Recorded live at a five-day retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, sponsored by the Community of Mindful Living, September 1st through the 6th, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California. Tape number TNG5, Mindfulness Practices with the Monks of Plum Village. Tonight's panel discussion is on the Five Mindfulness Trainings. Thay has described the Five Mindfulness Trainings as the right medicine for our time. This is a continuation this evening, or an elaboration, of one sentence from this morning's Dharma talk. Thay said, we shine the light of mindfulness on everything

[01:02]

we do, on every one of our behaviors. He said something like, it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, we shine the light of mindfulness on it. And the light of mindfulness will help the flower bloom in and of itself. During the Buddha's lifetime, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people became ordained as monks and nuns. But there were other people who, because of their circumstances, needed to find another way to practice full-time, or as much as they could. So the Buddha offered these Five Mindfulness Trainings for the rest of us, for those of us who were not prepared to receive what has, during the centuries, become two and three hundred precepts. Thay spoke of interbeing today,

[02:13]

and something like practicing any one of these trainings is to practice all 300 precepts. Five friends will present one mindfulness training each, and describe their own experience and concrete ways of practicing with this guideline. In a word, in three words, this is the scientific study on ourselves of cause and effect. We do this, and that happens, or we feel like that. We walk into the wall, and we have one experience. We walk through the door, and we have another experience. It's a kind of scientific experiment we do day in and day out, on

[03:18]

ourselves. We just observe. The Buddha didn't use words like right and wrong, or even good and bad, but words like beneficial, wholesome, unwholesome, unbeneficial. For that reason, Thay looked in the scriptures recently to see if there was another word than precept that could help us understand how to practice these trainings. There is a word in Buddhist scriptures, shila, which is usually translated precept. But many friends, including friends in northern Europe, found that they were allergic to the word precepts. So being a mindful teacher, rather than force the word precepts upon them, he studied the

[04:19]

scriptures and found that the Buddha often used the word siksha instead of shila to describe the same practices. And that means trainings. So now you will hear us refer to these five guidelines as mindfulness trainings. But if in the past you studied them as precepts, only the word has changed. Thay often talks of these five guidelines as being like the North Star. My wife and I were recently leading mindfulness retreats down under and found this is not a universal metaphor. But for us, it gives the picture. He says

[05:20]

that the precepts, the mindfulness trainings, are like the North Star. They give us some direction to head towards, but we don't expect to reach it 100%. All of these guidelines, as our friends will share with us tonight, cannot be practiced successfully 100%. So we shouldn't think of them in the black and white terms of our culture, the right and wrong, the good and evil terms that our Judeo-Christian heritage usually gives us the impression we're supposed to think, or at least as it has evolved to our day, that we fail and we are in hell. In fact, that's true. But that's something, as Thay said today, of our own making, and it

[06:23]

depends on our way of looking. We do our best and we forgive ourselves a lot. We practice mindful breathing, we observe what we are doing, what we have done, and we vow to do our best over and over. And then we fail again and we vow again. In fact, the word vow has now been edited from these five guidelines as well, because some friends had allergy to that as well. They really felt it's too strong a term, that they will fall too far from the mountain if they vow something and and don't accomplish it. So Thay has replaced the few places the word vow is present with I am determined or I am committed, which has exactly the same meaning. I now invite five friends to offer their personal commentary on each

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of these five mindfulness trainings. They will read it first and then offer commentary for five or ten minutes. After ten minutes, our friend Carol, the bell master, will make what we call a stop sound or waking the bell up to remind us we have reached ten minutes and it's time for mindful breathing together. And then at the end, I will make some concluding remarks and share with you the way that the ceremony on Saturday morning for formally receiving and accepting these five trainings will occur and how to participate in it if you would like to. Thank you very much. My name is Arnie Kotler. I am a student of Thay from the Bay Area. Our five

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friends who will comment on the five trainings are Wendy Johnson, True Compassion Adornment from the Bay Area, Anhung Nguyen, Chun Yi, which I said wrong and I don't know how to translate. Chun Yi is what? True Mind from Washington, D.C. Therese Fitzgerald, True Light, will comment on the third training from the Bay Area. Khanh Levan, True Transmission from Down Under, our host when I had to learn about the Southern Cross, will comment on the fourth training. And Cliff Hegal from Memphis, Tennessee, will comment on the fifth training. The first mindfulness training. Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction

[10:40]

of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking and in my way of life. It's a great pleasure and honor to be here and to confess before all 1,000 of you how, as an organic gardener, this training is with me at every moment of

[11:40]

my life. I am committed not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing. It's huge. I know that as I walk to the garden where I've worked for 23 years, every day with each footstep, I am taking life. And I know that when I rev up the lawnmower to mindfully mow the garden paths, I am taking life. Right before coming to this retreat, I was working in the garden and through mowing and through working in the garden, I encountered a garden snake and the tail of the snake was hit by the mower. True, the snake was under layers of plants. And

[12:45]

it crawled out into the path and I stopped the mower and stood watching the snake's life go out of it. This is still very vivid. For a mown path, the life of a garter snake, San Francisco garter snake, almost endangered now because of the building of the cities. I never would have done that, but that's what happened on that day. And shortly afterwards, I lifted a board in the garden and found another snake and it looked up at me as I lifted the board and I thought, oh my lord, what have I done this time? And put the board back down, hoping all was well. And the next day, I had the courage to lift the board thinking it is my

[13:46]

responsibility to at least take the snake to the compost pile, as I did with the snake I hit with the mower. And when I lifted the board, all that was under there was the skin of the snake, the molted skin of the snake with the eye hole still looking up at me. And I thought tonight, in preparation for this precept, sitting here with my Dharma brothers and sisters, I thought the heart and soul of this first precept is a reverence for life, as Thay has taught and written. It's a reverence for life and it means molting out of dead skin and growing into responsibility. Because in every action that we do, we take life. I know that in this cup of pure water, there are numerous life forms. I know that in a

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handful of living earth, there are more microorganisms than there are on the entire, than there are beings on the entire planet Earth. And how do I walk on the soil? How do I take responsibility for the soil? This precept speaks about cultivating awareness. To cultivate means to open the ground and to work and to look deeply at how we affect everything we touch. Therefore, unabashedly and wholeheartedly, I vow to pay homage and to cultivate a reverence for life and an acceptance of my heavy tread on this earth and to do everything I can to be mindful with every step I make. It may sound grand, but

[15:53]

it isn't. It's the simplest and most profound function of human life. I like to think of the monks of old traveling across the mountains of Vietnam and China and India with the ring staffs, a long rod, and on the top three or four rings. And with every step, they banged the staff on the ground so the rings would shake and so that all life forms in their path would move. Maybe we can't walk around that way, but we can walk with mindful steps. And maybe out of that reverence for life, go the next step deeper to that ground that goes underneath the snake, which is referred to in this precept, the taking of life in my thinking. So there

[16:56]

are two. There's the actual taking of life and then the taking of life or killing in our thinking. And again, my touchstone, my, what do I call it? Base or ground rock, you know, the base of my existence that does depend on a reverence for life. Breathe. We're alive. So this is the first mindfulness training to dream the impossible dream, and yet we vow to do it. Thank you very much. Social injustice, stealing, and oppression. I am committed to cultivating loving

[18:30]

kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on earth. This is the new version, isn't it?

[19:42]

This second mindfulness training is about cultivating loving kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of other species on earth. From my personal experience, I think of the second mindfulness training as the practice of generosity, which is born from compassion, which is born from mindfulness. As Arne said, the base for all of these mindfulness trainings, the

[20:59]

foundation of all of these five mindfulness trainings is mindfulness. In February, last February, I was able to go back to Vietnam and visit the children who received support through our work in Virginia. It's the Committee for the Relief of Poor Children in Vietnam. And when I was there, I was able to see

[22:05]

with my eyes, to feel with my heart their hunger, their sufferings. I visited many schools, and one of the schools, the children were having lunch. They were young, between the ages of four and seven, but I was so surprised to see how good they were in not letting any bit of food spill on the floor. If a grain of rice fell

[23:08]

out on the floor, they would pick it up immediately, like little birds. It touched my heart deeply to witness that. When we are in touch with the real sufferings in the world, the compassion, the desire to relieve the suffering grows stronger and stronger. And when the compassion is so strong, we want to do something. It's like after

[24:15]

getting pregnant for nine months and some days, the baby must come out. The same thing with compassion. When you're there, you know how much the other people suffer, and compassion rises in you, up to a point that you cannot sit there. You have to do something to relieve their sufferings. I came to America in December 79, and a few months after that, I started the work to help the poor families in Vietnam, because I was in Vietnam, and I know how much the people there suffer. I had to do that, because if I didn't do that,

[25:33]

I could not survive. There are three kinds of gifts that we can offer to other people. The first is the material gift. That is, when people are hungry, we give them food. When they are thirsty, we give them drink. When they don't have enough clothes, we give them clothes. The second kind of gift is to be there for them. When they suffer, we

[26:42]

are there for them, to help them through difficult moments. For example, with conscious breathing, mindful walking, looking deeply in order to understand, to accept, and to The last kind of gift is called the gift of non-fear. And when we want to practice generosity, we can do any one of these three, or any combination of these three. I have a four-year-old boy,

[27:46]

and before the meal, we always join palms, and he always says prayers like this. I am very happy that I have my parents with all this food available to me. And I remember of my friends in Vietnam who are not fortunate as I am. And thank you for this food. The practice of generosity, of the second mindfulness training, goes hand-in-hand with the first, the third, the fourth, and the fifth mindfulness trainings. We have spiders

[28:59]

and ants in our home, and especially in the summer, there are many carpenter ants. What I tell my son to do is to pick up the ants and put them out back to their mothers in the yard. So every time he sees an ant, he will take a cup, turn it upside down, and put a piece of paper beneath it, and bring the ant outdoor. That is giving back life, giving life for the ant. That is not stealing the life of the ant. When we are mindful,

[30:02]

we know what the other person needs, and what he or she doesn't need. We know what to give her, and what not to give her. This morning, Thay talked about selective touching. We want to touch the seed of giving, of understanding, of compassion in the ones we love, and in all the people we come in contact with. And we try to avoid the unwholesome seeds. When

[31:06]

we say something loving and understanding, something nice to other people, it is an act of giving. We give them the water to make the seed of love, of happiness, sprout in There is much, much that we can give. And when we give, we don't steal. When we steal,

[32:17]

we don't give. And thanks to mindfulness, we know what to give. Therefore, we know what not to steal. Mindfulness training. Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of

[33:20]

individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. I would like to add to this training some bits from the 14th Mindfulness Training of the Order of Interbeing. For lay members, aware that sexual relations, motivated

[34:25]

by craving, cannot dissipate the feeling of loneliness, but will create more suffering, frustration, and isolation, we are determined not to engage in sexual relations without mutual understanding, love, and a long-term commitment. Also, we will treat our bodies with respect and preserve our vital energies, sexual, breath, spirit, for the realization of our bodhisattva ideal. And for monastic members, aware that the aspiration of a monk or a nun can only be realized when he or she wholly leaves behind the bonds of worldly love, we are committed to practicing chastity and to helping others protect themselves. Also, I would like to read from one of the

[35:38]

newest books we're very happy to have, Stepping into Freedom, and this is part of the commentary by Thay on protecting chastity for the monks and nuns. When a novice practices this precept, which is pretty much what I just read for monastic members, he or she is protecting his or her freedom. Monks and nuns practice this precept not merely by repressing sexual desire, but by following their deepest aspiration to bring happiness to many people. Because we value our commitment to cultivate true love for ourselves and everyone, we are determined not to harm or become sexually involved with anyone. People can rely on us and be open with us, and we can, in turn, offer stability and counsel. I feel very happy about this training. It is a training that so clearly illustrates how the essence of the

[36:52]

trainings is protection. I think we sometimes feel a little too proud, like we don't need protection. But if we are mindful in our days, I think we come to feel the joy of having real protection. And protection for what? I see it as protection of our mind of love, our bodhicitta. Thay has written about this very beautifully in Cultivating the Mind of Love. It's really understanding what our life's deep purpose is. And seeing that as a jewel, seeing our mind of love, our deepest desire, our innermost request, Suzuki Roshi calls it, seeing our innermost request as a jewel that we want to protect,

[37:58]

we want to guard, we want to shine, we want to take care of. It is, as Thay has talked about today, he's talked about energy. And I think the third mindfulness training is suggesting to us that we are very careful about channeling our energy, focusing our attention and energy to nurture our mind of love. Baker Roshi, one of my teachers, always used to say, we limit in order to reproduce. We may not have all the choices in the world, but we make some important choices. So we don't miss the opportunity to live the life we

[38:59]

really want to live. So we may choose to be chaste or choose not to be celibate. That is a choice. And it's a choice based on understanding of ourselves. I really see it. Understanding is the key to understand ourselves. As Thay said, to be very careful about our seeds. So we survey our consciousness and we are very clear about our seeds of hurt, of fear, perhaps of trauma, sexual trauma. We are also aware of the more positive seeds, our energy, our joy, perhaps our desire to have a child, to love a child. So based on the understanding of the seeds in our consciousness, we choose.

[40:13]

We choose how to behave sexually. And this is a training that gives us guidelines. It's guidelines for us as individuals, but it's also guidelines as a community. And I am very grateful that in our community in the Bay Area, we take this one seriously. We care about the protection of each other's bodhicitta and it's related to our sexual conduct. I remember hearing Sister Gina tell how there was someone at Plum Village who when he first met her and saw how beautifully she was with the children in the community, he said to her, you know, you are a nun, but you are such a wonderful person and you could make such a great mother and wife. Why do you waste your life being a nun? You're so beautiful.

[41:24]

And she paused and responded, you know, perhaps some of the beauty you experience is very much related to my being a nun. And I thought of a Buddhist monk saying to me one time, well, you and Arnie, my husband, you love the Dharma so much, you love the practice so much, why don't you become a monk and a nun? Well, we have some communication to do. There are misunderstandings and I think it takes exploring. What is the desire to be a monk or a nun? What is the desire to be in a couple? I know myself, upon surveying my seeds, I am very grateful for my husband's protection, his nurturance, and his care. And I feel very strongly and clearly that these gifts help me cultivate my bodhicitta so that I can work for the benefit of many beings.

[42:46]

There is a wonderful suggestion here in the third mindfulness training to work towards enough inner strength so that we can attend to the wounds of those who have been sexually abused. And I think we can add with our understanding of interbeing, attend to the wounds of the abusers. But this takes great inner strength and very steady cultivation of the basic training, which is mindfulness. But how wonderful to know that we can be a resource. We can help heal the wounds of sexual abuse. And I'm very grateful to our teacher for including this, again, based on much communication he received, especially from American students.

[43:58]

I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse. I think we can also say, I will do everything in my power to protect my bodhicitta, to protect the bodhicitta of my dear friend, monks and nuns, to protect the bodhicitta of married couples, to protect the bodhicitta of my single friends. So to protect, to cherish and treasure, and very actively take care. And sometimes it's a matter of doing it as a Sangha, turning to a Dharma friend and saying, you know, I can feel myself inclined towards a relationship, towards a sexual relationship. Is this safe for me? Will it nurture my deepest desire?

[45:04]

And to open yourself to the counsel of a friend, to the companionship. Fourth mindfulness training. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I vow to learn to speak truthfully with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. I will not spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure.

[46:15]

I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord or that can cause the family or the community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small. Dear friends, this is the kind of mindfulness training I find it's also equally hard as any other kind of training. Because speech is something that we have to do every day, we need to communicate through speech.

[47:18]

And I found that lots of misunderstandings are happening every day. Since coming to this practice, I learned to be aware of the effect of my speech on other people, to be more observant of the reactions of other people caused by my speech. And if that's so, like my sister and her have presented on the second mindfulness training, that the act of generosity, the act of giving, can happen every moment if we are more mindful. So I decided that if I don't have anything much to give in terms of material, then of course I've got my words to offer.

[48:26]

And in order to offer my words, loving speech, that's what is said in this training, then I need to learn to cultivate deep listening. In fact, truly, that if we cannot speak loving words or we cannot speak skillfully, it's due to our inability to listen. I will share to you one little incident that happened to me last year, I think. While I was at home, there was a man knocking at the door, and he presented himself at the door and saying that he is a private detector. He likes to know the men who just come into my house, whether he is having somebody with him.

[49:41]

In fact, a couple of minutes before, there was a security man looking after the alarm around my place. And out of my, I don't know, but I feel that I need to speak the truth, so I immediately answer, then yes, I saw a little boy with him, but he is not in the house, but he is sitting in the car. So when the detector walked away, I suddenly remember that at a certain stage, that man looking after the alarm around my place, he said he is having a difficulty with his wife, they are thinking of separating. So maybe the wife is hiring a private detector to claim the boy back or in preparation for divorce or whatever.

[50:47]

So I feel so awful, because I gave an answer that could give an effect on the happiness of the life of whatever it is of the other couple. So I vowed to myself, the next time I have to be very careful, stop and think a little bit further, deeply, before answering any questions. So in fact, when we want to offer something, in terms of speech, we need some time to look deeply. And to do that, I am thinking of the evocation of the Bodhisattva names that we did yesterday afternoon, about the qualities of the Avalokiteshvara, who learned, we learned respite to listen without judging, without reacting.

[51:53]

So by listening like that, by not reacting like that, by not judging, we give ourselves more chance to look deeply. In Vietnamese, we have an expression of saying, one should roll their tongue seven times before one speaks. When I was little, I did not understand, but now, the more I interact with other people, the more I felt it's great to stop and not to react, in order to offer a better speech, a better words that bring people together, or that bring joy or happiness or confidence to other people. Because I do know, in our family life, that one little words we can hurt our beloved one easily. As early as the age of three, a child can be hurt.

[53:00]

So as the parents-to-be, or as adults, or as parents already for anybody, then I think that we should cultivate this speech, mindfulness of speech, in order not to water the seeds of, the unwholesome seeds into the other person, especially for our beloved ones, who can receive those comments, those words, until much, much longer in their life. Those words could make us squash all our self-esteem, our confidence, and it creates lots of blocks of pain inside of us. And also, as a practice in the community, we have to be careful of not to say something that we are not sure of.

[54:09]

So in my community, I'm grateful to have other brothers and sisters who are much older than me, who have the kind of wisdom, the kind of, I call it, patience, to receive the news, certain news, that even though they reckon that it is not right, but they still let it be. And in fact, after a while, the truth speaks for itself. So one should have to refrain, as a practice living together, to spread words and spread news that you are not sure of, just like putting more oil into the fire. So we have to be careful when we've heard of something, and not to repeat to the third person, just in case it creates more discord. So I will speak truthfully with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope.

[55:22]

I will not spread news that I do not know to be certain, and not to criticize or condemn things of which I'm not sure. Right now in Australia, there was a new political party that has really incited people to think about racism. So that person in the politics really used words that on behalf of democracy, on behalf of freedom, they want to speak up. But in fact, those words only incite the unwholesome seeds in people. So words can cause lots of damage. Communication is something that we have to do every day, we have to use every day. So in whichever profession we are, from whichever corner of the society we are standing,

[56:25]

we should vow to speak loving words, or words that bring people together, that bring harmony to the society. The fifth mindfulness training. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society,

[57:30]

by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy, in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant, or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society, by practicing a diet for myself and for society.

[58:33]

I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society. I would like to begin by telling you the story of a family, my family, that has been profoundly affected by unmindful consumption. My grandmother's name on my father's side was Flora, and sometime when she was 18 or 19 years old, she married a young man named Gordon. They lived in a small town in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania. And Gordon had some problems with alcohol, and they had a child who was my father, and shortly thereafter Gordon left.

[59:38]

We don't know much about what happened to Gordon, except that he was convicted for being a bootlugger, and he died in a fire in a prison when he was around 28 years old. Flora married another man, and instead of marrying a criminal, she married a policeman this time. But she somehow managed to marry another alcoholic, and Joe was my father's stepfather. He was very physically abusive to my father, and Joe was a severe alcoholic, even though he was the chief of police. Eventually my father, when he was old enough, had a physical fight with Joe, and Joe told him to join the army or leave home or whatever. So my father chose to join the army.

[60:41]

Somehow he found alcohol as his comfort over the years, and eventually after one broken marriage ended up meeting my mother. I don't know much about her family, but eventually my mother and my father both became quite active alcoholics and drug addicts. My mother was a drug addict, my father was an alcoholic. That is the lifestyle they created. Those are the tools they knew how to use. And then I was born, and this is the family I was born into. These are the seeds that were watered in me deeply. When I was a young child, I grew up watching my family use alcohol and drugs to cope with basically everything. They were very successful financially and professionally.

[61:47]

We did very well. The alcoholism and the drug addiction was quite well managed. But naturally, given these seeds, my childhood was not exactly happy. My father, in addition to being addicted to alcohol, was addicted to nicotine, and he was unmindful in his consumption of food, and he died at the age of 56 from his second heart attack. He was obese at the time of his death, and he smoked a lot. He drank a tolerable amount. My mother was very glad that he didn't die from his drinking. She was glad it was the cigarettes that killed him instead. It's a little more socially acceptable, I guess. My mother also died from obesity-related complications.

[62:52]

She was nearly 100 pounds overweight at the time of her death, and suffered congestive heart failure, which is a terrible way to die. Well, you can guess what happened to me. I grew up and found alcohol and drugs as a very strong comfort for myself, and I became a psychotherapist. Somehow it seems to work that way. And I was... For those of you who don't know much about alcoholism, I was a very successful alcoholic. I was making a 4.0 average in my Ph.D. program at the height of my drinking. That's the way it works sometimes. Eventually, my profession...

[63:53]

I'm a health care provider. My profession and my family intervened. My wife decided she wanted to leave me, told me to move out. My profession said, you're going to lose your license if you don't get treatment. So seven years ago, I spent Labor Day in an alcohol and drug treatment center in Tucson. This is a much nicer place to spend Labor Day. Now, I'm a consulting psychologist with an alcohol and drug treatment center in Memphis. We work with indigent alcoholics and drug addicts. We see a tremendous number of people who suffer incredible damage in their lives. They've lost everything by the time they come to the treatment center. Another thing I do, I run a domestic violence program for the county that Memphis is in. We just found out that we are now exceeding Los Angeles

[64:55]

in the number of murders per capita. It's a very violent culture. We're finding that about 95% of the cases we get are drug or alcohol related in the domestic violence program. We are looking at hundreds, thousands of families just in this county in Tennessee where there's an incredible amount of trauma to the family members, the spouses, the children, and it damages those who do the violence as well. And all of this is alcohol and drug related. This mindfulness training goes on to mention things like television programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. This is the United States of America. We are a consumer society. We are, for the most part, an unmindful consumer society. Everything we bring into our being becomes a part of us.

[66:00]

When we are not mindful of what we are consuming, it becomes a part of us and has its effects. As Arnie said in the beginning, we can either walk into the wall and see what effect that has or we can walk through the door and see what effect that has. There are many of us who are still walking into the wall of alcoholism, mindless drug use, mindless use of intoxicants, mindless consumption of multiple distractions, magazines, television shows, that really are nothing more than something to keep us away from the moment. I'm aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations.

[67:06]

At this point, I don't think the generation below me is going to be damaged by my alcoholism and my drug addiction. I have three children, and they were there for most of my years of drinking. But now they're here for my years of mindfulness, and my daughter is here with me at this retreat. And it's a very wonderful moment to have her here, as opposed to having her say goodbye to me when I flew away to the treatment center. A very different way of living. Mindful consumption can transform you. It has transformed me and is still transforming me. It can transform our culture and our society. This precept, this mindfulness training, to me it's like a big sign that the Buddha put up 2,500 years ago.

[68:18]

This is danger, high voltage, do not touch. Yet some of us say, well, it looks really fine. Maybe I can touch it and I can get away with it. Find out for yourself. Find out for yourself. Find out for yourself. My consumption has become much more mindful, and I'm incredibly grateful for this Sangha and this practice and this opportunity. Bringing mindfulness into my life has transformed my life, and it has transformed the life of at least my family and everyone that I touch. It's a little bit better now. And I would encourage you all to read this precept, read this mindfulness training and practice it deeply.

[69:19]

It can truly transform your life. Thank you. On Saturday morning at 7 a.m., plus or minus a few minutes, 6.30, minus 30 minutes, there will be an opportunity for anyone who wants to formally receive from Thay

[70:30]

1, 2, 3, 4 and or 5 precepts. Incidentally, I don't usually speak this slowly, but I'm aware of the echo, so please bear with me. I'm told parts of the hall have a serious echo. And my thinking is faster than my speaking now, so this is complicated. If you wish to receive the 5 precepts, it has no bearing whatsoever, one way or the other, on anything else you're doing regarding, I'm a member of this tradition or that, except it can help encourage mindfulness as you practice this or that. Which is to say, if you're a member of a church or a temple or another organization,

[71:32]

Thay encourages you to be as mindful a member as you can of your church, temple or organization. And if you find that the 5 mindfulness trainings can help you in that direction, you are warmly invited to receive them and to continue to be a mindful member of your church, temple or organization. The ceremony begins with taking refuge in the 3 jewels. Thay mentioned this morning. The Buddha, he said, is mindfulness. The Dharma is the way of transformation and healing. And the Sangha is those around us. This week, a large, wonderful Sangha around us to encourage us to have Dharma discussions with, not only this week, but when you're facing, you know, the 3rd mindfulness training says that sexual encounters should not happen without love and a long-term commitment.

[72:43]

And you want to have a Dharma discussion with your friend right away to discuss exactly what this means in this situation. A Sangha is there for you. And we have a local Sangha in the Bay Area. And we are there for our friends. And from time to time, these kind of issues do come up. The real issues of our lives are what we can practice. Thay often encourages us not to read a text and take on a subject as the object of our meditation that we don't exactly understand, but we think will trigger something we think is called enlightenment. He encourages us to take as the objects of our practice, our meditation, our concentration, what's happening in our body, our mind, our feelings, in the world around us.

[73:45]

And if these guidelines can help us be more accurate in our perceptions, more wholesome in our act. As I said earlier, the Buddha didn't use terms like this is bad, this is evil. But he did say things like this will lead to happiness. And we can find out for ourselves, as Cliff said. But we can also benefit from the experience of our Sangha members like Cliff. I also mentioned that the mindfulness trainings Thay has said are like the North Star. Wendy explained so clearly that of course we kill all the time. So what does it mean to take a training and express commitment to practice non-killing? We work with that. And if we are not a vegetarian, if we are not a vegetarian now, for example,

[74:48]

Thay asks us to be mindful in eating and let the energy of mindfulness, the presence of the energy of mindfulness, determine where we go. He's not dogmatic about the first four mindfulness trainings. He's not dogmatic about anything, but there is a specific way that we are asked to practice if we do receive the fifth mindfulness training. This is still true, yes? He asks us not to drink any alcohol or take any drugs. Now you understand, I can't line up which drugs are included in the word drugs. Aspirin is okay. He wants us to be very strict

[75:52]

to support our friends who have the genetic tendency and the ancestral tendency to get in big trouble. Some of us may not have that tendency ourselves. We may be able to be very sociable and have a glass of wine at a cocktail party and have no particular negative effect. But Thay asks us if we want to receive the fifth mindfulness training to say no thank you, do you have juice or something else? He asks us to practice that and that was a change several years ago when he discovered how much suffering has been brought about in all societies and he noticed particularly in our society by situations of alcoholism and drug abuse. How many children have suffered?

[76:54]

How many adults have suffered? So he asks if we want to receive the fifth training to make the decision and we say no. The first four, it's a matter of moving in the right direction or the wrong direction as you decide. And the fifth is more specific than that. I believe there will be an opportunity tomorrow during the break after lunch for those of us who want to explore this further, ask questions and have some experienced practitioners available to answer questions. It will be announced in the morning but I believe it will be possible to meet in this room for those of you who would like to come and continue the discussion and ask questions. I think most of you have now seen

[77:54]

the pieces of paper you can fill out for the five mindfulness trainings or any one, two, three or four of them on Saturday. Many people have asked where you put them and it is now confirmed inside the bell along with the questions and letters for Thay. I mentioned that these are from the time of the Buddha and it's rather apparent but I just want to mention Thay has elaborated them, rewritten them to reflect their original meaning but for contemporary use in case any of you were a little stuck on how the Buddha knew that TV was going to happen. If you see the questionnaire that you will fill out

[78:56]

there is a question regarding would you like to receive a Dharma name? A Dharma name is a kind of encouragement and it is an option. You can receive one or not as you like. It would be something of the heart. So when I introduced people earlier and I would like now to introduce Joan Halifax, Sister True Continuation. These are names, True Continuation, True Mind, True Compassion Adornment that encourage us in our practice. So if you want to receive a Dharma name please do write something on the piece of paper that will help Thay give you a name that will encourage you in the direction that you want to transition in. I would like to ask our friends here

[79:58]

if I have forgotten anything. Okay. So thank you very much for listening. It has been a long day, I know you know. And I appreciate your capacity to sit still and attentively through this session. And the deep value of practicing these trainings or at least enjoying the discourse and the commentaries of our five friends and sharing their experience so beautifully will stay with us. Thank you. It is possible that at the beginning

[81:07]

of the ceremony Saturday morning we will begin by inviting the children to receive two promises. To develop compassion in order to protect plants and minerals. And to develop understanding in order to, someone help me, live peaceably with people, animals, plants and minerals. Thank you very much. Bell Bell Bell

[82:18]

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