Good Morning to all my friends. It is Saturday the day we practice meditation together. Please relax. We all let go of everything to just be with our breath. Let’s begin.

Together we pray with all the Buddhas from ten directions to bless us. We also ask the blessing to all the leaders around the world to sit together to create peace. May all sentient beings be free of suffering. May all our loved ones be happy, healthy, and peaceful.

Put the right hand on top of the left hand.

I just remind you the meaning of the mantras we chant together with the mindfulness breathing techniques. The first one Mu A Mu Sa means Compassion connecting with all the Buddhas in the ten directions and awakening our own Buddha nature.  The second mantra: Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng is lighting up the Wisdom for us to see through, is what we practice with this mantra. The third mantra: Ma Sa Op Ue, awakened mind from Buddha and from within. With these three mantras we practice it connects us to the stage of very mindfulness and cultivates the greatest energy through our physical body, our mind and our spirit. At the moment that we receive and cultivate our energy, we think about our loved ones, our families around the world. We offer to them all our good merit energy and connect with them.

Let begin. 

Breathe in, expanding our belly, hold it there for three seconds, concentrate on the heaven gate, breathe out, sunken our belly, chanting the mantras:

Mu A Mu Sa, Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng, Ma Sa Op Ue (5x)

Dear all my friends, every Saturday we have thirty minutes together for me to reach out with the westerner practitioners. We practice meditation in the way to understand about ourselves. From there, follow the Buddhas teaching. We practice to discover what else is more special in life for us to focus on or to enjoy.  Our meditation is to wake ourselves up. Yesterday Eileen sent me a couple pictures of the tulips from the temple that had just popped up.  It is beautiful, so beautiful. After a very long winter, actually here in Minnesota it is still winter. Yesterday morning there was snow was falling. It is cold still. The winter seems to be still here, but spring has already come.

However, in Maryland, we see the flowers are there already. It surprised me because years ago I asked Eileen to plant this special pink or red and black magnolia tree.  I am very pleased because she really did it.  Quietly she planted a couple pink and black magnolia trees around the Quan Yin statue. Yesterday is the first time I enjoyed the picture she sent. The whole pink magnolia there is so beautiful. I will miss them so much. I cannot take any good pictures this year for early spring. I say that to return back to what we are talking about today as a title. “Time Goes By”.

It is true, two years already, two years already. At the temple in Maryland, now we enjoy to see the flowers that Eileen planted two years ago.  It is beautiful if we do something then time goes by we will see the results.  Most of us, when we say time goes by, we regret about yesterday. I am not talking about that today. I am talking about when we practice today, tomorrow will be alright. We are very easy to attach to what people are doing. Not even think or know exactly what they do. That is very much the nature of how we are. We never start to do something really for ourselves. We just let the time go by and then when we sit down, we look back and regret.

The meditation we have practiced for two years together is not just about how much time, how many years we have practice, but how much effort we really put into the moment that we practice. I remember Buddha before he was enlightened, he had practiced for seven years. He could not benefit from it even though he put into it a great effort from him, but the wrong way. But just 49 days sitting under a Bodhi tree to put his mind together the right way. Time went by, and he was enlightened. The meditation we practice today is the same as what the Buddha practiced. We don’t sit under the Bodhi tree.  We sit at home.  We sit where we feel comfortable to not make ourselves to become anyone else, but to connect with the truth of who we are.

Ma Sa Op Ue is the special mantra awakened mantra, when we practice this special mantra, we cultivate ourselves to reach out with the universe, to be with all Buddhas, to be fully awake like the spring that never sees flowers in winter, but when spring comes you see what you have done. The tulips and all the flowers around the temple we now enjoy is what we have done before, is what Eileen and all the members put the intention into the right spot, right time, and now we are able to enjoy seeing it.

Awakened mind is very important just like the flower in early spring. It is never gone when we are awake. The flower that we plant. I know the tulip will last a couple weeks. But the magnolia could be for the whole year until winter. It is Beautiful. The awakened mind, even comes and starts for a second only, but will last forever. The energy that we receive from practicing Ma Sa Op Ue will last forever. It will awaken us to know the truth of how we are supposed to be, but not make ourselves to be. We are as we are. Our meditation is not just about religion, it is about the truth of who and how we are. So when we practice, we keep our body physically relaxed. We allow our physical body to return back to the truth, the original of how it is, how it was, and how it will be. From the moment that we are with the mindfulness breathing techniques we receive a very wonderful, awakened energy flowing within our bodies.  For all of us need to be just watching and when the time goes by, just like the flowers in the spring, slowly, every one of us will see and have a very special experience of the energy that works out naturally within us. With wisdom, with compassion, and with awakening that we enjoy our life. Enjoy every moment, every second of our life with love, with care.

We know that we really need to awaken our minds and offer Ma Sa Op Ue energy to all our loved ones, to all people around the world. For all to be awake to know what to do. Don’t let the time go by and regret, but plant by practicing to see when time goes by that we are happy, we are very happy because what we are doing now will go around and for us to receive a much better. We know how to invest our time into the right actions, right thoughts, right practice and yes the spiritual flower will be there for us to enjoy just like the Tulips and Magnolias that are blooming at the temple.  I look at the picture from far away in Minnesota. What I see, the most beautiful color of the flower of the tulips. Our temple has many different color tulips, black, pink, white, red, yellow, mixed. It is beautiful, right in front of the Quan Yin base. This year added in the red magnolia. Hope we will see the black magnolia too. By seeing those flowers I see what Eileen and our members had worked on for years.

Time goes by very quickly. Time goes by quickly. Don’t just think. Take the right action. We practice meditation. Now and every day. Know for sure this is the right action we are taking on. The love will be shown within, the Buddha will be shown within. Our life is much better every day because we see. Yes there is still a special thing that we need to carry out to live. The special thing we practice for the whole year from now on is the awakened mind. We need to be fully awake. WE need to offer our merit, our energy for all our loved ones, for all sentient beings to be fully awake to no longer suffer.  May what we practice today produce any good energy, awakened energy, that together we offer for our loved ones. We offer to all the leaders around the world for them to be fully awake and understand the war is not good, so they can stop it. Also, for those members of our families still addicted to something that will harm their bodies, their minds, their spirits. We offer our awakened energy that we receive from the Buddha to them. WE love them. From that they will be awakened and gather their power to stand up for their own life and let go and transform their lives for the better.

Let’s return back to the mindfulness breathing technique.

Dear Buddha, at this time may all of us connect together and offer the awakened energy to all our loved ones. May all of them be blessed by you.

Breathe in, expanding the belly, hold it there for three seconds, concentrate on the heaven gate, breathe out, sunken the belly, chanting the mantra:

Mu A Mu Sa, Na Mo Ta Mo Ta Mo Da Ra Houng, Ma Sa Op Ue

Thank you for all of you practicing together with me this Saturday. Na Mo Shakyamuni, today, we practice to understand time goes by. We will be successful with the way you teach us. We offer our merit, that we receive by your blessing to all of our loved ones and to all sentient beings to be free of suffering. We also ask for a special blessing for the war to be stopped, for peace to be created. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a good weekend. Enjoy your life with your family. I will see you later. Thank you.