How we can bring Light into our Consciousness - Thay Phap Nhat

Our consciousness is like a dark room with many different pieces of furniture in it. Let us imagine

that we are going into that room. We cannot recognize what kinds of furniture are in the room, 

because everything is dark in there. We cannot see where our bell is standing, where the chairs and 

the table are placed, and where the mats and cussions are lying on the ground. We can walk through 

the room and touch all these different objects, but because we cannot see them it might happen that 

we stumble. The bell, the chairs, the table and the cushions are symbolizing our emotions like 

anger, fear, jealousy and loneliness. When we stumble on them, we will suffer.

But suppose that there is a small candle that we can light now, so that we have a little light in the 

room. We can see that right in front of us there is a mat lying on the floor, and we can step aside in 

order to not step on it. The energy of mindfulness is exactly like that light of our candle. When we 

have the energy of mindfulness in us, it means that there is light in our mind. We can recognize our 

anger when it is coming up, and we can say to ourselves: „I see that in this moment there is anger 

arising in me. If I continue to listen to this conversation, the anger will grow.“ Because we can see 

that clearly, we are able to to prevent our anger from being nourished even more.

After three days of practice we already have such a candle in us which is bringing light into our 

consciousness. When we continue to practice for another one or two years, the light will become 

stronger. The energy of mindfulness will become stronger, and the light inside of us will be bright 

as a neon lamp. Then we can not only recognize the things that are right in front of our eyes, but we 

can also see the things that are in the corner of the room. This means that we are able to understand 

ourselves much better. Before we might have had thoughts like this: „Why is the bell placed over 

there? And why is this chair standing here? I cannot accept this. I cannot accept myself.“, „The 

person that I love is not loving me in return. Why? I am doing everything for her – why does it 

seem that she is ignoring that?“, „Why do I sometimes feel sad, and I don't know the reason behind 

my sadness?“

It is very important that we learn to understand ourselves. If we cannot understand ourselves deeply, 

it will be difficult for us to accept and to love ourselves. But if we are successful in strengthening 

the light of mindfulness day by day, we can more and more understand what is going on in our 

consciousness, in our mind. We learn to recognize our emotions. When our concentration is 

developped, we can keep our attention on our emotions and observe them. Slowly we are 

developping the capacity to look deeply into things and to recognize the true nature of our 

emotions. Then we can have understanding, and sympathy and compassion are arising in us 

naturally. When the energy of love is in our heart, we are getting calmer. We can accept our 

emotions and slowly we are able to transform them. But the basis of this practice is to generate the 

energy of mindfulness.