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Isehara Retreat Day 3 — Meditation Practice and Reincarnation
Children, even when they grow to be twelve or fourteen, still need to be embraced by their parents, as love involves both body and spirit. A campaign is proposed for the right of children to be hugged. The Buddhist way of greeting, gassho, involves joining palms to visualize a lotus flower. Breathing in, one says silently “A lotus flower for you,” transforming oneself into a flower. Breathing out, one bows and says “A Buddha to be,” recognizing the other as a future Buddha capable of deep understanding and love. Mindfulness must be practiced deeply during pregnancy, as everything the parents eat, drink, and feel affects the unborn child. The greatest gift parents can give a child is their own happiness; otherwise, they plant seeds of suffering, continuing the cycle of samsara.
A proposal is made for young people to undergo a year of mindfulness training before marriage to learn how to recognize and transform negative seeds and water positive ones. Without daily watering of the seeds of happiness, love can wither. A story illustrates this, where a wife finds old love letters and realizes her heart has become like dry soil. By reading them and writing a new letter with the sweetness of the past, she waters the seeds of joy within herself and her husband, transforming their relationship. One must acknowledge mistakes and the lack of mindfulness rather than blaming the other.
Love is the capacity of understanding. One must ask the other: “Have I made you suffer? Please help me to understand you.” The Bodhisattva with one thousand arms has an eye in each palm, symbolizing that action without understanding destroys rather than helps. Before acting in the name of love, one must ensure the eye of understanding is present. Walking meditation is a practice of stopping and settling in the present moment. True happiness is based on peace, whereas passion and excitement lack peace because they involve running after something not present. Looking deeply into the here and now reveals more than enough conditions to be happy.
