Power

Dharma Talk at Thai Plum Village International Practice Center.

14 August 2015

Documented by Jibzy Sunshine

Photos from Facebook: Thai Plum Village

As a monastery, do we have faith in power? What does it mean to have power? In today's society, most of the people want to have a power. Especially when we are weak, lack of confidence, feel lonely, at that time we may think we need to have power in order to add more meaningful life. We think power can reward us, nourish us. From my point of view, power is strange because we think it would bring everything we want to us. Some children want to grow up quickly because they want to have power like their dad or mom.

So... , what kind of power we want? Famous? Money ?

When we have money, we feel it's not enough. Even if we have a nice boyfriend or a lovely girlfriend, it's still not enough. We want more to fulfill our hungry ghost. We feel like there is a lack of love and understanding.

There is a letter from a young man showing his aspiration. In his heart, he wanted to be in touch with peace. When I was young, I had the same wish as well. There was the moment in my life that I cannot do anything because there were too many concerns and worries toward life. While I studied, I asked myself: do I need more money? No. I only started my first year of study in electronic engineering. I got wondered if I need to have a high education? In my mind, I could work in Mc Donald and live a moderate life, but my brother said I need knowledge to carry life.

For myself, becoming a nun is easy for me to let go of other desires.

When we talk about pain or sufferings, the Buddha also had pain from physical body when he was old. Same way, we cannot avoid pain but we can avoid sufferings. Sufferings mostly cause from our mind. Think about it, what we are seeking for?

When I was young, I felt lost. I tried to figure out future. We just could imagine what it would be. My visions were not clear at all, and I had such a high tendency of more confusing and fear. When encounter with fear, we should stop because we cannot do anything much about that. We should cut it off from our mind right away. No useful to think about future. Sometimes, a thought about future came up to me, especially in rainy season, I felt sad every time and became emotional.

So, I understand your fear. Those feelings I used to have it as well. Thus, I choose to be a nun. Have you found anything here after 3 days of practice?  If you want something you need to put yourself more into the practice.  Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh) wrote a book named "Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha". He wrote about the Buddha life. I also want that kind of life. Another type of life that don't need to be famous or have much money.

My family didn't sure if I could hold on the vow to be a nun for the rest of the life because I was a non-vegetarian before. They were shocked and tried to stopped me and said that two weeks of a nun life is enough. After 3 months I still dreams about eating meat. :)

Dharma talks from Thay nourished me. Still, I cannot be mindful 24 hours. Old habits were still there although I strongly determined to be a new person. One year passed, we had a winter retreat. I had a chance to learn about psychology. I knew: whatever seeds we planted it will be stored in our consciousness. I used to have a very bad temper like a volcano. I literally got a badge saying that "Don't get her angry, otherwise she will explode." You see? Our old habits are still there. If we have a seed of anger, it's like we have a garden. If we don't water the seed of anger it cannot grow anymore. Sometimes, we play with anger because we still have our old habits and attitudes of jealousy, we still water and show off our jealousy to others.

Sometime we cannot see our seeds in our stored consciousness which would appear in some kind of manifestations such as it appears in a dream. If we have a nightmare, it means we don't live a peaceful life. On the other hand, with this body, we can see clearly what lays in our mind. The eye is the window of the soul. Have you ever get hurt, when someone look at you? If we know how to look at people with compassion, people would feel calm and think that we understand them and want to be there with them at the moment.

To look at others with compassionate eyes like the Bodhisattva, we need to have a compassion in our heart. If we have peace and joy in our heart we can show that through our eyes as well. For me, I wanted to know who I really am. Have I made a transformation during being a nun?

Practicing is the power that we can take care our emotions and feelings. When we can look at other people with compassion that is the power that we can generate. To generate the power, we learn to be mindful. Mindfulness makes me aware whether I am happy or not. If some feelings arise, we need to realize and recognize what it is. We can use our power to stop bad things. Don't use our power to abuse other people.

With technology nowadays, we can be informed about many things around the world, such as killings, suicides, wars, etc. When we know about that we feel fear. When we hear about the plane crash, we don't want to fly.

If we don't know how to take care our feelings, we would feel despair. Insurance companies get rich because we have many fears and we think they can compensate us with money. Our body and mind must be taken care of. We need to have the power of managing ourselves and knowing ourselves very well.

From 26 years of a nun life until now, I still enjoy walking meditation and enjoy breathing mindfully. Then, I feel I can enjoy everything. Imagine, if we have a lot money to build a big house for maids to clean, we eat very little to be skinny and get in shape, we keep busy, and have no time to stay home. These are egos. We want people to respect us from money and values that we have built.

Our values should be focused on peace and joy. People come to Plum Village for another knowledge in order to obtain peace and joy. If we have peace and joy, we can provide that to others as well.

I am sharing my freedom from my power with you today. When we live simple, we easily can enjoy about anything truly. Easy to be happy.

Materials power is to use to control other people, not to control ourselves. Mafia in some countries has such a strong power; they can kill, they can control the whole country that way. Do you want to live that kind of life? Do you want to earn your living that way? Or ... , do we want to enjoy life that would attract many people who want to be around us. Please think and choose. So, enjoy your practicing of walking or sitting.

To behave / act / react differently that is our own power. Learn to behave differently. As a layperson, a monk, or a nun, there are restrictions. We cannot do anyway we like. We learn to sit, learn to stand, learn how to handle ourselves, handle our body, learn to be a strong like a mountain. Mountains would never lean on something else. Learn to be firm. We need to show our determination to change ourselves and behave differently in a mindful way. Otherwise, we cannot change our behaviors or actions. When we are here, please treasure the time to practice. Not thinking anything  that we worry or concern about so that we can manage ourselves to be with the present moment. The more we enjoy practicing, the more advanced progress we could achieve! :)