Good Morning. It is Saturday. Time to practice mindfulness meditation. Sit down in the position that you feel comfortable. And we are ready to practice.

May all the Buddhas in ten directions bless us. And may all sentient beings be free of suffering and receive compassion energy from all the Buddhas in the ten directions.

Put your right hand in your left hand and sit comfortably. We practice together we go seven times of mindfulness breathing techniques with the compassion and wisdom mantras, and may all of us in this special moment be one with the Buddha nature within and connect with all the buddhas for us to know ourselves much better.

When we breathe in, we breathe in through our nose. We carry it down to the lower part of our body. We are expanding our belly. We hold it there for three seconds. After that we concentrate on the heaven gate point which is right in front of the ending bone. From that naturally, the energy will be converted and follow the backbone when we breathe out. We chant the mantra. That circle just repeats, and we keep our body relaxed.

First, we take a minute to just relax and just follow the body, filled with the body first, filled with the energy and just relax.

OK.

Let’s breathe in, expanding the belly, hold it right there for three seconds, expanding our belly and hold it just right there. Concentrate on the heaven gate point, breathe out, sunken our belly, chanting the mantra. We just do it very slowly. Just observe the energy, just be one with the energy.

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

We just relax. Just relax and observe the energy flow. Good Morning all my friends. Good morning Eileen and Jim. Both of you are very close friends have been practicing meditation with me online and also in person at Frederick for almost two years. In March it is going to be two years.

In meditation, to transform our life from the patterns of what we have been raised up takes time. Sometimes a takes a very long time depending on how we were. It is not easy. However, because of what is not easy to be that we are stop, quit, we quit, and we run away. In life, so many challenges always come to us. Especially for what makes us feel uncomfortable. That is the most pushing or pulling us away from what we are doing. One cause of the most suffering what Buddha teaches is meeting up with situations or persons that don’t match or feel comfortable of doing thing unexpected. That is the truth. In life we always are meeting people. In life, so many situations just happen unexpectedly. For awhile we always think because of someone or people doing that for us or because God created it, from that kind of perspective when things happen it causes suffering for ourselves. We all find someone or something to blame. We always think we are the right person, never done something wrong. Never have a moment to check back with what we have done.

Buddha, he is the enlightened one. He doesn’t’ just see people a minute ago or a second ago, he looks very deep into all the causes and knows exactly what caused that problem, and he knows all that happened to us from the Karma. What we have done with all other sentient beings from many lifetimes, so it causes that problem because it is the right time, the right conditions for that to happen. That is why when things happen unexpectedly from persons or the environment, don’t look for an excuse in the other, but look into ourselves. Using the mindfulness breathing technique activate your compassion lighting up your wisdom and just keep looking deeper and deeper. Rooting yourself down to the com passion, to the love, to the true love. Unconditional love. Allow yourself to observe the light of the wisdom that we could see the truth, and transform it. The miracle will happen because we are being with the mindfulness breathing techniques, and also being with compassion and wisdom. All that is causing the suffering for all sentient beings is never going to be healed without compassion. It is never going to grow back upright without wisdom. Seeking for the mistakes from others or the wrong thing from others to show how good, or how right we are, is not the way to heal, but to make the wound get bigger, more painful, more hurtful. We practice meditation to heal and to rejoice with the happiness within, lighting up the wisdom.  In the practice it is so easy to say, to talk, to remember the information of the techniques, or to teach each other. But to make it really work for us we have to practice. Seeing the real life of the Buddha, he practiced for many, many years. Even after he was enlightened, he still practiced and taught for 45 years he never stopped practicing. In his life he faced so many causes from others, but never was able to break him, or take him down. He knew how to transform it.

 What we are talking about today is “Stand Up-Right”. Who in this world never faced any challenges that caused a lot of suffering? We all have. Many times, we are facing it, there is a voice inside the mind always talking to us to go away. This is not the right person for you to be with, this is not the right place for you to be. There are nicer people, nicer places. There is always that voice saying that all the time. When we were young, especially teenagers, that voice that was very loud inside our mind, because when we were teenagers, it was time for us to grow up. We want to be a strong man or lady, a strong person. We want to be showing up the knowledge to our parents and others. We want to show the powerfulness of a young person. There were so much and so many disagreements, every time we got upset, the voice inside the mind always says, “Just run away, they are not there to help, they don’t understand, they don’t’ know what is going on.” We all experience those kinds of things. When we grow up those voices still bother us.

Buddha says that is because the Karma caused that. Also when we face those situations, remember our friends always feeding us, may people using the opportunity when we share our situation they are feeding us a very good food to make us run away. Escaping, and not listening to our parents very well when we were teenagers. That  was true for all of us, because every one of us has to go through the teen years. We all still remember it very well.

Meditation of what we have been practicing focuses very much on compassion and wisdom to help us stand up right. When we say “Stand Up Right” we just mean that the fall always happens to every one of us. We all fall. Fall one time, two times, or for many times.

I remember when I was with my master. This happened on the mountain. The big hurricane and thunder storm just swept across the mountains. Many big trees, very big trees, could be 100 years old or more, fell down in the region where my master and I were. When we were there I witnessed a lot of trees fell down. I felt very sorry because those trees were very old. 100 years old. Very hard to grow up on the mountains because of all the rocks and stones there. The trees grew up in a very hard with a lot of challenges. After a hundred years they all were swept by and they all fell. My master found a very tree still even though it fell, the roots were still rooted in the ground very properly. Most of the other trees the roost were just upside down. My master told me to keep my eye on that tree. You will see the miracle. Yes I was there for months. Yes, the other trees died, the leaves turned yellow and the wind blew it away. However the tree the master told me to keep my eyes on, the branches were still upright, and the root gave birth to the new life, because the root was there deeply rooted. The whole tree could not stand upright, but the branches reached up to receive the sun and were still alive.

That story has never left my mind. Looking around at all the dead trees, but only that tree still survived.

In my life, when I look around I see many old friends who have left, gone away. Many situations it was very painful. My master was gone, my parents were gone, and came to the United States. Most of the time I lived by myself and practiced. No, I look back to the list of my friends and my students they are gone. Could be not very long as a student, might be just one more person stay still. But however, I still see the root of my master planted into my life. That is rooting down very deep to the compassion and the wisdom. Challenges always come like the big thunderstorm, hurricane, very big. But however, many, many times, I have felt but I never never died, I still survive.

My master told me, without compassion and wisdom there is no wound will be healed. To transform our suffering, we really need to be with compassion, loving kindness, unconditional love, and we really need wisdom to see through, not blame others, but clean up ourselves to stand up right.

Almost two years, I see Eileen and Jim still very close with me and practice even online. I believe there are some friends out there practicing with me. The roots are growing up deep in compassion. We see the wisdom just like the light of the sun giving us the natural energy to grow. It is not easy. A lot of challenges and a lot of turning points. Every turning point is very hurtful, painful. But we still stand upright together. Understand the values of compassion, of unconditional love. Of the wisdom, and be with and activate them to live with, is very special. The values of life is not running away, escaping away, but stand upright and re-evaluate, and allow the roots to support the tree to grow up. The roots of all sentient beings is compassion and wisdom. As long as you stick with the the tree will grow back. If not, just like all the trees, the wind will blow them away. The voice in the mind will be louder pushing and pulling us away from the root of compassion and wisdom.

I remember when I was a teenager, those voices were very loud. Stand upright, we regain the power within. We reactivate our Buddha nature, and we will all be alright, all the wounds will be healed. All the suffering will be transformed. We have a taste of the happiness and peacefulness again. There is no gain without pain. There is no gain without pain. Mindful with our suffering, with our pain, is the way to gain the power after the thunderstorm sweeps by, after we fall. Falling is not bad, falling is not bad. It will be very bad if we take all the roots up for the wind to blow away. If we allow the root to stick down, we will stand up, we will grow back upright. Meditation that we practice really helps us to be with the compassion and wisdom of all Buddhas. We all connect with all the Buddhas from ten directions.

Remember, we all have friends. We all have the master. We all have all the Buddhas, bodhisattvas supporting us, helping us, guiding us through. Return back to the Buddha nature to know the truth of who we are is really important. Fall one time, fall many times. That is the nature caused by our own Karma. Don’t blame each other. Look back to ourselves. Stand upright by practicing meditation.

Now we return back to our meditation breathing technique and receive the greater energy from all the Buddhas in the Ten directions to see through all the situations that have happened for ourselves.

May all sentient beings, be free of suffering, and may I see the truth of all the causes that make me suffer. May I stand upright, to be stronger after I fall. May I always connect to all Buddhas and may all my loved ones connect to the Buddha too.

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. We are done for this Saturday. Thank you so much for all my friends who are practicing with me maintain the root that is still connected to the compassion of all the Buddhas. Have a good weekend and may all be blessed.