From Buddhist Encyclopedia
My dear friends, suppose someone is holding a pebble and
throws it in the air and the pebble begins to fall down into a river. After the pebble
touches the surface of the water, it allows itself to sink slowly into the river.
It will reach the bed of the river without any effort.
Once the pebble is at the bottom of the river, it continues to rest. It allows the water
to pass by.
I think the pebble reaches the bed of the river by the
shortest path because it allows itself to fall without making any effort. During our
sitting meditation we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We can allow ourselves to
sink naturally without effort to the position of sitting, the position of resting.
Resting is a very important practice; we have to learn the
art of resting. Resting is the first part of Buddhist meditation. You should allow your
body and your mind to rest. Our mind as well as our body needs to rest.
The problem is that not many of us know how to allow our
body and mind to rest. We are always struggling; struggling has become a kind of habit. We
cannot resist being active, struggling all the time. We struggle even during our sleep.
It is very important to realize that we have the habit
energy of struggling. We have to be able to recognize a habit when it manifests itself
because if we know how to recognize our habit, it will lose its energy and will not be
able to push us anymore.
Ten years ago I was in India visiting the ex-untouchable
community of Buddhists. A friend who belonged to the caste organized the trip for me. I
was sitting on the bus, enjoying the landscape outside, contemplating the palm trees and
the vegetation. Suddenly I turned and I saw him looking very tense. There was no reason
why he had to be tense like that. I thought that he was trying to make my visit pleasant
and maybe that was the reason he was so tense. I told him, "Dear friend, I know that
you want to make my trip pleasant, but I am already very happy. I've already enjoyed the
trip. So why don't you sit back, smile, and relax?" He said, "Okay," and he
sat back and he tried to relax.
I was pleased and I turned my face toward the window again
and I enjoyed the palm trees and other things. But just a few minutes after when I looked
back at him he was as tense as before. He was not able to relax, to allow himself to
relax. I knew that he belonged to that section of the population that had been struggling
for many thousand years. He was discriminated against. He had suffered so much, his
ancestors and himself and his children. So the tendency to struggle has been there for
many thousand years. That is why it was very difficult for him to allow himself to rest.
We have to practice in order to be able to transform this
habit in us. The habit of struggle has become a powerful source of energy that is shaping
our behavior, our actions and our reactions.
When an animal in the jungle is wounded, it knows how to
find a quiet place, lie down and do nothing. The animal knows that is the only way to get
healed-to lay down and just rest, not thinking of anything, including hunting and eating.
Not eating is a very wonderful way of allowing your body to rest. We are so concerned
about how to get nutrition that we are afraid of resting, of allowing our body to rest and
to fast. The animal knows that it does not need to eat. What it needs is to rest, to do
nothing, and that is why its health is restored.
In our consciousness there are wounds also, lots of pains.
Our consciousness also needs to rest in order to restore itself. Our consciousness is just
like our body. Our body knows how to heal itself if we allow it the chance to do so. When
we get a cut on our finger we don't have to do anything except to clean it and to allow it
the time to heal, because our body knows how to heal itself. The same thing is true with
our consciousness; our consciousness knows how to heal itself if we know how to allow it
to do so. But we don't allow it. We always try to do something. We worry so much about
healing, which is why we do not get the healing we need. Only if we know how to allow them
to rest can our body and our soul heal themselves.
But there is in us what we call the energy of
restlessness. We cannot be at peace with ourselves. We cannot be peaceful. We cannot sit;
we cannot lie down. There is some energy in us to do this, to do that, to think of this,
to think of that, and that kind of restlessness makes us unhappy. That is why it is so
important for us to learn first of all to allow our body to rest. We have to learn how to
deal with all our energy of restlessness. That is why we have to learn these techniques of
allowing our body and our consciousness to rest.
I would like to offer you some instructions about walking
meditation. The first thing we shall do early tomorrow morning is to practice walking
together, which we call walking meditation. Walking meditation means to enjoy walking
without any intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy
walking. That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some training.
Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go
somewhere. Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not enjoy every step
we take. Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking. You enjoy every
step you take. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy
every step you take.
The Zen master Ling Chi said that the miracle is not to
walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk
on earth. You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still
alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle.
The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that
we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already
performing a miracle.
But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be
possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now. Therefore each step we
take becomes a miracle. If you are able to walk like that, each step will be very
nourishing and healing. You walk as if you kiss the earth with your feet, as if you
massage the earth with your feet. There is a lot of love in that practice of walking
meditation.
The Buddha said that the past is gone and the future is
not yet here. Let us not regret the past. Let us not worry about the future. to
the present moment and live deeply the present moment. Because the present moment is the
only moment where you can touch life. Life is available only in the present moment. That
is why walking meditation is to go back to the present moment, in order to be alive again
and to touch life deeply in that moment. In order to be able to touch the earth with our
feet and enjoy walking, we have to establish ourselves firmly in the present moment, in
the here and the now.
In walking meditation, we walk like a free person. This is
not political freedom. This is freedom from afflictions, from sorrow, from fear. Unless
you are free you cannot enjoy walking. I would like to propose to you a short poem that
you might like to use for walking meditation:
I have arrived. I am home.
In the here. In the now.
I am solid. I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.
You might like to take two steps and breathe in and say, I
have arrived, I have arrived. And when you breathe out, you take another two steps and say
silently, I am home, I am home. Our true home is really in the here and in the now.
Because only in the here and the now can we touch life. As the Buddha said, life is
available only in the here and the now, so going back to the present moment is going home.
That is why you take one step or two steps and you awaken to the fact that you have
arrived. You have arrived in the present moment.
If you are able to arrive, then you will stop
running-running within and running without. There is a belief in us that happiness cannot
be possible in the here and the now. We have to go somewhere. We have to go to the future
in order to be able to really be happy. That kind of thinking has been there for a long
time. Maybe that feeling has been transmitted to us from our ancestors and our parents.
That is why we have to wake up to the presence of that habit energy in us and to do the
reverse. The Buddha said that it is possible for us to be peaceful and happy in the
present moment. That is the teaching of trista dharma sadha vihara. It means living
happily right in the present moment. When you are there, body and mind united, you have an
opportunity to touch the conditions of your happiness. If you are able to touch these
conditions of happiness that are already available in the here and the now, you can be
happy right away. You don't have to run anywhere, especially into the future.
When we practice walking, we might be aware that we have
strong feet. Our feet are strong enough for us to enjoy running and walking. That is one
condition for happiness that is available. When I breathe in and I become aware of my
eyes, I encounter another condition for my happiness. Breathing in, I am aware of my eyes.
Breathing out, I smile to my eyes. This is an exercise, a very simple exercise to help you
realize that you have eyes which are still in good condition. You need only to open your
eyes to see the blue sky, the white cloud, the luxurious vegetation. You can see all kinds
of forms and colors just because you have eyes still in good condition. Your eyes are
another condition for your happiness. We have so many conditions like that for our
happiness and yet we are still unhappy. We still want to run away from the present moment,
hoping we'll find some happiness in the future.
Breathing in, I'm aware of my heart. Breathing out, I
smile to my heart. That is another exercise. When you practice like that you touch your
heart with your mindfulness. If you continue a minute, you realize that you still have a
heart that functions normally. It is wonderful to have a heart that still functions
normally. There are people who don't have a heart like that and their deepest desire is to
have a heart like you. So conditions for happiness may be more than enough for us to be
happy, but we are not able to be happy because of that tendency to run away from the
present moment.
To take an in-breath, to smile, and to touch the
conditions of happiness that are available, is something that all of us can do. Because of
that we can stop and establish ourselves in the present moment. That is the teaching of
living happily in the present moment. Please train yourself to make the present moment,
the here and the now, into your true home. That is the only home that we have. That is the
only place where we can touch life. Everything we are looking for must be found in the
here and the now. In that way walking meditation can be a great pleasure and can be very
healing.
Do you have to make any effort to practice walking
meditation? I don't think so. It is like when you drink a glass of orange juice. Do you
think that you have to make an effort in order to enjoy the orange juice? No. Walking is
like that. To really enjoy a glass of orange juice, you have to be there one hundred per
cent mind and body together. If you are there, mind and body firmly established in the
present moment, then a glass of orange juice will become a real thing for you. You are
real; therefore, the juice is real. And there life is real. Life exists. Life is deep
during the time you drink your orange juice.
When you contemplate a beautiful sunset, do you have to
make any effort? I don't think so. You don't have to make any effort in order to enjoy a
beautiful sunset. You need only to be there, to be there mind and body together. But if
your body is there and your mind is in the past or in the future, then the beautiful
sunset will not be there for you.
There is a kind of energy that helps you to be there body
and mind together. That energy is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is the capacity of being
there body and mind united. When you drink your orange juice, drink mindfully and you will
enjoy your juice because you are really there one hundred per cent. If your body and mind
are united when you contemplate the beautiful sunset, it means that you are mindful.
Mindfulness helps you to be there in order for the beautiful sunset to be there too. While
you walk, if you allow yourself to be there mind and body together, then walking will
become mindful walking; it will be healing, refreshing and nourishing.
To meditate means first of all to be there, to be on your
cushion, to be on your walking meditation path. Eating also is a meditation if you are
really there, present one hundred per cent with your food. The essential is to be there.
So please when you practice walking meditation, don't make any effort. Allow yourself to
be like that pebble at rest. The pebble is resting at the bottom of the river and the
pebble does not have to do anything. While you are walking, you are resting. While you are
sitting, you are resting. If you struggle during your sitting meditation or walking
meditation, you are not doing it right. The Buddha said, "My practice is the practice
of non-practice." That means a lot. Give up all struggle. Allow yourself to be, to
rest.
I sit on my meditation cushion. I consider it to be
something very pleasant. I don't struggle at all on my cushion. I allow myself to be, to
rest. I don't make any effort and that is why I do not get any trouble while sitting.
While sitting I do not struggle and that is why all my muscles are relaxed. If you
struggle during your sitting meditation, you will very soon have pain in your shoulders
and back and things like that. But if you allow yourself to be rested on your cushion you
can sit very long, and each minute is light, refreshing, nourishing and healing.
It is not sitting in order to struggle to get
enlightenment. No. Sitting first of all is for the pleasure of sitting. Walking first of
all is for the pleasure of walking. And eating is for the pleasure of eating. And the art
is to be there one hundred per cent.
When I was a novice I learned how to light a stick of
incense in mindfulness. You see, when you light incense you think that the purpose of
lighting incense is to have the incense pervading the Buddha's home. But lighting the
incense is just for lighting the incense. You pick up a stick of incense mindfully and you
enjoy that, because it is by itself an act of meditation. During the time you pick up the
stick of incense you are mindful, you are concentrated, you are real, because your body
and your mind are together. And the stick of incense is real. When you strike a match, you
do the same thing. During the time you strike a match, you only strike a match. You don't
do anything else. You don't think of other things. You are perfectly mindful of striking a
match. You are concentrated on it, and you enjoy the act of lighting the incense.
When you hold a stick of incense, it is the same. When I
stick it into the incense burner, I put my left hand on my right hand. That is the
tradition. Everyone in the Buddhist tradition lights incense in that way. The stick of
incense is very light; one hand is enough in order to hold it. Why do you have to put your
left hand on your right hand? Because it means that you are doing it with one hundred per
cent of your body and your mind.
Be there truly. Be there one hundred per cent of yourself.
In every moment of your daily life. That is the essence of true Buddhist meditation. Each
of us knows that we can do that, so let us train to live each moment of our daily life
deeply. That is why I like to define mindfulness as the energy that helps us to be there
one hundred per cent. The energy of your true presence.
Breathing in-in the here, in the here. Breathing out-in
the now, in the now. Although these are different words they mean exactly the same thing.
I have arrived in the here. I have arrived in the now. I am home in the here. I am home in
the now.
When you practice like that, you practice stopping.
Stopping is the basic Buddhist practice of meditation. You stop running. You stop
struggling. You allow yourself to rest, to heal, to calm.
And after a few minutes of practice you might switch into
doing the third line-I am solid, I am free. This is not auto-suggestion. Why? Because if
you have succeeded in arriving in the here and in the now you are much freer. You are free
from the past, from the future, from your worries, from your fear. And you become much
more solid; your steps become more solid and you become more solid in your body and in
your mind. Solidity becomes a reality after a few minutes of arriving, of being home.
Solidity and freedom are two characteristics of nirvana.
Nirvana is not something abstract. The Buddha said we can touch nirvana with our own body.
So while you practice walking meditation you can begin to touch nirvana already with your
body and your spirit. When you feel you are a little bit more solid, a little bit more
free, then you begin to touch nirvana with your body and spirit. Solidity and freedom are
the true base for your happiness and well being. No happiness, no well being, is possible
without solidity and freedom.
The last line of the poem is wonderful. In the ultimate I
dwell. In the ultimate. In the ultimate. I dwell. I dwell. The ultimate here is the true
foundation of your being.
Let us visualize the waves on the ocean, several waves
appearing on the surface of the ocean. Some waves are big, there are those that are small,
and each wave seems to have its own life. A wave may have ideas like, "I am a wave. I
am only a wave among many waves. I am smaller than the other wave. I am less beautiful. I
last less than the other wave." Ideas like that. A wave can be caught in jealousy, in
fear, in discrimination.
But if the wave is able to bend down and touch the water
within herself, it will realize that while it is a wave, it is at the same time water.
Water is the foundation of the wave. While waves can be high and low, more and less
beautiful, the water is free from all these notions. That is why if we are able to touch
the foundation of our being, we can release our fear and our suffering.
Touching the foundation of our being means touching
nirvana. Our foundation is not subjected to birth and death, being and non-being. A wave
can live the life of a wave, but a wave can do much better than that. While living the
life of a wave, a wave can live a life of the water. The more our solidity and our freedom
grows, the deeper we touch the ground of our own being. That is the door for emancipation,
for the greatest relief.
