Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Nothing can survive without food.

Watch the following Thay's video from 1:48:58 to1:51:30.


Quote:
Our suffering, our depression, if they continue, (that's) because we keep feeding them. Looking deeply into the nature of our depression, we know that we have been feeding our depression. If our depression has not gone away, (that's) because we still keep feeding it. The Buddha said, "Nothing can survive without food." Your love without food will die. Your depression also. If you stop feeding it, it will die also.

And the Buddha advised us to look at things, the roots of things in terms of nutriment. In the past many months, you have lived and consumed in such a way that your depression has become a reality. 

There is a famous saying of the Buddha on this matter. What has come to be, what has come to establish yourself. It means your suffering. If you know how to look deeply into it and discover the nutriments that have led in, you are already on the path of liberation. 

So, to recognize the kind of nutriment that has been used to feed our ill-being is the first step. And when we have recognized the source of food, the source of nutriment we used to feed our suffering, our depression, we just stop, cut off that source. And our depression, our ill-being have to die. This is the teaching of the Buddha on healing.
:Unquote

(Feeding means thinking, or mental discourse. So, in order to stop feeding, we need to stop thinking. For that, we need to revive awareness (Buddha nature) by mindful breathing. Thinker is ego (separate self) who is wandering in the past or the future. Ego suffers from regret in the past and suffers from fear and worry in the future. Meanwhile, awareness is joyful and happy in the here and the now, touching the wonders of life.)

(Notes) The descriptions in the parenthesis are my commentaries.


Thich Nhat Hanh