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Dreaming a Dream
In a dream, I was a music student accepted into the class of a renowned professor, with only about fifteen to twenty people chosen. Sister Chan Khong was not accepted but was still joyful—she would drive me there—a symbol of friendship and humility. The image of the bottomless boat from Journey to the West is a koan, a metaphor for the path of practice that requires faith and letting go of the old body in order to step onto the shore of enlightenment. From my experience teaching at Van Khoa University in Saigon to the meditation hall atop the Cosmos building in Amsterdam, I emphasize walking meditation, step by step, cherishing each moment on the path of practice.
In a moldy brown cloth bag, I carry simple yet deeply meaningful Dharma instruments:
- a mini bell
- a candle
- a lighter
- a sheet of paper to burn
- six pebbles
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– (the brown cloth bag)
Each Dharma instrument helps guide listeners into the world of the Buddha’s teachings: the candle symbolizes life and death, the paper demonstrates no birth and no death, the lighter is to light the candle, and the pebble represents solidity. The sound of the bell awakens the energy of mindfulness, creating harmony between body, mind, and the sangha.
I invite my ancestors and deceased loved ones to attend the Dharma talk through the insight of interbeing, because they are present in every cell of our body. Practicing the breath from the Anapanasati Sutra—calming bodily formations—by listening to the bell, breathing in to relax the body, breathing out to release the body, three breaths each time, brings deep peace. Compared to eleven hours of working and rushing about, we can devote seven hours each day to mindfulness: sitting meditation, walking meditation, chanting, eating mindfully. Finally, through the Linji koan “the true person has no position,” I invite everyone to let go of fame and gain, to live with the true ontological ground, and to dwell in peace right in the present moment.