New Year's Eve 2025 Dharma Talk | Br. Phap Huu

Dear respected Thai, dear beloved community, today is uh January the 31st in the year 2025

and we are together in the lower hamlet in Plum Village. Uh thank welcome dear friends online for joining us. Also

I think one of the gift that um I received when I joined this community is to relearn what beauty means.

Um, growing up I was always the shortest in my class and uh my nickname was a shorty or like mini me.

And uh even though it was very cute and like a joke, but it always left me with a feeling of like wanting to be more

than that. And a big part of that is to

than that. And a big part of that is to be accepted, to be seen, to be to be loved.

and and I had I put a lot of effort whether it was in school, whether it was in friendship um or at home

um just to get that approval of existence.

And I think deep down in all of us, we have this hole. We have this dark vacuum sometimes that

that drives us to to do things for acceptance, for love and to to be acknowledged.

And spirituality, it always reminds us that there's so much that is there already that already

exists. But you have to learn to go

exists. But you have to learn to go within.

And when I became a novice monk in one of the in the one of the 10 novice precepts um the sixth precept, it teaches about

understanding and discovering our inner beauty.

And uh I just want to read uh the first few lines of it because I don't I don't believe it's only for novice monks and nuns. But it can be applicable to all of

nuns. But it can be applicable to all of us.

Aware that the true beauty of a practitioner is found in their stability and freedom.

I vow to adorn myself and my community with the practice of mindfulness made concrete by my practice of the

trainings and fine manners at all moments.

That's it.

It's very concrete. So our understanding of redefining and relearning for me what beauty meant. It wasn't in the outer

beauty meant. It wasn't in the outer show. It's not about what uh we adorn

show. It's not about what uh we adorn ourel with clothes with cosmetics and all those have is it purpose in the

world but as a practitioner as as someone who wants to walk this path of um presence

there we have to start to discover a different meaning of beauty a different meaning of cultivation of

wellness of well beinging inside of us.

And this uh was almost like a treasure a treasure box that allowed me to keep discovering and keep um seeing that there is so much

more than just just the outer show offers.

And today I want to speak about the inner beauty.

Um because I I I believe that beauty deep down we all are are discovering um

what we can offer to oursel and what we can offer to others in our search of purpose

and in the path of um service in the path of spirituality for us spirituality always goes in hand inhand with service

and when we practice spirituality just like when we learn to come back to our own self we don't connect to just the

self the self is like a starting point but in the self once you identify all the conditions that are around you you

recognize that you are made only of nonself elements So who we are is not a separate self.

It's a deep interconnected thread of all that is present whether we see it or we don't see it. And this is this is

a meditation but it is a reality.

It's not a intellectual thing that we only recite but it is something that we remember we activate it. So when we are

practicing we look we think it's for the self but there is multiple karma that is happening in that moment

when we learn to come back to our body like I have invited all of us in uh the 20 minute of chanting

we we learn to just accept this accept this this physical body the five scandas that comes with it. Our eyes, our ears,

our nose, our tongue, our mind, our whole consciousness.

Yes, some of it maybe we know there are habitual energy in the body that we are still learning to identify. We're still learning to accept

identify. We're still learning to accept even mindfulness is to call it by its name.

It's not to search and look and reject what we don't like, but it's to even smile to what brings us suffering.

So when we learn to be mindful is also learning to be truthful.

Can we be true to the habitual energies that we carry inside of us?

Some of the habits bring benefits.

There are good habits and then there are habits that are negative. That brings

about suffering, brings about addiction, brings about um the feeling of uh lost.

And when we take a moment to just feel the body, the body tells us a lot. It it's it's

like a reactor to also the mind consciousness to what we see, what we hear, what we listen.

And the body reacts to all of this.

So the first establishment of mindfulness, it sounds very fundamental but it's so

crucial that all of us in our times particularly 2025 and coming to 2026

there is a lack of presence of of um of solidity of presence of individuals.

We show up but we show up with not our whole presence. We show up with already

whole presence. We show up with already the precooked ideas and stories that we bring to the conversation.

We we are not listening. We're not being present to listen to be vulnerable.

So this act even though it comes from 2,600 years ago is still so needed and it's still so important for all of us to cultivate

the ability to just be at peace in the body.

Last week there was a friend in the upper hamlet.

He had to carry a backpack everywhere he go because he has some medical condition and he is uh wired to uh to a medical

pack and it's connected to his body and he said brother he asked me what uh what can the practice support me with my

my ill health right now and he's very young only in his early 30s and I Brother,

let me uh stay on this uh stay on this on this uh question from your heart first cuz I know I have a habit that I

try to fix things right away. I try to make people feel good right away. One of

my learning is to actually let that question enter and let my deep looking

have its space and time to really offer a genuine a genuine um response.

And I met him the day before he left and I said, "Brother, I think one thing that I can share with you is that the practice

can help you accept your state.

Even though there is illness in the body, but you can walk, you can receive the mindfulness trainings, you can sit

with the community.

Even in the illbeing, we can start to identify the well-beings that are also there.

And acceptance is very important because you have to accept this. This is your state.

You're not here to fight it.

When you start to accept, there comes a peace with that. And in that peace, there is a lot of spaciousness

to see and then to know what to do. and

what not to do.

And this is uh very very simple when I say it, but it's a very hard practice.

How many of us uh um have accepted our our bodies or or we continue to strive to be

something different even though we not have such an ill health.

But when we learn to accept the present moment, we're also have to bring in the other insight is that also in this present

moment of well-being, there's also impermanence that is happening.

And when their ill-being arises, we also learn to accept that ill-being because that is a part of the beauty of

life which is the impermanence of life.

We have to look at impermanence with the eye of uh of goodness. There is goodness in impermanence. Because there is

in impermanence. Because there is impermanence we can change.

Because of impermanence, we can let go.

We can move forward.

So these insights are transmitted to us. But we have to um be re we have to remember and recite them almost.

There are um this teaching that our teacher offers to us. these elements

that he invites us to reflect on and these elements is a kind of energy that we cultivate for ourself.

But in the self there is always the other in the self there is always in the interbeing of the non-self element. So

whenever you hear I say self you also know is also the community.

This is a training. This is one of the trainings that we have to have in the practice of Buddhism in mindfulness.

When we talk about the self, we also talking about the non-self element.

And these four elements um you may have heard them, but uh today I want to go a little bit deeper in each one of them.

The first element that we can always

bring up and check in if we have it or not. The first one is breathing in.

not. The first one is breathing in.

Is there a flower that is present here?

Breathing out. Do I feel fresh?

Flower. Fresh.

Flower.

is not about this beautiful flower here, but the human body is also a gift. It's

a flower itself.

How miraculous it is to to be here, to be alive, to have this body.

And uh as we journey through life, as we journey in life, we may have lost our freshness.

We may have lost our ability to offer a smile.

We may have lost our curiosity, our curiosity to the wonders that are present.

And why for me, why is this important?

Why why is it um not just a meditation for children?

These these elements sometimes we we teach it for the children in our summer retreat is because when we reflect and we come

back to our own state of being, we really have an opportunity to reflect and review

in this present moment.

Is there any joy? Is there any happiness that I can generate that I can mindfully

call into my state of mind?

Is there a joy that is present that is alive for me?

Breathing in.

The Buddha said, "Breathing in I feel happy. Breathing out, I feel happy."

happy. Breathing out, I feel happy."

Maybe for many of us, the word happiness, we all have a different reaction to it.

Maybe our idea of happiness needs to also be reflected on.

When we practice the art of uh awareness, we start to identify

just the fact that waking up this morning, I am alive. I have 24 brand new hours.

In this 24 brand new hours, how will I live this day?

Not talking about living this life. How

will I live this day?

There's a sutra and one of the lines that say death comes unexpectedly.

We cannot bargain with life.

You know in this year in plum in the plumb village community we held three funerals for three monastics.

Some were young.

We cannot bargain with life.

Death really does come unexpectedly.

And every day when we wake up and we realize I have I have 24 hours that is present.

Can I just identify that this is a gift?

If we start to have wonder the moment we wake up instead of worrying about the to-do list.

Life is greater than the to-do list. The

the to-do list is just a part of it.

But we have to start to train oursel to see the wonders.

The wonders of waking up, making a cup of tea, drinking that cup of tea,

looking out the windows and seeing that there there are trees there, the birds are still singing.

I don't know how it was for their different hamlet, but this morning in upper hamlet, it was like winter wonderland.

It was the the frost And I don't know if we took time to enjoy it.

I hear a few yeses or or were we trying to figure out how to help and how to change the world.

That is important.

But don't forget about the wonders that are present in the here and now.

So when we speak about freshness, it's not about just being jolly, being happy.

But I do encourage us to be happy.

We need a lot more happier, happier presence.

But um in the freshness, we can ask ourself, do I still have curiosity?

Am I still curious to the world, to the practice, to my lover, to my partner, to my children?

Or have I become autopilot and I know exactly how this day will be?

And I frown and I can't wait for next year because next year should be better. Next year's

just in a few hours, my friends.

But if we don't make this moment better, forget about next year.

Forget about that countdown.

We have to be able to tangibly touch that acceptance is a part of the freshness in my meditation.

When I've accepted uh that I am like this, I can smile to it.

I have a a higher standard that I put out for myself.

Um and I didn't meet most of it this year, but I can still smile. I can still smile

to the fact that some Some of the deepest aspiration that I still hold in my heart is still here.

Just like being on this path, being in this community, having someone I can call a brother, a sister,

and I can accept the present moment.

Yes, I still have a lot of shortcomings, a lot of habitual energy and I I have seen new habits that have come alive and I go, uhoh,

this is going to take another two years, but I smile to it because I know I can transform it.

And so in in the light of freshness, in the light of a flower, when we meditate on a flower, we cannot remove the compost from the flower. A flower is

there because of this dirt, the soil, the compost, the sun, the rain, the cloud, and the

tender, the one who gardens.

So even in the beauty of a flower, a beauty of a smile, a beauty of a gentle presence comes with the burden of responsibility,

the burden of the missions that we all carry in our hearts.

also the suffering that uh we start to see we start to feel but the beauty is suffering and

happiness they go hand in hand.

This is where we we learn to have um we learn to have an energy that can be more energetic when we feel our

suffering that is present in us for a long time now.

Every time, every time a feeling of discomfort comes up, instead of running away, which that was my tendency

to hide, to run away, now I can face it with a little bit more grace and a more energetic energy. Oh, hello

my suffering.

I see you.

You are a part of me.

Breathe with me.

Where do you come from?

Ah, some of it from the present moment situation and some of it from the past because it was a wound and now that it

is activated, it manifests.

But no mud, no lotus.

If there is suffering, then happiness is somewhere there.

Well-being is somewhere there. Maybe

within the pain, within the suffering.

This is the meditator strength, the freshness that gives us the curiosity to look at the suffering with

a new eye.

Thank you. I have an opportunity.

Sister Denim shared um in last uh the last day of mindfulness is if we haven't experience hunger

we may not see the value the gift of food.

So therefore that's why suffering is a part of life and it's a very good part of life but it's the way we look at it

and it's how we be with it.

This is the difference of a practitioner.

It's how we be with the suffering.

But first before we go deeper into that, it's so crucial to take care of our our

joy and um happiness.

Sister Denim gave that answer um in the last Dharma talk about an individual asked, "But sometimes I can't find that joy."

It's like, "Yeah, but there's so much joy that is not yours. that's around.

Be curious to that. Feel someone else's joy.

As an older brother, when I look at the young novice, I'm like, man, I was like that once and once once in a like a lifetime ago, I was like that. And I've

lost some of that. But when I see their curiosity, I see the hearts of aspiration. I'm like, dude, give me some

aspiration. I'm like, dude, give me some of that.

Lend me some of that. And deeper that is a part of me.

There is there is an interbeing in our practices of generating joy and happiness.

When we turn within us and we we do sitting,

do you maybe for some of you this might be an insight. You might be the first person in your lineage or family

that has the ability to sit still.

Maybe all your ancestors have never experienced this.

They did. It's not that they didn't want to. It's that they didn't have that

to. It's that they didn't have that opportunity.

Maybe they were in the time, the era of war and conflict.

And all they had at the front of their mind was survival, was food, just to have enough,

just to make sure that my children is safe.

And maybe we all of us in this hall right now, maybe we are the lucky one.

We have this chance to sit still.

to hold to feel that is a joy and you see the pain is there but the joy is there

the pain is that I wish that my ancestors could have walked this the with these feet with these feet that doesn't have to run away and look for

shelter I have wished that my ancestors could

sat and feeling ease and peace.

So there is a kind of agony there but at the same time there is this happiness there.

So when we speak about flower fresh it's very is much deeper than just feeling refreshed.

There is a a responsibility I would say as practitioners to be able to cultivate

that joy and that happiness.

It is the supplements to take care of the injuries, the wounds, the um scars that are also in us. If we

only tend and look at the pain and the suffering only, I guarantee you, you will drown. You will drown in despair.

will drown. You will drown in despair.

You will drown in your suffering.

And you will not find a way out. And

you'll go into consumption.

You will go into running away because also that is that is a habit that our society does

and advertise for.

You're not feeling good. Click here.

you're not feeling good, come to a retreat.

Even a Plum Village one. I know this is doing horrible for the sales, but maybe you need to find that retreat in here.

But what I'm saying is that our practice is mobile and it doesn't need to belong in a retreat, in a temple, in a meditation,

but it's something that we carry and we cultivate each day.

So this flower fresh is for me it's it's kind of like my life jacket.

Whenever I I feel overwhelmed and particularly I get agitated very easily.

I know my flower needs some watering.

It needs some tending.

It might need to be put in sunlight a little bit.

be with be with a vibe that supports you or just to come back to nurture.

Block out the noise. Close the doors.

Our senses, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste. If there's a storm that is brewing inside of us, close the doors

so that everything can settle.

A meditator should be able to activate this within us.

I know the second element traditionally is solivity. But I want to jump to for

is solivity. But I want to jump to for me what I've been practicing is stillness.

Breathing in I invite stillness to be present.

Breathing out, I start to reflect and to see what is present in the here and now.

Just like when a lake is calm, the lake has an opportunity to reflect everything just as it is. The birds that

fly by, the clouds, the trees, a reflection of someone.

When a mind is calm and still, there's an opportunity to see more deeply.

Looking deeply is uh a part of the practice of meditation.

And why do we look deeply?

It's not to criticize oursel.

Is not to look at all of our faults and punish oursel even more or to punish others.

We look deeply in order to understand.

Understanding is the warriors in the bodhic sadvas. That

is for us love itself.

When we start to understand there's a tenderness that arises in us.

There is an acceptance. There is a reckoning. There is a embrace.

reckoning. There is a embrace.

Sometimes we may be too busy. Our life

is so busy. We haven't given oursel permission to just feel. Just to feel the present moment.

Just to feel the pulses in us, the heartbeat, the breath. Is the breath rushing? Is the breath short?

rushing? Is the breath short?

Where's the tension?

When we start to be still also the noise that has been buried in us has an opportunity to sing as melody.

Maybe some of these melody could be a little bit unpleasant.

They just need to be heard one time and you said, "Okay, I know you're there.

It's okay. I accept you."

Maybe some melodies is on replay.

Maybe it's a thought. It's a view. It's

a story that we carry.

It's a story that we keep reciting.

Are we addicted to this story?

Do we so identify with this story as our existence?

And when we look deeply as a still lake, we see that this story doesn't

contribute to my freshness.

Can I let it go?

Can I said yes, you were a chapter in my book of life, but I don't need to keep reading you again because guess what? This present moment

you're writing a new chapter.

There's a page that we are all writing every day through our speech, through our thoughts, through our deeds, bodily

deeds, our intentions, an act of kindness, an act of collective. That is that is a

page that we are writing.

But if we keep bringing back the old story to cover up the present moment. We are

doing oursel a disservice.

We're doing oursel um um we're handicapping oursel just a little bit in being able to freely move forward.

Not saying that we don't need to visit our past because the past has a lot of wisdom.

The past has a lot of data that can inform us, that can support us. But if

we drown in it, and if we like it just for the sake of its melody, cuz maybe there is a feeling that comes along with that story,

then we're not living the present.

Oh, I wish I was like that. Oh, I was so so fresh. I was so young. I was so

so fresh. I was so young. I was so curious.

And we repeat that. It's on replay and it replays itself again and again and again.

So the practitioner has to have the ability to stop, to listen, to reflect,

what melodies keep arising, what habits keep forming.

And you know the beauty of habits, we are creatures of habits. We are beings of habits. And the beauty of habits is

of habits. And the beauty of habits is that we can bring up new habits.

In our practice, we invite us to learn to um be with different emotions and feelings, right? And sometimes we in in

feelings, right? And sometimes we in in dharma talks and in in teachings we always bring it towards a negative habit

of energy such as anger famous anger always has a spotlight or um um restlessness.

So the invitation as a meditator is not to get rid of that but it's to see it to feel it to know

it's there and what can you do in that moment is you invite another energy to be with that habit.

So every time that energy is there, restlessness, restlessness is there. I

don't want to be still. I look for something to do. I know there's so much there's there's a lot I can drown myself in.

You invite another habit. You make

another habit. Hello, my restlessness.

I know you're about to procrastinate.

I know you're about to go down a rabbit hole on YouTube.

I know you're about to go on Wikipedia, read one page, and keep clicking that blue link, and you never finish one page.

I know exactly where I will go.

Take a pause.

What can I do on the spiritual dimension? First, I can breathe.

dimension? First, I can breathe.

If I can be with nature, maybe t change that channel instead of Wikipedia, instead of YouTube, maybe a cup of tea,

maybe sweep the grounds, maybe mold the lawn, tend to that little garden of yours, or write that journal that you kept

saying that you're going to write.

And it's about inviting other habit and these are mindful habits to bring up and to accommodate

the stronger energies the stronger habits that have formulated through our lives.

So stillness and looking deeply for me has been uh very crucial and um

Whenever I can be with stillness, there is um this joy that I I know that I'm offering to the world. But sometimes

we may ask like but what does sitting meditation has anything to change the world in?

What how could sitting change the world?

Sitting meditation is the art of being.

We're all good doers.

We know the what, but we don't know the how.

The what as in science, as in technology. Sure,

technology. Sure, we're very good at that.

But we don't know how to show up for each other. We don't even know how to

each other. We don't even know how to show up for ourselves.

So sitting meditation is that doorway is that foundation for that being rather than the doing.

We have to learn to be a better being because doing has become.

That's the chickpeas.

Smile to the chickpeas in me.

Let us listen to the sound of the bell together.

The chickpea had his moment.

Let us invite our being present into this um sitting together collectively.

Feeling the breath.

Feeling the sensations.

Allowing the sensation to be guided by the breath.

When I look back um in my early years, one of my uh least favorite practice was sitting meditation because I would fall asleep all the time

and I would feel like I'm not really having any insights.

Um, and I was caught by the stereotype like meditation is like, you know, zen and and and still and beautiful. But I

was just having this battle within this battle of like the noise, the stories that keep coming up.

But there was another insight that was given to me by one of my teachers and mentors saying that

just trust it. Trust that the ability to sit still will have a very important part in your life in the future.

And what does that mean? And I can define it now.

Is that through the sitting that I was able to cultivate the ability to feel all of my sensations,

the emotions, the pain, the restlessness, the um reactions that arises

and not letting the reaction spill out of myself. But the stillness becomes a

of myself. But the stillness becomes a container for all of that.

And because the container becomes vaster, bigger that hold more of those emotions, I can guide these energy with

mindfulness and with freedom.

When we speak about freedom in Buddhism is always freedom of something.

And a practitioner is to be free from its own mind and its own emotions and feelings, but to guide these feelings, to guide

these emotions, and to be still, to see what needs to be said and what shouldn't be said.

And thanks to the art of sitting where it looks like it's doing nothing,

sitting is already an act of doing in the non-action action can be seen.

And thanks to the the the time and the energy that I've been able to um

force in some points force myself to it has allowed me to also to offer a higher quality of being because

I know how to be present.

So the practice of stillness, it may look like non-action, but it is also an offering of the higher

quality of presence.

So stillness is a kind of beauty that we can uh cultivate for ourself.

And now I would like to move on to the next the next element.

Thanks to the looking deeply offers that stillness, we can have a center. We can have almost like a

center. We can have almost like a posture that is upright and contained to

hold and we we we invite we invite the energy of the mountain of solidity in us.

There is a a mountain inside each and every one of us the stability that we can hold oursself

in the present moment.

When uh we offer love, we offer understanding, we can also offer our stability.

our stability to listen, our stability to

to be there to be there for one another.

Having having the um having the foundation of not being carried away in a conversation

is a stability that we can offer and that can help others reflect and listen to themselves.

We have had a chance to really develop listening deeply in our retreat so far during dharma sharing right we learn to listen to others and when we are

listening in this manner in this spirit we we are listening with our whole body we're listening with our whole spirit

and we're not being carried away we're present we can feel what that person is sharing and saying and if we're mindful we can also feel what they are going

through and so in the presence of stability our listening is enhanced our listening

is also like a communicator it mirrors to the other person what they are saying and stability here I believe in our

times is uh very crucial It is being uh requested and and asked for more of us to

to have a stronger foundation to hold suffering to hold the pain of the world.

And there are so many times I feel helpless.

There's so much suffering.

is overwhelming. It even makes me want to hide away, just to run away from this hell that we're all in.

And it is these moments we have to remind oursel of the mountain that we can generate within us.

come back to not be carried away by the fear that is arising and to know

that we can offer a presence.

We can offer a listening.

We can offer a breathing.

And even by knowing that that pain and suffering is there in that moment of stability, we can also offer a prayer.

Because what does prayer do? Prayer it

is to invoke peace and well-being and beauty to that place. And in our practice that prayer

place. And in our practice that prayer has to become an action. It has to become our own way

an action. It has to become our own way of being. It has to be our own way of

of being. It has to be our own way of interacting.

How are we living this life? If we want a more sustainable life, are we living sustainably?

Are we living a moderate life?

If we see the destruction because of division of hatred and discrimination, are we discriminating in our lives? Are

we discriminating within our community, within our families, within our loved ones?

We make it very practical. We turn it inwards into the very here and now.

And this mountain is to also to invite us to have that courage and that strength

to hold and to be to be present for and in this uh space of stability.

We we practice it in the sitting by being upright.

And it it may seem like a formal practice, but what we've learned is that mind and body are interrelated.

So when we practice uh being upright in our sitting meditation, in our sitting posture is is to show up is a way of showing up.

I'm showing up with my whole body, my chest open, my heart tender, guiding me to meet the difficulty.

but with a strong back to hold, to be and to see.

And for us to continue to hold, we really have to cultivate the fourth element of beauty

and that is spaciousness.

Spaciousness representing the freedom.

The spaciousness we start within us, our own hearts.

We we learn to come back and invoke our beginner's mind every day.

Our beginner's mind was the mind of love, was the mind of service, was the mind of to awaken.

But in our tradition when we speak about awakening, we don't speak on an individual matter. We speak on a

individual matter. We speak on a collective awakening and we want to sew that seed of

collective awakening wherever we go.

So the seeds the words that we say the intention that we offer is to bring all of us to that shore of understanding gate paraga.

It is to bring all beings to the other shore.

That shore of understanding, that shore of nonself, that shore of nondiscrimination

and spaciousness. Uh we we have to um

and spaciousness. Uh we we have to um give time and space for oursel. We have

to pause. I I think we're going to be preaching this for the next I don't know 50 years.

learning to pause, learning to stop as we see the speed of our society.

It's moving rapidly in many directions in all sorts of directions and it's like a trend to catch up

and it's almost like uh we have to intentionally and collectively put on that break.

Pull that that gear from gear five. We

got to go down to gear two cuz only when we slow down can we enhance our

quality of being. And in the spaciousness when we are spacious within we can embrace so much.

And this practice is to also learning to be truthful.

We have to know our limits. There are

days maybe our heart is very spacious.

We are ready. We are able to hold a lot and then we have to be aware there are days our body is not doing so well. Our

mind is not doing so well.

The pain or the suffering is very alive in this moment.

Maybe because of causes and conditions.

For me, the winter time is very unique.

It's um especially February.

February I only learned later. February

7th was the day my mother, myself, and my

sister arrived to Canada as immigrants.

And on that day, there was a lot of fear. There was a lot of um

fear. There was a lot of um um worry but also curiosity.

We are in foreign lands now. We're going

to have to learn to call this our home now.

And there was also a lot of mixture of emotions.

And so fe February brings up different feelings and emotions in me. So I

prepare myself leading up to February and the universe has its miraculous ways and February 7th to 2002 was the day I

ordained as a monk.

So somehow it aligned those days together and I know that around that time is also when for me that is like the

beginning of the year again in my monastic life. So each and every one of

monastic life. So each and every one of us we we learn to tend to our space.

We have to know our space when that space is uh open and present and we have to learn to cultivate that space

when we come home to ourself. That is

the art of cultivating space. We learn

to listen. We learn to hear. We learn to ask the questions, the deeper questions.

What am I offering to my community? What am I offering to myself?

What am I running from? Where am I? What

am I running towards?

Why am I rushing all the time?

Ah, that rushing has its unique place from my ancestral lineage.

How about let's stop.

Let's pause. Let's remind oursel that the present moment there's a lot of wonders.

Yes, there's many things to do but at the same time this present moment this present moment is so important for us to

be in to be in the present moment.

So spaciousness is something that we offer to oursel but we offer to others.

We learn to accept others for who they are.

We learn to see even their shortcomings, their habit energies that always maybe annoys us and we learn to accept that

because we have habit energies that annoys other people too. I am certain.

But the more we're able to accept, the more spacious we're able to generate and and offer

In love, in true love, there is space of of accepting each other's suffering and happiness.

In love, there is kindness, there is compassion, and there is joy.

And in love, there is non-discrimination.

That means that we learn to accept, we learn to see each other's suffering also as part of our journey also.

And uh spaciousness is um a practice so that we also learn to not get jealous of others.

When we see our friends and our loved ones, our brothers, our sisters succeeding in life,

having a moment of um a flower, we learn to celebrate that. We learn to see our inner being in that joy, in that that

success.

And this for me I I had to really unlearn because I was brought up in a competitive mindset. I want to be

competitive mindset. I want to be better. I'm going to be better.

better. I'm going to be better.

You know, just as a um confession.

I don't know if I told my monastic sa this, but when I became Tai's attendant, I had an underlying

vow that I will be the best attendant he's ever had.

And that was a very competitive mindset.

And a big part of that was to be accepted, to be loved.

And of course, there were many other wonderful attendants there.

And I learned to see uh my competitiveness arising. Oh, why is that

competitiveness arising. Oh, why is that person getting more love from Tai than me?

What do I need to do? How do I show off?

Tai once gave this very famous dhamma talk to the monastic.

is about uh about attachment, love.

And he said uh he said, "Be mindful of the peacock when you're trying to show off all your feathers and all of your colors."

colors." Why are you showing that off? Is it to gain attraction and attachment?

Because your true beauty doesn't re doesn't depend on that.

Your true beauty is how you can cultivate your inner space, your freedom, your compassion, and you're slowing

down.

So as um the new year is coming and I'm sure many of us are asking deep questions in our hearts.

I just uh invite all of us to um bring these four elements into our life and don't underestimate them. Don't see that

these four qualities are simplicity.

In my own experience, um I've seen they have really become my resilience.

They become a place of refuge for me in how I can offer uh my energies to my

loved ones, my energies to um um this community, to all of you. And

before coming here, I was a little bit nervous, which is great. And then uh I needed to have some some freshness and some energy.

And I I just reminded myself of how grateful I am to belong, to say that I could belong.

And that just watered a seed in me. That

just water a joy in me. And I can switch the flip right away, very quickly. And

that fear and that anxiety That fear and that anxiety is a part of me. But it's not only me.

me. But it's not only me.

We are so much more than one emotion. We

are so much more than one feeling. We

are so much more than one present moment.

We are so much more than one suffering.

And we are a continuous stream of life.

to end.

I would like to offer everyone a song but to offer it to you so you can learn it because it has been um my mantra and

uh one of my friends who's here he said that every time he comes to Plum Village he could slow down he can enjoy the present moment but the moment he returns

back to the big city all of that disappears because a city like uh London London or New York or Paris like all of the

signals are like come here, come here, buy me, buy me.

So I I feel that we all need mantras like we need concrete mantras to remind

us to invite us um back to the nonrunn the non um the the feeling of escaping.

And this song I learned it uh in one of our retreats and we don't know who the composer of it is but it's very simple

and it has been a companion for me and I think this can be a support for many of us. So the line goes like this. What am

us. So the line goes like this. What am

I rushing for?

What am I rushing towards?

What am I rushing for? What am I rushing towards?

Slow down.

Slow down.

And savor.

Savor this moment. Slow down. Slow down.

Okay. I'll sing it first and then it's very easy to catch on. I I'm not a musical teacher, so I I don't know how to to do the up and down, but I trust

the artistic side of this beautiful community.

Okay.

What am I rushing for?

What am I rushing toward?

What am I rushing for?

What am I rushing towards?

Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

And save her.

and save her.

Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

What am I rushing for?

What am I rushing towards?

What am I rushing for?

What am I rushing towards?

Slow down.

Slow down and say slow down.

Slow down. One more time.

down. One more time.

What am I rushing for?

What am I rushing toward?

What am I rushing for?

What am I rushing towards?

Slow down.

Slow down and say, "Slow down.

Slow down.