Thich Nhat Hanh Jewish Roots The Better Way to Live Alone in the ...

dharma TALKbe recognized.” When you are able to recognize that thought youreach a degree of freedom because you are no longer a victim ofthat thought.But if you are not a practitioner, you continue to ruminateabout the negative situation and that will make you fall into astate of depression.To recognize the presence of a thought or feeling is veryimportant. That is the basic practice of a practitioner of meditation.You do not try to suppress the feelings and the thoughts. Youallow your feelings and your thoughts to manifest. But you haveto be there in order to recognize their presence. In so doing, youare cultivating your freedom.In our daily life we may allow these thoughts and feelings toappear, and we are not capable of recognizing their presence. Becauseof that we become the victim of these thoughts and feelingsand emotions. We get lost in the realm of feelings and thoughts andperceptions because we are not truly present. The practice is to staypresent in the here and the now and to witness what is going on, toexamine it, to be aware. That is the practice of freedom.Being on Automatic PilotWe are accustomed to allowing our mind to chase after thepleasant and to avoid the unpleasant. Our thoughts follow thishabit pattern: running, following, searching for the pleasant; andtrying to run away, to avoid the unpleasant. Because of that welose all our freedom. We do not know that we are running aftersomething and trying to avoid something. We are carried away byour thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions.me, and I want these elements to come forward to help me to sortout this situation, to help me to be on the right path.”You give yourself the time to breathe in and out. You don’thurry to react or take action. And while you are breathing in andout you give the wonderful positive elements within yourself achance to intervene.There is a computer within us, and this computer has a lot ofpower. If you know how to make use of this power you can transformthe situation. You can bring a lot of light, joy, and compassioninto the situation. By not allowing yourself to be carried away, yougive yourself an alternative perspective from which you can seethings more clearly. You are not in a hurry to react, to jump to aconclusion. You just become aware of the situation, what is manifestingin you and around you. The practice of mindful breathingand mindful walking gives you space, which allows the positiveelements to intervene. You allow the Buddha, the Kingdom of God,in you to have a chance.Within us there is a territory of depression, a territory ofhell, and our negative thinking and emotions spin out from theseterritories. But we know that in us there is also the territory of theKingdom of God, of the Buddha Land. There is the powerful seedof compassion and wisdom in us. If we give them a chance, theycan come and rescue us.The Way Out of DepressionWe have the power to recognize our thoughts, our feelings, ouremotions, our perceptions. We don’t have to suppress them. Butwe want to have the time and space to look at them and recognizeof the year 2006, I will do my best to practice right thinking.”Imagine an airplane on automatic pilot. The plane can reach itsdestination, can do the things that it has been asked to do, with noneed for any human being on the plane. Very often we behave likethat. We are on automatic pilot. We are not present to witness whatis happening. The practice that is proposed by the Buddha is to bethere, to stay present, to be truly alive. You know the value of eachthought, of each feeling, of all your perceptions. You know thatthere are territories you have not discovered within yourself. Youdon’t allow yourself to be carried away. You want to be yourself.You don’t want to be on automatic pilot.Every time a thought, feeling, or emotion arises, you want tobe there to control the situation. You don’t want to be carried away.You smile to your thinking, to your feelings, to your emotions.You don’t want to react right away because the habit energy in youpushes you to respond right away to the feelings, to the emotions,to the thought that just arose. This is extremely important.You tell yourself: “Well, this is a thought, this is a feeling,this is an emotion. I know they are in me, but I am not just thatthought, that feeling, that emotion. I’m much more than that. Ihave a treasure of understanding, compassion, love, wisdom inthem as they are. This is the basic practice. To do that wehave to stay present in the here and the now. Very often ourbody is there, but our mind is elsewhere. Our children donot feel that we are truly present.When you come to a house andyou want to meet someone in thehouse, you ask, “Is anyonehome?” And if someonesaid, “Yes,” then you’dbe happy. You don’twant to go to a housewhere there is no one.Thay and monastics at the Peace Walkphoto by Paul Davisthe Mindfulness Bell 7