Living fully in the present moment - Dharma Talk in Bremen, 26th March 2017

Thay Phap Nhat

To me, it is a beautiful practice to accept whatever comes to us. Usually our mind does not allow us to do that, it always intervenes. It tells us to do this, do that. Our mind always has the tendency to choose. But when we are in a dilemma, we do not know how to decide if a specific option is good or bad to do, and then we create inner conflicts. And because of these conflicts our mind and body become tired. That is very unhealthy. The way to get out of this situation is to realize that there is no need to get out. We just do nothing, we are flowing with life as it is. We welcome whatever is happening to us. We can say: “Hey, I am really happy to welcome you”. That is enough. This is the way to get out of all our problems, all our sufferings. But often we do not have the courage to do that because we feel an insecurity within ourself. We know that if we go there we will enjoy a beautiful view, a beautiful success but we are afraid that maybe in the middle of the way there is a hole and when we go there we will fall down into the hole. We are creating a lot of stories in our mind that might never happen. We are educated with the belief that we need to live in security and we are not taught that life  is always insecure. Only in insecurity we will have a chance to grow up. Only in insecurity we will discover the beauty of life. Life is really an adventure. In order to understand and to know the secret of life, we just need to be in that adventure.

I was practicing and teaching in EIAB (European Institute of Applied Buddhism, Waldbroel, Germany) for years, and one day I saw it is time for me to leave that place in order to go my own way. I did not have any plan at first. I just knew that three days later I would leave, and then I left. I even did not know where I was going to stay. But what I knew was that I am always fully in the present moment. When things are coming I just let them come. And the people around me just could not understand. In my last seminar I just said goodbye to all the people and all came and asked me: “Where will you go”, and I answered using just three words: “ I don’t know”. I really did not know but what I knew was that it would work out well. And it worked out well. Only after one year I did set up one centre in Vietnam and I am also currently setting up one centre in Finsterwalde, Germany.

And now we already had some small seminars for Vietnamese and German people and it works really well. Even though at the beginning we had no water running there. So, now we are very happy to have water. And we really have delicious food there. You are all very welcome to come to my centre. What I want to tell you by speaking about my own story is that you should not be afraid of insecurity. Do not be afraid of anything! What we want to do is to live our life fully. That is the greatest present that you can give.

Whatever we wish will come to us. We do not need to search the fulfillment of our wishes. We just let our wishes come to us. This is the secret of life. Just live your life fully! But there are not many people who can really believe in and live with this secret. This is because our mind has the tendency to think about the past. All the past comes up in our mind. And if the past does not come up, right away we will think of the future. Our mind is always busy. Even during the time we are here and spending a day of mindfulness together, we still have worries in our mind. Past, Present and Future create our life, but life itself is only in the present moment. And we do not live our life fully in the present moment. We always think of the past, of the future and we worry. Living in this way we might be 90 years old but we did not really live even one day. That is why we all do not know the secret. That is why we want to become this, we want to have that, but we will never get it. But when we are happy here and now, we really do not need any other happiness in the future. Living fully in the present moment, we will go beyond good and bad, day and night, cold and warm. We will fall into the space that we call “True Space” or “True Emptiness”.

This moment is really an eternal moment. But we all do not know that, because we do not really live fully in this moment. And when we can live fully in this present moment, suddenly our love will come out, our love will grow bigger. All spiritual masters in the world have one place to arrive: This moment. The Buddha for example, as well as Jesus Christ and all other enlightened ones. Because they live fully in the present moment, their love is so big, so strong and can embrace the whole world. Their love can embrace Good and Bad. Everyone of us has this capacity of living fully in the present moment. But we do not take out this capacity and use it. Some people are even not aware of their own capacity. In Buddhism we call this capacity “Buddha nature”. Every living being has the Buddha nature in themselves. And once you can discover your Buddha nature, your capacity of living fully in the present moment, your understanding and love will become bigger and bigger. And you all will become free persons. You all will become Buddha. You will not be Gautama Buddha, but you will be your own Buddha. We just become ourselves fully, and in this moment we will become a Buddha. We should not become Buddha as the Buddha. First, we should become ourselves, and then we will become a Buddha. Many Buddhists in the world they want to become Buddha as the Buddha. They do not want to become themselves. That is why there are a lot of Buddhists, but there are not many Buddhas. If we can understand this core point, we will understand all religions in the world. Because all religions just point to one thing, using different names. If we understand this, we will have tolerance. In Buddhism we call it “Buddha nature”. In Christianity they call it “God the father”. In Hinduism they call it “Brahma”. In Taoism they call it “Tao”. These are all different names pointing to the same. But the only way to know that is to live fully our life, to live fully in the present moment. Do not think of the past and do not think of the future. Only be here and now.