This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Introduction

Welcome to Happy Hour. As always, we start by warming the space with mettā^[1] by saying a simple hello. Hi, I'm Nikki. I'm in Mountain View, California, on unceded Ohlone land^[2]. And who is here? Who would like to say hello? You can unmute yourself if you like, or you can type in chat. Take it away.

"Hello, I'm Dave in [unintelligible]." "Hi Dave, I'm Neil in soon-to-be snowy New Hampshire." "Are you in soon-to-be snowy New Hampshire? Is it pretty chilly out there?" "For you it would be, it's like the 20s or something." "Oh, for you it's nothing! If it starts with a two it's okay. Welcome."

May Happy Hour warm your heart, even if the outside is cold.

"Hi, this is Linda in Utah, and I'm jealous of Neil because we have no snow, and it's 12 degrees." "You're having muditā^[3] for Neil, enjoying the snow as much as he is, and the warm, balmy 20s. [Laughter]"

"Elaine says hi from Belmont. Anybody else want to say hi?" "Hi, this is Wayne in Richmond. I actually came home from school today having been told I have COVID." "Oh no, so sorry to hear that. I hope it doesn't develop into anything terrible. Holding you with care."

"Richard says expecting two feet of snow in Boston. Okay. All right, anybody else want to say hi before we begin?" "Yes, this is Claire in New York, and I'm very excited about the two feet of snow because we're hoping for it too." "This is sweet. I love all the loving of the snow. It's very sweet, it's very special. And anything can be special."

"Just for the people in California, we sometimes get our skis out and ski down Park Avenue." "Well thank you, I appreciate hearing that. Having good muditā for you. No snow in Capitola, says Aurora."

Let's formally start, everyone. I'll change the settings at this point so unmuting accidentally won't be possible. Thank you, Neil, for sharing information about the Happy Hour Google group in chat. In case you're new to Happy Hour, it's a great forum for getting quotes and poetry and connecting with other members. Also, at this time, I change the settings so the chat will only come to the host, but let's keep that quiet too, unless something is urgent, like my sound drops off. Otherwise, let's keep that quiet; I'll open it up later. And last but not least, I'll turn on recording for the sake of AudioDharma. Here we go.

Happy Hour: Calming, Smiling, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment (Practicing with Thay's Phrases)

Hello and a warm welcome, everyone, wherever in the world you're joining from. As mentioned earlier in our hellos, whether it's snowy, no snow, temperatures in the 20s, single digits, or 60s—a warm welcome.

For today's practice together in community, given that right now, in this moment in time as we are gathered together on Zoom and YouTube to practice, the funeral of Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay)^[4] is being held. His cremation and funeral are being live-streamed right now, so I figured this was a sweet time to dedicate our Happy Hour to practice inspired by his teachings.

I know Diana shared a poem or paragraph by him, so I think I'd like to do that again tonight. I pulled out my yellowed copy of Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh, and I wanted to read just a couple of paragraphs from the very beginning of the book to inspire us for our practice tonight. For those who may not be familiar with it, Peace Is Every Step is composed of very short chapters—maybe a page, sometimes a couple of pages, sometimes half a page. The very first chapter is called "Twenty-Four Brand-New Hours." So let these paragraphs wash over you.

Thich Nhat Hanh, who is everywhere now supporting us in our practice, I believe he said:

"Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others."

Such beautiful, simple, and profound teaching. I'll continue:

"We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available."

That's a profound statement, everyone: happiness that is available. It's not that we have to search for it or look for it; happiness is available here and now if we shift the perspective of the way we're looking. We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available.

"We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment."

This paragraph especially resonated with me, as many of you know the course Befriending Mortality that I've been teaching started this past week on Wednesday. I've been really sitting with reflections about being alive and what it means to appreciate being alive in this moment. In this amazing, mysterious, miraculous moment. This is what he's pointing to. We are so good at preparing to live, always looking to the future: "I will be happy when everything is okay. I will be happy when I have my degree. I will be happy when I have the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the perfect this or that. I will be happy when I don't have to work so hard." It's the mentality of future orientation. And as he says, we are not very good at living.

He is very gently pointing us right here, right now. "Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity." We know this in this sangha^[5]. We know that as we turn our minds and our hearts, we can be distracted and stressed out, and perhaps we come to Happy Hour and we sit and we practice together and realize, "Oh, there is peace here. Yeah, I had a hard day, I had a rough day, and it's okay. There's peace here right now." In this tired body, in this moment, there's happiness, there's joy, there's gratitude. This is something we have been exploring together over Zoom and YouTube over the past two years now in every session. It's already here. We just turn our attention, our perspective to it. It's already here saying, "Hello, I'm here."

I want to offer this meditation... he says, "There are so many exercises that we can do to help us breathe consciously, besides a simple in-out exercise. We can recite these four lines silently as we breathe in and out." Many of you might be already familiar with these four simple lines, and I know that I have used them before, and they just bring joy and calm. So I'd like to invite us to practice with these four simple lines tonight:

Breathing in, I calm my body.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment,
I know this is a wonderful moment.

Read them one more time: "Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile." And let yourself smile—we've explored that before in previous sessions. "Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment."

There's a lot more commentary, but maybe I'll just say a little more.

"Breathing in, I calm my body." Reciting this line is like drinking a glass of cool lemonade on a hot day. (Isn't that sweet? I just love his language). You can feel the coolness permeate your body. When I breathe in and recite this line, I actually feel my breath calming my body and mind.

"Breathing out, I smile." You know a smile can relax hundreds of muscles in your face. Wearing a smile on your face is a sign that you are a master of yourself. (And we also know that smiling has other physiological and psychological impacts, not just in the muscles of the face, so please do smile).

"Dwelling in the present moment." While I sit here, I don't think of anything else. I sit here and I know exactly where I am.

And the last one: "I know this is a wonderful moment." It is a joy to sit, stable and at ease, and return to our breathing, our smiling, our true nature. Our appointment with life is in the present moment. (I love that—our appointment with life. We all have an appointment with life). If we do not have peace and joy right now, when will we have peace and joy? Tomorrow, or after tomorrow? What is preventing us from being happy right now?

That's such a profound teaching.

As we follow our breathing, we can simply say: "Calming, smiling, present moment, wonderful moment." This exercise is not just for beginners. Many of us who have practiced meditation and conscious breathing for forty or fifty years continue to practice in the same way because this kind of exercise is so important and so easy.

So, with gratitude and appreciation for the gifts of Thich Nhat Hanh, let us begin our formal practice tonight—sitting together, breathing together, smiling together.

Guided Meditation

I invite you to sit however is comfortable for you. You can move to a cushion or even lie down if that's what your body calls for. I'm going to sit cross-legged here on my chair. Landing, arriving here.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Let's start with calming the body. Ah, dear body. Calming, calming, calming the body. As if your body was a child. Sweetheart, sweetheart. It's okay, it's okay. Or maybe a pet, a beloved pet. Petting the child, the pet, this body.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Calming, settling.

Breathing out, I smile. Knowing that smiling relaxes your body, your heart, your mind.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Here, calm, soothed. Each in-breath calming, soothing. Each in-breath like a lullaby. Each in-breath calming the body, bringing care and love to the body. Breathing in, I calm my body. Each in-breath calming, soothing, collecting.

And breathing out, I smile. I greet myself. I greet this body. I greet the world. I greet my appointment with life in this moment, right here, right now. This important appointment, the most important one I have, with myself, here, now. A reason to smile.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile.

Spend some time with the first couple of phrases and really settle into them before adding the others.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile.

Now bringing in the other phrases. Breathing in, I calm my body. Bringing attention to the body, not in the head. Calming the body, being embodied, feeling the body. Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile. And really do smile. What do you have to lose? Experiment, be a scientist of your mind. Yes, lovely smile. Breathing out, I smile. See the shifts that smiling can make in your heart space. Notice if something opens up when you smile. Maybe a little bit of brightness.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Ah, dear body. Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling. Dwelling in the present moment. Dwelling, living, resting, abiding. Spaciously embracing the present moment, right here, right now.

I know this is a wonderful moment. I know deep, deep in my heart, I know this is a wonderful moment. I know this is a wonderful moment, filled with miracles, amazing to be alive. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. And see if, when you smile, when you exhale, your body relaxes some more, just settles some more. See for yourself.

Dwelling in the present moment. I know this is a wonderful moment.

Of course, the phrases, when you say them in full, will spread over multiple breaths. It's not a problem, take your time.

Dwelling in the present moment. I know this is a wonderful moment.

It's okay also to take one phrase and just rest with it for a few breaths, because sometimes the mind can get a little confused like, "Wait, what comes afterwards?" To say, "Dwelling in the present moment," and relish that for a few breaths.

I know this is a wonderful moment. Just acknowledging that, bringing that into our heart space can actually make us realize the goodness, the beauty, the grace of this present moment. I know this is a wonderful moment.

You're welcome to stay with the long forms—resting, dwelling with each sentence—or move to the short form: calming, smiling, present moment, wonderful moment. You can synchronize the words, the phrases with your breath. As you breathe in, "calming," breathing out, "smiling." Breathing in, "present moment," breathing out, "wonderful moment," if you wish.

Meeting this moment right here, not past, not future. Wishing for something different, wanting something that wasn't right here, meeting this present moment right here with a smile. This moment, present moment, wonderful moment.

Wow, this is a wonderful moment. I'm alive, I have awareness, I'm conscious. This gift of being human. This mystery, being part of this amazing, ongoing form called humanity. I'm a part of this. Being in this moment, I'm participating by just being alive. This wonderful moment, precious moment.

Calming, smiling, present moment, wonderful moment. How lucky are we to be able to sit and meditate together in this present moment.

And for the last moments of this practice, maybe connecting with one of the phrases that really came alive for you again. Or maybe all of them, you don't have to choose. Filling your heart one last time with the goodness of this practice, with your own goodness. The goodness of the present moment met with a smile.

May all beings everywhere, including ourselves, meet the present moments of their lives with awareness, appreciation, and with a smile. May all beings be free, including ourselves.

Thanks everyone. Thanks for your practice. And thanks to Thay, the affectionate name of Thich Nhat Hanh, for the beautiful, beautiful gift of his teachings and his presence in this world. For becoming the human being that he became through all the practice, all the challenges, all the beauty, all the suffering that he had in his life to gift so many gifts to us. So, with appreciation to him.

Reflections and Q&A

So, we have time for reflections if you'd like to share in the spirit of sharing your practice with others for the benefit of all beings. You can raise your Zoom hand or type in chat. If you type privately to me only, I will not read your name, just the comment. If it's public, then I'll read your name also. Fred, please.

Fred: Thank you. Tomorrow marks one year since my wife's death, and I began to come to the sangha shortly after that. I just want to take this moment to thank you, Nikki, and to thank each of you in the sangha individually and as a body, for a tremendous amount of help through the past year. Thank you.

Nikki: Thank you so much, Fred, for sharing. For allowing us, for letting us in to hold this important anniversary with you. And thank you for your practice, and supporting everyone with your practice in this sangha. Showing up not just for yourself but for everyone else. Deep appreciation from everyone to you. Yeah, thank you, Fred.

The floor is open for other reflections about the practice tonight or anything else, for that matter. Were there any particular guidance or instructions from Thay that really resonated for you or lit up for you? Something opened up for you, if you're willing to share for the benefit of others? Or anything else for that matter.

We are a quiet bunch tonight. I think somebody raised their hand. I'll ask you to unmute.

Participant: I was at the store, so I wasn't quite sure what you were talking about, but I think that you mentioned about every day you have twenty-four hours to make a day bright or something like that.

Nikki: Since you joined late, I was reading from Peace Is Every Step, which is a book by Thich Nhat Hanh. I was reading the very first chapter, and yeah, that's what he was writing.

Participant: Oh, I see. Yeah, so I think that these days, almost every single day I'm very negative. My friends told me, "Why don't you just take things positively every single day?" It would be really nice having a different perspective of the same things, but you know, it was not really easy. But when I heard those words from you, I was thinking, "Oh yeah, right." Things are not always going to go as you want, and a lot of things make me really disappointed too, but I still have twenty-four hours every day to make things brighter and nicer. It kind of struck me when I heard that sentence.

Nikki: Beautiful, I appreciate that. Yeah, and so if it really spoke to you, then I would recommend finding Peace Is Every Step, this book by Thich Nhat Hanh, because there's so much simple wisdom. It's just the first chapter I read parts of. And also, I would maybe say one more thing about what you shared about this negativity that we bring in. It's really a perspective that we bring in to our day, to every moment of living, and having a different perspective can shift our lives, our perception. It's really deeply... what I'm about to say both seems like a very simple sentence but it's actually a profound and mystical insight, that everything is our perception. Everything. Even when you say, "Well, I'm disappointed things are not going my way," that's also a perception. Because if one is limited to this limited view of "me, me, me, I want this, it's good for me," actually even that is a perception. So it's a radically different way of being in the world. So I'll leave you with that. Thank you.

Vicky, please.

Vicky: I was thinking about some of the pressures, some of the things that seem to be obligations to do, and how to be in peace with that and actually do them. Because peace seems to be sitting and quiet, and how to stay with that as we take care of things that are what I "should" do. I prefer to prune the garden. How to stay in peace with a less desirable list of things to do? Because it's a perception, but if I don't do them, you know, the bills won't get paid.

Nikki: You're cutting out a little bit here and there. Just to make sure I heard the reflection that you're sharing: that when you're sitting quietly in meditation...

Vicky: No, no, in meditation it's very peaceful, but during the day, each step is...

Nikki: Oh, actually, I would like to challenge you! How can you be peaceful in the middle of busyness, in the middle of doing this and that and the other? Can you hold your peace? And it is possible! If it weren't possible, I wouldn't suggest it, Vicky! Right? Having peace doesn't mean that you'll just sit and meditate all day. It's how can we train ourselves in this practice. I mean, being a good Buddhist or a good practitioner isn't that you just check out and you just hang out. It's that in every interaction, in the ways that you show up, you have peace.

Vicky: Yeah, we're bringing that in. Yeah, I think I got the point.

Nikki: Is that what you're talking about? I mean, not that I'm peaceful every moment, no, but that's the intention. Cultivation. And it is possible.

Vicky: Yeah, thank you.

Nikki: And one private reflection: "Thank you for helping us grieve Thay's death and share him being everywhere now." Yeah, so thank you for that reflection. I so appreciated his words.

So, dear ones, this is the time that we turn to hold each other, to practice in small breakout groups. If you can stay, that would be lovely because it's so sweet to connect with the sangha, just connect with practitioners. And if you have to go, it's okay, no judgments at all. So I'm going to open up the rooms. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other. Fifteen minutes, or maybe fifteen seconds of silent mettā, silent smiling. How about that? Let's bring in fifteen seconds of silently smiling at yourself and each other. Just like, wow, these amazing human beings. And then share as little or as much as you like. Here we go.

(Breakout groups)

Welcome back everyone. We've got a couple of minutes left for any last-minute reflections, comments, questions. Neil, please.

Neil: So, the first phrase is, "While I breathe in I relax the body," right? And it seems really difficult for me to relax on the inhale.

Nikki: Yeah, I see heads nodding here.

Neil: I mean, I'm okay not doing it that way, but why did he word it that way if there's not some point to it?

Nikki: I'm so glad you brought this up. Here are the two pointers I would give. First, the way he words it actually is: "Breathing in, I calm the body." And there's a difference between relaxing and calming. Tune into that, Neil, and you'll feel a difference. Because the in-breath can be calming to the body. Tune into how the in-breath can be calming. It can be something that has not yet been opened up for you to be opened up. It's not right away, it's not on the surface; it takes a little bit of tuning into. But I have no doubt that you will... you'll feel it, you'll tune into it. Does that sound okay?

Neil: It sounds exciting. I look forward to it.

Nikki: I'm excited for you, Neil, being excited! Awesome. Thank you so much for asking that for the benefit of everyone else.

Sweet. So, dear ones, we have come to the end of our practice time together. So thank you so much for joining Happy Hour, for practicing for your own sake and the sake of others in the world. And also, tonight, for joining together to honor this amazing, beautiful, precious teacher whom we were gifted, and we're still gifted. So may all beings be well. May all beings be free, including ourselves. Thank you, friends.