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The Buddha's Path Always Needs Fresh Nourishment
The tenth day of the three-month retreat, with 80 days left to cherish each moment of dwelling peacefully in the practice. Shamatha and Vipashyana meditation are inherently inseparable: shamatha brings concentration, vipashyana gives rise to insight, and concentration and insight are interwoven in a single moment of stopping. Practicing walking meditation in Plum Village is to take each step in mindfulness, refraining from conversation to hold firmly the “reins” of our steps; each in-breath and out-breath is an opportunity to stop the wandering of the mind, to connect with our father, mother, ancestors, and to encounter the “Pure Land” right in the present moment. When eating, dressing, or sitting, doing only one thing at a time, dwelling fully in the present, is to find peace, nirvana, and freedom.
From 450 BCE (the Buddha’s Parinirvana) to the early stages of Original Buddhism: the Buddha was born around 530 BCE, and for the next 100 years the Sangha continued the transmission until 350 BCE; about 140 years after the Buddha’s passing, the Mahasanghika and Sthavira schools formed, and in the following 255 years, many Hinayana schools emerged. From the first century BCE to the third century CE, the Prajnaparamita Sutras marked the beginning of the Mahayana; Master Nagarjuna systematized “Emptiness” and Maitreya expounded on the Yogacara teachings, and finally Asanga and Vasubandhu completed the Consciousness-Only school. King Ashoka (third century BCE) erected stone pillars and supported the Dharma, expanding Buddhism, blending the Buddha’s teachings with culture, from the Jataka–Avadana tradition to the ancestor worship customs of Vietnam, creating a path of practice for both monastics and laypeople.
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Touching the Earth: An Art of Connecting