Walk with Me

Is it okay if you bang the drum with the stick wrapped like that?

Well, each stick will make a different sound.

Try it.

Should we unwrap the other one?

You need to remove that word here.

What's going on here?

I'm not high enough here.

No, that's not it.

Yes, there's always that problem.

When the garden is fully weeded...

the flowers, symbol of enlightenment...

have the opportunity

to continue to grow.

You need compost...

to have flowers...

and you need to have suffering...

to be awakened.

Full stop.

Suffering is the compost.

The food of awakening.

Full stop.

You have to look for enlightenment in the suffering.

This is why we have the expression...

“Suffering is enlightenment.”

And:

“Finding Nirvana in birth and death.”

Do you understand this verse?

“Listening to the dharma in the ultimate dimension...

I see the autumn leaves fall...

occupying the whole sky.

I see the autumn moon...

on every path, old path.

But the dharma is neither full nor empty.”

And the hermit sleeps in here.

The other day I asked Sister Cam Nghiem if she felt happy.

“Am I happy?” she said.

“It's hard. I don't know if I'm happy.”

And then I asked if she felt...

if she felt... satisfied

and she said, “Yes.”

Yeah, you just keep cooking all the time, and it can be enjoyable.

But when you run out of ideas, you get sick of it.

Maybe for others it's different...

but if I do the same thing for too long I get bored.