Dharma Talk "Settle Down and Contemplate" – 86th Seven-Day Retreat

This morning Sep 12, 2017 (Jul 22, lunar calendar) Venerable Thich Minh Thanh, Abbot of Phap An Pagoda (Bao Loc - Lam Dong), lecturer for HCMC Buddhism Study Institute (Intermediate and advanced level), delivers Dharma talk "Settle Down and Contemplate" to participants of 86th Seven-Day Retreat at Hoang Phap ashram.

“Settle down” means ceasing all activities, right/wrong thoughts, anxiety, craving and affliction in mind. We stop our three great powers (three vajras, body-speech-mind) to avoid delusive trend of secular world. The Venerable has led the mass practicing breathing meditation to halt all the chaotic thoughts in mind, getting rid of five hindrances, source of obstacles, concealment, defiled mind and wisdom declining. Five hindrances include:

1.Sensory desire (kāmacchanda): the particular type of wanting that seeks for happiness through five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and physical feeling.

2 / Anger/ ill will (Vyāpāda): Buddha likened ill-will the sickness preventing our body and mind from freedom and happiness.

3 / Sloth and torpor (Thīna-middha): heaviness of body and dullness of mind that drag one down into disabling inertia and thick depression.

4 / Restlessness (Uddhacca-kukkucca):the inability to calm the monkey mindmoving from thought to thought. In other words, it is the nervousness or bustling in mind.

5 / Skeptical doubt (Vicikicchā):lack of conviction or trust.

“Contemplating” means reflecting upon internal life to understand things are impermanent. Looking at others’ appearance, we often think of beauty/ugliness, but if we reflect upon 32 components forming human body as meat, tendons, bone, pulp, kidney, heart, liver, spleen, viscid part, lung, large intestine, small intestine, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat… then beauty-ugliness are just illusions. We often classify dishes by its delicious/bad taste. The fact is all good/bad tasted food become the same substance during digestion. Contemplating death can drive us to mindfulness in present moment. We will surely acknowledge that future is uncertain, hence, it is not necessary for us to be too worry about or pay so much attention on that.

Therefore, we need to have mindfulness via Buddha’s name recitation or breathing meditation to cease all chaotic thoughts. When seeing impermanence in our body/mind, we can master the nature of things, let go all the feelings of worry, anxiety or fear and enjoy a meaningful, helpful life as per Buddha's teachings.

Following are recorded photographs: