..续本文上一页 to people so that they will not be victims of their lack of confidence, victims of low self-esteem. People sometimes threw rocks or tomatoes at that bodhisattva, because they thought he was making fun of them; but he was just trying to bring them the truth that the beautiful, the good and the true do exist, within each of us.

　　With our efforts of looking deeply, with the help of a brother or a sister in the Dharma, we should be able to identify the positive mental formations within us, in the form of seeds. That is practice in the context of a Sangha. If you are Dharma brother or a Dharma sister to someone, you try to help her to see her own goodness, her own capacity, in order that she will not be a victim of low self-esteem. You can be the therapist, because you are a brother or a sister in the Dharma.

　　So it is beneficial to identify the good mental formation, to recognize it as existing, to embrace it, and to help it to grow. It”s like when you go to your garden, and you know that some trees are dying, and so you are overwhelmed by sorrow from the sight of these trees dying; but you completely ignore that there many beautiful trees still living in your garden. You need this practice to know that there are many beautiful trees there. You need a brother or a sister to remind you that these beautiful trees still exist. This is the practice of embracing the positive, and nourishing the positive, and bringing joy and hope as elements of nourishment. The Buddha is always compassionate. He wants us be fed, to be nourished with positive things that already exist, and therefore in this area of practice, he wants us to recognize the positive seeds, to embrace them, and to make them grow. With the practice of mindfulness and concentration, you bring joy and happiness as nourishment to yourself. It is very important, because you are going to continue.

　　The next exercise is to recognize and embrace a negative mental formation:

　　"Concentrating on the mental formation, I breathe in." Your depression, your fear, the conflict within yourself, the conflict between two tendencies, two mental formations within yourself, your jealousy, your despair—all these belong to the category of negative mental formations. Don”t be afraid of them. If they want to come up, allow them to come up, and just embrace them. Bring all your energy back to make mindfulness strong, and just embrace them. I do this a lot.

　　Thirty years ago in Vietnam, all the destruction and death had sown in me many seeds of suffering and pain. There were nights when I stayed awake, I could not sleep, and my practice was to follow my mindful breathing, and embrace the pain, embrace my people, embrace my country, embrace the earth. That is the only practice. By doing so, you do not allow the pain and sorrow to overwhelm you, to destroy you. In the lying position, or in the sitting position, you continue to generate the energy of the Buddha, and embrace it, and you can survive these difficult moments, and you can transform them. Learn the art. Cultivate mindfulness. Be brave in encountering your own suffering, with all your tenderness, all your concentration. And if you need it, a brother or a sister in the Dharma can come and help you to do it. As a practitioner, he also has some amount of mindfulness, she also has some amount of mindfulness. She can sit next to you and say, "Dear sister, be sure that I am here, bringing my support to you. Be brave, embrace your pain, I am here for you." With that support you are able to do the work.

　　The twelfth exercise: "Liberating the mental formation, I breathe in and I breathe out." When you embrace your pain with concentration, you have the opportunity to look deeply into the nature of that pain, that sorrow. Mindfulness, concentration a…

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