Translator: Custodio Marcelino Reviewer: David DeRuwe
I like to start all encounters
with a moment of conscious breathing.
Those who are on the chairs, try to sit on the front part of it,
and keep your feet parallel on the floor.
Those who are standing, if anyone's standing,
keep some distance between your feet in parallel,
align the spine, feel that each vertebra is properly aligned over the other,
and the cervical vertebrae, the so-called noble part of the body, is straight too.
For this to happen, the chin stays parallel to the floor -
it's the fitting of the skull on the cervical vertebrae.
So we have proper posture, shoulders back and down.
We align the ears with the shoulders and the nostrils with the navel
so we can have body alignment.
Now, we'll do conscious breathing.
We naturally inhale through our nostrils.
It's passive: the air comes in,
a little pause, and we exhale through our mouths.
(Exhaling)
Once again, we breathe in through our nostrils.
(Exhaling)
And the last time.
(Exhaling)
And we can hear all the sounds around us,
we close our lips,
we breathe naturally through our nostrils,
the tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth,
and we're absolutely present in the here and now,
breathing in and out,
consciously.
Nothing else,
only human beings, present.
Sometimes we lack a little of this in everyday life.
We're not where we are, full of anxieties,
wanting to do so many things,
and we don't appreciate the path.
I lived for 12 years in Japan, training as a monastic,
I stayed eight years in a female monastery,
and my superior always said,
"The path is where you are." and "Appreciate the path."
We're always wanting to get somewhere, and we get very upset
because we don't appreciate where our feet are.
We say, "There will be good; up ahead will be better."
We want success, but what is success?
Success comes from succeeding and passing it on;
something I receive that lives in me,
and I transmit it.
The word felicity comes from fertile, fruitful,
that which bears fruit.
We're happier when our projects work.
We're happier when we have something to share,
not when we only receive.
Success, happiness, and power.
What can we do?
We can do as much as we give ourselves the power to do.
It's interesting, it's not just a mental power.
"I'll develop my mental ability to get what I want."
Not quite that.
I'll be so present in what I'm doing, so well done,
that I am creating causes and conditions
for this to manifest itself.
Being present, absolutely aware, is a little golden key
that I've been trying to share everywhere I go.
If you're having problems, difficulties, or anxiety,
breathe, look at the sky a little bit,
think about this immensity we're in -
we're this tiny particle of life and so important -
because what we say and think affects life on Earth.
We're the life of the planet; we're the life of the Earth.
There's a problem with the sound.
I don't know if I adjust it back here -
Everything is all right?
It's important to remember that we didn't come from outside -
we don't go outside.
We're the planet,
we're the solar system,
and we don't exist without each other.
When we realize that,
our view of reality changes.
We're the path.
It's interesting - we're part of the path, we're the path itself.
Each of us is the manifest entirety.
We're not a piece of life,
we're not part of something,
we're the manifestation of entirety.
And the entirety manifests itself in countless different ways.
One such form is this human body.
And each of us has this human body, this blessing,
because we could be any other life form,
but the causes and conditions were such that we were born with this appearance,
with this body, which is constantly changing.
All our feelings and who we are
existed already, to some extent, inside the womb.
Let's remember that we're a fertilized egg,
just an egg that was fertilized
and started to divide, to break and multiply,
and created this human body.
In this process of pregnancy, our body has already received countless influences
that determine our behavior and our way of being in the world,
internal and external things.
There is no separation. There is neither inside nor outside.
And we were born and began to receive influences.
When we said "dada" and "mama,"
people would smile and make us think it was good
because if it wasn't good, we wouldn't learn to talk.
We learn to think
when we learn to understand a language -
the language of our parents,
the language of a country,
the language of an age.
But our thinking also changes.
And when we're able to open ourselves to new potentials
and to new paradigms,
we're transforming and developing ourselves.
Some people say, "I'm like this and won't change my ways at all."
They're stuck; they're closed.
They've lost the opportunity to grow and live
because life is movement and transformation.
I always recognize myself in the faces of the people I meet.
I work a lot with meditation, zazen, which means "sitting in Zen" to meditate.
And people think that the one who meditates leaves reality,
"I'll leave this world and I'll enter in a Buddhist world."
The Buddhist world is the world of reality,
it's down to earth, it's the encounter,
it's the recognition of yourself in every gaze you meet.
And my faces are the faces I see.
When I speak, I like very much that the light is on in the audience
because I can only speak by getting feedback from you.
I'm in a very difficult position now
because all I see here are shadows.
And you're all the same right now, in slight differences of light.
And I see very little of who and to whom I am speaking.
This is difficult for me.
Can you talk alone looking at an amorphous wall?
The impact of the contact is missing.
And this contact is what our life is in everything we do.
Our meditation is silent, quiet, facing a wall.
So, I'll imagine that you are my wall.
I'm sitting here in meditation,
and on this wall, countless things are projected, some forms.
They're rather diffuse, and I don't understand them very well,
but something in me understands.
Something for which I can't formulate concepts,
and can't talk about.
But in a certain sense I know,
and I can feel you without even looking at your face.
I can feel that there's a certain concern,
a certain anxiety, a certain curiosity.
"What's this?
What's she talking about?
What is Zen?
How can I have less anxiety in a city?"
But it isn't only in cities that we have anxieties.
There are many anxieties for those who work in the countryside,
for those who depend on the rains and winds,
the horses that get sick.
There's anxiety in all of us - it's a human thing,
but if we understand it, if we feel it in depth,
let it pass, let it out,
it's no longer an obstacle.
The path is unobstructed
so long as you avoid choosing and selecting.
And aren't we choosing and selecting all the time?
Imagine you give up.
When you give up, the whole universe is there in your hands.
You hold only one thing and get attached.
And attachment prevents you from doing other things.
I may want to drink some water now, but I can't,
because my left hand holds my right hand's finger,
which I care so much about.
I'm limited.
So how can I, at the same time,
have things, go through things, and have things go through me,
but not get attached?
No attachments and no aversions.
"Ah, I don't like that person." No.
"Ah, that smell isn't good for me."
All odors tell us things.
Sounds speak to us.
People, food, everything is life.
From which life do I minimize suffering?
We all have suffering in the world.
Buddha's first teaching, dukkha,
means dissatisfaction.
We all know countless dissatisfactions.
They all have causes, and all causes can be understood.
And when we understand them, we enter nirvana,
which is peace and tranquility,
living in peace and tranquility
at every moment of life.
For that, there is a way of practice.
There are eight aspects,
and each of these eight aspects is connected with the others.
Correct memory - remember the truth.
We're the truth.
There's not something called truth flying in the sky for us to catch.
It's in me, in you, in each of us,
and in the ability to remember,
to rediscover, to review.
The word "religion" has three possibilities.
They come from the same root which is "relegere":
read again.
"Religare" means to reconnect.
And "religiously"
is that which we do incessantly.
Doing something religiously is like playing the violin every day for hours.
You're getting better?
I don't know - wiser, easier, simpler.
To work on anxiety is to work on conscious breathing
because when we get anxious, (Panting breaths), isn't it like this?
The heartbeat changes; the breathing gets faster.
So we in Zen work with one simple thing:
awareness of your breathing.
Thoughts? They come and go.
The anger, the dissatisfaction? They come and go.
It's as fast as lightning: a ray of light, it vanishes ...
the rest is memory.
And we like to stimulate memories that are not positive.
So let's start stimulating positive memories.
Let's realize that we're the whole web
of possibilities, thoughts, sensations, and emotions,
but what we feed is what will grow.
I can feed my compassion, my tenderness,
and wish to develop perfect wisdom -
as well as I may want to feed other elements in me.
What I feed is what will grow.
And the roots, the stronger they are, the firmer they will be.
First we have to look at what we want to feed in ourselves and in the world.
I believe in a culture of nonviolence.
I believe each of us is co-responsible for building a world
that is less violent, more welcoming,
more tender and more compassionate,
where we will not compete with each other,
but will collaborate and create conditions of respect for life
in its multiplicity of ways.
But for that, we need to wake up,
we need to arise,
and we need to open our eyes to see that we are the web of life.
No one is separated; no one is outside.
I can't cut myself from reality, take scissors, and say,
"Look, here I am, and there you are."
We are one body and one life with all that exists.
The whole past of humanity lives in me.
I'm the result of all past lives,
my ancestry, and our common ancestry.
Let's remember that each of us has a father and a mother,
grandparents and great-grandparents -
it would be a crowd, and there were fewer people in the past.
We're all interconnected and belong to only one family,
which is called the human family.
Biologically, a family consists of those beings
that can mate and have fertile children.
We can.
We mate with people from all over the world,
and our babies can have babies.
In this way, there is no discrimination or prejudice.
We have numerous spiritual traditions.
How wonderful!
How wonderful that for us to access wisdom,
we can choose different paths,
but as long as each one of these is the path,
you realize the essence of the mind.
This is true liberation.
The rest is the rest.
You penetrate the essential and realize the essential,
knowing how to distinguish the true from the false,
the deep from the superficial,
and realizing that the superficial is part of the deep,
and there's nothing to discard,
but there's something to be appreciated, understood, and transformed.
So you don't have to run so much, you don't need so much anxiety,
but you do need more presence.
It's to enjoy the birds singing
because they sing both in the woods and in the cities.
And natural life is everywhere.
It's not just in the woods, on the beaches, and in the mountains
because it's in you.
You're the natural life.
The animals around you, the insects around you, everything is life.
Appreciate every instant of your life -
every moment, every step, every inhale, every exhale.
Try to be inspired by everything in the universe,
and give to the world
just a little understanding, tenderness, and care.
May all beings benefit in all the spheres!
(Applause)