Every step is a miracle.
Every step is nourishing. Every step is healing.
The zen master Linji, 臨済,
said that the miracle is not to walk on thin air or on fire.
The miracle is to walk on earth.
To be alive and to be walking on this planet is a miracle.
And you can perform that miracle any time you want.
Imagine you are an astronaut and you have spent two months up there
in the sky.
And you miss home. You miss the planet.
Now you have landed back to the planet.
And you see the grass, the trees,
you hear the sound of the creek,
and you enjoy so much.
You enjoy walking on a small path
and each step brings you happiness and joy.
You see that the kingdom, your home, is really there for you.
And that is thanks to mindfulness and concentration.
Therefore we say that mindfulness and concentration are a source of happiness and peace.
When we concentrate on our breathing, on our steps, we release the past.
The past is no longer a prison for us.
There are those who cannot get out of the prison of the past,
who are not capable of living in the present.
We have to try to help them with our practice.
And there are those who always think of the future.
They worry so much about the future.
They are very fearful about future.
They do not have a chance to and capacity to live in the present moment.
We can help them with our practice.
We can invite them back to the here and the now.
In fact, there is a fear in us.
That is why we do not have the capacity to enjoy it
in the here and the now.
You long for something.
You're afraid that something will happen.
We have...
"borrowed" too much from ourselves.
We trade our physical labor...
for the things we think essential to our...
happiness and security.
This planet belongs to our children.
We have borrowed this planet from our children.
We have caused a lot of damage to our planet.
We don't know whether we can give it back to our children
the way we want.
But who are they? They're our children.
They are our continuation: They are us.
It means we have borrowed from ourselves, and not much is left in ourselves.
That is the present situation.
With the practice we can do otherwise.
With the practice of mindfulness, going home to the present moment,
we know that there are so many wonders of life.
There are many conditions of happiness that are available.
We don't need to borrow anymore.
The planet cannot take it anymore. Our children cannot take it anymore.
We cannot take it anymore. Stop borrowing.
Because we don't need it.
When we go back our body, to our mind, to the present moment,
we see that there are still conditions of happiness available.
If we know how to get in touch with them,
we can be happy, satisfied, fulfilled right here and right now.
This is the teaching of the Buddha, the practice recommended by the Buddha:
Living happily in the present moment.
When you go for a vacation,
when you go for a retreat or a picnic,
you might use a tent, you can live 10, 20 days in a tent.
You have to go and fetch water and it's not as comfortable as your home
but you are very happy living in a tent.
And living in a retreat, you don't suffer at all.
And yet you know at home you are more comfortable,
with running water and everything.
So it is the fear in us that prevent us to be happy.
We can very well live a simple life and happily also.
There is the story of Baddhiya in Shakyamuni's family,
who became a monk.
One year after enlightenment the Buddha went home,
and so many young people wanted to join him in monastic life,
including young people in his royal family.
And Baddhiya was one of them.
He had been a governor, very rich,
before he left everything in order to join Siddhartha, the Buddha as a monk.
He was ordained with five other people.
And the third or the fourth week after his ordination,
one day he was practicing meditation in the woods, late at night.
And suddenly he exclaimed, "O, my happiness! O, my happiness!"
two times.
Another monk sitting close by was very surprised,
and he thought that Baddhiya was missing his life as a governor.
He thought that, after having become a monk,
Baddhiya missed his position as a governor, very rich and powerful.
That is why he went to the Buddha and reported,
"Dear teacher, last night I heard Baddhiya exclaim twice,
'O, happiness! O, happiness!' I think he's regretting...
that he has been ordained as a monk."
The Buddha did not believe it.
But he summoned Baddhiya and other monks,
and in the presence of many monks he asked Baddhiya,
"Is it true that last night during sitting meditation...
you called out twice, 'O, my happiness! O, my happiness!''?"
"Yes teacher, I did call out twice the words, 'O, my happiness! O, my happiness!'
The Buddha said, "Please explain why you did so."
And Baddhiya said, "Teacher, dear friends,
when I was a lay person, I was very powerful.
I was very rich, but I always lived in fear.
I was very afraid that someone would come and kill me, and take my belongings.
So I always had many soldiers guarding inside the house and around.
I could not sleep well.
Someone might try to take my place, try to assassinate me and steal from me,
so I lived in constant fear.
Although I was powerful and rich, I was not happy.
But last night sitting in the woods, I felt I had nothing to lose.
I'm so free, so light!
I feel that this simple life suits me wonderfully,
and in that state of happiness I uttered the words,
'O, my happiness! O, my happiness!'
And everyone understood.
Many of us are afraid that we cannot continue with the living style that we have,
because of the economic crisis.
That fear is an obstacle. That fear does not allow us to live happily.
The fact is that Baddhiya found that
the life of a monk, very simple like that, can be a very happy life.
A lot of freedom, a lot of brotherhood, understanding and compassion.
That is why the problem is not
whether you can recover from the economic crisis,
or whether we can do something to change the economic situation.
The problem is how to deal with our fear.
And if we can remove that fear, then happiness will be possible right away
even if we have to live a little bit more simply.
Only when you liberate yourself from that fear,
you can truly come home to the here and the now
and enjoy yourself, enjoy life, enjoy the Kingdom of God that is available.
And walking meditation is one of the ways
to taste the Kingdom, to taste the here and the now deeply.