Saturday, January 14, 2017

Thinking (1)

Watch deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk video on 'Taking Care of our Thinking'. 
https://www.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/videos/vb.7691064634/10154446854299635/?type=2&theater
The followings are excerpts from the above video.

Quotes:
(from -1:03:25)
Because the essence of the Kingdom of God is understanding and love. ... As they produce more understanding and more compassion, they suffer less. They are capable of transforming suffering into compassion, into understanding, into happiness. And the practice in Plum Village is to experience the Kingdom of God or the Pure Land of Buddha in our daily life. 

Of course, we can say that the Kingdom of God is here. But that's not enough. We have to help the Kingdom to manifest. And without mindfulness, concentration and a little bit of freedom, we can not do so, we can not make the Kingdom manifest. The Kingdom of God is situated in our cerebral cortex. The Kingdom of God can be found in our mind. And if we can touch the Kingdom in our cortex, in our mind, the Kingdom manifests.

(from -59:47)
The same thing is true with our cerebral cortex. The same thing is true with our mind or spirit. If we know how to allow the powerful energy of understanding and compassion in us, and then we can process many difficult problems in our daily life. If we don't allow the powerful elements to penetrate into our life in order to help us to assess, and so difficult situations may be encountered in our daily life. There is a computer within. Very powerful! And you should learn how to use that computer properly in order to deal with the daily suffering, the situations that make us suffer. 

(from -58:11)
The Buddha proposed that we practice, we live according to the Noble Eightfold Path. And if we follow his instruction to practice Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, we will be able to explore the vast territory of our mind and allow these wonderful power to come and rescue us. In fact, we are limited, we limit ourselves in very small circle. Our thinking, our view are very narrow. And that is why we suffer much more than the Buddha, than the Bodhisattva.

(from -56:46)
Let us speak about thinking. We keep thinking all the time. And many of our thoughts are not very positive. Many thoughts of ours make us into a victim of negative thinking. When you say, "I am good for nothing.", that is the kind of thought. It has a power to make you suffer. "I can never finish that." "I can not meditate." "I can not forgive." "I am despaired." "I never succeed in doing that." That kind of thinking. Or "He won't destroy me." "I am not loved by anyone." This kind of thinking is not what the Buddha called Right Thinking. And these kinds of thoughts do not correspond to the reality

In us there is the capacity of understanding and of loving. And we call that we are not capable of, we are not used to touch the ground of understanding and compassion. That is why we can not propose, we can not liberalize, produce the wonderful thoughts in the line of Right Thinking. Suppose your friend doesn't understand you. Suppose your brother and sister do not understand you. Suppose you think that your teacher does not love you, does not understand you. And you entertain that kind of thought and you suffer. And that thought may not correspond at all to the reality. And you continue to illuminate the thought. And with the other thought, the same kind, and very soon you will be in the state of depression because you are not practicing Right Thinking.
:Unquote

(To be continued)

(My Commentary)
Thay said, "The Kingdom of God is situated in our cerebral cortex. The Kingdom of God can be found in our mind. And if we can touch the Kingdom in our cortex, in our mind, the Kingdom manifests.". The Kingdom of God, the Pure Land of Buddha, or Nirvana is in the ultimate dimension, or the noumenal world. So, Thay meant that the ultimate dimension, or the noumenal world is within our cerebral cortex, or the historical dimension, the phenomenal world. In other words, Nirvana is within us, or within our mind (alaya consciousness). And I understand that our mind is not only in our cerebral cortex but also in each elementary particle in each cell of our whole body

This also means that we can transcend the space and time because there is no space and time in the noumenal world. In this sense, we are not a Matter because nothing can exist without space and time. Instead, we are Awareness because only Awareness can transcend the space and time and live in the phenomenal world and in the noumenal world at the same time.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/goodbye-to-brain