Welcome to In the Flow with Lori Albert,
A brief,
Positivity-inspiring chat and meditation designed to uplift and motivate us to live our best lives.
Let's get in the flow.
So many of you may or may not know actually that the Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh didn't this past weekend.
He was,
If you're familiar with him,
Then you know that he was a very gentle soul.
But to me,
Who he was,
It was his gentle faith that is what always sort of attracted me to his teachings.
He was a Buddhist teacher.
He was a peace activist.
He was an author.
His books,
Oh my gosh,
I mean,
The book that always stands out to me,
Which is the first book I ever read of his,
Was The Heart of the Buddhist Teachings.
And what was so great about that book for me was that over the course of my many years of living,
I guess,
I've always been interested in learning about all the different religions,
Regardless of whatever the religion is.
I'm just interested in the core teachings.
And that book actually is what taught me all the core stuff about Buddhism.
It teaches about the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
I mean,
These are like the foundations,
Right?
But he teaches it in such a way that is just very gentle.
And I appreciate that aspect of him.
I appreciate that aspect of him on this earth to teach us this kind of thing.
So to me,
Though,
Okay,
And we all have our own way of looking at all the different religions and their teachings and the teachers that teach us,
Right?
But to me,
For me,
The most important teachings that I learned from him were about becoming free in order to be happy,
Right?
Because he talked a lot about being free and then freedom is happiness,
Right?
And so I composed a couple of quotes that I really wanted to share,
Because these are the ones that just get me every time,
Right?
Okay,
This first one is incredible,
Obviously.
Letting go gives us freedom and freedom.
I love this.
Letting go gives us freedom.
And freedom is the only condition for happiness.
If in our hearts we still cling to anything,
Anger,
Anxiety or possessions,
We cannot be free.
I mean,
So much to say in those,
Like what,
Two little sentences,
Right?
And it's just like,
Incredible.
I mean,
It's just so it's one of those,
You know,
I used to say this about Deepak Chopra,
Where it's like,
You read like a sentence and you have to go,
Whoa,
You sit back and you go,
I gotta ponder that.
So like,
It took me years,
Literally years to get through one of Deepak Chopra's books.
But it's that same sort of thing,
Right?
Okay,
So anyway,
So then that there's that quote.
And yeah,
So then there's this other quote,
Which I absolutely love too.
And this is the one that's been kind of going around since his since his transitioning.
And this one just blows me out of the water too,
Right?
Tomorrow,
I will continue to be.
But you will have to be very attentive to see me.
I will be a flower or a leaf.
I will be in these forms and I will say hello to you.
If you are attentive enough,
You will recognize me and you may greet me.
I will be very happy.
Oh my God,
That is just,
It's just gorgeous.
It's just gorgeous,
Right?
Okay,
And then the last quote,
Because we are going to chant.
The last quote that I want to talk about today of his is,
And this one,
Well,
They're all like amazing,
Okay,
But this one is just another one of those you got to stop and think about.
Your purpose is to be yourself.
You don't have to run anywhere to become someone else.
You are wonderful,
Just as you are.
Can you imagine if we all took that on?
Like seriously,
Can you imagine if we all took that on?
You know,
Thich Nhat Hanh knew what he was talking about.
Okay,
So there's one more quote.
All right,
I wasn't going to do it,
But one more quote.
The purpose of a rose is to be a rose.
Your purpose is to be yourself.
Right?
I love that.
I love that.
That was kind of the first part of the other one.
You are wonderful,
Just as you are.
Oh my gosh,
I absolutely adore that.
Anything,
Any teaching,
Any religion,
Any person that teaches us that we are perfect just as we are.
Oh my gosh,
Like who doesn't want more of that?
You know,
I think that's why I love him so much,
You know.
So anyway,
What we're going to do,
Okay,
So we are going to chant.
Now you guys are going to laugh.
I hope you're okay with this.
Nobody's offended because I wouldn't want to do that.
There is a,
It's actually a Hindu chant.
It's a Sanskrit chant that I absolutely love,
But it's about being happy and it's about being free.
And so it makes sense to me in terms of all of this.
Okay,
So I hope nobody's offended by it.
You know,
You can always just turn me off.
Right?
Our chant that we're going to chant today,
I have my Shruti box as you might be able to tell.
I have my Shruti box and what we're going to do is we're going to chant the following chant.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
And what this means,
It's in Sanskrit,
It means,
May all beings everywhere be happy and free.
That's one of the many translations and then it continues,
And may the thoughts,
Words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to freedom for all.
I mean,
How perfect is that for what I was just talking about in terms of Thich Nhat Hanh?
I mean,
It's amazing.
Right?
So we're going to sing,
But first of all,
We're going to,
Because I have my singing bowl and what we're going to do is I'm going to guide us in and then we will start to sing Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Okay?
All right.
So let's just begin.
Let's close our eyes.
Take a deep breath.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Om.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
Loka Samastah Sukino Bhavanthu.
May all beings everywhere be happy and free.
Namaste.
