Healing with ancestors and descendants

No one exists independently. We are always connected with our parents and ancestors, feeling each other's pain and healing with them.

We are all interconnected with our parents and ancestors

Through the practice of meditation, we can still see the umbilical cord that connects us to our mother. We see that mother is not only outside of us, but also within us. The umbilical cord is still there. When we look deeply, we can also see the "umbilical cord" that connects us to other things.

If we continue to observe and look deeply, we can also see that we are closely connected with everyone and everything in the universe. We depend on other life, living and non-living, for our survival.

When you grow up, you may believe that you and your mother are two different people, but this is not the case. We are the continuation of our mother. We mistakenly believe that we are different people from our mother. We are actually the continuation of our parents and ancestors.

No one can exist alone, we must be interdependent and connected to everyone and everything.

If we look deeply into every cell of our body or every cell in our consciousness, we will see that all our ancestors are within us. By our ancestors, we don’t just mean humans. Before humans came along, we were some other species. We are the continuation of this river of life.

What we say will affect the future

In daily life, we need to pay careful attention to our thoughts to ensure that our thoughts are consistent with right thinking. At every moment of our lives, we have the opportunity to create positive thoughts. Our thoughts are the basis of our words and actions. We pass on our thoughts, words, and actions to our children and the world that is our future.

What we say is our product. Whether our words are right or wrong, they contain our signature. Words can cause damage, what we say can cause anger, despair or sadness, with mindfulness. We create right speech, speech that brings understanding, compassion, joy, and forgiveness. By practicing mindfulness, we create words of right and love that carry our signature in every moment. This is what we pass on to our children and the world, this is our continuation.

Our actions also contain our signature. Whether we are protecting lives, helping people reduce suffering, or showing understanding and compassion, we are doing the right thing. Let us be mindful and refrain from engaging in acts of violence, hatred, fear, and discrimination that bear our signature. We cannot deny that this is our product, that it really comes from us. We shape ourselves and shape the future. We must give our best thoughts, words, and deeds. Mindfulness can help us be aware of whether we can give the best to the future, and it can also help us remember that everything we do is ours and our continuation.

Breathing with Ancestors

When we take a step on the green grass of spring, we walk as if all our ancestors took this step with us. The peace, joy, and ease that each step brings permeate into each of our ancestors and descendants. Walking with the energy of mindfulness, we see countless generations of ancestors and descendants walking with us every step of the way.

When you jog, when you do walking meditation, when you experience the joy of dwelling in the present moment, you practice with all the ancestors within you.

We suffer because we are caught up in the concept of a separate, independent "I." When we observe deeply, we can practice "no-self" and realize that there is no independent "I". We are connected with all our ancestors, with all living and non-living things.

As long as we are trapped in the concept of an independent "I", ignorance remains within us. When we see the close connection between self and not-self, ignorance is healed and pain, anger, jealousy, and fear disappear. When we practice non-self, we can transcend the problems that cause suffering.

We are a continuation of the flow of life. Maybe our parents don't know how to cherish us, but our grandfathers, grandmothers and ancestors all long for us to come into this world. It’s true, our grandfathers, grandmothers, and ancestors desperately wanted us to be their continuation. If we understand this fact, we will not suffer because of our parents' actions. Sometimes our parents are loving and sometimes they are angry. Their love and anger comes not only from them but from all their ancestors. Once we understand this, we will no longer complain about our parents making us suffer.

Some pain is inherited from our ancestors

The purpose of meditation is to let us look deeply into things and see their root causes. No matter what we do, when we look deeply into the action, we can identify the seeds of the action. This seed comes from our ancestors. No matter what we do, our ancestors did the same thing at the same time.

Sometimes we do something without motivation, but it is indeed an action anyway. "Habits" push us, and they push us to do things we don't realize we do.

Sometimes we act without knowing what we are doing, or even do things we don’t want to do, but we do them anyway.

Sometimes we will say: "I don't want to do this, but there is a strong force pushing me to do such a thing." This is the seed, this is the habit, which may come from many generations of us. ancestor.

We inherited a lot. With mindfulness, we can become aware of the ancestral habits within us. We may discover that our parents or grandparents are just as weak as us in some way; we may be aware of negative habits from our ancestors without criticizing them; we may smile at our own weaknesses and habits. With awareness, we can choose to respond in another way, allowing us to stop the cycle of suffering in the present moment.

In the past, when we saw our own unconscious behavior and saw that we had inherited something from our ancestors, we might blame ourselves. Because we see ourselves as an individual, an independent individual, with many shortcomings. But when we become aware, we begin to transform and let go of these habits.

By practicing mindfulness, we are aware of the effects of our habits. This is the first awareness brought about by mindfulness. Once we are aware of our behavior, we can determine whether it is helpful or unhelpful, and if it is not helpful to people, we can decide not to repeat it. If we can become aware of our own habits and become more aware of our thoughts, words, and actions, we will not only transform ourselves, but also our ancestors who sowed the seeds. We practice not only for ourselves, but also for our ancestors, future generations, and for the entire world.