One day at the monastery I was asked to sing a song in front of the Sangha of about two-hundred retreatants. I had never sung in front of the Sangha before. Thay Phap Hai (Who I would ask to be my mentor several months later) called me up in front to sing in the microphone. I whispered to him, "Can you sound the bell so I can calm down?" He looked at me and grinned, "Sorry."
I had to resort to myself. My breathing. My practice. So I stood there patiently. Breathing in a calming breath, and releasing the fire back to its source on the out breath. And I waited for the song to sing itself.
This is the practice. We want always to be the doers. And when we are asked to do something, we don’t feel we have the calm, or the lucidity to perform. So we procrastinate. We deviate from the path thinking that the path is somewhere else, other than within our own means.
Mindfulness is the path. Is the awakening itself. Seek it within you. Seek it outside of you. Seek it, and it will be there. It is always there. Where it comes from? I don’t know. Just use it. Learn with it. Grow with it. Use it to transform your suffering, your anger, your anxiety, your worries, your pain.
How to use it...come to Tuesday Nights!
Lin and I sat for two periods of sitting and walking meditation, then watched a DVD about Thay’s trip to Vietnam called ‘Every Step Is a Prayer’.
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