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Mindfulness Is the Source for Joy and Happiness
Today a grain of corn is offered to each child and adult—seventy children and about seven hundred men and women—to plant mindfully in a pot, water daily, and after a week or ten days visit the young plant. In front of the two‐ or three‐leafed plant you ask, “My dear young plant of corn, do you remember the time you were a tiny seed of corn?” and listen with your heart as you help the plant recognize its origin from the ear of corn and the larger plant that came before.
We humans are like that plant of corn: at conception we were a very tiny seed in our mother’s womb, containing our father and mother, our grandparents, and all our ancestors. Through meditation we can see that our parents and ancestors are alive in us—when we walk they walk with us, when we smile they smile with us—and learn to be grateful. In Vietnam we say uống nước nhớ nguồn: when you drink water from the river, you remember its source.
In the Sutra on Mindful Breathing the Buddha proposes methods to produce joy and happiness:
- Letting go—release what holds you back, like leaving a crowded city to taste the countryside.
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Mindfulness—recognize conditions of happiness in the present moment, for example:
• Breathing in, I am aware of my in‐breath.
• Breathing out, I am aware of my out‐breath.
• Breathing in, I am aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my heart.
