..续本文上一页ntal formations left. When I was a novice I had to learn by heart all the fifty-one mental formations. I could recite them to you now, in Vietnamese.

　　So every time a mental formation manifests itself in the upper level of your consciousness, you have to be able to call a mental formation by its true name. You say: "Dear mental formation, I know that you are there, and I will take good care of you." We can do that only if we have enough of that energy called mindfulness. Mindfulness is one of the fifty-one categories.

　　(Bell)

　　This Dharma talk is to initiate you into the practice of taking care of your mental formations, and your perceptions. We should continue to learn, and the book I recommended to you is very small, but it can help in the beginning: Breathe! You are Alive, La Respiration Essentielle. It is available in Italian and German and many other languages.

　　For this category, the first exercise, namely the mind: "Experiencing the mental formation, I breathe in; experiencing the mental formation, I breathe out." It means "Recognizing the mental formation, embracing the mental formation I breathe in. Recognizing and embracing the mental formation, I breathe out." You have to recognize it by its true name, whether that is joy, or forgiveness, or hope, or fear, you have to recognize it as it is. Don”t try to fight, don”t try to get attached to it, just recognize it and embrace it, and become one with it. Become one with it, but without losing yourself in it, because mindfulness is always there. Mindfulness is the protector. Without mindfulness you might get lost in your fear or your anger. But if mindfulness continues to be generated, then you”ll never get lost, and mindfulness will continue to penetrate deeply into the zone of energy called fear or anger, and will bring you relief and transformation.

　　So, the ninth exercise is experiencing the mental formation: "I breathe in, I breathe out." The tenth is gladdening: "Gladdening the mental formation I breathe in, I breathe out." As I understand the sutra, in the light of my own practice, these two exercises are dealing with the positive mental formations that exist in us. Sometimes we ignore the existence of these wonderful positive mental formations in us, so that we don”t have confidence in our own selves. That is a complex. We think that we are not worth anything, that the good, the true and the beautiful should be sought from outside, that there is nothing true and beautiful and good in us. This ninth exercise is to change that situation, because if you believe that you are not worth anything, then you suffer; you don”t have trust within yourself, you always try to find something outside of yourself. If you have confidence within yourself, you wouldn”t need things like hypocrisy, or cosmetics. The use of cosmetics proves that you have no confidence in yourself, in your beauty, in your truth, in your goodness. You want to deceive the other into thinking that you are beautiful, you are good, you are true, so you use cosmetics on hypocrisy. Whether in the realm of the world, or in the spiritual realm, that happens. But the Buddha said that you don”t have to use cosmetics, you don”t have to be a hypocrite, because you do possess the good, the true and the beautiful. You have to go home to yourself and rediscover these things. That is the Buddha nature in us, the baby Buddha existing in us. And that is the wonderful message of the Buddha. Your are a Buddha-to-be. Don”t despise yourself.

　　There is a bodhisattva whose name is Thuong Bat Khinh, "Never Disparaging." His job is only to go to people and say, "I do not underestimate you, sir; I do not underestimate you, ma”am, because you are a Buddha-to-be." His work is only that, to bring the message of hope and self-respect…

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