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Have Faith in Yourself
“Even when sitting alone, let us contemplate… listening together to the Dharma talk, without distinguishing place.”
90 days living together is space, time, and togetherness to nourish “faith – an organic energy that can rise and fall.” If we lack mindfulness and concentration, faith diminishes, and we “look outward… longing for other things,” and “happiness also disappears.” Keeping the “beginner’s mind” from the day we knelt down to shave our head, “living and dying with the ideal” helps us remain loyal to the Sangha, not betraying our vow.
An unsettled mind causes both “the girl who swears eternal love” and the monastic to easily fail; “restlessness and the tendency to look outward” are always the root. Seeing those who leave “lacking merit… quickly declining,” we see that we “have great fortune.” Study and practice always go together: “learning through practice,” “just two sessions of the Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra can bring deep understanding… if practiced earnestly.” Having a degree but “not studying sincerely is meaningless.”
The Plum Village tradition of Buddhism, “over thirty years,” has created Dharma doors to respond to the suffering of modern people; the purpose is not to have more Buddhists but to “serve… without distinction of religion.” A great opportunity: the prime minister writes a letter “inviting the relics,” faith in Marx-Lenin is declining, “we are the engineers building a new Buddhism.” Preserve the “beauty of the East”: the Listening Hut has no television, Phuc Tang Temple “does not allow cars,” guests “wash their face… walk through the pine forest.” Practice letting go of laptops and phones; “do things beautifully, do things well,” water the good seeds in your younger siblings, love “mindfully… not causing suffering.” Each peaceful step is an invitation: “O traveler… please stop and return.”