If you want to know where God, the Buddhas and all the great beings live, I can tell you. Here is their address: in the here and now. It has everything you need, including the zip code.
If you can breathe in and out and walk in the spirit of “I have arrived, I am home, in the here, in the now,” then you will notice that you are becoming more solid and more free immediately. You have established yourself in the present moment, at your true address. Nothing can push you to run anymore, or make you so afraid. You are free from worrying about the past. You are not stuck, thinking about what has not happened yet and what you cannot control. You are free from guilt concerning the past and you are free from your worries about the future.
Only a free person can be a happy person. The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom that you have in your heart. Freedom here is not political freedom. Freedom here is freedom from regret, freedom from fear, from anxiety and sorrow. “I have arrived, I am home, in the here, in the now.”
“I am solid, I am free.” This is what you feel, what you become, when you arrive in the here and now. You’re not just telling yourself this—you will see it; you will feel it. And when you do, you will be at peace. You will experience nirvana, or the kingdom of God, or whatever you may like to call it. Even if you are not caught by a lot of worries, if you are not solid and free, how can you be happy? To cultivate solidity and freedom in the present moment is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.
Dwelling in the Ultimate
“In the ultimate I dwell.” The ultimate is the foundation of our being, the ground of being. The ultimate, or God, or the divine, is not separate from us. We are in it all the time. It is not somewhere up there beyond the sky. But we have to live in our true home in order to dwell in the ultimate, in order to live in the ultimate.
It is like the wave and water. If we look into a wave, we see that a wave can have a beginning and an end. A wave can be high or low. A wave can be like other waves, or it can be different. But the wave is always made of water. Water is the foundation of the wave. A wave is a wave, but it is also water. The wave may have a beginning and an end, it may be big or small, but with water there is no beginning, no end, no up, no down, no this, no that. When the wave realizes and understands this, it is free from the fear of beginning and end, up and down, big and small, this and that.
In the historical dimension, we have time and space, and pairs of opposites: right and wrong, young and old, coming and going, pure and impure. We look forward to beginning and we are afraid of ending. But the ultimate dimension does not have any of these things. There is no beginning or end, no before or after. The ultimate is the ground that makes the historical dimension possible. It is the original, continuing source of being. It is nirvana. It is the kingdom of God.
Our foundation is nirvana, the ultimate reality. You can call it God or the kingdom of God. This is the water in which we live. You are a wave, but at the same time you are also water. You have a historical dimension and you also have an ultimate dimension. If we understand that our true nature is of no birth, no death, no coming, no going, then our fear will depart and our pain and suffering will vanish.
A wave does not have to die in order to become water. She is water right here and now. We also do not have to die in order to enter the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is our very foundation here and now. Our deepest practice is to see and touch the ultimate dimension in ourselves every day, the reality of no birth and no death. Only this practice can remove our fear and suffering entirely. Rather than saying, “In the ultimate I dwell,” you may like to say, “In the kingdom of God I dwell” or “In the Buddha land I dwell.”
Releasing Sorrow
Suppose someone was able to transport you by jet to the kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha. When you arrived, how would you walk? In such a beautiful place, would you walk under pressure, running and anxious like we do so much of the time? Or would you enjoy every moment of being in paradise? In the kingdom of God, or the Pure Land, people are free and they enjoy every moment. So they do not walk like we do.
The Pure Land is not somewhere else; it is right here, in the present. It is in every cell of our bodies. When we run away from the present, we destroy the kingdom of God. But if we know how to free ourselves from our habit energy of running, then we will have peace and freedom and we will all walk like a Buddha in paradise.
What we carry with us determines in which dimension we dwell. If you carry a lot of sorrow, fear and craving with you, then wherever you go you will always touch the world of suffering and hell. If you carry with you compassion, understanding and freedom, then wherever you go you will touch the ultimate dimension, the kingdom of God.
Wherever the practitioner goes, she knows she is touching the kingdom of God under her feet. There is not one day when I do not walk in the kingdom of God. Because I practice freedom and compassion wherever I go, my feet touch the kingdom of God, the ultimate dimension everywhere. If we cultivate this kind of touching, then the important elements of solidity and freedom will be available to us twenty-four hours every day.
“I have arrived, I am home.” The home of the wave is water. It’s right there. She does not have to travel thousands of miles in order to arrive at her true home. It’s so simple and so powerful. I would like to invite you to memorize this little poem and to practice and remember it many times a day. In this way you will touch the ultimate dimension and always remember your true home.
Habit Energy of Running
We run during the daytime and we run during our sleep. We do not know how to stop. Our practice is first of all to stop, then to relax, to calm down and to concentrate. When we can do this, then we are in the here and now. Then we become solid. And when we are solid, we can look around. We can look deeply into the present moment, we can look deeply into our true nature, and we can discover the ultimate dimension. By looking deeply, we can see that though we are waves, we are also water. But if we have not stopped, if we have not learned to concentrate, then we cannot look deeply. We will not free ourselves from fear because we will not be strong enough or stable enough to see the reality of no coming and no going.
It is very hard to fight against the habits we have developed. Dr. Ambedkar was a member of Indian parliament who came from the ranks of the Untouchables. He fought for the rights of the Untouchables. He felt very strongly that their hope for dignity and safety was in Buddhism. The Buddha did not believe in the caste system. So, one day in the city of Bombay, five hundred thousand Untouchables came together and Dr. Ambedkar delivered the Three Refuges and the Five Mindfulness Trainings of the Buddha. I went to India to offer my support and assistance to this community of Untouchables. We gave dharma talks and held days of mindfulness.
Imagine that you grew up as an Untouchable. Imagine that everyone around you treated you badly and made you afraid for your life. Imagine that you had to please all those of higher rank in order to stay safe. How would you live? Would you be relaxed and in the present moment? Or in constant worry about the future? The habit energy of anxiety would be very strong.
The friend who organized my trip came from the Untouchable community. He lived in New Delhi with his wife and three children. He very much wanted to make my trip pleasant and successful. One morning, we were sitting on a bus together, traveling to another community. I was enjoying the landscape of India from my window seat. When I turned to look at my friend, I noticed that he was very tense. I said, “My dear friend, I know that you very much want to make my trip pleasant and happy, but you know, I am very happy right now! Please, don’t worry. Sit back and relax!” He said, “Yes!” He relaxed a bit, so I turned to the window again and I practiced breathing in and out. I enjoyed the palm trees in the morning sun.
I thought about the palm leaves on which the scriptures of the Buddha have been written since ancient times. The leaves are long and slender. A sharp point was used to inscribe the teaching of the Buddha on the leaves. They can be preserved for a thousand years or more. I remembered that some fifteen-hundred-year-old Buddhist texts had been discovered in Nepal written on these leaves. Then my mind returned to my friend. This took perhaps two minutes. I turned to him and saw that he was becoming stiff and tense again. It was difficult for him to relax for even a few minutes.
As an Untouchable, he had struggled all of his life. Now, even though he had a nice apartment in New Delhi and a good job, the habit energy in him to struggle all the time was still very strong. Throughout many generations, the Untouchables have been struggling hard day and night to survive. That kind of habit energy had been transmitted to him from many generations. It would be difficult for anyone to transform it quickly. He needed some time and some training. With the support of friends in the practice, in a few months or a few years he could transform his energy of struggling and being tense. It is possible for anyone to do. You can allow yourself to relax and be free.
If you want to transform your habit energy of running and struggling, you have to recognize it every time it shows its head. Breathing in and out and smiling, you say, “Oh, my dear little habit energy, I know you are there!” At that moment you are free. You can remind yourself. You can teach yourself. You cannot have a spiritual friend twenty-four hours a day with you to remind you. I reminded my friend one time, and it worked only for two minutes. He has to do it himself. Everyone has to do it for themselves. You must become your own spiritual friend and live in an environment that helps you.
The habit energy of running is strong in us. It may have been transmitted to us by many generations. But you don’t need to pass that habit energy along. You should be able to tell your children that you have walked in the kingdom of God. You may like to tell them, as I have told my friends, that there is not one day when I do not walk in the kingdom of God. If you can do this, your life will become an inspiration to many people. Perhaps you and your children will walk in the Pure Land all the time.
Releasing Our Baggage
If we want to walk in the Pure Land all the time, it helps us to let go of the things that keep us from being in the present. It helps us to learn to let go of what makes us worry, to get to zero. When we think of zero, we think of it as nothingness. We see it as something negative. But zero can be very positive. If you have a debt to pay, that is negative. When you pay it back, your balance returns to zero. That is wonderful because then you are free.
At the time of the Buddha, there was a monk whose name was Baddhiya. Before becoming a monk he had been governor of a province in the kingdom of Sakka where the Buddha was born. After his enlightenment the Buddha had come back to the kingdom of his birth and visited his family. When many young people saw the great happiness and liberty of the Buddha, they wanted to follow him. They wanted to be free.
Among them was Baddhiya. During the first three months of his monastic life he practiced so diligently that he could see many things deeply. One night while practicing meditation in the forest, he opened his mouth and said, “Oh my happiness! Oh my happiness!”
As governor, Baddhiya had slept in beautiful rooms. He was guarded by many soldiers. He had expensive things to eat and many servants. Now he sat at the foot of a tree, with nothing but his begging bowl and monk’s robe.
A monk who was sitting close to Baddhiya heard his exclamation. He thought Baddhiya regretted losing his former positions of power. He thought Baddhiya must be regretting losing his former life as a governor. In the early morning of the next day the monk went to the Buddha and told him what he had heard. The Buddha summoned Baddhiya and in the presence of the entire community of monks the Buddha said, “Brother Baddhiya, is it true that last night during sitting meditation you opened your mouth and pronounced the words, “Oh my happiness! Oh my happiness?” Baddhiya replied, “Yes, that is true, Lord Buddha.”
The Buddha asked, “Why? Did you regret something?”
Baddhiya answered, “During sitting meditation, I remembered the time when I was governor, attended by so many servants and protected by bodyguards. I always lay awake with fear. I was afraid that people would steal my wealth from me. I was afraid of being assassinated. Now, sitting at the foot of a tree and meditating, I felt so free. Now I have nothing to lose. I enjoy deeply every moment, and I have never been as happy as I am now. That is why I said, ‘Oh my happiness! Oh my happiness!’ Noble Teacher, if I disturbed my brothers, I apologize.” Only then did everyone in the sangha understand that Baddhiya’s words were an expression of his real happiness.
Please take a pen and a sheet of paper. Go to the foot of a tree or to your writing desk, and make a list of all the things that can make you happy right now: the clouds in the sky, the flowers in the garden, the children playing, the fact that you have met the practice of mindfulness, your beloved ones sitting in the next room, your two eyes in good condition. The list is endless. You have enough already to be happy now. You have enough to be free from coming and going, up and down, birth and death. Nourish yourself every day with the wonderful things that life has to offer you. Nourish yourself in the present moment. Walk in the kingdom of God.
What Are We Running After?
If we are not fully present and not alive, either for our loved ones or ourselves, where are we? We are running, running, running, even during our sleep. We run because our fear of losing everything is chasing us. The practice of resurrection can help us.
When you come back to mindfulness and awareness, when the energy of mindfulness is present in you, the energy of the Holy Spirit is present in you. The Holy Spirit makes life possible. To be inhabited by the Holy Spirit is our practice. To live every moment in the presence of the Holy Spirit is not something abstract. It can be done when you drink your juice or your tea. Drink in such a way that the Holy Spirit is present in you. When you eat some muesli, some rice or some tofu, eat it in such a way that the Holy Spirit is present in you. When you walk you should allow the Holy Spirit to be walking in you.
Please do not practice only for the sake of form. Every walking meditation session is a new walking meditation session. Walk in such a way that you will be nourished with every step you make. Every meal should be a new meal where you can nourish yourself with the energy of the Holy Spirit, the energy of mindfulness. Every sitting session should be a new sitting session.
Sit in such a way that allows your new being to manifest. Let us practice with friends. The sangha is intelligent enough, is smart enough not to fall into the trap of doing the practice as a routine and not as something creative. Many of us are intelligent and creative. We should use our intelligence and our creativity in order to keep the practice alive and constantly renewed. It is perfectly possible to practice this kind of Buddhist meditation as a Christian, as a Muslim, as a Hindu or as a Jew. It doesn’t matter what religion you practice, or even if you practice no religion at all.
To practice does not mean to imitate the form. To practice means to use our intelligence and our skills to make nourishment and transformation possible in our self, engendering nourishment and transformation in the people around us.
New Beginnings
When you eat your bread or your croissant in the morning, eat in such a way that the bread becomes life. Celebrate the Eucharist every morning while breaking the bread or biting into your croissant. Feel alive; feel that you are in touch with the whole cosmos. If the piece of bread is the body of Jesus, it is also the body of the cosmos. “This piece of bread is the body of the cosmos,” we can say. Eating with mindfulness allows you to recognize the piece of bread as the body of the cosmos. When you eat like this, you are a new person. Allow the new being to manifest in you. You can do this practice by yourself. You can also practice this with others in order to help your brothers and sisters renew themselves every moment of their daily practice.
When we begin the practice, we have the gift of beginner’s mind. Beginner’s mind is a beautiful mind. You are motivated by the desire to practice, to transform yourself, to bring peace and joy into yourself, and that peace and joy becomes contagious. Allow yourself to be a torch, and allow the flame of your torch to be transmitted to other torches. Practicing like that, you can help peace and joy grow in the entire world.
The practice of resurrection should be taken up by each of us. When we practice it with success we will also help other people around us. This is the true practice of being alive. Whatever we do in our daily practice—walking, sitting, eating or sweeping the floor—the purpose of all these things is to help us become alive again. Be alive in every moment, and by waking up yourself, you will wake up the world.
Waking up is the very nature of the teaching and the practice. “Budh” means to wake up. We call the one who is awake a Buddha. The Buddha is someone who dispenses the teachings and the practice of awakening. Each of us can transform his-or herself into a lamp that can help the entire world awaken.