In 2005 Thich Nhat Hanh was asked,

You will be 80 this year. Do you plan to retire as a spiritual teacher at any point?

This is the answer he gave:

“In Buddhism we see that teaching is done not only by talking, but also by living your own life. Your life is the teaching, is the message. And since I continue to sit, to walk, to eat, to interact with the Sangha and people, I continue to teach, even if I have already encouraged my senior students to begin to replace me in giving Dharma talks. In the last two years, I have asked Dharma teachers, not only in the monastic circle but also in the lay circle, to come up and give Dharma talks. Many of them have given wonderful Dharma talks. Some Dharma talks have been better than mine. I see myself in my continuation, and I will not retire. I’ll continue to teach, if not by Dharma talks then in my way of sitting, eating, smiling, and interacting with the Sangha. I like to be with the Sangha… When people are exposed to the practice, they are inspired. You don’t need to talk in order to teach. You need to live your life mindfully and deeply. Thank you.”

Yesterday was, Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama’s 83rd birthday. In celebration Tricycle Magazine published several of his articles. In Consider yourself a Tourist, he arites, “…with my two hands joined, I appeal to you the reader to ensure that you make the rest of your life as meaningful as possible. Do this by engaging in spiritual practice if you can. As I hope I have made clear, there is nothing mysterious about this. It consists in nothing more than acting out of concern for others. And provided you undertake this practice sincerely and with persistence, little by little, step by step you will gradually be able to reorder your habits and attitudes so that you think less about your own narrow concerns and more of others’. In doing so, you will find that you enjoy peace and happiness yourself.

“Relinquish your envy, let go your desire to triumph over others. Instead, try to benefit them. With kindness, with courage, and confident that in doing so you are sure to meet with success, welcome others with a smile. Be straightforward. And try to be impartial. Treat everyone as if they were a close friend. I say this neither as Dalai Lama nor as someone who has special powers or ability. Of these I have none. I speak as a human being: one who, like yourself, wishes to be happy and not to suffer.

“To close with, I would like to share a short prayer which gives me great inspiration in my quest to benefit others:

“May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need.”

Please join us tomorrow for our Summer Morning Talk at 10:00 a.m. at 2525 West Pikes Peak Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80904. We will be discussing the Six Paramitas. When the Buddha was asked by the Venerable Subhuti how we are to become enlightened, he said, “Subhuti, it is by the Truth of emptiness and egolessness that enlightened disciples advance along the Path, restrain their thoughts, and attain Buddhahood. If they diligently observe the Paramitas, and fully enter into a realization of the profound Prajna Paramita, they will attain the supreme spiritual wisdom they seek.”

The Bodhisattva training begins by generating the Six Paramitas. The paramitas,  generosity, ethics, forbearance, joyous effort, meditation and wisdom,  are a practice of focus, of discipline and calm; a way of centering ourselves so we can recognize and confront delusion. They give us a way that we can live in the world with equanimity.

Each of the six paramitas is an enlightened quality of the heart, an innate seed of perfect realization within us…the very essence of our true nature. But, since they’ve become obscured by delusion, selfishness, and other habitual patterns of behavior, we have to uncover them, develop them, and bring them back into expression in our lives. The six paramitas are a daily practice for wise, compassionate, and enlightened living.

Sylvia Boorstien wrote, that the wisdom of the Third Noble Truth “allows us to accept that things are the way they are as a result of everything else in the world being the way it ever was and now is – this is the truth of interdependence – conditionality – nothing in this moment can be other than the way it is. Knowing, positively, that the struggle to create a different current reality is to no avail helps keep the attention present even when experience is painful. And then, the same wisdom that keeps the attention alert and present in painful circumstances includes the awareness – because it is our own experience at that moment – that human beings feel about things, that we yearn or grieve even when we understand that things can’t be different.  Life is a “no way out” situation.  Moving through it means accommodating, often surrendering, and – somehow or other – managing how we feel and developing skill at doing so.”