And that's the foundation of non-fear for a retreat.
But I also know that,
although I'm trained as a doctor, although I'm trained as a professor,
I can still be subject to unemployment like anyone. Nobody hires me.
For that reason,
this kind of foundation isn't necessarily the foundation of non-fear.
It can give us...
It can give us a feeling of security.
But perhaps it may not be enough to allow us to have true security.
However,
what we call "karma"
is something much more reliable.
When we have loving-kindness and compassion in our hearts,
we're protected in a very concrete way.
Loving-kindness and compassion in our hearts protect us.
And we're protected by retribution in terms of body and mind (“chánh báo”),
meaning our body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.
We're also protected by retribution in terms of our living environment (“y báo”).
Now let’s take sangha as an example. Take sangha as an example.
If we practice loving-kindness and compassion in the sangha,
the sangha will become a foundation that guards and protects us.
Of course, we really need a place of refuge.
We can take refuge in our family. We can take refuge in our talents,
our job titles and occupation, our intelligence, our diplomas and degrees.
But all of these things are subject to impermanence.
There's one thing that isn't impermanent
which is the practice
of sowing wholesome karmic seeds
in us and around us.
If we can do this today and tomorrow, it's how we...
have provided ourselves the very foundation of non-fear.
So, any fears that happen to manifest,
be it fears out of imagination, or fears that are a little bit...
based on truths,
we are all capable of coping with them
through living deeply in the present moment;
through living the precepts, through right concentration, and through right views;
through sowing seeds of love, loving-kindness, and compassion.
With that, we see that
there’s nothing more to fear.
Because the Buddha already made it clear in the fifth remembrance,
“Only my actions are my true belongings.”
Only my actions can protect me.
And for that reason, all the fears that we've listed off earlier
— fears of being unattended to, of being lonely,
of being incapable of dealing with sufferings, of hunger, of cold,
of sickness, death, old age,
of having to let go of what we cherish.
All of these fears can only have one way to address.
That is to make sure the seeds
that we’ve sown today, in the present moment, become our protecting factors in the future.
Because our karma follows us like a shadow.
We don't wait till we die for our karma to follow us.
Even if we practice, in just one day, in only twenty-four hours,
the precepts, right concentration, right views, loving-kindness, and compassion,
it's already been following us. We've already had protection.
Therefore, among the Five Remembrances offered by the Buddha,
the last one
shows us
only the karmic seeds
that we've sown
follow us.
And those karmic seeds, when they mature and ripen, and become karmic fruits,
they'll become the very thing that protects us.
And we don't have to fear.
That's as far as misfortunes that can possibly happen in life are concerned.
And as far as right views are concerned,
we can also see that
our fears are given rise by ignorance.
And many — if not most, of the times,
it's our own ideas and perceptions that make us suffer.
All of our fears — the objects that we fear, first of all, are our ideas and perceptions.
And for that reason, right views are the light that shines into those ideas and perceptions.
Right views shine into the gaps and cracks of our fears.
And this will liberate us from those fears.
And I suggest that each one of us spend the time of mindful sitting and mindful walking
to touch our fears, the fears that are gnawing at us.
What we fear most.
What we're worried about most.
We have to use the time of sitting meditation
to look deeply into and to touch our fears.
You can put your contemplation into a piece of writing.
Not necessarily for Thay or your fellow practitioners to read.
Because writing is also a method for deep looking.
Because those fears follow us like ghosts, and they control us.
If we really want to be free, we have to hold their hands, look them...
look them in the face,
in order for us to be free from them.
Perhaps, we'll sit down together one day for an hour or two.
Each will write a piece about their own fears.
And after you finish, you'll read it for yourself. No need to submit it to Thay.
But there should be a time for the whole sangha to practice together.
Before that, we should spend the time
of mindful walking and mindful sitting to get in touch with our fears first.
To bring the surface and the depth of our being together,
combining them into one.