Last time we spoke about home.
And we know that once we are home we don't we no longer feel lonely.
If you're at home, warm, comfortable, safe,
fulfilled.
So home is a place where loneliness disappears
But where is home and the buddha said it very clearly that home is in us and there is an
island that you have to go back to the island itself and this is a practice not a theory
loneliness is the new being of our time
we feel very lonely even if we are surrounded by many people
we are lonely together
and there is a vacuum inside of us where you don't feel comfortable
with that kind of vacuum so we try to fill it up by connecting with other people we believe
that when you can connect with other people and then the feeling of loneliness will disappear
and technology supplies us with a lot of devices in order to connect stay connected
we always stay connected but we feel lonely continue to feel lonely we check email
several times a day we send email several time a day we post
messages every time and they want to share you're going to receive
are you busy you get busy during the whole day in order to connect
but that does not help with loneliness with reducing the amount of loneliness in us
this is what happens in the present moment in our modern civilization
our relationship
is not good
we are not in good relationship with our partner
with our brother with our sister with our parents with our society we feel very lonely
and
we have used technologies in order to dissipate to try to
dissipate that feeling of loneliness but we do not we have not succeeded
in in the tradition of Plum village every time i sit down
on a cushion
that is to connect with ourselves
because we in our daily life we are disconnected with ourselves
we walk and we don't know that we are walking
we are there but we do not know that we are there we are alive but we do not know that we are alive
we are losing ourselves we are not ourselves and that is happening
almost all day long long so the act of sitting down is an act of revolution
you sit down and you cut off you stop that state of being
losing yourself
not being yourself and when you sit down you connect to yourself and you don't need
an iphone or a computer to do that
you just need to sit down mindfully and breathe in mindfully and in a few seconds
you connect with yourself you know what is going on what is going on in your body
what is going on in your feelings
and your emotions what is going on in your perceptions and so on
you are already home and to take care of home you have left home
for a long time and home has become a
mess
so going home means to sit down and be with yourself and connect with yourself
and accept the situation as it is it is a mess yes but i accept it
because i have left home for a long time i have allowed things to
happen like that at home so now i'm home i i will
rearrange everything and with my in-breath my out-breath my mindful breathing
i begin to smile at everything and i will tidy up my home
i allow my body
to release the tension
or everything in and written down
and the buddha told me how to do that how to breathe in and how to release the tension in my body
i'm aware of my feeling of loneliness of sadness of fear of anxiety
i smile to the feeling of loneliness a fear of anxiety i say my dear loneliness
i know you are there i am hope to take care of you and you make peace with your loneliness you
make peace with your fear there's a wounded child in you you recognize her you recognize him and you
embrace him her tenderly in your arms that is the act of going home and taking care of home
every time you make a step
whether you are breathing in or breathing out go back to yourself
every step brings you home to the here and now
so that you can connect with yourself your body your feelings and that is a real connection
and you don't need a lot of technology to do that and this is the revolution this is the
the way to heal ourselves and our society we are losing ourselves
you are lost you have to find yourself again you have to go and christmas is a time
when you have to practice going home
there is an illusion of connection. You think with that technology with these devices you can connect
but you cannot really connect. How can you connect with another person when
you cannot connect with yourself? So the teaching of the buddha going home to the island of self
is the way to heal our society to heal ourselves
so with the act of breathing in you go inside
the way out is in
when you take a step you go in yourself because that step brings you home to the
here and now help you to connect with your body your body is your breathing your body is your feet
your body is your lungs and you are connecting with body with feet with breath with lungs
you are home because body is part of your home
when you spend two hours with your computer you forget entirely that you have a body
and with you without your body how can you be alive
so in Plum Village many of us
program a bell of mindfulness in our computer and every 15 minutes we hear the bell
and we stop working we stop thinking we go back to our breath we enjoy breathing in and we connect
with ourselves and we smile we become alive again we know that we have a body which is a wonder
our body is a wonder and connect is first of all connect with body
and then there is a feeling whether that is a feeling of sadness or anger loneliness it is us
we connect with our in-breath and out-breath and then with that mindful in-breath we connect
our feelings we smile to our feelings we say don't don't worry i'm home i have take care of you and
you embrace your feeling with tenderness whether it is fear or anger or loneliness and warm up
ourselves with that kind of practice this is an act of going home truly and you don't need
a technological device to do so
be a home for yourself the buddha said be an island unto yourself
at the deeper sana taking care taking refuge in the island itself that is the practice
recommended by the buddha
so when you walk from the parking lot
to your office why don't you go home with every step
why don't you why don't you continue to think to worry to suffer
every step can bring you home you walk like a buddha you act like a free person and that
is possible you recover yourself you connect with yourself with every step and freedom is possible
and you are recuperating yourself you are not losing yourself anymore
you connect with your body you connect with your feelings with every step
and every step bring your freedom
and if you can find a home for yourself
you can help your partner
to find his or her
because she is only also he is lonely also and he is looking for a home
for some warmth some safety
that is why once you have got a home
you can go to your partner you can go to the other person
and since you have a home you are in a position to help him to have a home also
and you are confident because you know
how to how to connect with yourself how to have a home for yourself
so that confidence in you will inspire him or her to do the same she can't find a home in you
and then she'll lean on that in order to
build home in her
now before you can go to him to her to help you have to help yourself you
have to connect with yourself and then when you have been able to connect with yourself
and then the next step is possible will be successful to connect with other person
and without the first step the second step is not possible
and you don't really need a
iphone or something like that you need your eyes to look at him with compassion
even if she is not in the same town
you can connect with him with her easily because you are already yourself you are already home
and whatever you say whatever you think will help her will help him to recover herself
and then when she was able when she is able to go back to herself and your relationship become
a real relationship
because both of you have home and that's why when you come together you find home
in each other at the same time as in each of you and this is a collective home for both of you
there's a home here there's a home here and there is a collective home here
and it is the base of everything if you want to help society
if you want to help community if you want to help your country and then you have to base on this
and when you have a true home you have happiness you have safety
you have fulfillment and then you are in condition to go
to the other
whether they are an individual or they are a society
a group of people so this is the way prescribed by the buddha everything has to begin
with yourself and the teaching the practice is very clear
every breath every step every sitting every act like drinking cleaning
if done in mindfulness help you to go home and to enjoy the wonders of life
around you and in you. Your body is a wonder,
and the hills the clear streams of water- they are all wonders, and they have the power to heal
my brother fabiong is summarizing (?) as he's trying to put these ideas into a little
page and send to our friends so that they can practice during the christmas season
the practice of going home
to heal ourselves and help heal the world