what? You are what? So the idea of the horse is that if you are thinking, you are only the thinking. And the thinking may be less than the being. When someone brings you a flower, and if you are thinking, you miss the flower. This is the story that is told many, many times in the Zen circles. One day the Buddha was standing in front of a community of 1,250 monks and nuns, holding a flower like this, without saying anything. For quite some time. And the whole congregation was completely silent.

[10:43]

Everyone was trying to think, to find out what is behind that kind of gesture. Everyone seemed to be thinking very hard, and the Buddha kept being silent. And after some time, a gentleman from down there, he smiled. And then seeing that, the Buddha was very happy, he smiled back, and he said something like this, I have a treasure of insight, and I have just transmitted it to Mahakasyapa. Mahakasyapa is the name of the person who just smiled to the flower. I guess that all students of Zen know this story. And still many people are still trying to find out what is behind that kind of story, from a subject of meditation.

[11:46]

When I read it, I saw it like this. When someone shows you a flower, he wants you to see the flower. He wants you to see the flower. And if you keep thinking about the meaning of something, you miss the flower. And everyone was thinking except one person. One person. And that person is Mahakasyapa. Mahakasyapa. And that is why Mahakasyapa has been venerated as the patriarch of flower arrangement, of the art of flower arrangement. Because he can see the flowers. If you cannot see flowers, how can you arrange them? When I read the story of the Last Supper in the Bible, I saw the same thing. When Jesus broke the bread and shared it with his students,

[12:53]

he said something like this, This is my body, broken for you. Eat it. And you have life. Well, in our daily life, we eat, we drink, we meet friends, but we may not be very mindful. We keep thinking about things, and therefore we miss everything. If you eat a piece of bread, and if you keep thinking of other things, the piece of bread is not there. It is not real. It is a ghost and not a reality. Therefore, stop your thinking. Thinking is the basic condition to encounter the piece of bread. I believe that is what Jesus tried to do, to wake up his people and to tell them to be in real touch with the piece of bread.

[13:57]

This is a very drastic way of waking up people from their forgetfulness in order for them to be mindful, mindful while eating. To me, the art of mindful living is to help you to be in touch with life, help you to be in touch with your flower, in order for you to enjoy the presence of the flower, help you to be in touch with your non-toothache, in order for you to enjoy your non-toothache, because they are elements of peace, they are elements of joy,

[15:01]

they are elements of happiness. If we practice the art of mindful living, we will discover that elements of peace, of happiness, of joy, are always there within yourself and around yourself. Suppose we pay attention to our eyes. We very soon discover the fact that having eyes is a wonderful thing. Only when we have lost our sight do we know that having eyes is like living in paradise. You only have to open your eyes and you can see the blue sky, you can see the white cloud, the beautiful river, the eyes of your baby, the flower of Mahakasyapa, and so on. And to go out, sit on the grass, and contemplate the tiny flowers blooming in the grass,

[16:03]

that is the practice of peace to me. Because if you are not capable of enjoying your capacity to see the wonderful things around you, then you are not able to enjoy peace. Even peace is there. And there are so many things like this within us, in our body, in our feelings, in our consciousness. Sometimes a feeling of sadness overwhelms us, and we have the impression that we are only our sadness, that we want to end our life. But in fact we know that we are more than our sadness, we are more than our sorrow. Only we are not in touch with these, the elements, that have an opposite nature to our sorrow and our sadness.

[17:11]

We have the seeds of joy, of peace, of happiness in us, in our body and in our soul. But because we don't practice the art of getting in touch, the art of mindful living, we get alienated from these things, and we come to believe that we don't have these things, we are not built on these things, and we believe that we are made of suffering and sorrow. Most of us like to ask the question of what is wrong. What is wrong? And we forget to ask the opposite kind of question, what is right, what is not wrong. There are so many things that are not wrong, that are not going wrong, in our body, like my non-toothed egg,

[18:14]

and also in my mind, in my heart. So the fact that we can have the time and the opportunity to ask the question as what is not wrong, is already a revolution. When we focus our attention only to what is wrong, we can make the situation worse. When something does not go right, we think that we have to get in touch with what is wrong in us. But we don't discuss much about getting in touch with what is not wrong in us. And therefore, what I would like to propose for you to meditate on is our capacity of enjoying peace and happiness,

[19:21]

and joy. Our capacity of being in touch with what is not wrong, what is refreshing, what is healing, what is wonderful, that can be found in the very present moment. And in Buddhism, we can call it the art of mindful living. Because if we live mindfully our daily life, we will get in touch with these wonderful aspects of life that are so healing, that are so refreshing, that are so comforting. We and our children should practice that kind of art, and it may be that by practicing it alone, we don't have to deal with what is wrong. The other day, I was having breakfast with the Vietnam War veterans

[20:33]

in a retreat. And it was a difficult retreat, because there are people who had suffered 13 years, 14 years or more without being able to express their suffering to someone else. And they are completely closed. There was a gentleman who reported to me that he lost 417 men in one battle alone in one day, and he had to live with that for 14 years. There was a gentleman who reported to me that by the spirit of revenge, he took the lives of five children in a village. And from that day on, every time he found himself in a room with some children, he couldn't stand it, he had to get out of the room. For people who bear such kind of sorrow, sadness,

[21:38]

and who are imprisoned in that kind of world, to help them to get out in order to be in touch with the more refreshing, more healing aspects of life is not easy. But we did our best. I was sitting there and having breakfast with them. The night before, I proposed that we went to the kitchen and briefing, and we got silently our breakfast and go into the meditation hall, put our tray in front of us and sit down, and just breathe and look at our breakfast. I told them something like this. When I was a child, four or five years old,

[22:42]

I usually got a cookie from my mother when she went home from the kitchen. And every time like that, I ate my cookie in a way that it would last. I brought the cookie into the front yard, I looked at the sky, the cloud, I looked at the bamboo ticket, and I just took a very small bite of the cookie. I was very aware that if I don't eat it slowly, it will disappear very quickly. And then after that, I touched the cat with my feet, I touched the bamboo leaves, and then I took another bite. And it may take half an hour for me to finish my cookie.

[23:47]

I was really in paradise. I was in real touch with the wonderful things in life. I did not have much to worry about. I did not regret the past. I did not worry about the future. I was not a victim of jealousy or anger. So I was a free person. So I could enjoy my cookie like that. I told the veterans this. I believe that your cookie, the cookie of your childhood, is still there somewhere, buried under a lot of junk, a lot of worries and suffering. But if we care, we really care, we can recuperate that cookie of our childhood. So please, tomorrow, please come and eat my breakfast with me, eat breakfast with me the way I ate my cookie when I was four or five years old.

[24:50]

We have to do that. I also told them that the boat people who escaped Vietnam in order to go to Thailand or Malaysia or the Philippines, very often they are caught in a tempest. And very often they are hungry, they are thirsty, and they don't have anything to eat or to drink. And they can wander months like that on the ocean. And many times they have to urinate in order to have something to drink. And every time I think of that, I feel very happy holding a glass of water in my hand and I drink. Drinking water is such a joy.

[25:52]

So I ask people to drink their tea, their milk, and to eat their donut in that spirit. Because many of us in Southeast Asia are hungry and do not have anything to eat. There was a zone in China where people underwent natural catastrophes. And that is why when they meet each other, they greet each other by this sentence, Have you eaten yet? For many of us, having something to eat is happiness. It's real happiness. So we have to be aware of that and eat our breakfast in that spirit. And I was sitting there eating our breakfast with the Vietnam veterans. I was very aware of what I was doing.

[26:56]

I saw that 20 years ago, something like that could not be imagined. A Buddhist monk from Vietnam sitting with American GIs and eating breakfast in mindfulness, trying to enjoy every sip of water, of tea, of milk, like this. But it works for the veterans. On the third day, they begin to open themselves. They begin to cry. They begin to tell their stories. And finally, we had a meal of reconciliation where we ate Vietnamese food and American food, where we practiced hugging meditation. Hugging in mindfulness, following your breathing, in order to make the person you hug real,

[28:01]

and you, the one who is hugging, become real also. It's like the flower of Mahakasyapa. If you do not think, if you just breathe and be one with the flower, you encounter it deeply. So we were practicing encountering our breakfast, our tea, encountering our friend in such a way that makes life possible again. That morning I was talking about how not to be obsessed by the past. You cannot go back to the past in order to repair things done there. Because the only moment that is available to you

[29:06]

is the present moment. And you can get into that moment deeply, and from there you can do everything. You can even fix the things that have been done in the past in a wrong way. I said something like this. I said that in the present moment, children are dying a little bit everywhere. Dying because of our lack of mindfulness. Dying because of hunger. Dying because of the lack of medicine. There are children who just need a very small tablet of medicine in order to save. There are children who just need a little bit of our mindfulness, our attention in order to be saved. And if you can get in touch with the present moment, you will get in touch with these children, and you can save many of them.

[30:09]

And don't be obsessed by the past, because you will have the power to be and to do a lot of things in the present moment. And if you can take good care of the present moment, not only you can repair the things in the past, but at the same time you take good care of the future. You cannot take good care of the future if you don't take good care of the present moment. And if you think too much, if you think about the past, if you think about the future, you lose the present moment. And therefore the first thing you do in order to go back to the present moment is to practice conscious breathing in order to be able to be back in life. Mahakasyapa, because of his capacity of going back to the present moment, breathing, that is why he saw the flower

[31:13]

and he received the transmission of the Buddha. In Buddhist temples, the bell is one of the means to help us to go back to the present moment. And we are going to practice the bell of mindfulness in our retreat. Every time we hear the bell, not only we stop the talking, the listening, but also we stop the thinking. And we go back to the present moment on the vehicle of our breath. We breathe in and we breathe out. And then we go back to the present moment, to ourselves, very quickly.

[32:15]

Listen, listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true self. When you breathe in, you say, listen, listen. And when you breathe out, you say, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true self. And we practice like that at least three times. And we will find out that during three breathings we'll be in touch with a lot of wonderful things. Suddenly, the singing of the birds becomes very apparent. Suddenly, our breathing becomes very apparent. Suddenly, we become ourselves again, fully. So the bell of mindfulness is what we are going to practice. And even during meal, when we hear the bell of mindfulness,

[33:16]

we pause for a little bit to breathe, and again the food becomes something very real. And we, the person who is receiving the gift of the earth, the food on the table, become someone very real also. So go back to the present moment in order to be in touch with real life. That is the practice of mindfulness. To practice mindfulness is to be aware of what is going on in the present moment within ourselves and around us. The first function of conscious breathing, as you know, is to stop the thinking. The second function of conscious breathing is to allow yourself to be in real touch with life, like the flower, like the little child who comes and presents herself to you.

[34:19]

And the third function is to give you a chance to rest and to restore yourself. When you want to stop your thinking, your worrying, you practice conscious breathing. And if you continue to do that, for five minutes, you have five minutes of rest. And if you want 15 minutes, you have 15 minutes of rest. And we can enjoy our breathing. Breathing is something enjoyable. You know that when we have asthma, it is very difficult to breathe, and we envy the people who can breathe easily. Especially when we are in a city where the air is not as polluted as Los Angeles, we know the joy of breathing. You can be very happy just by enjoying your breathing.

[35:31]

Breathing is part of our happiness, of our peace, and of our joy. And that is why I profit. If I talk a lot, it is like if I think a lot. If I talk a lot, I will miss the chance, the opportunity to go back to the present moment and to breathe. If I refrain from talking during my breakfast, it is not because I want to punish myself, but because I want to be in touch with the food. I want to enjoy my cookie.

[36:35]

And if I turn off the television during dinner, it is because I want to enjoy the dinner. The same thing is true in a silent meal. We turn off our talking in order to be really in touch with the food and to make the cookie of our childhood possible in the present moment. So practicing eating breakfast in that way is the practice of peace and happiness. When you think that you eat breakfast in order to get the energy for the day, well, you don't enjoy your breakfast. Eating breakfast in the spirit of Buddhist meditation is for eating breakfast. And you have to get peace, joy and happiness during eating breakfast. Eating breakfast is not a means to an end, but the end itself. Breathing is also for the enjoyment of breathing.

[37:42]

Breathing is not to become a Buddha. It may be possible that by breathing you become a Buddha, but in that case becoming a Buddha is only a by-product of breathing. Breathing, the most important purpose of breathing is to breathe, to enjoy breathing. The same thing should be true in walking. Walking is for walking first. If you think that walking is to arrive, then you sacrifice walking. And life is just walking. Life is not a destination, life is a way. If you sacrifice walking, there is no life left. You have heard that there is no way to peace.

[38:49]

Peace is the way. Peace is not something in the future. Peace is what we realize in the present moment by our words, our thoughts, our actions. And each word of us, each action of us should be peace right away in the present moment. And therefore you enjoy peace here and now. And that is the meaning of the sentence, there is no way to peace, peace is the way. And now the same thing is true with joy. There is no way to joy. Joy is the way. Every minute of our life should be joyful, and this is possible. Happiness is also like that. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is not a point of arrival. Happiness is the way.

[39:51]

And therefore we should be happy along. I would like to present to you, I think, the Buddhist notion concerning hope. To hope means to pray, to hope for becoming a Buddha, to hope for the kingdom of God, to hope for peace, to hope for happiness in the future, equally hope. But the maximum thing hope can do is to make the present moment less hard, less difficult, but it's still suffering. So if you are able to stop hoping,

[40:53]

to cut the hope, and then you have all your energies available in order to make a breakthrough in the present moment, you have to find your happiness, your joy and your peace right there, in the present moment. And that is why we have the notion of sudden enlightenment. Buddhahood must be found in the present moment, not in the future. Joy has to be found in the present moment, not in the future. Enlightenment has to be found in the present moment, not in the future. In the practice of Buddhist meditation, mindfulness is enlightenment itself. When you are aware of what is going on, when you are in touch with things, you recognize them, you can look into their nature, you understand them, that is enlightenment.

[41:54]

And therefore there is no way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the way, living every moment of your life mindfully, that is the practice of enlightenment, in every second, in every moment. That is the real practice of Buddhism. The healing also, the healing should be practiced in the present moment, should be sought for in the present moment. When we drive or when we walk, we tend to think of the arrival. But we, we know, we ourselves, we know that very often at the point of arrival things are not as good as when you are walking or driving. And if we talk of destination, of the destination,

[42:55]

we know that our final destination is our own death. We do not want to go there. That is not the purpose of our life. We want to go in the direction of life. But where is that direction? Life can only be found in the present moment. Therefore, each step you make should bring you back to the present moment. That is what we call walking meditation. You walk and each step brings you back to the present moment in order for you to be alive there, to find peace, joy and happiness there. And if you make a step like that, you get enlightened. You don't have to make two, just one. And since you know that you are not looking for something over there at the end of your road,

[43:57]

since you know that life is in each step you make in the present moment, you have no alternative but going back to the present moment and realize everything you want there in the present moment. And the principle of Buddhist therapy is there. The basic principle of Buddhist therapy is there. The future and the past, they can be recognized, they can be seen, they can be obtained in the present moment. Like when the Buddhists practice the precept of not using alcohol and intoxicants, they practice on that principle. Do not use alcohol and other intoxicants.

[45:00]

Be aware that this body, your body has been transmitted by previous generations of ancestors and also your parents. To destroy your body with alcohol and other intoxicants is to betray your ancestors, your parents, and also to betray future generations. If you practice like this, like that, you see that your body does not belong to you. It belongs to your ancestors also, and it belongs to future generations. So you take good care of it, means you take good care of it for the sake of your ancestors and also for your children and grandchildren. So you look into yourself in the present moment, you take care of the present moment, you take care of the past, and you take care of the future. It's the same principle. So when you make a step like this, being aware that you should be alive,

[46:04]

you should be happy, you should be peaceful in each step, well, you are practicing Buddhism, you are practicing mindfulness, you are practicing happiness and joy. And therefore, the practice of peace is the practice of joy, it is the practice of happiness, and also it is the practice of healing. This retreat of ours is basically a retreat. I do believe that psychotherapists do need a retreat like other people, and I believe that retreats can be very pleasant.

[47:07]

We practice things like eating our breakfast, we practice things like just look at one flower, we practice like just drink our tea in mindfulness, we practice like making one step, we practice like that. And we need the art of practicing. We practice so that we can be in touch with the wonderful things in life in order to realize that there are many, many things that are not wrong. And because we have to help other people, we have to show them the way in order for them to be in touch with things that are not wrong, that exist in themselves and all around them. Of course, we shall have the opportunity to exchange our concerns, our views, our experiences,

[48:12]

but it seems that if we try to practice mindful living like this, to practice being in touch like that, we may find out that the concerns or the questions or the difficulties that we have been having may turn out to be not very important, and we may find other concerns, other problems coming up during our practice. In the first one or two days, we shall concentrate very much on how to get back to ourselves, to make our person whole, real, in order to make the encounter between us and the flower be possible, and between ourselves and our eyes, between ourselves and our non-today to be possible.

[49:15]

And then we begin to practice exchanging our suffering, our views, our concerns, and our experiences. I would like to say that by doing very small things, we can realize the most important thing, like we make a bow to each other like this. Bowing to each other, to greet each other, is a practice of mindfulness. And the way we do it is like this. When we see a person on our way, we stop. Not only for the sake of being polite, it's more important. We begin to breathe in and to form a flower with our two palms.

[50:17]

And we say, a lotus for you, visualizing the flower being formed by your two palms. And when you breathe out, you bow and you say, a Buddha to be, a lotus flower for you, the Buddha to be. And when you practice like that, you make mindfulness, awareness, happen in you. And you know that mindfulness is the Buddha in person, the essence of the Buddha. So you become a Buddha in that moment, being aware of who you are and what you are doing, and who is in front of you. And a person who may be thinking, well, if she sees you doing like that, she'll also stop, and then she'll go back to her breathing, and she'll make a flower, and she'll bow, and there you are, two Buddhas breathing each other.

[51:21]

And this kind of practice, simple, easy, enjoyable, and make it possible for us to be in touch with life. I would like to ask that during the retreat, we practice silence, because silence is very needed for us to practice breathing and looking more deeply. If we talk a lot, there is no way to do so. And silence can go very well with joy and happiness. We don't want that kind of silence that is oppressive. So while eating our breakfast in silence, we can be very joyful. And walking from our cabin to the meditation hall, we can practice walking meditation.

[52:25]

Only walking meditation, so that we can practice making peaceful and happy steps. In the doctrine of, in the teaching of Vijnanavada in Buddhism, there is the word of transformation at the base. Transformation not on the level, not on the upper level of consciousness, but in the lower level of consciousness. And that transformation can be obtained just by walking slowly. Walking slowly is to resist running to the future. Walking slowly is to learn the capacity of enjoying each step, because you know that life can only be found in the present moment. And first we need some kind of resistance in order to slow down and to walk like that.

[53:28]

But once you begin to enjoy each step that you make, you begin to dwell in the present moment, and you realize peace and happiness in the present moment. I think all of us need to put rest tonight. I wouldn't like to talk longer. I only wish that you can sing with me a gatha about breathing that we shall practice in the next five days. The gatha is like this. In, out, deep, slow. Calm, ease, smile, release. Eight words. In, out, I have explained to you. Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out. That exercise to recognize the secret of the success is to recognize the in-breath as in-breath, and the out-breath as out-breath. After you have practiced in-out for a few times,

[54:30]

and you find that your in-out is quite solid, you switch into deep, slow. Breathing in deeply, I know that I am breathing in deeply. But you just retain one word, deep. Breathing out slowly, I know that I am breathing out slowly. That is slow. Of course, when you breathe consciously for a few minutes, for a few times, the quality of your breathing will be improved. Your breathing will be a little bit deeper, a little bit slower, more peaceful, more joyful. And that can be seen in the second exercise, deep and slow. And when your deep and slow is solid, you switch into the third exercise, calm, ease. Calm means breathing in, I calm my body. My body means my mind. Because in Buddhist meditation, you realize the oneness of body and mind

[55:32]

thanks to the mediation of the breathing. We have time to go back to this tomorrow. Calm, ease. Ease means you are at ease, you feel light, you are free, you are not under any kind of pressure. The feeling of being at ease, the feeling of being light, is one of the seven factors of enlightenment in the teaching of Buddhism. Calm, ease. And when your calm and your ease has become solid, you switch into smile, release. Smiling, breathing in, I smile. Breathing out, I release. Smiling is to realize the relaxation of all the muscles on your face. And smiling is also to stimulate your body, in order for your body to realize joy in yourself.

[56:32]

Even if you don't have joy, and if you can't smile like that, your body will follow the expression of your face, of your lips, in order to realize the smiling, the condition, the physical, the chemical conditions for joy and peace. We have time to go back to that later. And breathing out, you release. You release anything that is making you unhappy, your worries, your tendency to rush into the future, your belief that your happiness is there in the future. Release all these things and enjoy breathing in the present moment. And the kind of sitting meditation I ask you to do in this retreat is just breathing. It's just being without thinking. And finally, we come to the last, which is the present moment, wonderful moment.

[57:34]

When you breathe in, you recover your whole person, and you dwell in the present moment. And when you breathe out, you say, wonderful moment. You enjoy it. You enjoy in the present moment. You think you make it into the best moment of your life. If someone asks us whether the best moment of our life has arrived or not, we may be a little bit embarrassed. We may say that, well, it seems that it has not arrived, the best moment of my life, but I believe that it will arrive very soon. And we know very well that if we continue to live like in the past, it will never arrive. And in the light of Buddhist meditation, the answer is simple. Make the present moment into the best moment of your life. And therefore, when you breathe in, present moment.

[58:38]

Breathe out, wonderful moment. That is the most wonderful moment of your life. Whether you are sitting, or walking, or lying down, or pulling the weeds in your garden, or washing the dishes in the kitchen, you can make that moment into the best moment of your life, realizing peace and joy right away. Don't wait. Thich Phuong, can you help us to sing this gatha? In our deepest love Calm is my release Present moment Wonderful moment

[59:40]

In our deepest love Calm is my release Present moment Wonderful moment Again, please. In our deepest love Calm is my release Present moment Wonderful moment

[60:48]

The way I suggest is that when you sit down, after you sit down and you correct your sitting position, you begin to follow your breathing, and you practice in and out. Enjoy it. You are not practicing breathing to become a Buddha. You just practice breathing to enjoy your breathing. And if you don't enjoy your breathing, there is no need to practice. Breathing is enjoyable. And when you find that your in and out is solid, after two, three, four, five times in and out,

[61:51]

you move into deep, slow. The fact is that when your breathing has become peaceful and subtle, you become peaceful and subtle. Because the principle is that while you breathe consciously, you become your breathing. And if your breathing becomes peaceful, you become peaceful. It's simple like that. So you practice deep, slow for two, three, four, five times towards your enjoyment. Then you move into calm, ease. You decide how many times you want to do it. And you follow the need, the mood of your body and your mind. Be free to enjoy this. And when you come to present moment, wonderful moment, you enjoy it.

[62:52]

Sitting here is the most important thing in my life. And you practice sitting like that. We shall not sit very long. We only sit about 15 minutes each time. There are living beings whose lifespan is only 15 minutes. And suppose I have only 15 minutes to live. If I have 15 minutes to live, I just sit down and enjoy breathing. So sit as if you only have 15 minutes to live. Enjoy. And when you hear the bell, you practice the bell. Listen, listen. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true self. Those of you who are Buddhists and who want to ask what is a true self, I say that your true self is a self that is made of non-self elements. For three times, and you hear the bell, you stand up.

[63:56]

And you continue to practice breathing. And when you practice walking meditation in a meditation hall, you can still use this gatha. You breathe in and you make a step. In. And you breathe out, you say, out. In. Out. And you breathe as if you kiss the floor with your feet. As if you print your in, your out on the floor. You print your peace and your calm on the floor. You walk as if you breathe with the sole of your feet. Pay attention to the contact between your feet and the floor. And enjoy each step you make. Each step is like a gem that you produce by your awareness and your stepping.

[65:00]

And your breathing is like a string that collects all these gems and makes them into a necklace. A necklace. So if you make 150 steps, but you have 150 pearls to make your necklace, don't lose any step because each step can make you very happy. Because the base of happiness is mindfulness. The fact is that if you have the conditions of being happy and if you are not aware that you are happy, it is equal to not being happy. So the mindfulness of being happy is the basic condition for you to be happy. So make peaceful, joyful, happy steps like that. And enjoy walking. Walking is for walking, for not arriving. I think...

[66:02]

Did I forget anything for tonight? I think... Tomorrow. I think tomorrow. So I wish that you all have a very good night's sleep.

[66:20]

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