Good morning.  Today is Saturday, we do meditation together. If you are there with me just sitting in the right position that you feel comfortable, and we are going to start to meditate now. Let’s begin.

May all of us be blessed by the Buddha and receive a positive and good compassion energy and may all be healed and no longer suffer physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Today still with Thanksgiving. We practice and sincerely offer all our merit energy to our loved one our parents, family and friends. May all be peaceful, mindful, and happy.

Let’s put the right hand, we call the wisdom hand, on top of the compassion hand, the left hand. I just want to remind we practice mindfulness breathing techniques including with the sounding of the two mantras. The first one we call compassion mantra. Mu A Mu Sa, that is how it sounds. The second one is Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng, means wisdom. To see through and understand the three main points Buddha reminds us. First, impermanence, suffering, and no I. By understanding these three it helps us to be happier. So now we are going to go directly to the practice. When you breathe in, you breathe in through your nose. You carry it down to the lower body and you are expanding your belly. You hold it there for three seconds. Count 1,2,3 then concentrate on the heaven gate point which is located in front of the tailbone. Then breathe out, sunken your belly chanting the mantra slowly. You will feel the vibrations and you will receive a good energy. You just observe it, and allow the energy to just move around. No matter what part of your body receives the energy you just let it go.

Since it is thanksgiving, keep your mind thinking about your loved ones. Connect deeply with them.

Let’s breathe in, expanding our belly, hold it there for three seconds, concentrate on the heaven gate point. Breathe out, sunken your belly, chanting the mantra:

Mu A Mu Sa     Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng (7x)

We have been practicing this kind of meditation for awhile. Almost two years. There are so many different ways of meditating that could benefit a lot for everyone. Living in the society which is so easy and so many things are interesting that we love to do, that is life.

So I ask, we treating the meditation kind of favor that we could try to like it and practice and let’s see what is going on. For myself, many years that I have been practicing this. That was passed down to me from my master. I see the very clear benefit for my health, for my mental and spiritual health. We are all the same. It makes us sad and happy, suffering, and good all kinds of mixed up. Sometimes we cannot even control our feelings. Sometimes it’s ok it comes and goes away. But however, when you practice meditation it helps up be able to take charge and control of our life, and maintain it in a good way. We expect it to be more helpful for ourselves and for those we love. Our meditation technique is easy. Everyone can do it, no matter who your            are. It is not about religion or about the kind of group that we should practice. The method is about caring about ourselves. Caring about means not just about what you define like luxury and material things, but care about the health of your mind, your spirit and your body to live happy. That is all I focus on and keep practicing every Saturday online in YouTube and Facebook, and encourage you to test it out. See if it benefits you.

Our meditation consists of the sound that helps us connect to all the Buddhas in the ten directions. It is a reality. It is connection through the compassion and wisdom energy. In life, energy is really special, it influences every activity of humans. So, wisdom and compassion energy are what we really need in every second of life. Connecting with all Buddhas through the first Mantra means Mu A Mu Sa.  This Mantra has four sounds. When you breath in and out you will create vibrations which will flow, you will fill with the energy from your body. You fill with the energy connected with the Buddha. You fill with the energy flow that is vibrating. The special vibration will be there for you to note. It is real, it is good. You don’t have to do a lot, force yourself to do mysterious things to receive the energy. You just need to be sincere, open up, and receive it. The second Mantra Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng. Lighting up the wisdom for you to see clearer and think that you will ever be able to see and understand it for real. The second mantra creates a special vibration to bring light within you. Those energies connect with the Buddha and the Buddha blesses us. The Buddha is our teacher. He comes to teach us.

What we are talking about today is, “Keep Watering”. The spiritual life is just like the plants. You need to keep watering them. I remember here in the United States, we always plant the new trees sometimes in early fall, October, because we know that October it is getting colder, and more rain, in the United States, the tree will focus on the internal force energy to grow the roots. That is why they suggest there are two times to plant trees, early fall, or early spring. Here at our temple this year in the early Fall me and Eileen planted a lot of Bamboo.  I love bamboo. We have green, yellow, and black bamboo too. Very small. But we understand as long as we plant it properly, and then water it when it doesn’t rain and keep watering it to take care of it. Next year when spring comes, we will have very beautiful bamboo. Over the years there will be a lot of bamboo. When they are strong enough absorbing and being one with the nature, we don’t have to water it much. But from the beginning we have to keep watering.

 Most of the beginners, when we begin to practice meditation, we need to keep practicing together with friends and the teacher and maintain that network and connect together and keep watering it through the practice. We need to be sincere and humble and receive through this special connection to the Buddha with the mantras Mu A Mu Sa and Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng. By doing so it is just like watering the plants when we plant. We are helping the plant to stay strong and grow quick and be green. The more we practice together, the more we are connected together. With the good network with a group of friends, we motivate each other to keep doing that so we connect with all the Buddhas, and we will receive a very good water, the nectar water, blessing water, good energy of compassion and wisdom. That is why you see me and Eileen and Su Co and some members who are close to the temple, and we practice. But mostly you see me and Eileen. We know the benefit. We sit down together, and we practice and we connect with all the Buddhas from ten directions. We open up, we receive the compassion and the wisdom energy from the Buddha, and with our own merit, we offer the special merit energy to all our friends throughout our network who practice with us every Saturday. One day a week to connect together. Through the rest of the week keep practicing for at least five minutes a day to keep watering your spirit, your mind, your body to receive the good energy together to make it work and benefit ourselves.

 One who plants flowers or trees understands it. Keep watering the plants that you plant is really important to support them. Buddha is our teacher always supporting us by watering us with the special energy down to earth. We just need to be humble and receive it. Understand that it is very natural. For one who loves to practice with the energy. This is the best because it is easy to practice with me like a best friend or teacher or just a friend, a friend you can see in person or in the video is ok. We love to be friends with all people even if we don’t know. That is how technology introduces us to each other and reach out to be friends to connect and for all to receive a good energy and benefit for life and make our life much better every day by working on that and keep watering the spiritual energy upon all.

Thanksgiving is very special for Americans. But in general, for all, we should keep it not just once a year but every moment we are thankful for our loved ones who take care of us our parents, husband and wife, family, friends, community. By many meanings of caring because of love and because of that we all receive a very good energy from the care of all our loved ones. The we Stand up, we wake up, and we actively practice to offer back to all our loved ones a good energy which we receive from the Buddha through the practice of the compassion and wisdom mantras and we vow to maintain it every day.

You know after it rains, sometimes you see the rainbow. It is beautiful, many different colors. It is beautiful to see the rainbow. It is the same when we connect together, channel our energy together, we receive a good energy rain, and you see the rainbow, the light within you. The light we call the spiritual light. The compassion and wisdom light. The connection between each other we offer and make it rain. The Buddha is going to make a good rain for all. From one to another we will see the light lighting up. That light creates a good energy for all to be healthier every day. So, this Thanksgiving, me and Eileen, the Sangha of Xa Loi Temple, and all friends get together now, and we pray for all to be healthy, peaceful and happy. All the parents receive a special longevity and maintain their happiness to bless us every day. Also, we thank all our friends our members, who for many years helping our temple to be still together. We’d like to say Thank you to all. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy to receive a good energy from the Buddha, the compassion and wisdom energy. May all be blessed. May all the sentient being be blessed and no longer suffer physically, mentally and spiritually, and together receive a good energy through the practice. May all be making a good day to offer to all.

Buddha, today is Thanksgiving, Bless us, offer us more energy every day to awaken ourself to see the truth and transform the suffering to live happy every day. Let’s breathe in, expanding the belly, hold it there for three seconds, concentrate on the heaven gate point. Breathe out, sunken the belly, chanting the mantra:

Mu A Mu Sa      Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng(7x)

Thank you for practicing with us, and remember we practice every day. Once a week on Saturday we practice in English and every other day we practice in Vietnamese. But technology is very helpful. You can go to our YouTube channel, there is a technique where you can turn on the captions in English. So even though I am speaking in a different language you can turn on the English. It is not perfect translation from Vietnamese to English. But I believe you will have enough information about what I am talking about. The main thing is to receive the energy. If you can join everyday that would be good.

Enjoy with your family Thanksgiving weekend.

Thank you, thank you.