Freedom from Being Caught in the Past or the Future | Dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh, 2014.07.26

Today is July 26,

2014

and we are in the meditation hall of the assembly of stars hello hamlet plumlish and this is our fourth week of summer opening there is an energy of the habit of learning in each of us we have learned that habit for a long time a long time For a long time we have not felt comfortable in the here and now we feel that we are not comfortable in the here and then and we tend to run towards the

future

seeking happiness seeking peace seeking fulfillment many of us are trapped in our regret and sadness for the past, you may have suffered a lot as a child and the mark of suffering is very deep and there is a dark corner in our consciousness and the memory of suffering is a stock there and in our daily life it tends to return to that place and wash the film again and again and experience the suffering of the past again and again.

We know that it is not good to go back to the past and suffer the same type of suffering over and over again, but that has become a habit so the past becomes a kind of prison, we are locked in it and you are not able to get out. and

being

in the present moment where there is sun the blue sky and the wounds of life we ​​are not free so there must be a way to get out of that prison and the practice of mindfulness can help us and many of us also tend to run towards the

future

and we have a lot of fear and uncertainty about the future and we are trapped by that air energy of fear and uncertainty and worry and the future becomes also a prison we are so worried about the future that we worry about the future and that's why We are also not able to live in the present moment where all the wonders of life are available in fact life is available only in the here and now the past is no longer there and the future is not yet there just life life It is only available in the present moment and this is something very clear the blue sky the beautiful hills the trees the flowers the sunlight the future all the wonders of life are there in the present moment even the kingdom of god is available in the present moment here and now the pure land of the buddha and yet we are not free from the past and the future to be a

being

with life deep down, that is why the practice of mindfulness helps us stop being trapped by the past for the future to to be free to live deeply each moment giving ourselves to live in the present moment we need

freedom

to be able to live our life and free ourselves from the past, from the future, from worries and uncertainty about the future, from sadness and regret for the past and attention full with the practice of breathing, working and having can help us free ourselves and be there we have a date with life and that date takes place in the here and now in the present moment and if we lose the present moment it meets our date with life, which is very serious, but as we continue to live without attention, it is always lost.

In the present moment, the practice of conscious walking can be very useful because if you know how to walk and then each step can take us home, to the here and then, and we can combine our steps with our impression if you know how to combine breathing and working together and breathe mindfully and work mindfully and then each step can take you home, to the here and now, so that you can live our life, otherwise you will waste our life, we have been living in oblivion for many, many years, the forgetting is the opposite of mindfulness mindfulness is remembering that life is wonderful, we are there and we must live our life deeply when you practice working with a group of people, we can, we can, we can walk normally, not kick, not too slow and breathe, we can do. two steps or three steps and each step should take us home, down here, now and you can use a word to remind yourself that you must do it I have a right I have a life I have arrived it is not a thought you are not thinking I have a life it is a means, a kind of device to help you do what you want to do.

I have arrived means that I have arrived at the here where life is available the direction of life is here and you will discover that the kingdom the direction of the kingdom of God is also here and that is what I found. I have shared this vision and practice with many Catholics and Protestants, many of them bishops' hobby shops and they are very capable of understanding them. I told them that for me the kingdom of God is available here and now and you don't have to die to go to the kingdom. In fact, it may be too late.

You have to be very alive to be able to enter the kingdom of earth. you know how to breathe consciously and take a step in mindfulness you can now enter the kingdom the kingdom is available the problem remains whether you are available for the kingdom and the practice of mindfulness is to make yourself available for the kingdom and if you can go to the kingdom You no longer have to run you have a life of joy and happiness and love is possible when you are in the kingdom this flower this lotus flower she belongs to the kingdom of god for me it is very clear if she does not belong to the kingdom to which she should belong and if you are really there completely present you can get in touch with it and the kingdom of God is that if you can get in touch with the lotus flower you get in touch with the kingdom of god and this is part of the kingdom this contains the kingdom you The body also belongs to the kingdom of God.

It is a wonder. It is a great gift and many Christian mystics agree that with this you carry the kingdom of God in you and whatever. The contact you come into contact with also contains the kingdom and deceptions. Those I spoke with are very capable of recognizing that the kingdom of God is available on the Internet. I told them that if they can offer the kind of teaching and practice to help young people get in touch with the kingdom of God in the here and now, then they will stop running after objects of their desires such as essential pleasures, movies, power, sex, etc., and they will destroy the body and the mind and many many of them do not want to do anything with their life and they run after objects of mourning such as money, power, sex, and they store themselves so that it is possible to offer the type of teaching and practice that can help people enjoy the kingdom. of God to generate joy and peace right at hand and now and that is the only way to prevent people from destroying the body and mind by running after the objects of their desires, but the teaching and practice must be very complete and the Practitioners should be able to taste and experience the joy and happiness of being with the kingdom.

In the gospel there is a story of a farmer who found a treasure in a piece of land and went home and sold everything else to buy the piece of land. If you have that treasure, you don't need it, you don't need anything else, so if we have the kingdom with us in our life, we don't need anything else and in the light of mindfulness practice, the kingdom, the treasure. it is available here on earth mother earth is a beautiful planet she is the most beautiful planet in the entire galaxy our scientists have not found a second and mother earth is very talented she is beautiful i have the opportunity to be on this planet the kingdom of god for those of us because this mindfulness is on earth based on the kingdom is most available here and the practice of mindfulness is to be available for the kingdom and to practice working meditation my work is to enjoy the kingdom with everything in every step it has the energy of mindfulness, concentration inside, the inside is the kingdom, it is here, you don't need to look for it anywhere else or in the future, and that inside is not that difficult to get, just look at this lotus flower and you can see it. that flower belongs to the kingdom the sun belongs to the kingdom and you belong to the kingdom you do not have to go somewhere else or in the future to look for it that is just a perception and with the interior you can stop running and with each step bring yourself home here now that's why you can you can declare that you have a right I have a right if you are conscious and concentrated you can reach 100 other directions here and now so I have arrived it is a practice and not a declaration and you make the declaration with your feet breathing, you say that I have life and if you have enough mindfulness, you can do it correctly and if you can get there, you can stop running, you can stop the course that we have been running all the time, all your life.

Our life and the habit of running have been passed down to us from our parents and ancestors, so now with this idea we can stop running and breathe. I take one step and arrive in a year and get naked. It's clear. I have ridden and those exist. Many of us can already reach the first session of my voice and some of us find it difficult because the habit of marking is very strong. I remember one day a journalist from the moon came here and was invited to join the walking meditation before he had the interview and he suffered a lot during work, he reported afterwards that it is very tiring because he was used to running and had to force himself to go slowly without suffering much episode, that is the word that episode used and yet, in the meantime, many of us, most of us, enjoy the kingdom of God with everything ceasing to experience joy and happiness at every step because every step can be nourishing and healing. and for him it is suffering so we have to train ourselves in walking we work in such a way that each step can help us stop the fight for the cause to get here now and get in touch with the wonders of life that are available here the sun is a wonder the blue sky is a wonder the beautiful trees are a wonder everything is a wonder a pebble is a water, a butterfly, a time, even the mud that helps the lotus grow is a wonder and why you walk with us you can benefit from the collective energy of mindfulness generated by the entire group because many of us know how to walk and arrive with everything so that you allow yourself to be embraced by that type of collective energy and it will be easier for you to arrive but I have it so you can start with two steps while you burst in I have right I have a life make sure it rules your right and then when you exhale you say I'm home now home oh because my home is here my home is not the past or the future my home is the kingdom of god the pure land of the buddha my home It's mother earth so when you exhale you can take three steps because our exhale is usually a little bit longer than the exhale, so you say I have the right, I have arrived, I am home and you feel at home with everything, it is very healing and nutritious if you can't do it right and feel like you are at home here now your home is not in switzerland or holland or indonesia america your home is here and now where life is available so these words are not thoughts they are a guiding device for If you concentrate on it, you can realize and this is a challenge because we are used to running, running, running, and that's why this is a kind of resistance, this is a revolution, yes, everything is a revolution, I don't no longer want to run, I want to stop, I want to live. my life I don't want to miss out on the wonders of life I don't want to miss out on the kingdom of God that is available I have a right I have a life I am home, home, home, and you know what, when you come to the right, there is peace in you because you no longer turn around, you no longer run, that's why there is peace and your footprint, your footprint, has a piece, has a mark here. and now it's so simple but it's so deep.

I have arrived and you may enjoy arriving and feeling home for three four five ten minutes, as long as you want and an hour of practice can already make a different difference. You have to learn how. to breathe and walk again and then after that you could change to my you could use other words in the hair and the now here here here there is no mistake this is the true true direction and that is the direction of life that is heading to the kingdom so although they are different words but they mean exactly the same the point of arrival at the place of Allah and you are well established in the here and now and you are in a position to get in touch with the wonders of life that are available and get in touch with they get the nourishment and healing you need and those of us who can heal ourselves simply with the practice of mindful walking can stop and enjoy if your depression still continues if your depression refuses to go away because you continue to allow it to go away like this you are a victim if you know how to stop running to be yourself to get home and heal and then the depression will have to go I am solid I am free because each step is taken like this doing it like this can help cultivate more solidity, we know that a person without stability and solidly cannot be a happy person, so by walking like this I continue with more stability and solidity and this is not an autosuggestion, an illusion because with each step I can stop running and I arrive I am well established in the here and now and the past and the future can no longer keep me away that's why I'm solid I'm sorry it's a fact and not an illusion so if with each step you can stop and you can reach and then you're sad you're solidly established in the now you're a free person you're working like a free person you're working like a buddha being a buddha is possible the buddha is someone inhabited by the energy of mindfulness and inside who has a lot of food that can enjoy every step as a student of buddha as a disciple of buddha as a friend of buddha as a son of Buddha you can enjoy

freedom

like him, I am solid, I amfree because nothing keeps me away, including my projects, my worries, my planning, because I use all my energy, time and joy walking and getting in touch with him and the now with the wonders of life.

The last thing we will do is we have a physical body which is a wonder. But this physical body will one day disintegrate and that is the truth that we have to accept, but we also have a cosmic body from which we can and the cosmic body is the last thing in the surface, birth and death are a number, but if you go Deep down there is no longer birth or death being a non-being and that is a deeper level of our existence suppose you contemplate a wave that appears in the ocean a wave a wave does not last long and the wave has its body a wave body that can last 5 seconds or 10 seconds or 20 20 seconds but the wave has its body of ocean because it comes from the ocean and will return to the ocean and at the same time as the body wave has the ocean body that she does not have to go look for her ocean body because she is her ocean body at this very moment, so if the wave recognizes and touches her ocean body, she loses all kinds of fear and uncertainty, your body is not just the way your body is. the whole ocean in Christianity our friends

talk

about resting in god god is your body cosmic body which is the supreme in the supreme ideal is the Buddhist way of saying rest in god the supreme god is the supreme without birth and even less so if you walk carefully If your concentration and perception are powerful and with every step you can touch your cosmic body, you can touch God, you can touch is the Buddhist word for God, not as a person less frequently, but as the ultimate reality, then these words are simple but they can. be very deep the practice of walking seems simple but it can be very deep you can touch your heart with each step you can touch your cosmic body with each step and you lose all your fear and uncertainty look where in the sky I look the cloud in the sky also has the body of the ocean, they come from the ocean and carry the ocean in them and the water.

The cloud is also water, it is like a tomb, so it is very useful if the cloud realizes that it has its body from the ocean and enjoys floating more while you float one day she will return and she does not have to return because now she is in her ocean body, so conscious work helps us become more solid, more free, helps us cultivate joy and happiness, helps us heal and nourish ourselves and finally helps us play the ultimate and the rhythm 2 3 can be changed according to the needs of our lungs sometimes our lungs say that well if you give me one more step one more step while we breathe we are happier so you give your lungs three steps instead of two I have arrived safely and your lungs will be completely satisfied with three steps but sometimes your lungs say only two and you give them exactly two and when you're going up the slope your lungs give you just a single step, one step while you breathe and you give them exactly the number of lungs you want.

You have to listen to your body and give it exactly what your body wants if inspiration goes in three steps and our breathing will go at some point. with four or five and it is usually fine and if the inhalation is one step and our breathing can be two or three too often, this is when you go up a slope, sometimes you need four or six and in sitting meditation at Sometimes it lasts longer, you don't walk, but if you have a watch, you can measure it. You are in bed. Breathing can take three seconds. Now five seconds.

Breathing in can take four seconds. Sometimes you enjoy it so much that your inhalation becomes deeper and your explosion becomes deeper. it becomes longer and sometimes it reaches 10 15. but we don't force ourselves to breathe that long, we just feel that it is so pleasant that it goes slowly like this and you can enjoy sitting and breathing, sitting and breathing can be nourishing and healing. it is not hard heart liver to sit relax and breathe can be very healing and you can do it if you know how to manage your breathing and your body and then to sit it is a pleasure to sit and do nothing that is a luxury in our civilization and to sit and walk so we can heal ourselves we can nourish ourselves so dear friends I would recommend that during the week we are together here every time we need to go somewhere even if it is a very short distance of three five steps you always apply the method of mindfulness work you go to the bathroom you go to the kitchen you go to the dining room you go to the Mediterranean I always apply the techniques of my complete breathing and enjoy every step that I will do with you and he will try not to lose any step in oblivion he will try to touch the kingdom of God with everything and there are those of us who are monks and lay people that we can do that to support ourselves and this is a timely opportunity because there is the collective energy of mindfulness and peace and if we know how to make good use of our time here and then when we return home it will become a habit and we will be able to walk like this from the parking lot to the place where we have our office we can walk like this and enjoy the kingdom of God with all the many hypomas that will make it so that after the removal of the bus stop from the train station in the parking lot they will walk where they work with that arriving at every moment touching with everything the windows of life and achieve the healing the transformation the food with everything and when you walk like this you set an example for all of us and I see you walking freely with peace with joy we are motivated by the desire to look like you and together we will create an atmosphere of peace and happiness and brotherhood will make the kingdom of God available to all, please remember, make good use of your time here, learn the art of walking, walk like a free person, walk like a buddha, do not work like a sleepwalker .