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Public Talk at UCLA
Breathing in–out with full awareness of body and mind, we learn to release tension, smile to life, and extend compassion to the wounded child within us and to our parents as five-year-olds. Through the parable of the river chasing a cloud, we see that what we seek outside—“the ocean”—already dwells within us, and that birth and death are merely notions; the cloud never dies but continues as rain, ice, vapor. Likewise, the little flame in the matchbox shows that when conditions arise it manifests, and when they dissipate it vanishes without coming from or going to anywhere.
Looking deeply reveals four aspects of reality:
- no birth / no death
- no being / no non-being
- no coming / no going
- no sameness / no otherness
Our actions (karma) consist of thinking, speaking, and acting, each capable of healing or harming. Monastics guide the dying through recollection (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) and insight into these four truths so fear dissolves and true freedom and compassion arise. In daily life, mindful walking (“I have arrived, I am home”) brings us solidly into the here-and-now—the address of life and the kingdom of God.
