To Be Free

Good morning everyone. Good to see everyone today. So last weekend, we visited Chongyan Temple, and they had the Buddha's relics and his disciples' relics. It was a great auspicious opportunity to give, to venerate the relics. And on Wednesday, we talked about the faith and devotion in Buddhism that I normally don't talk about. I use the word "trust and confidence" because our faith in Buddhism is not a blind faith. It's based on right understanding, which is the first of the Eight Noble Paths. The Buddha said, "Don't believe what I say." Probably the only spiritual leader that said, "Don't believe what I say." "Don't believe just because it's been passed down from the ancient times." Because it was a noble man who said it. Because it's in the ancient books.

Because that's what blind faith is. He said, "You must experience it yourself." And that's talking about the trust and confidence in the teaching, the dharma. must come from your own experience. So for those of you who have been practicing, I've asked this question on Wednesday. How many of you are benefiting from this practice? Raise your hand. Okay. Hopefully, you're back here because you're benefiting.

And you're seeing the method. And you're gaining trust and confidence. And that's also built from your own practice. So, as a teacher, you can only guide, right? You can only show the path. You have to actually walk the path to know what this path is about. to really know. So, when we talk about faith, it is about building that trust and confidence in the relationship with the Buddha Sangha,

the teacher and the students. And ultimately, for the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, we're taking refuge. We're not just respecting or venerating. We're taking refuge. The specific word "refuge" is used in Buddhism because we're taking refuge from suffering. You know, First Noble Truth, life is suffering. Life is dukkha.

So, we take refuge to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, to find liberation from suffering. The Buddha said, "I only taught really two things: the truth of suffering and liberation from suffering." So, it's not a salvation, it's liberation. Liberation based on your own awakening. We call it enlightenment, realization of the truth.

But what does that mean? What does that mean? Because our devotion, we said faith and devotion, our devotion is to the truth, not to the Buddha, to something great, greater than me. Our devotion is to the truth, to the absolute truth, undeniable truth.

And you have to become, enlightened to that, truth, to be free. And truth will set you free. I've heard that before, right? But what is that truth? What is that truth? What does it mean by enlightened? To be free. Anybody here want to be enlightened?

No? Why are you here? So Buddhism is about realization of the truth to become liberated. For what? To be beneficial. For all. It's not relying on any superior power to gain what I need or what I want. Compared to any other religion. It's not praying. They are praying in Buddhism, especially in Mahayana Buddhism.

And it works. Because it depends on your devotion, on your positive karma, that you're just kind of tapping into your karma bank almost. Okay? But the true liberation is about realizing what is truth. When we say that truth, we can ask ourselves, what am I?

Did anybody have found the answer to that question that I asked?

What is this that is aware? Anybody come to that realization while you're meditating? When you ask that question, what is this that is aware? You know, when I ask, what are you? What are you? Normally we're identified with what? First thing we'll say, my name is this.

You know, my name, or this body, and this mind, personality, all of those, right? But now, the science has been developed and advanced enough for us to know that we're not our body. It's constantly changing. As soon as you claim it to be me, it's already changed.

You're not the same body that walked in that door. And we all know that, right? We all know that right now. Back then, a thousand years ago, they didn't. That's why we have to have a lot of convincing and a lot of teaching behind that.

Impermanent nature. Continual, cyclical changes that's coming. Transitory. Everything is transitory. Not only our body, but also our mind. So, if you can't claim your body and the mind, and please don't tell me your consciousness, because I will ask you back, what is consciousness?

It's a concept in your mind. That's it. So, what is this? What is it? What can I truly claim as myself? Anybody? Be brave. If you know it, tell me. Don't know. Don't know? Are you willing to admit? Or do you know? Sir?

I found it elusive. I could focus on the breath that I found I could do, but the what is this I found very... Yes. Couldn't find it. Yes. So, what do we say when we don't know? Don't know, right? That's the first awareness.

You know, I don't know what I am. If you're willing to admit that, you know, then how can we claim we know anything when we don't even know ourself? Yeah. But we're identified. Right? We have identification. Of me. Myself. And I. Right? Doesn't everybody have this I-ness?

It's me right here. You are there. I am here. Right? Everybody has that, right? Yeah. But when we ask, what is this that is here? What is this that is aware? What is this that's listening? What is this that's thinking? Don't know. Yeah.

But if you continue your investigation, you will know.

You will come to realization of that truth. Your own essence. You know, there are a lot of words that realized masters have used to point towards that. But remember, those are all just conceptual words. Anything that is expressed in words are just concepts.

Because you can't truly express the truth, because it's non-dual. Non-linguistic. It's non-linear. Anything that's non-dual, you can't understand it with your dualistic thinking. That's why you have to see it for yourself. I could tell you the truth. But you're still going to conceptualize it.

Right? Even if you think you understand it, it's still a concept. That's what the true Zen Zen inquiry is meant to do, is to really dive into this non-dual aspect. What is this "I"? Because without knowing that, you're always going to live based on this illusory "I-ness", that identification, what we call "ego".

Yeah. the "I-ness" you feel is the ego. Yeah. That's the ego. But does it really exist? No. But we create that. That "I" is a thought. Right? Yeah. That's one of the answers. It's a thought. It's just a thought that we are clinging on to.

Just like everything else, we solidify and identify with something and we hold on to it. That's why when Buddha came to the realization of the truth, he even hesitated because everybody is so hanging on, so tight to the illusion. Who would understand this truth?

Because the only way to see the truth is if you're willing to let go this illusory self. So that's the truth we're trying to rediscover. Yeah. Rediscover. Not getting to a higher level or attaining anything. It's about true realization of your true self.

And words are used like the divine nature, the Buddha nature, the silent stillness. What I like to call here and now. But everyone's going to interpret that differently. Right? Because those are words. Based on your filtering system, you're going to listen to that and create a concept within your own mind.

So the only way for you to come to true realization is just follow the method

and walk the path. The middle way that Buddha has shown. So you have to walk the path. And there's, and that's what we call practice. We have to practice. What are we practicing? Because it's about our mind, we have to discipline the mind first to be here.

You know, what percentage are you truly conscious throughout the day? You know, they say for normal people it's less than 1%. Right? Maybe if you're a practitioner. You know, you may be more. But we're always lost in thoughts, right? Rumination. About the past, the future.

You know, what to eat this afternoon. You know, what to do after this. Or just random thoughts that come and go. Right? As you meditate, you see that, right? Thoughts. Takes you away and you gotta keep coming back. So we're first disciplining our mind to come back, recognize, come back, recognize, come back, recognize, come back.

Millions of times. To discipline the mind to stay. Right here. When you're truly here. Okay? You're completely open to what is. That's why I keep emphasizing, allow everything to be as is. When you do that, you're no longer reacting. The reason we stress.

The reason we have this confrontation, conflicts. All this suffering. Because we're reacting all the time to what's outside. To the people, right? That triggers you. We're upset. Anxiety about the future. All those negative emotions that we don't want to feel. We're always reacting to what he said, what she said, what he did, what she did.

Right? It's always a reaction. You don't just sit there and just get angry. You're always getting triggered. Or maybe even things that are already in there will bubble up. That's what happens when you meditate for a while. Everything that's been compressed in your subconscious mind will start to bubble it up.

And you'll experience that as well. Even just sitting through nothing, all of a sudden like all this emotion will arise. You just got to let it be. So our practice is to be present and to watch. To simply be that awareness. To be aware of all those compressed negative energy.

And when you witness it, it dissolves. So we have to witness. We have to watch. Investigate. I'm using different words, but same action. Just looking inward. So spirituality is about looking inward. Even though all of our senses is pointed outwards, right? For information.

It's about turning our intention inward. To understand. What is going on in my head, you know? What is going on in my mind? And things that just comes up naturally. Right? And they say that thoughts can happen, come and go, in one ten-thousandth of a second.

In a second, you can think 50,000 thoughts. There are different, you know, ways to express it. It just means that you can't measure it.

It just comes and goes so quickly. Until you calm your mind enough. That's where the shamatha practice comes in. You know, of calming the mind. To return to the silent nature. To be able to see, which is vipassana. To be able to see. Penetrating insight.

They call it penetrating. Because you have to penetrate through all these thoughts. All this filtering. To see the reality as is. When you can see the reality as is, then you're free. You're free from your own karma. Because when you see the truth, you'll see those three laws that we mentioned before.

What's the first one? Law of impermanence. Okay. Law of impermanence. Second one is law of non-self. Third is law of suffering. Law of impermanence. Everybody can accept that, right? Everything changes. Is there anything that exists that doesn't change? Everything changes, right? Everything is transitory.

Non-self means there's nothing that is independently existing as itself. There's no inherent existence as itself. Everything exists based on the supporting condition that allows it to exist. Right? There's that dependency. There's always dependency. Right? There's anything that exists all by itself, without depending on anything.

Just, boop, out of nowhere. There's anything. Everything that exists, if you look at it closely enough, it's always supporting condition. We call it causal condition. To create that effect. Create that manifestation. When you see the truth, you'll see that everything is conditional and everything is transitory.

When you see that everything comes and goes based on supporting conditions, you see what you realize is there's nothing I can have. That might be disappointing to some of you. Your ego doesn't like that. It will resist. Look at all these things that I can call mine.

Even this body. This is my body, right? But you can't hold on to it, can you? It's ever-changing, right? Right? If I told you to hold on to the sound. Does that make sense? Can you? Can you hold on to the sound? No, right?

It happens based on the supporting condition. And it disappears. Isn't everything that way? Is there anything that's not like that? But we don't see that. That's why we're holding on. Claiming to be mine. Claiming to be me. That's the illusion that we're living.

That's why we suffer. The law of suffering is there. Because we don't see it. We're holding on. We're clinging, attached to things that we know we can't have. So you agree that you can't have it, the sound. But you seem to think you can have something else.

That's okay. But just remember that's the cause of suffering. Because we don't see the truth behind the existence, the reality. And we feel there's I that I can hold on to. That's our biggest attachment is to that identity. Which we don't know what it is.

That's the irony of it. Yeah. So when you see that, everything, including this body, including the mind, the consciousness, is conditional. Right? Consciousness comes and goes.

Otherwise you would have the same consciousness. We even break it down to sense-based consciousness. That's what creates experience for you. But if I asked you, are there any evidence there's a hearer behind hearing? Is there any evidence that there's a thinker behind your thinking?

Do you have any evidence? There's a thinker behind your thinking? There's thinking going on. We can see that. Anybody have any evidence that there is a thinker? But we seem to believe that, right? We live with that identity. Even though we can't find any evidence for it, we can't look at it and see it.

You know? We split our head, we can't see this person that's looking out through the eyes. And because of that illusion, we're causing our own suffering. Causing our own stress. Does that make sense? Or is it kind of confusing? It's confusing? What's confusing?

What you're saying makes sense, but it's confusing when you're sitting and you're asking, "What am I? Who am I?" You don't know what it is, but there is something behind that's witnessing, but you don't know what it is. I don't know what it is.

Yeah. But I can see that, I can feel that it's something with this, I can... Yeah. You can feel it? What are you feeling you're with? I mean, maybe it's not a feeling, but it's just a, and I don't even know if it's a knowing, but there's something witnessing, I don't know what that is.

It's not my eyes looking at something, but it's something else, so it's confusing. Is that true or is that a thought? It's a thought. Okay. That's why it's confusing. It's not confusing, you're just claiming something that's not it. Right? You're just claiming something to be just because your thought creates it.

There's gotta be something. You're convincing yourself. There's gotta be a thinker. You're not a thinker. Right? It makes no sense. That's why the answer is in the non-dual state. When you think that, existence and non-existence, that's dualistic thinking. As long as you think that way, you can see the truth.

That's why it's penetrating insight beyond the dualistic thinking. So, it may take you several lifetimes. It's okay. But you set the intention to be awake, to be free. Okay? So that's why we set that intention to be fully awakened, for the benefit of all beings.

And some of you may not even be interested in the awakening.

The truth. Just want to make this life better. It's okay, too. There's no judgment against that. But how do you want to make this life more enjoyable? More meaningful? How do you find that peace and joy? Which I define happiness as peace of mind and joyful heart.

How do you find peace of mind? Peace of mind is when we let go of all those negativity. Stop judging. Anybody here think judging is necessary? To live our life? Judging. Judging is a negative way of viewing things. Because there's always good and bad.

Based on my standard. Based on my standard. Right? Even if you agree with somebody else's standard, it's still your standard. You're using your standard, your ruler, to measure everything out there. So it creates negative energy. Because when you judge. There can be a discernment.

With mindfulness, there's discernment. That it is this, it is that, this is beneficial or not beneficial. There's a discernment of that. That's why Buddha always asked the question, you know, he said, use the word benefit. Is this beneficial versus good or bad? Good or bad is depending on your own opinion.

But when you see beneficial, it's beneficial to you and others. Is this beneficial for me and others? Is it a win-win situation? That's what we're looking at. That's the discernment that we need to rely on. Is there judgment also in that? That is beneficial?

Judgment? Of that? No, that's discernment. Discernment is, there's a difference between discernment and judgment. It depends on how you use the word, but by definition. Discernment is just being able to tell what it is. Judgment adds value to things. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So beneficial, you can say it's a value. Whether it's beneficial or not, but it's really a discernment. It is just going to benefit everyone. That's why compassion is very valuable practice. That's why we have wisdom and compassion. That must be practiced so that we can benefit others, not just selfishly looking, benefit

for myself. Okay? Wisdom to see what is, as it is, and compassion. Why? Because we're all interdependent. We talked about non-self, right? That everything depends on something else. If you look closely to what it depends on, our own existence depends on everything else.

The entire universe. That's why we're interconnected, interdependent. That's why, that's where that compassion comes from. Because we're all interconnected or interdependent of one another. That's why compassion is necessary for us to be happy. For you to be happy, you have to care for other people.

So that's where the joyful heart comes in. Peace of mind, joyful heart. Joyful heart is attained through altruistic, compassionate heart. By thinking about others. By taking care of others. By trying to alleviate somebody else's suffering. By helping. By caring. All of that, when you are being loving, you're benefiting right there.

Why? Because you're already generating positive energy within you, right? So love, I like to define love as kind, caring, and understanding. When you're kind to others, doesn't that feel good? Or do you feel bad? You know, when you're caring for somebody you care about, how does that feel?

Feel good, right? When you're understanding, instead of judging, it feels good. Right? So be kind. Be caring. And understand somebody, instead of judge. Then you are happy. So by being compassionate, you are benefiting. You know?

Right? That's how we find that joyful heart. And peace of mind. By letting things be. Without reacting negatively. Now don't take that as being submissive or passive. Letting things be means what already is. Right? It doesn't mean you just allow somebody to run you over.

You do what you need to do. Respond. Accordingly. That is beneficial. Right? Without negative emotion. Without judgment. Without complaining. Without anger. Frustration. Anxiety. Which is all suffering. Yeah. You would agree to that, right? But it's hard to live by that. We're trained to react.

We have this natural defense mechanism in our brain. Whenever we feel threatened, you know, we're reacting. Yeah. So we have to train our minds to be present, to be open. That's why you should meditate. To discipline the mind to be present and be open.

Not because it feels good. And you can. There's nothing wrong with that. But we're trying to go beyond that. It's not a relaxation exercise. Which it can be. But you're going to be already finding that relaxed point, simply by being present and being open.

Because you're no longer reacting. If you need relaxation, that means you're stressed, right? Where does the stress come from? Where does stress come from? Judgment. It's not outside what's happening or what somebody said. It's our own reaction to that. It's our resistance. Resistance, remember.

Stress comes from our resistance to what is. What already is. So if we don't resist, meaning we accept what already is, because it already is. and then we respond accordingly to what we need to. Does that make sense? Yeah. Then we don't have to stress.

Even if a boss said I have to do twelve things and I only have time for five things. There's no need for stress. Just do what you can. Because you can't do twelve things. You can't do twelve things. You can do five things, prioritize, and do what you can. Maybe you do six or seven things.

But without any expectation, you do the best you can. By being present. Fully present. With positive energy. Then you're happy. There's peace of mind. No need to stress.

Right? Yeah. So, our reaction. Be watchful of that. That's why we're practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is of paying attention to ourself. That's the right mindfulness. And there are a lot of mindfulness practice out there. Especially how popular it became. And it came out of Buddhism.

But it became, you know, a way to just become more effective and efficient. But the right mindfulness of the Eightfold Noble Path is really about being watchful of oneself. Our speech, actions, and thoughts. Okay? Because those three things create vibration, energy, or in other words, karma.

Okay? Our experiences. That's why we need to continue to watch ourself. Am I following my ego? Or am I following my intention that I set? Okay? So intention is very, very important. Once you set that intention for the benefit of all beings, you know?

Or at least to make positive impacts on other people's lives. When we set that intention, it creates a pathway for you. And you continue to come back to that path even if you get distracted by that. To be awake, to be liberated for the benefit of all beings.

Okay? Because when you're, when you're awake, even when you're fully present, your level of consciousness rises. the frequency of your vibration, your energy, changes based on where your consciousness level is. Okay? Every day, your level may be going up and down, depending on your own beingness.

Okay? So we're working on our beingness. It's already noon. Any questions? Any clarification needed? It's a lot, actually, I covered.

Yeah. But it's all about your own practice. If you don't commit to the practice and stay consistent, you can agree to what we say, feel good about it, but it won't be beneficial. It's like when you want to learn how to play piano, you go take a lesson, right?

And what do you have to do after you take your lesson? You have to practice. Just like anything else. We've got a lot of yogis here. You have to practice almost daily basis to maintain the flexibility and, you know, get that asana going, right?

Yeah, you have to practice. Practice what? It's not just sitting, but staying mindful, fully awake, watching myself, moment to moment to moment to moment to moment. And see if I react. And recognize that. Don't judge yourself. Recognize. Oh, here's my tendency to reaction to this person, this circumstance. And consciously choose how you're going to respond.

And that's why we have practice guidelines. And those of you that are new, we'll send out the link for you to look at the practice guidelines. And if you want to commit to that, then we'll invite you to our Band app where we share our reflections and ask questions and answer with you.

Okay? All right, so we're going to end the session with our metta prayer and make any announcements afterwards. Let's bring our palms together.

And let's think about all sentient beings as we do this prayer. Okay? May all beings be safe. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be joyful. May all beings be joyful. May all beings awaken to their true nature.

May all beings awaken to their true nature. May all beings be free. May all beings be free. Have a wonderful weekend.