Dharma

The Dharma is not a lecture.
The Dharma, in the Buddhist tradition, is a kind of rain.
Our consciousness should behave like the soil, the earth.
We have to allow the Dharma talk to penetrate.
According to the Buddha, we have seeds of understanding, of awakening, of compassion, within ourselves.
We don't need these seeds to be transmitted from the teacher.
We already have all of them, in the depth of our consciousness.
We call it store consciousness, sometimes earth consciousness.
Because these seeds are buried deep in the mind, in the soil of our consciousness, it is very hard for them to grow and manifest.
Above, there are many layers of suffering, confusion, prejudices and so on, and our intellect can never go deep enough.
Our intellect, very often contradicts our deepest nature and therefore, to allow the intellect to rest, and to open our earth store, in order for the rain of the Dharma to penetrate is very important.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh