Today is 12th January 2020 – the 6th of 9 days meditation retreat at Phuoc Son meditation center, Vietnam. This session is the first guided meditation. In teaching about Buddhist literature, we have to emphasize the theory. In the practice of doing good deeds including meditation, we have to emphasize what we can do. Theory without practice is incompleted, practice without theory is not correct. Both theory and practice are to use-only, neither rejecting nor attaching. Doing-only is what we should do. Doing what we want to do is not what we should do. If we emphasize our desire, we will want to do more. If we emphasize to do-only, we will be able to do more. We are sure not to be satisfied if we do what we want to do. We can be satisfied if we do what we can do. In both doing good deeds alone and together with the others, we should emphasize to do what we can do now in order to detach from ourselves and to be able to do for long term continuously. I taught here in Vietnam since 2012. That’s why I’ve taught here up till now. This is because of doing what I can do. I emphasize on doing-only. That’s why I can do as much as I do. We should not emphasize ourselves and our desires; the others and their desires. We should emphasize doing-only by doing what we can do now. If we are able to do like this, we can get success whatever we do.

The time that we need to use to be mindful is the present moment. We should not think of the past, the present, and the future; just try to use every present moment to be mindful. If we are not mindful, there will be ignorance or wrong view. The object of mindfulness may change from time to time, person to person; but the action of mindfulness should be the same at every present moment. The present action of mindfulness should be doing-only with mindfulness and detachment. We must be mindful but we should not attach to the action of mindfulness. We have to use the mind to be mindful but we should not grasp the mind as something we own. We can use the mind but we should not misunderstand as mine, ours; always try to relax the mind to reduce the tensions. Using our body and mind as our own belongings is our common mistake. Not to reject, we must use the mind; not to attach we should try to release and relax all the time. Grasping-use is wrong and using-only is right. Now we are correcting the traditional mistake of using with ignorance and attachment; to be using-only. We should emphasize to be mindful at every present moment. In teaching meditation, I have to be mindful of all the present actions of teaching about meditation. In this way, I can continue teaching meditation one after another. If I am not mindful of meditation teachings, I cannot teach all the time. I just emphasize keeping on teaching about the Truth. I don’t need to emphasize the others. You should also be mindful of the learning or listening to the teaching of the Truth. You don’t need to emphasize the others. We should understand that every action is possible. We are sure to be able to do whatever we do. We just need to continue doing good deeds with this right understanding.