Practice a lot.

This is a beautiful way to be, to live with love and to be aware, and the first person to benefit is you.

So, 'practice a lot' was the instruction from the Buddha to his disciples, it was the instruction from my teacher to me and it is my instruction to you.

And what we are doing here on retreat is so simple, and often I think that this very simplicity becomes a difficulty for people. 

We're not bowing to Buddha statues, or chanting or performing other rites and rituals, in fact we are not doing anything to distract you from you.

So here we meet the truth, the truth of this being called 'self'. What can be more beneficial to the world than that. To dedicate your life to awakening so that you will be happy and then share that happiness with all beings.

This is the way of Dhamma as shared by the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree in India two thousand six hundred years ago.

Nothing has changed and the responsibility for your own awakening lies only with you.

 

May all beings be happy.