We can get in touch with the wonders of life. Every time when we focus our attention on our breath and our steps, we produce a feeling of joy and peace. Our body is a wonder of life. There are so many wonders of life around us and inside of us. Sometimes we cannot be in touch with these wonders, because we are always running and looking for something else. We do walking meditation because we like it. We enjoy every step. This is the same for sitting meditation. We do sitting meditation because we enjoy it. Sitting meditation can produce peace and joy. Mindfulness reminds us that to be alive. To be able to walk on earth is a wonderful thing. Many of us have spent our life searching for material comfort and affection. Many of us have a lot of material comfort but we are not happy. Many of us have someone who love us and understand us but yet we are not happy. Mindfulness helps us to appreciate what we have.

Time is precious. When we wake up, we know we have 24 brand new hours to live and this is a gift of life. We live deeply in each moment so that we don’t waste our life. May be we have wasted many days in anger, fear, jealousy. We haven’t made the best use of the time given to us to live. We may ask ourselves, “What have we done with our life?” “Is it possible to live in such a way that we have more peace, more joy, more happiness?” With the practice of mindfulness, we may enjoy more of the time we have, have more peace and happiness, and be able to have other people suffer less. In our modern time, everyone works very hard. We do not have time to take care of our body, our feelings, our emotions. We do not have enough peace and happiness in us. If you are not capable of taking care of yourself, how can you take care your beloved, your family?

In this talk, we use the practice of walking meditation to explore themes of enlightenment, secularization of mindfulness, technology, schools, and the corporation. Today during our Touching the Earth practice, we promised to the Buddha that we would enjoy the practice of walking meditation in our daily life. Every breath and step can generate a feeling of joy and a feeling of peace. Our body is a wonder. We don’t need to be in a hurry, looking for something. In Plum Village we practice walking mediation. Why do we practice walking meditation? The same question is asked of sitting meditation. How does Thay practice mindful movements? Why does Thay practice mindful movements? It is not only for better health. It tells Thay that he is alive and strong enough to do the movements. Thay shares about those astronauts who return to the earth and walk again - how long do they maintain this awareness? Mindfulness of being alive and walking on the earth is a wonderful thing. To enjoy walking meditation is not difficult.

Everyone can have mindfulness of breathing. Enlightenment can arise in a few seconds with awareness of our breath and that we are alive and we have a body. Buddhism is not exactly a religion but it is a way of living. You don’t need to be a Buddhist to practice mindfulness. We can even generate this while we brush our teeth.

Many of us have searched for material comforts and many of us do have many material comforts but we may still not be happy. Time is something we should treasure. When we wake up in the morning, we can breathe and be aware that we have 24-hours to live. Thay teaches the waking up gatha. With the end of the year, it may help us to think about the way we live our life. How did we spend 2013? What have we done with our life? Can we live with more joy?

This year we had the opportunity to visit Google and spend a whole day practicing with the employees. We noticed the people there practiced whole-heartedly - they did walking, sitting, and eating mediation. A company like that wants to succeed and be #1 but there is also so much suffering. They do not have the time to take care of their body, feelings, emotions, families, etc. They see a need for a spiritual practice so they can suffer less. Time is no longer money. Time is peace. Time is life. Thay shares further about the visit to Google and how we can suffer less through our practice. Going home to ourselves. We are running away from ourselves and we do not take the time to take care of ourselves. If we cannot take care of ourselves, how can we take care of the person we love? Is technology helping us run away from ourselves? Thay sees a struggle within corporate culture - they have stress, guilt, etc. They want to learn ways to deal with these issues.

Is it possible to be #1 and be happy? This is the dilemma. There are people who are victims of their success, but there is nobody is a victim of their happiness. Which is #1 priority? The bottom line in the corporation is still thinking of being #1 in their area. And some practice mindfulness to become #1 and not to become happy. Are they using mindfulness to do the things to be more successful in business?

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