Body, speech and mind in perfect oneness.
I send my heart along with the sound of the bell.
May the hearers awaken from forgetfulness and transcend the past of anxiety and sorrow.
I allow my mind to be reunited with my body in this moment,
gently coming back to my inbreath, gently coming back to my outbreath.
Hello, dear friends.
Greetings from Deer Park Monastery.
One day a friend came to the monastery to practice with us, the monastics.
And he asked, dear brothers and sisters,
I want to
find a way that can help me stop thinking
'cause out there when I have to go to work and my life is so busy and I have a lot of thinking all day, it's too overwhelming.
And so my head, I feel like my head is like
often get hot because of my thought
A lot of thoughts that I cannot stop.
And so please help me.
How can I find ways to help me stop thinking?
Being aware.
Of our thoughts.
Being aware of our thinking is the way to help calm the thinking mind.
That's why we encourage our friends who come to the monastery
to just practice slowing down by coming back to our breath.
Our breath is a stable, solid ground that we can take refuge in,
and it is like our faithful friend that is always present for us.
Because we are so busy, we are easily overwhelmed by our feelings,
our emotions and thoughts.
We cannot be available for our breath.
But once we make ourselves available, we are present for our breath.
And then we are able to to taste some degree of calm and peaceful
peacefulness in our mind.
In our daily life,
if we are caught up in the worries, our mind becomes disturbed by the stress.
And it is so hard for us to be relaxed.
And if we are constantly
stimulated by the sense impressions,
like the sounds, the images, the contact.
The taste, the smell, the thoughts and so on.
And then it is so normal for us to be overwhelmed by negative feelings, negative thoughts,
and the more negative feelings and thoughts we have.
The more changes that we are not happy with our life.
In our monastery,
one of the tools that we provide to help our friends to practice.
To bring the mind to the relaxed relaxation responds by the practice of listening to the the sound of the bell.
Let us listen to the sound of the bell and enjoy our breathing.
[BELL]
Listen, listen.
This wonderful sound of the bell.
Brings me back to my true home.
We allow our mind
to dwell peacefully.
on the sound of the bell.
My breath
is my true home.
Whenever I'm able to be present for my inbreath and my outbreath.
I feel at home.
I feel comfortable.
And following the sound of the bell, my breath guides me back
to the island of mindfulness.
Gently coming back
to my inbreath
Gently coming back
to my outbreath
Recognizing this is my inbreath,
I breathe in.
Recognizing this is my outbreath,
I breathe out.
You may like to close your eyes and practice with me.
You may like to place a hand on your abdomen so that you can feel.
The rise and the fall of your abdomen when you breathe in and out.
Breathing in.
I focus.
The entire.
I focus my mind
on the entire length of my inbreath.
Breathing out.
I focus my attention
on the entire length of my outbreath.
In.
Out.
Deep.
Slow.
Calm.
Ease.
Smile.
Release.
We offer our loving awareness, our love and care to the breath
and slowly our thinking mind will be relaxed.
When our mind is relaxed and calm.
We are able to see so many beautiful things.
Our mind become clear and free so we are able to touch
the wonders in our life.
But when our mind is clouded,
with all the negative thoughts and feelings.
It's so hard for us
to touch beauty
in the people around us and in things
in our life.
Of course
at home.
You don't have this big bell like we have in the monastery.
We have this mini bell.
Mm hmm.
It is
more convenient.
So at home, you may like to use this kind of small bell to invite for the whole family
to enjoy listening to the sound of the bell before you start a meal or start some weekly gathering.
So we bring the meditation hall
everywhere.
And any time we have the meditation hall with us when we remember.
[Clock chimming]
We also consider the sound of the clock chiming in the dining hall as the bell of mindfulness.
To help us come back to the present moment, we can come back to ourself.
When you cook at home, you can still enjoy your breathing when you are using the spatula to stir your food.
When you are doing your house chores, doing laundry or sweeping, mopping the floor, or wash the dishes,
you can also enjoy breathing while you are doing such thing so that you can remember to relax.
Allow yourself to be present for whatever you are doing in that moment and find the joy in doing such things.
When you are driving your car,
you can also
practiced driving and breathing and smiling at the same time.
When you are standing in line waiting for yourself to be served, for example, to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks,
or while you are waiting for the cashier, when you are checking out your goods, you can also remember
to come back to your mindful breathing just to recognize what is happening inside of you,
and around you.
So then you can offer a loving presence for yourself,
and you can also offer some loving smile to people around you.
When you are able to come back to yourself to enjoy the present moment, you are offering the best to yourself.
And living in the present moment is a very good opportunity to live deeply our life.
May you be well and happy and at peace.
And thank you for practicing with us.
Breathing in.
I go back to the island within myself.
There are beautiful trees within the island.
There are clear streams of water.
There are birds, sunshine and fresh air.