Transcript
[0:00] Spanish is spoken here.
[0:03] Ah, many. Very good. Okay. Well, I
[0:06] think this is the first time we're going to
[0:08] sing the heart sutra in
[0:14] Spanish. Well, in this way in front
[0:19] of the sanga. I think we've done it at a
[0:22] ceremony before.
[0:24] So it's something we've been
[0:29] practicing this
[0:31] spring. So
[0:34] people have translation, is that okay?
[0:36] Or not? There is no translator. Ah, okay. I
[0:40] will translate. Translator [laughs]
[0:45] getting translation.
[0:47] one I think the first time like this we
[0:50] chant the in front of in Spanish in
[0:53] front of the whole sanga so it's a great
[0:54] joy um so please
[1:30] by deeply practicing
[1:36] the profound vision
[1:41] that takes us
[1:43] to the other. The
[1:49] sudden realization
[1:52] that the five
[1:54] locks
[1:56] were
[1:58] equally strong,
[2:03] thanks
[2:05] to this
[2:07] understanding,
[2:11] overcame
[2:13] all suffering.
[2:16] Listen, my
[2:24] body
[2:26] itself is meant to be cared for
[2:30] and to be emptied
[2:34] .
[2:37] This body is nothing
[2:39] other than something that will take care of her and take
[2:45] care of her.
[2:46] [song] It is nothing
[2:48] other
[2:51] than this body. The
[2:55] same is true
[2:59] for sensations,
[3:03] perceptions,
[3:07] mental formations [song]
[3:11] and consciousness.
[3:16] Listen,
[3:18] Shariputra, to
[3:20] all phenomena. They
[3:25] bear
[3:26] the mark of the
[3:34] natures
[3:36] of non-birth
[3:38] [song]
[3:39] and non-death,
[3:42] neither being [song]
[3:44] nor non-being is neither impure
[3:48] nor immaculate
[3:51] nor increasing
[3:53] and decreasing
[3:58] in care,
[4:03] sanctions,
[4:05] perceptions,
[4:10] mental formations
[4:13] and consciousness
[4:16] are not
[4:21] separate entities.
[4:23] The 18
[4:25] realms of phenomena,
[4:29] that is,
[4:31] the [singing]
[4:34] sensory organs,
[4:36] the former
[4:38] sensory objects, and the consciousnesses
[4:43] are not
[4:48] separate entities either.
[4:50] The 12
[4:52] laones
[4:54] of dependent suffering
[5:01] and their extensive enco are
[5:07] separate entities.
[5:10] Suffering,
[5:12] the causes of suffering,
[5:15] the cessation of suffering,
[5:18] the path, [song]
[5:20] the profound blessing
[5:24] and the realization.
[5:29] Nor are they
[5:33] separate entities.
[5:36] Whoever can see this
[5:40] has nothing left to reach,
[5:44] slabs
[5:48] that practice
[5:51] the deep vision
[5:55] that leads us
[5:57] to the other
[5:59] death. They
[6:02] see no more obstacles
[6:06] in their minds,
[6:10] and without obstacles
[6:15] in their minds
[6:18] they can overcome
[6:21] all
[6:23] fear,
[6:25] destroy
[6:27] all perception.
[6:33] and perform the perfect
[6:38] [chant]
[6:40] all the Buddhas
[6:44] of the
[6:46] present
[6:48] and the future.
[6:51] Thanks to the practice
[6:54] of deep vision
[6:59] that leads us
[7:01] to the other
[7:03] world,
[7:06] they can achieve
[7:09] authentic
[7:11] and perfect
[7:14] enlightenment.
[7:16] [song]
[7:20] ripuccia
[7:22] anche saper que la vis
[7:26] profunda
[7:28] que nos lleva
[7:30] la
[7:32] oría
[7:35] es un gran mancha,
[7:39] el mancha más revelador, [song]
[7:43] el mancha
[7:45] su supremo.
[7:48] The unparalleled mantra, [chant]
[7:51] the true
[7:53] wisdom
[7:56] that has the power
[8:00] to end all suffering.
[8:07] Let us announce
[8:09] a mantra
[8:11] to praise the profound vision
[8:17] that leads us
[8:19] to the other
[8:21] day.
[8:24] Gate gate par
[8:27] gate
[8:30] paraangate gate gate
[8:38] para gate
[8:45] paraangate [singing]
[8:51] swag
[8:54] Graવા
[9:06] Ah
[9:08] [music]
[9:19] [bell]
[9:27] community, dear friends, this morning
[9:30] the talk will be in Spanish.
[9:33] So if you need English translation or
[9:35] Vietnamese translation, please come to
[9:38] the back of the hall to get translation
[9:41] unit for yourself.
[10:27] Testing one, two,
[10:30] everyone translation.
[10:33] That they all have a translation now.
[10:39] I think it's the only time we have a
[10:42] conversation in Spanish
[10:44] all year. So, if you who
[10:48] speak
[10:51] Spanish can move forward this way,
[10:55] please, so I can have people
[10:58] who understand what I'm saying [laughs]
[11:01] .
[11:04] Please, there's one here. If you're not in
[11:07] a chair, you can still move forward. Thank you.
[11:18] In Plan Village, our teacher
[11:21] often wonders,
[11:24] uh, how many people speak French? How many
[11:27] people speak English? And if there are more people
[11:29] who speak English, then speak in
[11:31] English.
[11:33] But today we are going to, although we are fewer and
[11:37] understand Spanish, we are going to
[11:46] hope that in the future there will be many more
[11:49] and more people who understand Spanish,
[11:52] like,
[11:54] well, in the past this was also part of
[11:56] Mexico, No,
[12:07] smile.
[12:09] Smile.
[13:16] Everything's fine now.
[13:21] All good. Okay. Very good.
[13:24] Thank you very much, brother Doctrí who translates.
[13:31] Well,
[13:32] we're dealing
[13:35] with the rain a bit outside with the
[13:39] change in weather
[13:42] and the Halloween party last
[13:47] night. How many people went outside for
[13:50] Halloween?
[13:52] Very good.
[13:54] And how many sweets did you have?
[13:58] One hundred.
[14:00] No, you don't remember.
[14:09] Well, last night the sisters came to the
[14:14] village, the village of the brothers, in
[14:19] disguise
[14:22] and looking for sweets.
[14:26] And I was somewhere else. So I
[14:29] could hear, but not see, and it was kind of
[14:35] raining, so they went back very quickly
[14:39] [sigh],
[14:43] but it's good to be together, sitting
[14:46] here in the room,
[14:49] knowing that the mountain is drinking
[14:52] deeply
[14:55] these past two weeks
[14:58] with the rain
[15:02] and the flowers are starting to come out.
[15:07] Then we can breathe a sigh of relief
[15:09] as we listen to three rings of the
[15:12] bell.
[15:16] Sister Chang Ma is at the bell
[15:21] today and while we listen to the bell we
[15:24] can
[15:28] not only listen with our ears, but with
[15:31] every cell of our body,
[15:35] inviting every cell to awaken.
[15:41] We are alive, it's a miracle. of being
[15:45] alive
[15:48] and also we are together like blood
[15:52] and blood is a jewel, a
[15:57] precious refuge. AC.
[16:08] [bell]
[16:11] [music]
[16:13] [bell]
[16:17] [bell] [bell
[16:22] ]
[16:28] [bell]
[16:31] [music] [
[16:37] bell] [bell] [bell] [bell] [bell] [bell] [bell
[17:08] ]
[17:18] [clearing throat]
[17:20] Good morning,
[17:21] dear Tae, dear Sanga.
[17:26] Today is November 1st, the first day of
[17:32] November 2026,
[17:35] and we are in the Pacific Ocean meditation room
[17:49] and we are celebrating the Day of the
[17:53] Dead today.
[17:56] The Day of the Dead is a celebration
[18:01] that
[18:02] I didn't know about as a child
[18:07] in my part of the country, right? Very,
[18:11] very few people celebrate that holiday,
[18:15] but I think it's growing more and more,
[18:18] especially here in Southern
[18:21] California.
[18:29] And
[18:31] also, as a young person, I didn't
[18:39] receive much training, I didn't
[18:41] receive training in how to
[18:45] relate to my grandparents, to my
[18:49] ancestors.
[18:52] My grandparents were these people who visit
[18:55] from time to time, they are
[19:00] old
[19:03] and I
[19:06] know that they are my mother's or
[19:10] father's parents.
[19:12] And
[19:14] by the grace of my grandmother, she was
[19:17] living in our house. Back then the
[19:19] relationship was a little different, but my
[19:22] grandparents on
[19:26] my mother's side only visited
[19:29] occasionally,
[19:31] from very far away.
[19:36] And soon after,
[19:41] my grandfather got
[19:44] sick with anemia
[19:48] and had been smoking all his life.
[19:55] So my memories of my grandfather are of him having
[19:58] a
[20:01] hole in his trachea here. And I couldn't
[20:06] speak, I could only write notes to myself.
[20:12] Then, I remember, my grandfather had a
[20:15] very, very, very fine handwriting,
[20:20] very, very, very beautiful calligraphy
[20:24] .
[20:27] And I remember one day around this time my
[20:32] grandparents were in Florida,
[20:35] in Orlando, and I was like, throwing
[20:40] the ball with my grandfather
[20:43] behind the house there.
[20:53] And the next time my grandfather died.
[20:59] Uh, but my grandmother who lived for
[21:02] many years and
[21:05] was a
[21:12] place, a refuge for my mother,
[21:15] especially when my mother and father
[21:18] began to divorce.
[21:26] And my grandmother lived on my
[21:31] father's side of the house, in an apartment
[21:35] below us.
[21:37] So, every day when we came back from
[21:40] school, my sister and I
[21:44] went to be with my grandmother.
[21:50] My grandmother took care of us while my
[21:53] parents were out working.
[21:59] So, I have the good fortune of being
[22:02] cared for by my grandmother and not by
[22:05] television,
[22:10] and I have many memories of being in
[22:15] the, what do you say? Uh, sitting here
[22:21] on
[22:24] my grandmother's lap, yes,
[22:30] while she was watching
[22:32] television, [laughs]
[22:35] [sigh] [suppressed scream]
[22:36] uh, soap operas,
[22:42] but soap operas in English.
[22:45] And
[22:48] then many love stories
[22:51] [laughs]
[22:53] and but above all I received that
[22:57] transmission from my grandmother sitting there so many
[23:01] years with her, with her heart
[23:05] beating, thumping with
[23:08] the warmth of her body,
[23:11] with her love.
[23:15] She,
[23:18] well, was born in the United States, but
[23:21] originally, her parents come from
[23:25] Germany,
[23:27] and lately, two years ago, I was
[23:30] talking to a German grandmother
[23:34] and she tells me that it's very common in
[23:38] Germany
[23:41] , how to say it? Eh eh the little ones,
[23:46] the children sit on
[23:50] eh the grandmother's lap and it is a way
[23:55] of transmitting her energy of love, of
[23:58] compassion, and
[24:12] in the
[24:13] Zen tradition we speak of
[24:18] the practice of bonim.
[24:40] This vo
[24:42] means without
[24:45] and this here is nim, eh, full
[24:49] awareness or in this case
[24:53] thoughts, memories
[24:57] and the practice of bonim. That is,
[24:59] without thinking, without thought.
[25:09] And I think that was the transmission I
[25:12] received from my grandmother; it wasn't so much her
[25:15] words,
[25:17] but the transmission of her
[25:21] spirit, right? It's about something beyond
[25:23] words, beyond concepts.
[25:27] My grandmother knew nothing about Buddhism or
[25:31] meditation,
[25:34] but at the same time I think she had
[25:37] some
[25:39] understanding of this transmission.
[25:45] I remember that just before her death, I was
[25:52] telling my grandmother that I wanted to be a
[25:55] Buddhist monk.
[25:56] And I was like,
[26:00] [laughs]
[26:01] "What are you going to do?
[26:04] [laughs]
[26:05] How are you going to make money?" Something like that. No,
[26:08] no, that's not what I said, but that's what I
[26:11] wanted. I had concerns for myself like
[26:15] ,
[26:16] well, so far I'm 50 years old and I'm
[26:19] still alive without having much money,
[26:24] just $ a month [laughs]
[26:28] and I think I eat well and I have a
[26:32] good community. So that was his
[26:35] concern, wasn't it? What are you going to do?
[26:39] [suppressed scream]
[26:42] But thanks to the transmission she
[26:44] received from my grandmother, I believe I
[26:48] could be a monk, I
[26:51] could continue in the practice.
[26:54] Many of my brothers and sisters
[26:57] [sigh]
[26:58] quit practicing, but they are not yet
[27:01] monks and nuns,
[27:06] but when I think of a person who
[27:09] passed on patience and strength to me, it
[27:13] was my grandmother.
[27:19] My grandmother only went to
[27:23] food school and then, uh, like
[27:26] middle school,
[27:28] a little bit of high school, right?
[27:31] But he went to, I think to the
[27:34] 8th grade to work,
[27:39] and
[27:41] at that time it was the depression
[27:45] in the United States and in other places.
[27:49] And then she went to cook, to make the
[27:54] clothes.
[27:58] And she was so good that at 19 she
[28:01] was the boss
[28:03] of the store,
[28:08] but unfortunately her
[28:13] younger sister got sick.
[28:17] So she had to quit her
[28:19] job to
[28:21] stay home and take care of her
[28:25] younger sister.
[28:27] And after two years
[28:32] she died.
[28:34] And this was it, this was the great sadness of
[28:36] my grandmother's life,
[28:41] the
[28:44] loss of someone so innocent, so
[28:48] like her younger sister,
[28:51] and
[28:57] then one day my grandfather
[29:02] [sigh]
[29:03] went to look for
[29:06] my grandmother's older sister
[29:10] for a date to go dancing, but
[29:14] my older sister was not at home.
[29:17] So, my grandfather left with
[29:21] my grandmother,
[29:22] and that's it.
[29:25] After a few months they went to get
[29:29] married in New York
[29:33] without a big ceremony.
[29:36] Uh, how do I say that in Spanish? The loop. The
[29:39] loop like and you got married but quickly.
[29:45] That? There are no words. It's
[29:50] like, you don't have the great ceremonies,
[29:54] but it was like, really fast.
[29:57] [sigh]
[29:58] And then my grandmother,
[30:04] after some years, had my
[30:06] father in 1942,
[30:11] and I also think that my grandmother gave
[30:14] strength and patience to my grandfather,
[30:18] who was a very social person, very uh,
[30:23] with many ideas, many projects, I don't
[30:26] know, where
[30:28] if my grandfather has passed this on
[30:31] [sigh]
[30:32] [gasp]
[30:33] and he wanted to leave the factory because
[30:36] many generations of my
[30:40] father's family worked in Bristol,
[30:43] Connecticut, in the tool factories
[30:48] with metal, right? of making metal
[30:52] for tools like Stanley.
[30:56] People know Stanley. Yes,
[31:00] but he wanted to get out of this
[31:04] story of generations and generations
[31:08] of German Catholics from Connecticut
[31:13] working in the factories.
[31:16] Then I started to learn,
[31:20] uh, how to care for, how to handle and repair the
[31:25] , uh,
[31:28] how to say it? Internal combustion
[31:31] engines, I don't know.
[31:33] [laughs]
[31:35] Uh, like those who have a car, right?
[31:39] No, electric.
[31:40] Combustion engines.
[31:41] Okay.
[31:42] Combustion engines.
[31:46] Engines,
[31:47] combustion engines, yes, internal. Yes,
[31:50] engines, internal combustion engines.
[31:52] Thank you. I
[31:54] wasn't prepared to use this
[31:57] word.
[32:01] And then, uh, at this time it was like,
[32:09] uh, a
[32:11] lot of people had a little bit of money after
[32:13] World War II, a lot of people
[32:16] had a little bit of money, loose change.
[32:19] I believe that at this time the
[32:21] United States was the most equal it had ever been
[32:25] [snort] in its history.
[32:28] And then people wanted to have time
[32:32] for recreation.
[32:35] Then he started selling boats with
[32:39] motors for
[32:43] fishing
[32:44] and also doing a new
[32:48] sport which is water squid. Does
[32:52] anyone know this? This was
[32:55] very popular.
[32:58] at this time. So he started his
[33:00] own company,
[33:04] but without my grandmother that company wouldn't exist
[33:07] , [suppressed scream] because it was my
[33:09] grandmother who was always behind the scenes
[33:12] doing everything,
[33:14] the notes for the bank, the notes of
[33:19] money that comes and goes, the accounts
[33:23] that she has, the accounts
[33:26] and does. Uh, when I was little, my
[33:31] grandmother always loved to do the
[33:34] accounts, she always had a piece of paper and
[33:37] wrote everything very, very finely, right?,
[33:42] on the paper and with each figure and she was
[33:46] with her math that she learned in
[33:49] school. Then at the store I was
[33:52] doing the accounts for
[33:55] my grandfather's company
[33:59] and my grandfather was the person who worked
[34:01] with the engines and also with the people.
[34:04] And so it was.
[34:06] This was the life of my father
[34:10] as a young man,
[34:14] and
[34:20] my father was starting out when
[34:24] my grandfather's company was very small. My
[34:27] father lived in a very small,
[34:31] very simple house next to a lake,
[34:40] and it was like paradise
[34:44] for him. But when I was about 7 or 8 years old,
[34:48] my grandfather's business was growing,
[34:51] and he bought a store on the
[34:59] main road with a big window
[35:04] so the boats could be parked
[35:05] behind it. People
[35:07] driving by could see the boats and
[35:11] say, "I want to buy a
[35:14] boat."
[35:17] But that was like a nightmare
[35:20] for my father,
[35:23] because after leaving the ideal life on the
[35:27] lake, he had to live in a
[35:30] store on the side of the main road with
[35:34] people
[35:36] coming morning and night to buy
[35:40] boats. My grandfather also sold
[35:44] televisions—the first people to have a
[35:47] television. He had a small television,
[35:50] and people would come to watch
[35:53] wrestling, like, fighting. At that
[35:57] time, it was very popular. So,
[35:59] men would come to watch
[36:04] people wrestling on television.
[36:08] Well, I want to share some of those stories
[36:10] with you now, on this
[36:15] day of remembering our ancestors,
[36:19] to talk a little about how I practice, how I
[36:23] meditate on my ancestors,
[36:27] because it's not something I
[36:31] trained in as a young man.
[36:36] And so, as a young man, I I felt
[36:40] like a
[36:46] dark hole, right? Inside me, an emptiness
[36:51] within me. I was
[36:54] n't training myself on how to relate
[36:57] to my ancestors, how to see that I am the
[37:01] continuation
[37:03] of my ancestors,
[37:05] that my grandmother continues in every cell of
[37:09] my body. It's
[37:16] only a little bit true to say that I
[37:19] am here speaking.
[37:23] It's more true to say my grandmother, my
[37:25] grandfather,
[37:27] all my ancestors are here speaking,
[37:31] and if I can let go of my own narrative,
[37:36] my own concepts
[37:39] of self, of who I am, then I can
[37:43] let all my ancestors be
[37:45] free to manifest here and now in the
[37:50] present moment.
[37:53] This is the practice of bonim, the
[37:56] meditation practice
[37:59] of
[38:07] starting
[38:11] anchored in the breath,
[38:16] of not continuing to pay attention to
[38:20] our thoughts, to our
[38:25] own narratives, to
[38:26] grasp them
[38:29] tightly, as we do every day when
[38:33] we get up in the morning. Instead
[38:35] of thinking about our story, our
[38:39] own narrative, the things that aren't going
[38:41] well in our lives,
[38:44] we can sit on the bed and breathe
[38:48] contentedly. We do
[38:52] n't have to think about anything. We have
[38:55] this moment of returning to the body,
[39:00] of being in contact with the body.
[39:04] The wonder of this body.
[39:08] This body is made of the sun, the
[39:12] earth, the rain,
[39:16] and also of our parents,
[39:19] our grandparents,
[39:22] all our ancestors. It is a
[39:25] precious transmission
[39:27] that we have received, but we treat it
[39:30] like a machine, we
[39:33] treat it like something, a tool.
[39:39] Then, we completely forget the
[39:42] wonder,
[39:45] the miracle of this body,
[39:48] and also,
[39:50] without knowing it, we can suppress
[39:55] the ancestors who are there, who want to
[39:59] come out, who want to have a voice, who
[40:01] want to be able to continue living.
[40:07] We hear a bell, and we can all
[40:09] practice
[40:11] this Bonim practice, letting go of
[40:15] thoughts. If we find ourselves
[40:18] caught up in a thought, we focus on the
[40:21] breath, on the present moment, and
[40:24] enjoy
[40:26] the wonder of being alive. Oh.
[40:37] [bell] We
[41:03] are at the monastery, at the
[41:06] Rain Retreat.
[41:08] And we are very happy that we
[41:12] have rain
[41:15] because a Rain Retreat without
[41:17] rain is a burden.
[41:24] So, at the moment the
[41:27] Rain Retreat began, it started to rain,
[41:33] and we are very
[41:36] happy to have received six
[41:40] new novices here, three monks and three
[41:44] nuns.
[41:46] And every time the community receives more
[41:50] monastics, Tae is very happy. We
[41:54] brothers and sisters are very happy
[41:57] because this is our
[42:00] future.
[42:03] If Dear Park wants to continue...
[42:07] Who here wants Dear Park to
[42:09] continue in the future? In the future.
[42:13] Okay. Some, not all.
[42:16] [laughs]
[42:17] No, all. Okay. I thought all,
[42:19] but
[42:23] [laughs]
[42:24] some, I don't mind.
[42:29] Ah,
[42:31] yes. If we want the monastery
[42:33] to continue, this is the transmission of
[42:37] Buddhism, of the monastic community. We don't
[42:40] have one person
[42:43] who directs everything, do we?
[42:46] Our teacher was a bit unique because
[42:50] in his
[42:54] deep aspiration to
[42:58] act, to stop the violence, the war
[43:02] in Vietnam, he
[43:06] had to make the very difficult decision
[43:09] to leave his country.
[43:14] He thought he was going to leave for 3 months in
[43:17] 1966
[43:20] and ultimately didn't return to Vietnam for
[43:24] 39 years.
[43:27] 39 years.
[43:31] So, in this rainy season retreat,
[43:34] we are
[43:37] giving talks about
[43:42] our teacher's poems.
[43:46] You know very well that our teacher
[43:50] loved poetry very much. He was a poet
[43:53] from
[43:55] the At 20 or 21 years old, or even earlier, he
[43:59] was already writing poetry.
[44:04] He went to the Bwak Buddhist Institute
[44:11] in central Vietnam. That's
[44:22] right.
[44:27] And from our temple, Raif, the
[44:31] temple where he was ordained as a novice, you
[44:36] can walk
[44:39] about 30 minutes to Bwak, to the
[44:44] Institute of Purist Studies.
[44:48] And at this institute, he taught the sutras,
[44:52] how to chant,
[44:54] that is, the chants of
[44:57] the sutras,
[44:59] and he also taught classical Chinese
[45:06] and poetry.
[45:10] So,
[45:12] he studied classical Chinese poetry
[45:18] at this institute
[45:24] and began to write poetry in
[45:26] Vietnamese. This poetry spoke of—there's
[45:31] a very early poem that speaks of
[45:35] life, the pain of Yashodra, the
[45:40] Buddha's wife, when the Buddha left to
[45:44] follow his spiritual path.
[45:50] He
[45:52] loved
[45:54] nature a lot. So,
[45:57] images of nature are very
[45:59] present in his poetry. Nowadays in the
[46:04] United States, we have a lot of poetry that does
[46:06] n't talk much about nature; it
[46:10] can be about different things, right? Like
[46:13] more about life. Urban. We are [snort]
[46:16] human beings a little more urban these
[46:19] days. So, uh, sometimes poetry
[46:23] is also a picture of
[46:26] urban life.
[46:35] So today I chose a poem
[46:38] to
[46:40] explain a little, but
[46:44] since I'm not very obedient, I
[46:49] 've chosen another poem.
[46:53] It's a poem that
[46:57] our master received
[47:00] from his master.
[47:05] There's a
[47:07] very precious ceremony,
[47:12] what we call the transmission of the
[47:15] lamp.
[47:17] And
[47:20] as I've already talked about the transmission from
[47:22] my grandmother, this ceremony is a
[47:29] somewhat formal ceremony to recognize the
[47:33] transmission
[47:36] that happens not just at a single moment, but
[47:40] the transmission
[47:42] that has passed through years from
[47:45] our [snort]
[47:46] master, our master, our uh,
[47:51] what we call in English grandpa
[47:52] teacher or su
[47:59] tanqui.
[48:09] In Vietnamese, su
[48:16] ybre,
[48:18] like monk, our great teacher,
[48:22] grandpa master. Grandpa master, you can say it,
[48:26] right? Okay.
[48:32] Our grandpa master,
[48:36] suko, is usually
[48:38] called su in the community,
[48:44] so
[48:45] his name is tanqui because in
[48:49] Vietnamese tradition, you don't usually say a
[48:53] name casually. Master.
[48:59] In the formal ceremony, the master is addressed
[49:02] with the first surname Tan and
[49:07] the second surname Qui. We
[49:10] say it this way so as not to
[49:14] use the name of someone respected
[49:19] too casually.
[49:20] This lends a certain respect and a sense of
[49:28] something sacred to this person.
[49:33] So,
[49:35] as we call our
[49:38] master Tae,
[49:41] which means monk or master, we
[49:44] call our master Grandfather
[49:48] Suc.
[49:53] In Vietnamese, it's
[49:56] a bit more like family to
[49:59] say "su." So, "
[50:05] su" loved our master very much.
[50:10] Our master was his student, I
[50:14] think his most intelligent student,
[50:18] and he had great aspirations,
[50:21] although he wasn't very obedient either.
[50:27] If you read the history of this time,
[50:31] when our master was in Baauco, he
[50:35] had a library
[50:38] in a tree
[50:41] because there you could only study the ancient
[50:44] Chinese, the classical poems of
[50:47] China, but he wanted to study
[50:50] Western philosophy, science, and
[50:55] also read
[50:57] novels. Romance novels, yes?
[51:03] So, but he had to hide these
[51:06] books in a tree
[51:11] , at the school. And then, sometimes
[51:14] he and his friends would climb the
[51:18] tree to secretly read
[51:22] these Western philosophy books
[51:29] because he had a very strong thirst
[51:33] for wisdom. He wanted to understand
[51:37] other cultures. He knew, I think he knew in
[51:40] his heart, that he was going to be someone who
[51:43] had to teach many people around the
[51:45] world, and he wanted to understand
[51:49] the cultures of people outside of
[51:51] Vietnam, outside of his own culture.
[51:57] And then, but when he
[52:03] and his other monks made a
[52:09] magazine
[52:11] at the school,
[52:13] writing their poems and
[52:15] aspirations, they did
[52:20] n't have much support from the teachers at the
[52:24] institute. They just wanted
[52:27] the students to follow the curriculum, how it
[52:29] is, study this and this and this, and that's it
[52:34] .
[52:36] So, as a
[52:40] manifestation
[52:44] of his
[52:46] [clears throat] disobedience
[52:48] to [suppressed scream]
[52:50] this
[52:54] somewhat dogmatic school.
[52:58] Then, one day, while the
[53:00] monks were chanting the sutra in the
[53:03] hall, he and some other monks were throwing
[53:11] small rocks,
[53:15] peasants,
[53:17] stones,
[53:19] stones, I mean, stones, sorry,
[53:21] stones, throwing stones at the roof of
[53:27] one of the buildings,
[53:32] but they did it because they wanted to
[53:35] be
[53:37] judged, right? Or penalized.
[53:43] And then, what he
[53:50] had to do was kneel down
[53:53] with a
[53:59] very long incense stick, and he had to
[54:04] stay on his knees the whole time
[54:06] the incense was burning.
[54:12] And the floor wasn't hard, it's a bit rough,
[54:15] but there, I think they have
[54:19] ceramic tiles on the floor, so if you
[54:23] do it for 10 minutes it's not easy.
[54:26] I've done it in several ceremonies in
[54:29] Vietnam, it's a bit difficult.
[54:32] You start to sweat and, oh, you want to
[54:35] sit down, but you can't. And he was
[54:39] there. Then the monk walked behind him and
[54:42] said,
[54:44] "Novice, are you happy?"
[54:49] He asked, and he said, "Yes, I'm
[54:52] happy." Very powerful. So this is how
[54:57] the story goes.
[55:04] But the fact is, he was a very,
[55:07] very good student, but he also had a
[55:10] bigger aspiration. And finally,
[55:14] after this This
[55:16] event, then he and two other
[55:19] monks decided to leave the
[55:24] school,
[55:26] and the three of them also took
[55:29] new names.
[55:31] So, T's name
[55:35] as a novice wasn't Tignan.
[55:40] At this time, his name was
[55:49] Funzun. Here,
[55:54] this is the name that our
[55:58] master, grandfather, gave to Funzun. We could have
[56:04] opened a
[56:08] school down here;
[56:10] we could have the Intercession School,
[56:16] as you might think, instead of
[56:20] Intercession School. We could have Function
[56:24] School. [Sigh]
[56:27] But at this time, he and the other
[56:31] novices decided to take new
[56:34] names. So, he gave each of them
[56:39] their own name, and
[56:42] he chose
[56:47] this one,
[56:59] which means
[57:02] an action.
[57:09] Here in the poem, we also have one.
[57:11] That means one, but this one is
[57:15] different. It's direction.
[57:18] Where is he, brother? A direction,
[57:21] brother. Is he
[57:23] here, or is he cooking today? Oh, what a
[57:26] shame. This is his name, which is in the
[57:29] poem. The poem that gave
[57:33] One Direction, already a direction,
[57:37] already
[57:41] a sense.
[57:46] Yahun here.
[57:51] How lucky to have the name that's in
[57:55] the poem. From Tai transmission.
[57:58] We hear the
[57:59] sound of a bell.
[58:02] We can return to breathing.
[58:16] [bell]
[58:38] So, let's go a little further.
[58:44] Uh, he
[58:46] went as a young Dharma teacher to
[58:51] live in the United States, to study at
[58:54] Princeton University,
[58:56] and there, the professors there were
[59:00] so impressed by this Vietnamese monk
[59:05] that they were looking for a place
[59:08] for him at Columbia University, the
[59:12] United
[59:17] Union Theological Seminary.
[59:22] He spent two years there, and at this time
[59:25] we all know the story of when he was
[59:35] effigying himself in the streets of Saan,
[59:39] Vietnam, in 1963.
[59:43] At this time he was in New York and
[59:49] was in contact with his
[59:52] teacher Sukotani. We have a picture of
[59:56] our teacher
[59:58] at a demonstration with other monks
[1:00:02] walking in Jué Street
[1:00:07] to protest the repression of
[1:00:11] Buddhists in Vietnam.
[1:00:14] And then the effigy of Twanduc, his
[1:00:21] great older brother.
[1:00:35] John is
[1:00:38] Yahoé.
[1:00:40] Yes. Thank you. He
[1:00:47] was very emotional, very touched
[1:00:52] by the events in Vietnam.
[1:00:55] So, the monks in
[1:01:02] Vietnam decided to invite Tai to return, and Tai
[1:01:05] came back with this knowledge from the
[1:01:09] West
[1:01:11] and started a social service school
[1:01:15] for young people there in Vietnam, working in
[1:01:19] villages without healing, without
[1:01:25] sanitation, without
[1:01:30] health care, without
[1:01:34] medicine,
[1:01:36] without schools.
[1:01:40] He knew he couldn't just be a monk who
[1:01:43] reads the sutras and talks about
[1:01:47] consciousness. He
[1:01:50] had to
[1:01:52] change how people live in
[1:01:55] community, how we care for each other.
[1:02:00] And he also created an institute of
[1:02:03] Buddhist studies in Saigan,
[1:02:10] called Vanan,
[1:02:20] and the image he had of it
[1:02:24] was an institute
[1:02:27] that responded to
[1:02:31] the things he couldn't do as a
[1:02:34] student in Vietnam.
[1:02:38] So he had a lot of energy, a lot of
[1:02:41] projects,
[1:02:45] but the violence of the war
[1:02:47] continued and continued to grow, and
[1:02:54] more and more American soldiers came in every year, '64, '65.
[1:02:59] Finally, in the spring of 1966,
[1:03:03] he made the decision to return to the
[1:03:06] United States and speak for peace.
[1:03:11] And he had an invitation from the
[1:03:15] Cornell University,
[1:03:16] an invitation to teach
[1:03:20] Vietnamese Buddhism at Cornell,
[1:03:24] but his true intention was to
[1:03:28] come to the United States to start
[1:03:31] talking about the situation of the people in
[1:03:34] the villages who didn't want this war
[1:03:39] because there was no one with their voice. There
[1:03:42] was only the voice of the North, the communists, and
[1:03:46] the voice of the South, the anti-communists.
[1:03:51] But he wanted to say that the people of
[1:03:52] Vietnam didn't want this war, they didn't want
[1:03:55] violence.
[1:03:59] And before leaving, he went back
[1:04:05] to visit
[1:04:07] our
[1:04:09] grandfather teacher.
[1:04:12] And on May 1,
[1:04:17] 1966,
[1:04:38] our grandfather teacher told our
[1:04:42] teacher T
[1:04:46] that he wanted to pass on the
[1:04:49] root temple to him so he could be the
[1:04:54] abbot
[1:04:56] of the temple.
[1:04:59] But T said that he had to
[1:05:04] go west, he couldn't stay and take care of a
[1:05:08] temple, he had to leave. His great
[1:05:12] desire was to be the voice of the people of
[1:05:15] Vietnam who wanted peace. So he
[1:05:18] said to our grandfather teacher, "
[1:05:21] Please, give the temple to my
[1:05:25] older brother, monk,
[1:05:28] older brother, chinim says the bad, I can't
[1:05:31] do it."
[1:05:33] But our grandfather teacher fell, He didn't
[1:05:37] say anything.
[1:05:40] And then,
[1:05:43] I think that later, on this day,
[1:05:47] he transmitted the lamp to Tai,
[1:05:51] meaning that Tai can now teach.
[1:05:56] The truth is, he was already
[1:05:59] teaching a lot, he
[1:06:02] had already done so many things, but this
[1:06:06] was the transmission from heart to heart,
[1:06:09] from teacher to student.
[1:06:13] This is a poem. The ceremony is something
[1:06:16] formal;
[1:06:19] it represents the transmission that
[1:06:21] happened
[1:06:24] many years ago
[1:06:26] because I think our
[1:06:29] grandfather teacher knew he wasn't going to see it again
[1:06:35] in his life.
[1:06:39] So, he dedicated
[1:06:43] this poem
[1:06:45] to our teacher,
[1:06:50] and
[1:06:51] this poem has
[1:06:56] become the
[1:07:01] root of the practice of
[1:07:07] Tai E
[1:07:09] for the rest of his life, as he
[1:07:13] told us.
[1:07:16] So, let's look at it a little. It took
[1:07:20] a little longer today because before
[1:07:23] we were going to do the walking meditation
[1:07:26] downstairs, but now we're going to do the
[1:07:28] ceremony here. So, yes, I can
[1:07:31] take a little time to learn
[1:07:35] this poem.
[1:07:38] So,
[1:07:41] the first line: Walk to meet
[1:07:45] the spring.
[1:07:47] Walk to meet the spring.
[1:07:52] Funz,
[1:07:54] the name of his... of his teacher.
[1:08:00] Funzun means
[1:08:02] meeting,
[1:08:04] fun of spring. Sun is
[1:08:07] spring.
[1:08:10] So he walks to meet or simply in
[1:08:14] the direction of spring,
[1:08:17] the reaction of life. That is to
[1:08:23] say, we go in the reaction of
[1:08:25] life, we don't go in the action of
[1:08:28] death.
[1:08:31] We go in the action of creating, of
[1:08:34] growing. It's not that death is part of
[1:08:37] life, is it? If we look deeply, they
[1:08:40] are not distinct. If we look
[1:08:42] deeply into spring, we can
[1:08:44] see winter.
[1:08:47] If we don't have winter, we don't have
[1:08:49] spring.
[1:08:52] Uh, everything is part of the cycle of life.
[1:08:57] But the tradition is also to put the
[1:09:01] monk's name in the
[1:09:05] transition poem. So, in a way,
[1:09:08] Suc wanted to put function in the poem.
[1:09:14] So it is like this.
[1:09:18] We go in a direction towards
[1:09:22] spring.
[1:09:24] He takes the vigorous step.
[1:09:27] Who? Who? Han is to walk.
[1:09:32] Who? That's right. I think it's
[1:09:38] strong, bigorous, like with strength, right?
[1:09:42] Yes. He
[1:09:45] takes the vigorous step,
[1:09:50] that is to say, we walk without fear.
[1:10:01] With each step we arrive home. That is to
[1:10:04] say, We don't feel like foreigners.
[1:10:08] Even when you go to the
[1:10:11] United States, it's very difficult.
[1:10:14] Because people have never seen a
[1:10:18] Vietnamese man, nor a
[1:10:24] Vietnamese monk. And now you have to go
[1:10:28] and speak
[1:10:31] and give talks for the people's voice.
[1:10:34] So it's about having the courage to take the
[1:10:38] bold step. That is, not with fear, but
[1:10:44] with certainty.
[1:10:49] Walk in non-thought.
[1:10:53] Walk without thinking. That's why
[1:10:57] we practice arriving with
[1:11:00] each step,
[1:11:02] breathing contentedly. It's because
[1:11:05] we want to be free human beings, a
[1:11:10] free human being
[1:11:14] walking on the earth.
[1:11:18] And if we are caught up in
[1:11:21] thoughts, we are not free.
[1:11:25] We are caught up in anxieties,
[1:11:29] worries.
[1:11:32] Walk in non-thought with
[1:11:36] non-contention,
[1:11:41] without contention.
[1:11:45] This is very important.
[1:11:50] The
[1:11:53] Spanish translation "with non-contention" is good.
[1:11:58] And I believe that was one of
[1:12:01] our teacher's most difficult practices
[1:12:03] .
[1:12:07] How can you walk without contention
[1:12:11] when you see so much that needs to change
[1:12:14] in the world?
[1:12:16] It seems like a contradiction,
[1:12:22] but if you look, if you look deeply into
[1:12:26] Ti's life,
[1:12:28] he practiced very much every This day, this
[1:12:32] line.
[1:12:35] Ta didn't complain
[1:12:47] , Ta didn't respond when people said horrible things about him. He didn't
[1:12:50] engage in arguments or
[1:12:54] debates,
[1:12:56] but walked with full awareness, without
[1:12:59] fear, without thoughts, like a
[1:13:03] free human being, walking on the earth
[1:13:07] like the Buddha.
[1:13:12] When people harm us, we
[1:13:15] usually want to
[1:13:17] say, "No, that's not how it is." And I'm going to say, "
[1:13:21] Why?"
[1:13:23] Or when someone does something we don't
[1:13:25] like, we usually want to criticize, "You
[1:13:29] have to do it this way."
[1:13:32] But the transmission from our
[1:13:34] grandfather teacher was to walk without contention,
[1:13:38] without contention.
[1:13:42] In this way, we can be the path, the
[1:13:49] future we want in the world.
[1:13:55] We walk,
[1:13:56] we can be the model of what we
[1:13:59] want in the world. Even when people
[1:14:02] criticize us or say bad words,
[1:14:08] we continue to walk with compassion. We don't
[1:14:12] let our hearts harden.
[1:14:18] It is possible with full awareness to
[1:14:21] walk this way.
[1:14:23] That is the practice of monks and
[1:14:26] nuns every day: to walk with this,
[1:14:30] with the breath, with
[1:14:33] freedom
[1:14:35] and without contention, without having these
[1:14:39] thoughts that keep coming back.
[1:14:43] Coming in the head.
[1:14:49] The third line, the lamp of the mind
[1:14:52] illuminates the original substance.
[1:14:59] Tam dan tamang dan is
[1:15:03] the mind.
[1:15:12] It is the original substance.
[1:15:19] That is win, it is the source.
[1:15:22] T is nature,
[1:15:26] our true nature.
[1:15:31] If we can shine the light of
[1:15:34] mindfulness in our body, in our
[1:15:38] mind, then we can touch
[1:15:43] the
[1:15:45] original nature, that is,
[1:15:48] we can naturally understand
[1:15:52] in our way, our way of
[1:15:54] living,
[1:15:57] what is the essence of a human being?
[1:16:00] [snort]
[1:16:01] What does it mean to
[1:16:03] be a human being?
[1:16:07] Many times with all our desires,
[1:16:11] with all our work
[1:16:14] that we have to do, we forget what it is
[1:16:16] to be a human being.
[1:16:22] So, my sister says, "Ofens
[1:16:25] says,
[1:16:27] uh, we don't have to have
[1:16:31] artificial intelligence, we have to
[1:16:33] have
[1:16:39] deep, authenticity." No, well, it doesn't
[1:16:42] translate very well in Spanish,
[1:16:45] in English it's the same. Artificial
[1:16:48] intelligence, uh,
[1:16:51] authentic.
[1:16:54] This is authenticity, the deep vision
[1:16:59] of our original substance.
[1:17:04] And we shine this light with the practice
[1:17:07] of mindfulness,
[1:17:09] of shining the light of mindfulness in
[1:17:12] everything we do.
[1:17:16] And if we We do,
[1:17:19] if we only shine the light, walking without
[1:17:23] thought,
[1:17:25] without restraint, with vigorous steps,
[1:17:29] walk towards the arrival of spring.
[1:17:32] This, spring is a future but that it is
[1:17:36] possible. We all
[1:17:37] want a future,
[1:17:41] but we are living in a world in a
[1:17:43] way that does
[1:17:45] n't make it a very easy future
[1:17:48] for our children, for your children.
[1:17:53] So, if we want to walk towards
[1:17:55] spring, we have to
[1:17:58] shine the lamp of the mind to
[1:18:01] illuminate the original substance. What is
[1:18:04] that? What is it? What does it mean to be a
[1:18:08] human being?
[1:18:12] And if we do this, the wonderful dharma
[1:18:15] of East and West will undoubtedly be
[1:18:19] fulfilled by itself. It
[1:18:23] fulfills itself. We do
[1:18:28] n't have to make a great effort,
[1:18:31] [sigh]
[1:18:33] enter into a great debate,
[1:18:39] work so hard
[1:18:41] against
[1:18:43] everything, just shine the light, stand up and
[1:18:48] shine this light.
[1:18:52] Why do we fight if we don't understand who we
[1:18:54] are?
[1:18:57] We fight because we think we have the
[1:19:00] answer, right? And they don't have the
[1:19:03] answer. So, we have to fight.
[1:19:07] But it's true that you have the answer.
[1:19:13] It's true.
[1:19:16] Well, this phrase says, "Undoubtedly,
[1:19:19] if you shine with light without thought, we don't
[1:19:22] base
[1:19:24] our lives on thought, on a
[1:19:27] concept
[1:19:30] of being a true human being.
[1:19:35] We have to be free of thoughts,
[1:19:41] and thus
[1:19:43] spring forth, the wonderful dharma of
[1:19:47] East and West, because our
[1:19:50] grandfather master could already see that the
[1:19:54] path of our master is not to
[1:19:56] distinguish
[1:19:58] between being a master,
[1:20:01] a role model for both, not only for the
[1:20:04] East,
[1:20:05] but also for the West.
[1:20:08] As a young man, our master wanted to
[1:20:10] learn from the West, but he eventually
[1:20:15] became a master for the
[1:20:18] West, [snort]
[1:20:20] teaching the West,
[1:20:23] and not only the West, but also
[1:20:26] returning to Vietnam and transmitting his
[1:20:30] profound vision.
[1:20:33] As we have listened to
[1:20:37] the sutra from the heart, the profound vision
[1:20:39] that takes us to the other shore.
[1:20:43] He also took his profound vision
[1:20:47] back to Vietnam.
[1:20:50] And now in Vietnam we have [snort]
[1:20:53] many centers, in the North, in the
[1:20:55] Center, and in the South. Also in Thailand
[1:20:59] and others.
[1:21:01] Brother Dai is here, and they are
[1:21:03] creating a center
[1:21:07] in Indonesia."
[1:21:10] So, I think [sighs] that what's
[1:21:13] interesting about studying this poem is
[1:21:18] seeing how T
[1:21:20] has fulfilled
[1:21:23] the task
[1:21:26] that our grandfather teacher
[1:21:30] gave him. Do
[1:21:32] you think so?
[1:21:35] I think he
[1:21:38] has fulfilled the task. So it
[1:21:41] 's also an invitation for us
[1:21:44] because the task
[1:21:48] given to our grandfather teacher also
[1:21:51] becomes our task,
[1:21:57] and it's a task that can be done with
[1:21:59] joy
[1:22:01] and freedom.
[1:22:04] If we take a moment, let's all go
[1:22:06] outside to everyone in this
[1:22:10] room. I think East and West
[1:22:14] are here. We
[1:22:17] just practice,
[1:22:20] and it will undoubtedly be fulfilled by itself.
[1:22:27] We are fulfilling
[1:22:29] the task of the grandfather teacher.
[1:22:33] And now, in a
[1:22:37] few minutes, we're going to have a
[1:22:39] Day of the Dead ceremony where
[1:22:42] we can invite all our ancestors
[1:22:46] to be with us in a present moment. We
[1:22:51] can practice looking
[1:22:55] deeply into every cell of our
[1:22:57] body,
[1:22:59] saying hello to your grandfather and hello
[1:23:02] to your grandmother.
[1:23:05] It's a moment of recognition.
[1:23:09] They are there every day, every moment,
[1:23:12] but we don't recognize them.
[1:23:16] This is the moment to recognize the
[1:23:18] presence of our ancestors, and
[1:23:24] also I invite you to have a feast.
[1:23:28] So, I hope
[1:23:32] you have brought several objects that
[1:23:35] represent your ancestors.
[1:23:39] So, we're going to invite you to place
[1:23:42] the objects here on the altar
[1:23:47] so that we can
[1:23:50] invite you to the table to eat with
[1:23:53] us the spiritual food
[1:23:58] of mindfulness.
[1:24:00] Thank you very much for your attention and your
[1:24:04] practice.
[1:24:08] We end with three rings of the
[1:24:11] bell.
[1:25:06] [bell]
[1:25:10] [music]
[1:25:21] M.
