the last four
exercise of my breathing is about
objects of mind
about our perception it's interesting to
know that
in the practice of multimediation we
classify reality into
four areas the first is
body the second is feeling
the third is mind and
the fourth is objects of mind
we do not speak of reality the cosmos
the universe as something
outside of the mind we speak of it as
the
object of our mind
sun the sun the moon the stars
the cosmos is an optical mind not
a a
reality that exists outside of our mind
and the last four exercises of mindful
breathing
help us with the practice of
concentration
so that we can we can
release and transform our suffering
the 13th exercise is the practice of a
summary called
impermanence
contemplating impermanence
the 14 is contemplation
non craving
the 15 is contemplating
nirvana
the ultimate
and the 16 which is the last of the
exercise is contemplating
letting go
the 14th has to do with our idea of
happiness
and many of us believe wrongly
that our happiness our true happiness is
made of
objects of craving
like money wealth
fame power sex
and so on
we believe that happiness is possible
only when we
are able to buy anything we want to buy
happiness is possible when we have a lot
of power
a lot of fame
a lot of sex but we know that there are
those who have plenty of these things
they suffer very deeply they even
commit suicide
look at some of them they destroy the
body the mind
the life running after these objects of
craving
as far as power is concerned
how much power do we need in order to be
happy
well if you hold office of the president
of the united states america you think
that
that you have enough power to do
anything you like
ask ask the president
he will tell you
he needs more power
so
when we look at the object of our
craving
we have to see the danger in it
and if you can see the danger of
self-destruction
in the object of our craving we will be
released
we'll be free and our happiness is made
of freedom
a fish may like to
bite on the bait
if she does not know that inside of the
bait there is a hook
if she bites and then she will hook up
we hook up and lose her life
so the object of craving has
the hook inside and we have to see the
danger
of self-destruction in that in that
object of craving
and only after we have got the insight
that we can be free from it otherwise we
continue to
run after and according to this teaching
and practice
conditions of happiness are already
available and more than enough for you
to be happy
you don't have to run after anything
else
it is possible to live more simply
and happy right here and right now
in privilege no one of us
has a private house
a private bank account
a private telephone
when i visited vietnam after 49 years of
exile i was i had the opportunity to
address
a crowd of intellectuals at the ho chi
minh
political ho chi minh institute of
political
science
at the best of
till recent
in a marxist lineage were there
listen to me
and i said the same dear friends in
bloomberg no one of us has a private car
no one of us has a
private bank account
and the true communists that's us
[Applause]
and they laugh and laugh and laugh
they did not get angry at all
in fact many of them have a bank account
in switzerland
and yet you are happy enough
you are happy because you are able to
welcome friends
to come and practice with us and
we can see transformation and healing
taking taking place
writing plunge and wherever we go and
offer a retreat of mindfulness
we see transformation and healing
happening
always in our retreats that make us very
happy
we feel that we are useful
our life has a meaning and living
together hundreds of people we can
simply we can build brotherhood
sisterhood sustaining us
so to live simply and to be happy
with that simple life is something
possible
you don't have to run after these
objects of craving
and that 15
exercise on contemplating
the ultimate
is the dream of the buddhist teaching
and practice
the ultimate reality is available
and in buddhism we speak of the two
dimensions of reality
the historical dimension and the
ultimate dimension
in the historical dimension it seems to
uh that there is the existence of birth
and death
beginning and ending above below
right and left suffering and happiness
but when we touch with mindfulness and
concentration
we can touch the historical dimension
deeply and it can also touch
the ultimate dimension at the same time
by touch by getting in touch deeply with
the
historical dimension we get in touch
also with the ultimate dimension the
ultimate
is available
it's like modern science we know that
there is two kind of sciences now
the classical science represented by
newton
and quantum physics
now and they have they they have two
different versions of reality
and there must be a connection between
the two
so in buddhism we also have
the thirteen the two kind of truth
the conventional truth and ultimate
truth
and in the conventional truth we see
that there is
i and you there is the buddha different
from
living beings there is a
suffering different from happiness
there is a life different from
from death but
the practice of buddhist meditation can
have a
touch reality much more deeply
it will transcend the dualistic view
and touch the ultimate touch
with the here and now and lose all our
fear and anger
and despair it's like
a wave on the surface of the ocean
in in terms of where you have
the beginning of the wave and the end of
the wave
there is a rising of the wave and the
falling of the wave
there is this wave and the other way
this wave might be higher or lower than
the other wave
and the wave can be subjected to
many kinds of fear anger
complex and so but if
the wave come back to herself
and touch deeply her true nature which
is water
and she realized that she
she is at the same time wave and water
as a wave she has to suffer a beginning
and ending coming up and going down
this wave and other way but as water
she doesn't have to suffer and when she
recognizes that she is water
she lose all her fear and anger and
jealousy
she is joyful when rising
and joyful when
falling
but the wave does not have to go and
search for water somewhere else she is
water in the here and now
so the outer dimension
is us easiness the historical dimension
also is in us
with mindfulness concentration and
insight we touch
deeply the history of dimension and at
the same time we touch the outer
dimension and we are free from
the notion of birth and death being and
not being