In the last Dharma talk
which was given in English,
we talked about the practice of going back and taking refuge
in the island
within ourselves.
And this practice is considered
the practice of going back
to take refuge
in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
Buddhism is a gargantuan trove of insights.
And this trove of insights
is always brimming with humanism.
Humanism means
It's where ...
human beings are ...
the base.
Human beings are the foundation.
And
humanism in Buddhism is very ...
very deep,
very solid.
The Buddha said
each and every one of us has Buddha nature.
It means each and every one of us has the capacity
to enlighten,
become a buddha,
and transform pain and suffering.
And this Buddha nature already lies ...
within our person,
we don’t have to search for it somewhere outside ourselves.
“All living beings have Buddha nature,” that's a statement in ...
the ...
Lotus Sutra.
In the Theravada school of Buddhism,
we also hear about the term “luminous mind.”
That “luminous mind” is our Buddha nature.
For that reason,
many people come to Buddhism in the first place
looking for the Buddha
as though an energy outside themselves,
taking refuge in the Buddha as though an energy outside themselves.
They call it "taking refuge in the Buddha".
But after some time learning and practicing, they get to see Buddhism in a better light.
And instead of “I take refuge in the Buddha“,
they recite “I take refuge in the Buddha within myself.”
Which means going back and taking refuge
in the ...
Buddha nature within themselves.
“Taking refuge in the Buddha” and “taking refuge in the Buddha within oneself”
are two phases of the practice.
Knowing we have this energy of the Three Gems within us,
we can go back and take refuge.
We ...
find the ...
protection
in this energy.
That energy is the energy of the Three Gems.
And the Buddha’s teaching of “going back to take refuge in the island within”
means we trust the energy of the Three Gems
already available in our heart,
we come back to ourselves,
and we take refuge in this island.
Not letting the storms of life
drown us and hurl us in the ocean of suffering.
For that reason, taking refuge in and ...
going back to the island within
is what we fundamentally do
in our practice on a daily basis.
Of course, in the morning and evening practice sessions,
we recite "taking refuge in the Buddha within,
the Dharma within, and the Sangha within."
However, the practice of taking refuge in the Three Gems doesn’t happen
only in that formal practice schedule.
We practice taking refuge in the Three Gems in every moment of our daily life.
Standing, sitting,
coming in, going out,
eating, drinking,
or working,
we should always put ourselves
under the protection of the Three Gems.
And with that, “going back to take refuge in the island within”
means taking refuge in the Three Gems around the clock -- 24 hours a day.
In the last Dharma talk that was given in English,
we also learn that,
sometimes we want to go to the other person
and establish good communication with the other person,
wanting to be in touch with the miracles of the cosmos,
wanting to search for ...
what’s true, good, and beautiful,
but we're not successful in this endeavor.
The harder ...
we try to go forward,
the more ...
we fail.
Every one of us must have experienced this before.
Sometimes we really want to go to the other person,
make peace with them,
and discover wonderful things about them.
Sometimes we want to go to them with the intentions
of reconciling,
cooperating,
and being able to benefit from ...
the qualities that are beautiful,
good,
and true in them
that we ourselves are still lacking.
But the harder we try to go forward, ...
the more we ...
fail.
And because of this failure, we ...
put the blames
on that person,
on that group of people,
or on the things
that we ...
wanted to search for in the first place.
The same with even the things we believe are beautiful, good and true.
As soon as we find them, we no longer think they're beautiful, good, and true.
It's because ...
we’re incapable of “going forward”.
For that reason, we should go back
before going forward.
And "going back" here means going back to the person within ourselves.
We have to go back and rely on the island within ourselves first.
We have to take refuge in the Three Gems
when we ...
before we ...
can truly be our true person.
If we're not yet our true person,
the more forward we try to go the more we fail.
And for that reason, we have to go back to ourselves
so that we ...
can restore
the true person in ourselves.
Only when we are our true person, can we succeed at going forward.
In the West, especially in the USA,
they have a humorous saying “You cannot get there from here.”
It means, "You cannot go to where you want to be
from where you are."
You cannot get there from here.
Very hilarious!
But when we think about it again, in this case, it's quite right.
We are right "here."
And the other is just a stone’s throw away.
But no matter how hard we try, we cannot get there.
“You cannot get there from here.”
From this point, we can't get to that point.
We actually feel like that.
We have a lot of good intentions to go to the other person to reconcile,
to befriend them,
to turn this person into a friend,
to turn this group of people
or to turn this community
into our friends.
We're in search of what’s true, good and beautiful.
It's right next to us, but we can't get there.
"You cannot get there from here."
From this point, we cannot get to that point.
It's because, at this point, we're not our true person yet.
We're not our true person yet.
And for that reason, we have to go back to ourselves first.
Go back to our true person first
before going forward.
“You cannot get there from here”.
You have to go back to yourself
in order to be able to get there.
From this point, we can't get to that point.
We have to go back first.
And “going back”
means going back
to the island within ourselves.
We go back in order to discover our true person.
We go back ...
so that we can be our true person.
Every one of us must have gone through this experience before.
We live with one another,
but we cannot see the beauties in one another,
we cannot see the preciousness of one another.
We take each other for granted.
One day
when it's unavoidable that we have to be separated,
say, in two months or six months,
because one of us goes back to Vietnam
or is forced into exile.
During that time,
when we can no longer be close to them,
when we can no longer look them in the eye,
when we can no longer hear their voice.
only then do we realize
how precious they are
to us.
That's when we go back ...
We go back to ourselves.
We have more time to meditate,
to contemplate, and to look deeply.
For that reason,
the ...
going forward may not work out. We should go back ...
before going forward.
We've already studied the Discourse on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone.
The person who knows how to live alone is someone who knows
how to go back to the island within.
When we can go back to ourselves, we start to be ...
our true person again.
We start nourishing the contents of our 'true nature' in ourselves.
At this point, we live very deeply.
We get to be in touch with ourselves deeply,
with our true nature deeply.
When we can touch our true nature deeply,
suddenly, we can deeply touch
the world that we believe to be outside ourselves.
And the Discourse on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone teaches us to always come back
and live in this island within.
But living in the island within
doesn’t mean totally cutting off from the outside world
or from the other person.
Once we've already come back to the island within ourselves, we become rich,
we become solid,
we become deep.
And thanks to being rich, solid, and deep, we can see the outside world more clearly.
We can be able to savor,
see, or judge correctly
what’s going on in the outside world
the preciousness of the other person,
of our community,
and the situations in the world out there.
So that's...
although it’s called “going back,”
it’s actually “going forward”.
Because without this act of “going back”,
there’ll be no “going forward.”
This “going forward” will always be subject to failure.
Only when you've already gone back, can you go forward
successfully.
But how strange is it that having just gone back to ourselves ...
having just gone back to ourselves -- not going forward yet,
can already help us touch
and establish a good relation with the other person.
How strange is it!
We can be two friends.
Or we can be ...
a couple.
Or we are father and child.
We live with each other,
but we are not
capable of ...
going back to the island within ourselves.
So our life is not rich.
We don’t have a lot to offer the other person.
We have nothing to give each other
because we are very poor on the inside.
In Vietnamese poetry and music, there’s a famous verse,
“Do we have anything to give each other?”
because we are so poor inside.
We're so poor because we have nothing inside.
How can we give the other person anything?