Thich nhat hanh's main idea is to practice mindfulness, that is, to focus on the present, the present breathing, the present walking, the present drinking tea, the present washing dishes and everything.
Practice mindfulness, because only the present time truly belongs to us, and only the present is truly eternal, because when you say "now", the word "now" has become the past. Only the present is what we can grasp, as Zeng Guofan said: "We didn't love in the past, we didn't welcome in the future, and we didn't mix up in the present."
Practicing mindfulness can calm the mind. A calm heart is a higher level of human beings, and only inner peace can easily make people feel satisfied and happy. Silence is the source of germinal thoughts.
The greatest significance of practicing mindfulness lies in the training of thinking, which is to shape a stable spiritual foundation. If a person can control himself to live in the present, he can control himself to turn his attention to the work he wants to complete at any time and anywhere, indulge himself and immerse himself in it. Only by immersing himself in one thing can he feel satisfied.
Practicing mindfulness is a calm flow, which is the foundation of all thoughts.
Let us feel beautiful and profound thoughts in reconciliation with ourselves:
Mindfulness walking, mindfulness meditation and mindfulness breathing are the basis of our practice. Through mindfulness breathing and mindfulness pace, we can nourish the energy of mindfulness and awaken the awakening and wisdom existing in body cells. Practice mindfulness walking and mindfulness breathing, and do everything with mindfulness, so that you can really live and know how to love.
Mindfulness therapy. The first function of mindfulness is awareness without confrontation; The second function is to hug him; The third function is to ease and alleviate the difficult mood.
Each of us has the pain of your ancestors, even the pain of your ancestors. No one can exist independently. We are always connected with our parents and ancestors, feeling each other's pain and healing with them. Imagine that we are corn seeds sown in the soil. Seven days later, the seeds germinate and grow corn stalks, which is the future of corn seeds, while corn seeds are the past of corn stalks, and new corn seeds are the future of corn stalks now. Cyclic repetition, interdependence and endless life, we are the continuation of the stream of life.
There are primitive desires and primitive fears in our genes. Fear and desire come from the same source: fear of death. Desires are always one after another and never stop. Contentment is the condition of happiness.
Fear and desire will bring pain, and pain is real. We must face it. There is no happiness without pain, just as there is no lotus without mud. Practice "five thoughts" to heal the seeds of fear;
1、? I will be old in essence, and I can't avoid being old;
2、? I will get sick in essence, and I can't avoid it;
3、? I will die in essence, and I can't avoid death;
4、? The people and things I love will change in essence; I can't avoid being separated from them. I can't keep anything. I came empty-handed and left empty-handed.
5、? My career is all I have. I can't escape the consequences of my actions. My behavior (industry) is my position.
Learn to breathe, learn to walk and learn to let go. Our practice is to return to the present, to the here and now. Only here and now can we touch life. Happiness has no road, and happiness itself is the road; There is no road to enlightenment, and enlightenment itself is the road. Washing dishes can also be a conscious act, and washing dishes is a very pleasant thing.
Many people are still trapped in the world of images (images of past injuries), but the fact is that they are just images that are no longer true. Through the inhalation and exhalation of mindfulness, we can gain wisdom and enlightenment.
Buddhism divides consciousness into three parts: consciousness, tacit knowledge (subconscious) and final knowledge. Eschatological knowledge exists between tacit knowledge and consciousness, and is a part of mental knowledge, which guides us to pursue happiness and avoid pain. The six characteristics of ignorance: first, it always pursues pleasure; Second, it tries to escape the pain; Third, it ignores the danger of pursuing pleasure; Fourth, the benefits of suffering will be ignored. Buddha said that without suffering, there is no opportunity to learn. People who have not experienced war will not understand the value of peace. Fifth, ignore the middle way. Sixth, try to possess, own and hold everything it notices and wants. Desire is a strong impulse of human beings. Because of its existence, society is full of jealousy, hypocrisy, selfishness and greed. In fact, there is nothing we can really have.
To eliminate pain, we must first stop feeding pain. Without food, nothing can survive, and so can pain. If we can determine what nourishes our pain, we can cut off the source of this nutrition and let the pain wither. Stop watching violent pictures. If the brain plays back images of violence in the past or imagines scenes of fear in the future, we should immediately cut off this negative cognitive bias. Stay away from people with negative energy, away from the exchange of toxins, and give yourself the opportunity to transform inner violence and pain, so that you can produce understanding and compassion, help yourself heal, and help others around you heal.
Heal the inner child. Everyone has an inner child, and everyone has experienced difficulties and even trauma in childhood. In order to protect ourselves and prevent future suffering, we try to forget the pain of the past. Our father, mother and all ancestors really exist in every cell of our body, even in the bacteria of our body. If you want to reconcile with yourself, you must first reconcile with your inner child. If you want to be happy, you must first make your inner child happy.
Cultivate four boundless minds: kindness, sadness, joy and abandonment. By practicing these elements, we can expand our hearts to infinity. When our hearts begin to open and become bigger, we can learn to tolerate and accept any pain. At that time, when we embrace the inner pain, we no longer suffer. The Buddha used a metaphor to describe the boundless mind. When dust falls into a glass of water, we will refuse to drink another glass of water, and we will throw it away. But if dust falls in the river, we will continue to drink water. A measurable heart is not a real big heart. Practicing deep insight is the only way to help you broaden your thinking.
Practice sixteen mindfulness breathing methods.
Look at yourself.
Exercise 1: Identify income as income and commitment as commitment. You begin to gather the energy of mindfulness, have a certainty and gain a certain degree of freedom.
The second exercise: follow the breathing, follow the whole process of breathing. The quality of breathing comes from our concentration.
The third exercise: bring the heart into the body and connect the body and mind. Inhale, I realize my whole body, exhale, I realize my whole body. Just such a simple exercise can make a miraculous change-live more deeply in every moment.
Take a look at it.
The fifth exercise: cultivate the energy of joy. Inhale, I feel happy; Exhale, I feel happy.
Exercise 6: Bring a feeling of happiness. Inhale, I feel happy; Exhale, I feel happy.
The seventh exercise: deal with the painful feelings and emotions that appear inside. Inhale, I realize my mind; Exhale, I realize my heart. We practice mindfulness breathing and mindfulness walking to nourish mindfulness and positive energy.
Exercise 8: Release the tension. Inhale, I calm my mind; Exhale, I calm my mind.
Look at the heart with your heart.
Exercise 9: Other mental behaviors.
Inhale, I realize my mind; Exhale, I realize my heart. The heart is a river, and every heart is a drop of water inside. We sat on the river bank, observing the appearance and disappearance of every thought, not resisting, not persisting, not pushing away. All we have to do is to identify them calmly, and whether they are happy or unhappy, we will smile back.
Exercise 10: Make your heart happy. Inhale, I make my heart happy; Exhale, I make my heart happy.
Exercise 1 1: Focus on reading to gain insight. Inhale, I concentrate; Exhale, I concentrate. "Ding" has the power to eliminate troubles, just like using a lens to concentrate the energy of sunlight and make paper burn. When positive definite "burns" troubles, epiphany comes into being.
Exercise 12: Liberate your mind. Inhale, I liberate my mind; Exhale, I release my heart. Matches bring fire, flames rise and burn matches. We need impermanent views to liberate us. As soon as opinions come into being, they will "burn" the concept. Affirmation means always being alert, the longer the better. Only positive definite can bring us free opinions.
Obey the law.
Exercise 13: observe impermanence. Inhale, I observe the impermanence of all laws; Exhale, I observe the impermanence of all laws.
Exercise 14: Observation without desire. Inhale, I observe the cessation of desire; Exhale, I observe the cessation of desire; . The Buddha taught us four kinds of "food" and four sources of "food" that we absorb every day.
The first source of "food" is will-our deepest desire. Will brings us the vitality of survival. The second kind of "food" is mental knowledge, which refers to our collective consciousness and energy. The third kind of "food" is sensory impression, which refers to what we absorb in music, impurities, movies, dialogues and advertisements. The fourth food is edible food. We should only eat food that can bring peace and health to our body and mind.
Exercise 15: Observe and stop. Inhale, I watch, stop; Exhale. I watch. Stop. Stopping means stopping all concepts, and reality is among them. The essence of reality transcends all concepts, including life and death, existence or not, which is the core of meditation and the last effort of liberation. Observing impermanence, non-ego, emptiness and immortality can achieve such a state of liberation. The concepts of life and death are the root of pain, anxiety and fear. Only by gaining immortal wisdom can we transcend anxiety and fear.
Exercise 16: Observe Nirvana and Silence. Inhale, I observe the separation; Exhale. I'm in charge of separation. The word nirvana means silence. Nirvana is not a place to go, nor something that will appear in the future. Nirvana is the essence of truth and exists here and now. The rising waves in the ocean are made of water, but sometimes the waves forget that their essence is water. A wave begins, ends, rises and falls; Compared with other waves, waves may rise higher or lower, and may be strong or weak. If Na Pianhai Bo falls into the concepts of birth and end, rise and fall, powerfulness and powerlessness, he will feel pain. But when it realized that its essence was water, the situation changed instantly. As water, it no longer cares about birth, ending and ups and downs. It can enjoy ups and downs, and it can also enjoy being this wave or becoming other waves. There is no difference, no fear. It doesn't need to look for water. At this time, it is water.
Our true nature is that we have no beginning, no end, no life and no death. If we can touch our nature, there will be no feeling of fear, anger and despair. Our true nature is nirvana, and we have been in nirvana from the beginning. Nirvana means to stop all ideas, including life and death, existence and non-existence. Sixteen exercises are to let go of all ideas and become a completely free person.
Practice mindfulness and let the flow of happiness flow from one moment to another. The longer the better.
Qingdao, April 28, 2020