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Public Talk
Our True Agenda is “Tending the Space Inside”—living each moment as a realization. With full presence in breath and step, we cultivate solidity and freedom, touch the Buddha’s Pure Land, and offer the best gift—space—to ourselves and those we love. Mindfulness brings us home to the body, allows us to recognize and embrace pain, sorrow, fear, and anger, and with concentration and insight transform them into peace, happiness, and well-being in every activity: brushing teeth, showering, eating, walking, breathing.
Four Sources of Nutriment for monks, nuns, and lay practitioners:
- Volition: the deep desire to practice, transform afflictions, and help as many beings as possible—Bodhicitta, the mind of love or enlightenment.
- Collective Consciousness: the wholesome energy generated when practitioners sit, walk, and breathe together, nourishing mindfulness, concentration, and insight.
- Sensory Impression: what we hear, see, touch, and think; we need an intelligent policy of consumption, choosing only what brings peace, joy, and compassion.
- Edible Food: eating to sustain health, lightness, and compassion; reducing meat by 50 percent or practicing vegetarianism to preserve compassion and the planet.
Before eating, practice the Five Contemplations:
- This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, numerous beings, and much hard work.
- May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude, worthy to receive it.
- May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially greed, and learn moderation.
- May we keep compassion alive by eating in such a way that reduces the suffering of living beings, preserves our planet, and reverses global warming.
- We accept this food to nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, strengthen our Sangha, and nourish our ideal of serving all beings.
