Someone: We will have a series of conversations that are not only mindful, but awakening (awaken, heartful). First, however, a question… Is content like this perhaps not for the masses…?
Bờm: All is one, and all are equal. However, from the perspective of spiritual practice, most do not practice; only a minority do. Within that minority, a smaller minority actually practice truly engaged in spiritual practice (practicing the Dharma), rather than simply ‘going to the temple and chanting sutras’ (although that is also good in terms of the person’s stage of evolution). Within this minority of a minority, most are still only at the stage of cultivating awareness and mindfulness; aiming for that may already seem the highest goal to them at their current level of understanding. In reality, it is only an introductory stage for a profound spiritual practitioner. Thus it is a minority of a minority of a minority that truly resonates with this content… If the right conditions are present, you will be able to follow it. The seeds planted within your consciousness over many lifetimes will help you follow and resonate beautifully with these reflections.
Someone: Then let’s begin with something familiar… How can we maintain good habits without forcing ourselves, without NLP (in the negative aspect of this method), without tormenting ourselves (when we have not managed to form good habits), and without quickly losing interest (starting enthusiastically, then giving up)?
Bờm: Begin by answering this question: What creates a good habit?
Like a tree's flowers and fruit, a good habit is the result of an action repeated regularly. Our habits shape our lives. Habits influence each person's destiny.
Simply put, if someone has habits that are good for their health, they will have a healthy life. If someone has habits conducive to success, they will have a successful career. If someone has good habits for efficiency and productivity, they will handle more work and create far more results and value than others in the same amount of time.
In a relationship, if two people regularly maintain habits that support happiness together, they will be happy as a couple. For example, after an exhausting workday, a husband and wife return home and continue “dealing with” matters involving their children. Now the husband only wants time for himself, “shutting himself away” to watch television, football, or play games. After gaming, he “rolls” into bed because he is so sleepy. Over time, connection and intimacy disappear from the marriage. The woman becomes more “parched,” psychologically and physically. This dryness comes from their failure to “water” each other's spiritual lives. If they developed a simple habit of lying together before sleep and telling each other about their day… The wife would describe what happened, and the husband would listen and support her… By talking, they would restore their bond before sleep. That would enter each person's unconscious and dreams. The next morning, they would wake feeling more connected. So we see how small habits can affect a couple's entire intimate life and happiness.
Under the law of cause and effect, a cause creates an effect, which becomes the cause of another effect. If habits are the cause of destiny, what causes habits? Repeated actions create habits. For example, if we wake at 4 today and meditate, we may feel sleepy on the first day. But maintaining this habit for 2 to 4 weeks brings inspiration and energy. Eventually, if we do not wake early to meditate, we feel drained and “not quite right.” Then a habit is established. This shows that actions lead to habits. What, then, creates our actions? More subtle things: our emotions, thoughts, and memories.
You are nothing more than a stream of memories reborn through many lives and lifetimes. In each life, we accumulate new memories. When we die, memory is the only thing reborn. It includes everything we have done well – our merit – and everything we still need to correct – our karmic consequences. These are all the qualities we accumulated in the past, along with distortions and lessons we have not yet learned. Who we are, how we behave, what habits we have… are all quietly, secretly, and subtly “steered” and controlled by a “character” named “memory.” When we understand this fundamental truth, we hold the key to changing our fate and transforming our lives: Working with our memories.
Someone: Work with memories? Memories belong to the past. Isn’t simply living in the present enough?
Bờm: “Working with memories” is very important. But many people misunderstand this because they think simply living in the present is enough. Living in the present is a good attitude, but it applies only in the initial stages of spiritual practice.
Of course, this does not mean it becomes unimportant later on. We need to practice awareness, mindfulness and living in the present. However, as we go deeper along the path of opening the mind, we need to pay attention to our memories. Living in the present does not mean denying memories or “turning a blind eye” to them, but facing and mastering them.
Someone: So practicing mindful awareness and mindfulness is like being at the kindergarten “level”?
Bờm: Both “kindergarten” and “professor.” Because it is the beginning, and at the very end we return to it.
The world of the past was very different: most of humanity had a very low vibrational frequency, and mindfulness was 1 luxury, something difficult for them. So some teachers began spreading these basics, including to the Western world. The West truly loved this concept because Western minds are very “hyperactive”—they greatly need mindfulness. They therefore practice so seriously that the East has had to reconsider itself. With some teachers, no matter how many books you read or teachings you hear from them, everything ultimately comes down to just 1 term: “mindful awareness.” Today, some people still find it very difficult to truly embody awareness in everyday life. On the other hand, more and more people find it easy to practice. For example, when meditating, they can enter meditative absorption in just 3 breaths. They maintain fairly good awareness in daily life. This concept has spread worldwide, helping people live and be more present in the moment, and find happiness in the present. Nevertheless, even “living in the present” has drawbacks.
Someone: A downside? I used to think that was the ultimate destination.
Bờm: We often “lean on” a saying of the Buddha that we need only live in the present, without pursuing the past or seeking the future. However, spiritual practitioners may misunderstand its meaning and create distortions of their own.
Because most of these people practice by suppressing too many memories rather than facing them. Ultimately, they have only “surface” peace, or what could be called “false” peace… In truth, an entire volcano remains within, never transformed, easily “triggered” into a violent eruption when they encounter life events that touch their original negative emotions… When you have surface peace, the “rubbish” merely settles below while the water above looks clear and good. But if you do not face the memories — the “rubbish” — can it simply disappear? It remains below, ready to rise as soon as it is triggered. Many lifetimes of monastic memories may cause people to completely “encase in concrete” all their memories, with a “curtain” too thick to “lift.” They struggle to recognize the truth within, and so transformation cannot truly take place fully…
And because people do not understand that even the Buddha “searched through” his memories. This is recounted specifically in the Dhammapada, regarded as a trustworthy scripture and reference for the Buddha's true teachings. It describes the Buddha's journey to enlightenment as he meditated beneath the Bodhi tree for 49 days. During deep meditation, he activated the mechanism of “remembering” and “retraced” all his past lives. From there, he understood the flow of cause and effect and could explain why he was present here today.
Someone with a deep and complete understanding of themselves is a Buddha, an enlightened being. Only by understanding ourselves can we understand this entire universe. This can be verified through practice, because there is a whole “universe” within us.
The Buddha Himself sought, understood, worked with, purified, and cleansed many of His memories. So one key to a balanced, correct spiritual path is knowing how to work with memories. Because we are nothing more than “slaves” to those memories. All our behavior today is strongly influenced by this “darkness,” the unconscious. We plant many seeds in the unconscious, and gradually they “rise” into the subconscious and conscious. This process creates beliefs, thoughts, and emotions that lead to action and shape habits. When we have an unhelpful habit and want to transform it, we need to know how to work with the memories that lead us to act and form that habit.
Practices that help us purify memories are necessary. We can practice methods that take us deep into the unconscious. Meditation is one such way. The meditative path is profoundly deep. We can meditate and set an intention to purify memories. This is still very progressive compared with what most people do, because most do not meditate. Even those who do generally meditate only to ‘live in the present,’ concentrate the mind, and cultivate mindful awareness, without yet knowing how to work with themselves at the level of memory.
Through specific meditation techniques, we recognize lessons and integrate qualities. Once a quality is integrated, we need to nurture it through our daily behavior. Gradually, we create a new habit quite naturally, because it comes from meditation and follows the nature of consciousness. It is not suppression, pressure, or coercion, but balance and gentleness. We see the ‘character in the shadows,’ make peace with it, and let it go. Space then opens for us to plant positive seeds in our lives through spiritual practice, bringing the teachings into life, and practicing the necessary qualities in our everyday living.
That is the path we can call the path of awakening.
Someone: So practicing mindful awareness is only the first stepping stone…?
Bờm: It is a very important stepping stone, because we will return to it many times to “recharge mindful awareness” as we enter deeper practice, descend into the unconscious, face many intense inner truths, and truly work and undergo initiation. If the energy of mindfulness is present then, we will have enough energy to continue “digging deeper”…
That is the basic first step, after which a person with the right affinity will move on to deeper, more progressive practices. Everything suits each person's journey of spiritual evolution.
Someone: 
