TRUE TEACHING, TRUE TEACHER

Speaking of "I's" and "We's" we don't often realize how much the practice means to us. Sometimes we come to Tuesday Night or other events, and during meditation or the Dharma Lecture we fall asleep, or nod off lazily into a dream-state. Those are the most crucial moments, the places that the teaching is really sinking in, where it really becomes a teaching. There really isn't anything we can share about Dharma. Dharma is what comes out of your own understanding, your own insight, your own awakening. So when you drift off during the talk, it means it's penetrating, it's absorbing directly into the subconscious, into store-conscious, where ego mind will not have the chance to put a label on it, to put another appearance on it, and what has been said is a clear transmission, one mind to another mind, all minds one.

The practice can save your life. Those times we disregard what has been said, or we make light of it by telling jokes, making judgements, or saying, "I've heard that already!" Perhaps this misunderstanding comes from ignorance, of not having a direct experience with the power of mindfulness, concentration and insight. When applied, these teachings, these true teachings will empower you, without even thinking, without even trying. You'll hear my voice, or Thay's voice speaking through you, "Listen, listen. I have arrived. I am home. In the here. In the now. I am solid. I am free. The world is your meditation hall. Your life is the practice."

The cells of your body will chant the Heart Sutra. Sitting by the side of someone you love whom is dying or is sick you feel the solidity of the sangha, and it makes itself available. The sangha body in you will support you, will walk when you cannot walk, will sit when you cannot sit, will smile when you cannot smile, and will tenderly embrace you when you are crying or need of comfort.

We don't know the power of sangha. We don't know the power of the True Teaching. It cannot be taught. It cannot be grasped. It is beyond what we can administer through the senses. And it is alive. It is vital. It is clear, penetrating every cell of our body, enfused in our heart and our consciousness.

It is amazing how many times we struggle to embrace the sangha within us. We don't want to see the support we have in our lives. We want to continue on this path of anger, revenge, resentment, even hatered, jeolousy and fear. We proclaim through our actions, "Waking up is not for me! I'd rather be sleep-walking, sleep-talking, sleep-making love." And we look in despair at our lives, "What is going on? Why can't I be happy? Where has my energy gone?" We don't look at our lives and wonder, "Maybe I'm responsible for my own suffering. Maybe I've contributed a great deal to the suffering on this planet. Maybe there is something I can do better?"

Guilt and shame is a product of delusive-self. It points us to the other, as if the other isn't a part of us. It points to the other as if they can take full responsibility for who we are, what we have said, what we have done. If you have guilt and shame, it is a wonderful teaching. If you want change in your world...change! Be that which you desire, and what you desire will manifest in you.

EMPTINESS IS EVERYTHING

Six last week we talked about the fourth mindfulness training: Loving Speech and Deep Listening. Haven't taken the chance to post the talks...last Tuesdays nor the talk on Saturday. Perhaps we can practice Deep Listening this week...looking forward to meeting with you all. No meeting next Tuesday...four of us will be in New York with Thay for "Sitting Under the Autumn Breeze Retreat." Thanks for the memories!