The first was at his old church, All Saints, and it was a very powerful reunion, and for all of us as well, seeing him in a place that had been so formative to his life. At the end, he talked about the impossibility of actually achieving our common goal, of getting to heaven, by any means available to us as suffering beings, and then gave the solution -- faith in our Lord:
"The seed of asking sincerely and having complete trust -- that's enough. As a seed, you need to do it, the easy way, instead of all these years of hard work. You still need to work, at least try honestly, but I think it's beautiful: in the eastern tradition, and in the western tradition, in the end, whoever you see as your teacher, you just commit to them, and you say, 'I have faith you can take me,' and it's not a mistake or an accident. It follows the same rules. If you see a pen right now, you can go to heaven, because the rules are the same. It's coming from you, from some kindness that you did to other people, from some goodness that you did. So they would say in the Eastern tradition, and I think in the Western tradition: 'The goodness of believing in your teacher is enough.' If you just keep working on that, you could see anything. Because this is not a pen; you could see anything. Anything could happen. You just have to have enough faith in your teacher."
Here is a link to the recording of that talk.
In September there was another teaching, this time at Trinity Episcopal Church. This time instead of exploring the similarities between Christianity and Buddhism, he had been asked to talk about the differences. One main difference, he said, is that whereas Christians practice once a week, in a group, Buddhists practice every day, by themselves. And this, he said, is how you can change your world, even within a day. By practicing in the morning, you can create miracles in the afternoon. The practices are
1) Creating a simple space by spending 5 minutes sweeping out our mind.
2) Meditation: 15 minutes of taking others' pain & giving them their wishes.
3) Yoga: 30 minutes opening the inner channels.
4) Study: 20 minutes learning something new.
5) Mood food: eating healthy food -- being nice to you an hour from now.
6) Service: one good deed every day, and best if you keep it anonymous.
7) Tracking: the inner diary of your positive and negative actions.
8) Thanksgiving: secret for a good sleep.
Link to the recording of the talk
