Full talk’s original title: “2012 07 23 MH VN Châu báu chất đầy thế giới – hạnh phúc gia đình, hiểu mới thương”
Full talk originally posted: by Plum Village, on Jul 2, 2019
Full talk given: on July 23, 2012, in Pháp Mai Temple, Middle Hamlet, Plum Village France, during the Summer Retreat 2012
Length: 1 hour 37 minutes 46 seconds
Video’s note: “Pháp thoại cho người Việt trong khoá tu Mùa Hè năm 2012 tại Xóm Trung- Làng Mai”
This is a full Dharma talk lasting 1 hour 37 minutes 46 seconds which Thay gave before a Vietnamese-speaking audience during the Summer Retreat 2012 in Middle Hamlet’s Pháp Mai Temple, Plum Village France.
SPECIAL THANKS The translation of this Dharma talk would never be possible without Dharma Teacher Chân Cơ (Maple Village Sangha, Canada)’s valuable help on French words Thay used in this talk.
Transcript
[Bell]
[Bell]
[Bell]
Plum Village
Summer Retreat
Grandpa Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh
Pháp Mai Temple, Middle Hamlet
Plum Village France — July 23, 2012
[Thay bowing in]
Dear Sangha, today is the 23rd of July, 2012. We’re currently in the Middle Hamlet, Plum Village in France, during the Summer Retreat 2012. And this week is the third of the four-week retreat.
I will read you the poem “At the edge of the forest, the wild plum trees have burst into flower“. Its other name — also the main topic, is “A Teacher Looking for His Student”. The “teacher” here means the Buddha, the World-Honored One.
| Poem AT THE EDGE OF THE FOREST, THE WILD PLUM TREES HAVE BURST INTO FLOWER “I have been looking for you, my child, since rivers and mountains still laid in obscurity. I have been looking for you when all beings have still been waiting for the first gleam of dawn. I have been looking for you when you are still in a deep sleep, although the sounds of the blowing horn have echoed up non-stop. Without leaving the ancient mountain, I gaze up at strange distant horizons, and recognize on many different paths each single one of your footsteps. Where have you been, my child? There are times when a veil of mist hangs over remote villages. But, drifting through life, you’re still chasing rainbows in faraway lands. I’ve called your name in each breath, trusting even if you’ve lost your way over there, you’ll eventually find your way back here. Sometimes I appear right on the path you tread. But still, you look at me as if I was but a stranger, failing to see the connection between us in our former lives, and failing to remember the oath of loyalty. You’ve failed to recognize me because you’ve still been entangled and busied with the shadows of future happiness. In former lifetimes, you used to take my hands, as we enjoyed tootling along. We teacher and student sat together for a long time at the foot of the conifers hundreds of years old. We once stood still together, as we listened to the sound of the wind softly calling us, and gazed up at the white clouds floating by. You once handed me a handful of fallen parasol leaves, bright red in early autumn. And I once took you through the woodlands covered in deep, cold snow. But wherever we went, we always found our way back to the ancient mountain to be near the moon and the stars, to every dawn invite the great bell to sound, waking all living beings up. We once sat quietly on the An Tử Mountaintop with the Great Master Bamboo Forest by the old flowering frangipani trees bursting with fragrance. We once took boats out to sea, rescuing boat people stranded adrift. We once helped Zen Master Vạn Hạnh design Thăng Long Imperial Citadel. We once weaved cogon grass into a thatched-roof hut by Tiền Đường River, and cast a net to save Sister Healing Streamwater from drowning, when the river was still raging with the deafening sound of the rising tides. We teacher and student opened and stepped into the immense space outside of space, after many years working hard at piercing through the net of time. We were once able to save up all the light of the shooting stars to create torches guiding those seeking home, having enough of wandering. But sometimes, the seed of a wanderer in you awakened and sprouted. Leaving your teacher, leaving your siblings, you walked away erratically on your own. I looked at you with compassion, though I knew this was not a real parting. Because you had me in each cell of your body. Knowing you had to once more play the role of a destitute child, I vowed to be there for you whenever you found yourself in danger. When you nodded off on the hot sands in a borderland desert, I manifested as a white cloud bringing you cool shade. Until midnight, the cloud condensed into dew, and the nectar of compassion came down one drop after another, so you could help yourself when exhausted in the desert heat. There were times when you sat at the bottom of a deep, dark abyss, completely removed from the sky of your true home. I manifested as a long rope ladder, gently throwing myself down, so you could climb up to a place fused with warm light, so you could get in touch again with the sky’s blue, and the sounds of the burbling stream and the warbling birds. Sometimes, I recognized you in Birmingham, in Do Linh District, or New England. Sometimes I saw you in Hangzhou, Xiamen, or Shanghai. Sometimes I found you in St Petersburg, or East Berlin. Sometimes, even as a five-year-old, I could still recognize you in your true form and the seed of bodhicitta in you which you carried in your juvenescent heart. Every time I saw you, I always waved to signal, whether it was Kinh Bắc, Bến Nghé, or Thuận An sea gate. Sometimes you were the ripening golden moon dangling down from Kim Sơn Mountain top, or the baby bird cheeping away one cold winter night as you flew over the Great Elder forest. Many times I could recognize you, but you couldn’t recognize me. Although on your way, much evening dew had soaked your robe wet, you finally made it home. You are now home, sitting by my feet on the ancient mountain, once again dwelling in the sounds of birds tweeting and monkeys howling in symphony with bells tolling early morn and late afternoon. You are back by my side, determined to end the life of a wandering soul. This morning, birds sing in celebration, and the daystar is up in glory. Have you noticed, in the vault of the blue sky, the white clouds still float? Where have you been? The ancient mountain is still here where the present moment is. Although the white-headed wave is still looking to throw itself into unknown directions, look again, I your teacher am in you, in each flower bud, and in each green leaf. If you call my name, you’ll see me right away. Where have you been? The ancient frangipani tree has come into flowers, bursting with fragrance this morning. We teacher and student have never really been parted. Spring has come, and the old conifers have come into shiny green needles. And at the edge of the forest, the wild plum trees have burst into flower.” 🍃🌸 |
Stories of “destitute children”
In this poem, there is the term “destitute child. ” A “destitute child” means a prodigal child who squanders their family’s heritage until they end up living in extreme poverty, wandering from place to place, begging for a living. L’enfant prodigue.
Story #1: The story of the prodigal child
In the Lotus Sutra, there’s also a story of a destitute person. Well, there was a young man whose father was a magnate. But he was reckless. He wasn’t able to save money. He was not interested in running a business nor going to school. He only squandered his family’s fortune.
And, fully aware that it was an ingrained habit of his son, the father was deeply concerned. He knew after he died, his son would use up all the fortune, and would end up being very poor and hungry.
So he took one of his jackets — it was a warm puffer jacket, and secretly sewed into one of the linings of that jacket a very precious gem. And he told his son,
“My son, you can squander everything and sell up everything like paddies, orchards, draft animals, or houses. But there’s one thing you are never to sell up. If you love me, there’s one thing you should never sell but keep with you always, which is this jacket. It’s very warm. I just have this one thing to ask you. Just one thing. Never sell or throw away this jacket. Always keep this jacket with you until the end of your life.”
And just like the father anticipated, after he died, his son spent money like water until he ended up not having a dime left and becoming a destitute person. A son who ran out of road, and had to go around begging for a living.
After many years living in deep poverty and being on the breadline, one day, the son was sleeping on a street in a wet market. Still wearing the jacket his father used to wear, he turned to the left and to the right, and felt something was poking out.
Surprised and curious, he cut a little bit into the jacket and found a very big gem. The gem could be sold for a fortune.
But he had learned his life’s most important lesson, so this time after selling that gem, he learned to rebuild his life from rags to riches, and lived a decent and happy life.
So, in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha told this story, and said we are all prodigals. We have already inherited many treasures but we don’t know how to make use of these treasures in order to lead a happy life.
These treasures are the Dharma, the teachings that the Buddha transmitted to us. We know these teachings. We study these teachings. But we don’t put these teachings into practice. We’ve lived the life of someone who’s always poor spiritually.
Perhaps we’re not poor and hungry in material possessions. But we’re extremely poor spiritually. We leave our children and grandchildren an extremely small spiritual inheritance.
Story #2: Letter from a young nun to Thay
I put in my bag a letter just a moment ago. It’s a green letter. Wondering where it is. There’s a green letter. Here it is. Thay had a gem in his pocket but Thay didn’t know. Thay looked for it elsewhere. This letter is written by a young nun in Thailand. She wrote this letter only a few days ago. And Thay received it yesterday. This is a destitute person who has finally returned home.
| (LETTER FROM A NUN TO THAY) “Beloved, respected Thay, Waking up this morning, in me there’s a gentle sense of contentment.” |
She’s currently in one of our mindfulness practice centers in Thailand, Pak Chong, a continuation of Bát Nhã (Prajñā) Monastery.
| (LETTER FROM A NUN TO THAY) (cont.) “Beloved, respected Thay, “Waking up this morning, in my heart there’s a gentle sense of contentment. I sit there in my bed, savoring my weak tea. I find mornings like this so beautiful and so peaceful. They are the gifts and privileges the monastic’s life has granted me. “And in a split-second, I realize that lying beneath this gentle sense of peace is a twinge of sadness coming from nowhere and for no reason that makes me want to cry. But I don’t cry. I just sit there and breathe quietly to look deeply into the roots of this feeling in me. “Sometimes bouts of sadness like this still weave themselves into my heart. It works its way into my heart so subtly that it makes it difficult for me to grasp what it is exactly. “These days, I don’t know why but the images of my uncles have often come to mind, on both my father’s and my mother’s sides. I just sit there and look deeply into my extended family. And it dawns on me all the sufferings and impasses on both sides of my family have run so deep. Perhaps I’ve received all these sufferings and impasses from them. “My maternal uncles are mostly intellects finding themselves in high positions and considered successful in the society. But many of them are stuck spiritually. “My eldest uncle, the eldest son in the family, is a professor at a university of foreign languages. He is very talented but has a broken family, unfortunately. He divorced and re-married. He had two children but they all died at a very young age. “My uncle wanted to find consolation in a religion, and he found his way to Christianity. He then divorced his second wife, and lived with my maternal grandmother. I used to witness many conflicts he had with his younger brothers and with my maternal grandmother. “Grappling with keeping one religion and practicing another, he increasingly found himself stuck in life. “Another uncle of mine, CEO of an IT firm, was very much respected, sought-after, and surrounded by obsequious people. But he also divorced his wife and his two children didn’t consider him their father. “During that time, his company went bankrupt, so he worked as a consultant for other companies as well as wrote codes for these companies’ software programs. He also guest-lectured at a college. “Feeling down, he got married the second time and had another child. But deep down inside, he was not happy, constantly finding himself discontent with life, putting the blames on everyone and everything. “My youngest uncle, meanwhile, was a director at a real estate firm while also running his own business. But his children were spoiled and misbehaved, so he was extremely upset. “Every time he went somewhere, he was always respected and surrounded by obsequious people. But when night fell, he could only hug his wife sobbing, because of the extreme loneliness and self-pity he had inside, and his lost faith in society. “All of my aunts like my eldest, third, fourth, and fifth aunts, even my Mom (the seventh) included, run their privately-owned businesses. “They are all well-to-do. They all live in big houses. They all have successful children. But they also suffer a great deal because their children live in different places. In their quest for wealth and power, they forgot their mothers, their grandmother, and their roots. “When I recognize the sufferings, stuck places, and potentialities in me, I come to realize they have a lot to do with the sufferings, stuck places, and potentialities in these ancestors of mine. “Now, although all my maternal uncles and aunts have returned to their root tradition of Buddhism, fact is, all they do is blind worship, as deep down they still look for protection from a divine being. “My aunts are hard at doing charitable work but their hearts are still fraught with inconsolable sorrows. “It’s a joy seeing my beloveds taking refuge in Buddhism, but it’s also a shame to see what propelled them to be on the path is blind faith. “Nevertheless, it’s not too bad. These days when those images suddenly come up in me, I often pray for my uncles and aunts’ inner peace because I believe with time, when their practices deepen, they’ll come to recognize all sufferings and stuck places that run in the family. “They inter-are with me. I know I’ll never be 100% happy when my beloveds have yet to touch true happiness. “On my father’s side, although my paternal uncles and my father are not economically deprived, – neither are my paternal aunts, in their minds, there are still many stuck places, struggles, and confusion. “They don’t find it necessary to take refuge in a spiritual tradition to dissolve these stuck places, because faith in a spiritual tradition is not present in their hearts. Everyone is so occupied with achieving goals, so the siblings have become increasingly estranged. “There’s one uncle whom I’ve had the most compassion for. He and his wife trade timber and run a real estate brokerage. But in search of profits, their innately kind characters changed. “They haven’t put humanity at the heart of their businesses, diminishing their good merits. So they’re always faced with one trouble after another, and fraught with anxiety. Despite wealth, cars, and big houses, and despite plenty of servants, there’s nothing left between them. “However, my parents enjoy a better life for my being a nun. They’ve been very strict with me since I was young so I didn’t run into the same problems as my uncles and aunts on both sides. “It dawns on me no matter how rich or talented you are, without spiritual roots, all you have means nothing. Suffering at the height of luxurious comfort is the ultimate suffering, making my beloveds prone to feeling desperate and stuck very easily. “I don’t want to make the same mistakes my ancestors made so I want to change this situation. I’ve been practicing mindful walking, mindful breathing, and being still more often to send this positive, healing energy to my beloveds. “Looking deeply into what’s been handed down to me by both sides, I get to see myself better. And I see myself in each of my ancestors on both sides. And I also see that they have a lot of faith in me.” |
[Thay] They expect their children to succeed at practicing mindfulness so that they can come to their rescue.
| (LETTER FROM A NUN TO THAY) (cont.) “Whenever I think about my family, I always remind myself I have a great mission to accomplish. I need to be diligent in my own practice and transformation so that I can help my beloveds transform themselves. Thay’s teachings are always vividly clear in me, until this day. I am bringing all of my ancestors into the future. They’re all here with me. “And I feel blessed being able to receive so many precious spiritual gems to move forward, to dig deeper into the practice, and to uncover and understand my true nature. “May the energies of the Buddha and ancestral teachers keep Thay out of harm’s way and allow you to live as long as can be with us your children.” |
Story #3 : Everyone has Buddha nature
In the Lotus Sutra, there’s also another story of another destitute child. Both Eastern and Western cultures have parables of destitute children.
The story was about a millionaire who has a child but he lost that child. And that child, well, he knew nothing about his ancestry, he didn’t even know who his father was. He had been missing for so many years.
One day, he went to a place that was actually his hometown, but he had no idea. He saw a big house and encountered a millionaire surrounded by many servants. Such an enormous fortune. And so, he walked into this millionaire’s estate and asked if he could work as a laborer there.
When the millionaire saw this young man, he recognized at once that it was his son. But he didn’t let this young man know he was his son. Because he knew if he did that, the son would run away. He would run away because he would have the inferiority complex of someone coming from a dirt-poor background. So, if a person of noble rank approached him, he would try to run away, of course.
It was more because of fear than hate. Because he had no idea this man was his father. He didn’t have the faintest idea. He believed that he and this millionaire were worlds apart, that they couldn’t come close to one another. But they were, in truth, father and son.
This millionaire was very wise. He knew he had to develop skillful means, and come up with appropriate ways in order to gradually bring his son back to his rightful place.
So this millionaire told his closest servant to approach this young man, to approach this destitute child, to offer him a job slightly better than the one he applied for. A job that paid him a little bit higher. The young man was so happy.
And so, every 2 or 3 weeks, they offered him a slightly higher position, allowing him to hold a slightly more important position every time. And until finally one day, he was offered to become the assistant to this millionaire.
Now he wore nice clothes, conducting himself with much more confidence and maturity. Very different from the way he conducted himself the day he first came, which was like a beggar.
And when he had already gotten through such an extended period of time, the millionaire then came to him and said, “Don’t you know, dear child, you are my son.”
At that moment, the son was able to accept. But before that, he would never accept that he was a blood relation of this millionaire.
So in the sutra, this story was told. And the story goes that this millionaire represents someone who has an enormous spiritual inheritance, i.e. a buddha, a fully enlightened being.
And the destitute child represents someone having the inferiority complex that they’re just a living being, that they’re just a mundane person, that there’s only suffering for them, that there’s only ignorance, suffering, and punishment and mishaps for them. There’s a discriminative thinking, there’s a fear that they can never be like the other person.
“The other person” means a holy being, a Buddha, or a Bodhisattva. And so, if Lord Buddha tells someone, “Dear friend, you’re not a mundane being. You can be a buddha,” they’ll be freaked out, they’ll never believe it.
We have a dualistic notion that a living being and a buddha are two totally different things. That a living being is the opposite of a buddha. And a buddha is the opposite of a living being. And so, when the truth unfolds — the truth that everyone has Buddha nature, that everyone can be enlightened, that everyone can be a buddha — it can freak people out.
So, the Lotus Sutra is a scripture born later than any other Buddhist sutras. Because the Lotus Sutra brings up the truth that, “All living beings can become enlightened beings, become buddhas.” Lord Buddha believed if he met someone for the first time and he told them this truth, they would run away at once, they would never believe him.
And so he had to go slow, gradually introducing them to the practice, mentoring them bit by bit, allowing them to progress little by little, until he could tell them, “Dear friends, you all have Buddha nature. You can all become enlightened the way I did. There’s no difference between us.”
The Lotus Sutra presents that truth — i.e. “Nhất thiết chúng sanh, giải hữu Phật tánh”, or “everyone can become enlightened, a buddha.” Well, only when you’re free from the 3 complexes (superiority, inferiority, equality), can you accept it.
Lord Buddha is the millionaire. And we’re all destitute children. We may say, we’re going to be poor and hungry for the rest of our lives, one generation after another.
And so, Lord Buddha wanted to get us out of the shackle of those 3 complexes to realize we’re also capable of being happy, of becoming enlightened. That’s the story of the destitute child in the Lotus Sutra.
Wondering if Brother Pháp Tịnh can come up here and sing us the song “The world is bursting with treasure troves.”
The lyrics — indeed a poem, goes like this,
| Poem & Song: THE WORLD IS BURSTING WITH TREASURE TROVES “The world is bursting with treasure troves. I offer you a handful this morning. A handful of glaringly bright diamonds that sparkles night and day. Each moment you’re given to live is a precious gem, containing earth, water, sky, and clouds. It only needs a gentle breath for countless miracles to appear. The birds warbling, the pines cheering, the flowers blooming, the blue sky, and the white clouds are all there. Eyes shining the light of love, and the smile brimming with awareness. You, who are the richest person on Earth, have left your true home to find riches in foreign lands. Stop being the destitute son. Go home and receive your inheritance. Let’s offer each other joy and dwell peacefully in the present moment. Let’s put down the load of sorrow. Come home and lift up life in our hand.” |
That’s a poem that Thay has put to music. Is Brother Pháp Tịnh here? I’d like to invite him to sing this song. “The world is bursting with treasure troves.”
Surrounding us are all treasures, just that we don’t know how to uncover and use them. If we can learn to recognize these treasures, we have happiness right away. Among many of the Buddha’s teachings, there’s one called “dwelling happily in the moment”. It means one can live happily in the present moment.
Because when we have mindfulness, when we take a breath in mindfulness, bringing the mind back to the body, naturally we’ll realize that we’re always been blessed abundantly, that we’ve had so many conditions of happiness, that we’ve had so many treasures. With that awareness, we can be happy right away.
The reason we’re not happy is because we’re unable to count our blessings, to recognize the conditions of happiness currently available to us. They’re the “treasure troves” that “the world is bursting with.” When we remind someone of the abundant blessings they’re having, that they can be happy straight away, we’re offering them “a handful of glaringly bright diamonds“.
| “The world is bursting with treasure troves. I offer you a handful this morning. A handful of glaringly bright diamonds that sparkles night and day. Each moment you’re given to live is a precious gem,”… |
Each moment which life gives us to live is a precious gem. If we have mindful awareness, at any given moment, there’s the blue sky and there are white clouds. The present moment contains all the miracles of the cosmos.
| “Each moment you’re given to live is a precious gem, containing earth, water, sky, and clouds. It only needs a gentle breath for countless miracles to appear. “The birds warbling, the pines cheering, the flowers blooming, the blue sky, and the white clouds are all there. Eyes shining the light of love, and the smile brimming with awareness. |
At any given moment, if we’re truly present, all of those miracles just naturally dawn on us. The blue sky. The white clouds. The birds warbling. The pines cheering. Well, those treasures, those blessings, those conditions of happiness… We’ve just trampled on those miracles. We’re the prodigal child. Every day we have 24 hours. And each second, each minute, is a heap of jades and diamonds.
But we’ve lived in the way that has frivoled all our hours, days, and minutes away as if we are throwing away those treasures. We’re all prodigal children. We don’t know how to live. We don’t know how to benefit from and savor the conditions of happiness that we’re having, that our ancestors have left us, We’ve been searching for happiness elsewhere.
Please, Brother. Will you also play guitar?
[Br Pháp Tịnh] Dear Thay, I don’t know how to play that song on the guitar. Please allow me to have Br Pháp Cầu’s help.
[Thay] Yes, dear child. OK, the two of you brothers, please sing. Do you two need another microphone? Two, three… [Audience chuckling]
[Brs Pháp Tịnh & Pháp Cầu start singing]
Thank you, dear brothers. So this is a poem, a song, for us to practice with. If we have time to come back to ourselves and look really deeply, it’ll dawn on us that we’re luckier than many living in our country and around the world.
Now, take washing our face as an example. If we want to wash our face, all we have to do is turn on the faucet. The water will flow and we’ll be able to wash our face in an instant. If we want to drink water, just put a cup under the water cooler faucet and there’s water to drink right away.
But there are so many places in the world where people have to walk 5 or 10 kilometers just to get a little bit of water. And yet, the water may be unsafe to drink.
And so, when we live in mindfulness, when we live in awareness, turning on the faucet is happiness, washing our face is happiness, and taking a shower is also happiness. So, we should be aware, we should be mindful.
Mindfulness means we are truly present in the moment. That energy of mindfulness allows us to recognize the many conditions of happiness that we have.
For example, we have two eyes that are still in good condition, that still work well. That’s one condition of happiness. We don’t have to do anything other than sitting there and opening our eyes to get in touch with a paradise of colors and forms. That paradise is available in the here and now.
| “The birds warbling, the pines cheering, the flowers blooming, the blue sky, and the white clouds.” |
The earth and the water. And our beloveds. All are available right there in front of us. All of these conditions of happiness are more than enough for us to be happy in the moment.
Both of our legs are still strong. We can still walk. We can still jump. We can still climb and scale. That’s another condition of happiness.
Our heart is working normally. That’s another condition of happiness. Many people don’t have a normal heart. They can suffer a heart attack anytime. And what they consider to be their deepest wish is to have a normal heart like ours.
And yet, as someone who’s having a normal heart, we still don’t feel happy. As someone who’s having two good eyes, we still don’t feel happy. As someone who’s having two strong legs, we still don’t feel happy. As someone who’s at the peak of their youth, we still don’t feel happy. Basically, we’re all prodigal children. We’re all destitute children. Not knowing how rich we are.
| “You, who are the richest person on Earth, have left your true home to find riches in foreign lands.” |
We’re children of a rich family. We’re very rich. But we’ve gone place to place begging for a living, looking for happiness elsewhere day in day out. That’s the case for almost all of us. The stories told in the sutra are actually real stories happening in the here and now.
So, to practice mindfulness means to know how to give rise to “chánh niệm.” “Chánh niệm” means right mindfulness. It means “la pleine conscience“. It means “la présence d’esprit“. Bringing the mind back to the body so as to be established in the present moment. When we take a breath and we pay attention to that in-breath, naturally, we can bring our mind back to our body.
It’ll dawn on us that we still have a relatively healthy body. And it’ll dawn on us that we still have a relatively sharp mind. It dawns on us that we’re abundantly blessed with many conditions of happiness. Our loved ones are still there with us. It’ll dawn on us without mistake that we’re so blessed and fortunate.
When all of those blessings and conditions of happiness dawn on us, we no longer find it necessary to rush to the future in search of any other conditions of happiness. We’ve already felt content.
French people have a song called “Qu’est-ce qu’on attend pour être heureux!” “What are we waiting for to be happy!”
What are you waiting for, really? So, “destitute person” makes a very good topic for our mindfulness practice. We shouldn’t look for a destitute person elsewhere. We ourselves are a destitute person. We have so many happinesses but we don’t know how to recognize them, we don’t know how to make good use of these conditions of happiness.
So, to practice mindfulness is to learn to recognize the conditions of happiness we’re having. We come to Plum Village to learn that. Retreatants from 50 or 60 countries come here to learn that. And they’ve made much progress. It only takes them 5 or 6 days to see positive changes.
We feel content taking a mindful step. We feel content taking a mindful breath. We feel content drinking tea mindfully. We also feel content brushing teeth.
Let us brush our teeth in mindfulness. It takes us only 2 minutes to brush our teeth. But we always rush the process. We don’t really feel satisfied and content brushing our teeth. We think, “I just want to get it over with in order to do something else more important!”
Meanwhile, to a mindfulness practitioner, teeth-brushing brings so much joy and happiness. When we brush our teeth mindfully, it dawns on us, “Oh my happiness, sometimes I don’t have a toothbrush because I forget to bring one. Sometimes I don’t have toothpaste. Sometimes when I turn the faucet, no water comes out. Now, everything is here, but I still don’t feel happy and content.”
And while brushing our teeth, we think about this and that.
Whenever Thay brushes the teeth, Thay think, “Wow, I’m already in my eighties but I still have teeth to brush. How blessed I am!” With that in mind, Thay feel happy right away.
So, happiness comes from being mindful. Not from wealth. Nor power. Nor fame. Nor sex. Many people are after riches, power, fame, and sex, but they don’t feel happy. They destroy their body and mind. And many people attempt suicide. So, know that, what we call the “conditions of happiness” such as wealth, power, or sex can be the very things that ruin our life.
Meanwhile, mindfulness is a source of happiness. We learn that and we should practice that.
Be a fairy bestowing happiness on ourselves and others
There’s a fairy godmother. That fairy godmother is sitting here among us. Every time she does magic, children as well as adults have so much joy and happiness. Does anyone remember “The Story of Tấm and Cám,“ when the fairy godfather, i.e. the Buddha, appeared? When the fairy godmother uses her wand to do magic, children as well as adults become very happy. Fairy godmother, or fairy godfather, is someone who can bestow happiness.
Phạm Duy (translator’s note: “Vietnam’s most prolific songwriter”, according to LA Times) has a song going,
“At 12 or 13, what are you dreaming of becoming? I wish I were a fairy bestowing upon flowers the ability to speak human language, bestowing upon humans a pair of wings to fly in the big blue sky. What a beautiful fairy dream!“
But we don’t have to dream of becoming a fairy. We can be a fairy right in the present moment. Why? Because we can bestow on someone happiness in this moment.
We only need to offer them a kind smile, they’ll feel happy right away. We only need to say something full of understanding and compassion, they’ll feel happy right away. We only need to give rise to a thought imbued with compassion and understanding, we ourselves have happiness right away.
Each of us can generate 3 things to create happiness for ourselves and for other people in the present moment. It means, each of us can be a fairy godmother, or a fairy godfather, in the present moment — we don’t have to live on a mountaintop for three years to be one. We only have to go to Plum Village, enjoying ourselves here for a few days, and we can already become a fairy.
First of all, it’s the practice of Right Thinking. Right Thinking is one of the eight practices of the Noble Eightfold Path.
Right Thinking means think in such a way that your thoughts lead you along the path of understanding, compassion, and non-discrimination. A thought without hate, without discrimination, without anger, resentment, or ill-will. A thought untinged by revenge or punishment. A thought that brings with it understanding and compassion. That’s Right Thinking.
Every day, we give rise to so many thoughts. Many of them are so heavy with worries, hatred, anger, resentment, or ill-will. Every time we give rise to a thought full of hate, anger, or resentment, that thought is destroying our body, heart, and mind. It destroys the other person. And it destroys the world. That’s Wrong Thinking.
But we, especially those of us who are disciples of the Buddha and disciples of Thay, know how to give rise to a thought in the direction of Right Thinking. A thought in which there’s understanding and compassion. When there’s understanding and compassion, there’s no blaming, and there’s no discrimination.
But how do we have understanding and compassion? We only have to look at that person. We only need a couple minutes to look at that person and see all difficulties, pains, and sorrows in that person. That alone is enough.
Looking at someone — whether they are our father, mother, son, daughter, wife, husband, grandfather, grandmother, or friend… If we know how to look with mindfulness and if we can see their pains, sorrows, and difficulties, naturally the thought of wanting to punish them, or the thought of hating and wanting to abandon them, will vanish all at once. Instead, there’s naturally a thought of wanting to say something and to do something to help that person suffer less.
We only need one minute, or maximum two minutes, to just look. Look in such a way that we can see all difficulties, pains, sorrows in them. Once we can really see that way, naturally we can’t bring ourselves to hate them anymore or to be angry at them anymore. And we no longer want to say or do anything that hurts them anymore. It’s not difficult to do that.
We only need to look deeply at our husband or partner and recognize all their sufferings and difficulties to have compassion for them. We’re no longer angry with them. We only need to look deeply at our wife or spouse and see all their difficulties and suffering. We’ll immediately have compassion for them. Compassion, understanding, and love are immediately born in our heart. And without having to do anything other than that, there arises a thought imbued with understanding and compassion.
When we give rise to a thought imbued with understanding and compassion, without effort, our body feels at peace, our mind also feels at peace, and the other person will sense that our energy is of goodness, of love and compassion. With that, they’ll suffer less immediately.
That’s something we can bestow upon someone. We become a fairy in the present moment. We bestow a thought of understanding and compassion. Anyone can do this.
We only need to sit still. Whether that person is there or not, we can still look deeply into them. We’ll feel sorry for them and have compassion on them. That person has pain and suffering, and many stuck places so they’ve said and done things that may have already caused us to suffer.
But that person is, indeed, the victim of his own pains and sorrows. Not knowing how to be mindful, to stop and look deeply, they can’t handle their pains and sorrows. That person is subjected to their own pain and suffering. Although it’s not at all their intention to make us suffer, they still end up causing us so much suffering.
That person is the first victim of their own pain and difficulties. We’re just the second victim.
When we’re in great pain but we have no idea how to handle it, of course we’ll suffer. And inevitably, we make others suffer too, even when they’re our beloveds. It’s not our intent to make them suffer, but because we suffer so much, our pain brims over, and spills over into everything and onto everyone around us.
When we look at someone and are able to see all their pains, sorrows, difficulties, and stuck places, seeing that they’re totally incapable of handling their own suffering, we no longer seek to punish them, but we only want to do something or say something that helps them suffer less.
At that moment, the substance of love and compassion, and the substance of understanding well up in our heart. In an instant, we suffer no more. And we become a fairy. It takes only 2 or 3 minutes to be a fairy. We can say,
“I have much compassion for you. I know you’ve suffered and been through many difficulties over the years. It’s not my intention to make you suffer. Because I haven’t yet understood your sufferings and difficulties, I reacted that way. I don’t really know anything. My intention is not at all to make you suffer. But because I’m so mindless and oblivious to your pains, your sufferings, and your difficulties, I’ve blamed you and reacted in a way that makes things worse.
But now I see. But I’m not sure if I’ve seen it all. So please help me. Please tell me more about what makes you suffer or feel stuck and difficult, so I can understand. Once I understand, I won’t react foolishly the way I did. Please help me.“
If you can say something like that, the other person will immediately suffer less. And we can definitely say something like that. We can be a fairy. The thoughts that we give rise in us are magic. The words that we use are magic. It only takes 1 or 2 minutes to speak from the heart like that, and the other person will suffer less in an instant.
And the way we conduct ourselves in our daily life can reassure them, caress their soul, lift their spirit up, make them feel protected, soothe their pain, and bring them joy. That’s what we can do in our daily life.
There are 3 things: body, speech, and mind.
- “Body” means our bodily actions.
- “Speech” means what we say.
- And “mind” means our thoughts, or the way we give rise to a thought.
And if we are aware, if we are mindful, these 3 things can bring a lot of peace to other people, help them suffer less, and make them happy. It’s just that we haven’t paid enough attention and we haven’t had enough resolve. But if we resolve enough, in just a matter of half an hour — or even less, we can make them suffer less right away.
In the 5 Mindfulness Trainings, we have the 4th training called “Loving Speech and Deep Listening”. “Loving speech” means speaking with someone from the ground of compassion and understanding, being able to see their pain and suffering, where they feel stuck in life, as well as their difficulties.
Once we can see deeply into them, our heart is filled with compassion. And we say something from the heart. With that, they immediately suffer less. And we become their soulmate. Their true soulmate.
Because love without understanding is not true love. Understanding here, first of all, means understanding of the difficulties, the pains and sorrows, and the stuck places in one another.
So if we live under one roof with one another and we have the eyes of deep-looking and the heart of a real practitioner, we’ll be able to tell and recognize the difficulties, the sufferings and sorrows, and the stuck places in the other person.
If we haven’t really seen all of these in them yet, we need to ask. For example, our father could have gone through countless periods of extreme hardships, suffering, and despair in life.
Sometimes, we may find that our father has never told us about those hardships, sufferings, and stuck places. Because we’re too time-poor to be there and understand him. We’re so busy with other things, seeking happiness in other things. So, there’s no real communication between father and child.
Now after having learned this lesson, you go back. Maybe one day your father is enjoying his tea. You just sit there by his side, saying nothing. Just be there and enjoy his presence. Then we say,
“Dad, I want to know about the stories of the difficulties, sufferings, and struggles you had in the past. I want to learn about you and from you. I want to listen. I want to understand you.
“All these years, I’ve had the tendency to react, to always think my way is the only way, to never listen to what you have to say, and to do exactly what I’m not supposed to do. It’s all because of my lack of understanding about you, Dad.
“But now it dawns on me that this way of behaving is ignorance. I want you to tell me about your difficulties, your sufferings, and the many times you’ve felt stuck in life. Everything.”
And if we have the ears of deep and compassionate listening, it means we have the ears of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. We do have those ears, but we haven’t used them yet. We don’t know how to use those ears. Each and every one of us has those ears of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. If we can listen to that person with those ears for half an hour, or an hour, they will suffer much less. And the communication can be re-established very easily. It’s like magic.
In the retreats that we organized for Western friends — both in Europe and the US, we always get to learn to practice exactly that. The practice of Loving Speech and Deep Listening. When we use loving speech, i.e. we speak kindly with understanding and love, and when we listen deeply without reacting, without blaming nor criticism, naturally we can re-establish the communication, and we can reconcile with that person quite easily. Sometimes this only takes a couple hours.
Meanwhile, when the connection and the communication between two people gets stuck year after year, when it becomes impossible to look at one another, or speak with each other, which both sides let happen year after year, that’s such a pity.
But if we know how to stop and listen deeply and compassionately, within only a few hours, we can re-establish communication and re-build the kinship between two people. Whether it’s between partner and partner, or between parent and child.
Thay remember in that retreat in Germany, Oldenburg to be precise. When it was the fifth day of the retreat, Thay said,
“We’ve been on this retreat for five days already. Now.. Well, actually this evening, we have to put it into action. If you happen to have any difficulties with someone — that “someone” may be your spouse or partner, your brother or sister, or your father or mother — now it’s time to put what you’ve learned here into action.”
If the other person also came with you to this retreat, it’ll be easy. Because they’ve also been on the retreat for 5 days. Their body and mind have already been light and calm. The good seeds, the wholesome potentialities, in them have already been watered and cultivated. They’re able to open their hearts to understand and love. It’ll be very easy.
Please put that practice into action — i.e. listen to one another deeply and compassionately, and use words of understanding and love — to re-establish communication and to reconcile with one another. If that person isn’t on this retreat, you are allowed to use telephone. And the ‘due date’ to finish doing that is this midnight.
It’s the same with all retreats. Whether it’s in the US, or Hong Kong, or Macau, or Korea or Hanoi, they all have to practice exactly the same. Every time it comes to the 5th day, they’re all asked to put what they’ve learned into practice.
So the next day, in the morning, there were 4 German friends, probably in their 30s or 40s, reporting to Thay that the previous night, they reconciled with their fathers. One of them shared,
“Dear respected Thay, I can’t believe that I can really do this. Because before going on this retreat, I was so mad at my Dad. So mad that I couldn’t even look him in the eye nor talk to him nicely. But having been on this retreat for 5 days, I still couldn’t bring myself to believe that I could do this. Until I dialed my dad’s phone number and heard his voice on the other end, without having to even try, I could speak very nicely and kindly to him. I was so surprised wondering how I could do that.
“I said, ‘Dad, it starts to dawn on me how, over the years, you’ve had to endure and suffer so much. You’ve encountered many difficulties. But because I lack understanding, I’ve made the situation even worse. I’ve reacted obstinately and angrily. I’m sorry, Dad. It’s because I didn’t see all your difficulties, pains, and sorrows. Help me. Tell me all about the hardships you’ve endured in life, your suffering, and your sorrows. If you don’t help me to understand you better, I’m afraid no one can. Please help me, Dad. Please tell me.’ “
That’s what they said. It came naturally and effortlessly. How is that possible? Because on the previous days, they had practiced listening deeply and looking deeply — the pains and sorrows in their father, in the other person, started to dawn on them — when it was time to make that phone call, they could speak from the heart very naturally and effortlessly.
And the other person cried. The father cried because his son, for so many years, had never been able to say anything like that to him. So the father started to open his heart, and the father and son — after 1 or 1.5 hours talking on the phone with one another — had reconciled. And the son said, “After the retreat, I’ll visit you, Dad.”
That’s a magic that happens in all retreats. Be they in Europe, the US, or Asia.
If they can do it, we can do it. They have roots of Christianity, of Judaism, and they can do it. We have roots of Buddhism. If we can’t do it, that’ll be a great shame. A huge embarrassment.
And, of course, there are many people who, after having reconciled with their beloveds, feel too shy to report to Thay.
Using loving speech and deep listening to re-establish communication and reconcile is something you can absolutely do. It puts an end to the period of time over which both sides can’t look at each other and resolves the impasse present for such a long time in their relationship.
For that reason, thinking in such a way that we can generate the substances of understanding, love, and compassion is something we can absolutely do.
And in Buddhism, we know very well that if we have time to look deeply and see the other person’s sufferings and difficulties, where they feel stuck in life, as well as the bad habits they have yet to break, naturally without even trying, we have so much compassion for them.
We no longer have anger, resentment and ill will. We forgive them immediately. We then want to say something, or do something that helps them suffer less.
That’s why Right Thinking is so important. With Right Thinking, understanding, and love, we naturally have a sense of well-being, freedom, and lightness. We stop suffering immediately.
If we still suffer, how can we help the other person? If you don’t know how to swim, how can you save a drowning person?
So, first of all, we need to have a sense of well-being and compassion in our heart before helping the other person.
For that reason, Right Thinking leads to Right Speech. It helps us use words of love and compassion, to use words of understanding. And it helps us practice Right Action, or l’action juste. It’s our actions. The gestures that we make, and the actions that we commit, can all make someone suffer less.
Basically, we can be a fairy in the present moment. Be one today. Don’t wait till tomorrow. If the other person is not here, we can use telephone or other similar means.
In fact, we’re very rich. We’re a millionaire. If we know how to use the large inheritance we’re having, and the many conditions of happiness we’re having, first, we’ll have a lot of contentment and happiness ourselves.
We’re content sitting. We’re peaceful walking. We’re at ease eating. We’re happy standing by the sink washing the dishes. We feel pleasant brushing our teeth. We’re at ease washing clothes. And we’re at peace washing the pots.
Thay wrote a book that helps people feel happy doing dishes. Washing dishes in such a way that the whole time doing dishes, happiness overflows in us, that we don’t try to get it done as quickly as possible.
If while standing and washing the dishes we gently follow our breaths and recognize our conditions of happiness, we’ll do dishes in the spirit of celebration. We’ll be savoring the whole time doing the dishes. We don’t need the dishes to be done to feel happy.
If you think the dishes needs to be done as quickly as possible so that you can sit down, and take a sip of tea or coffee to feel happy, it won’t work.
Because if you tend to think that way, even if the dishes are already done, even if you already sit down, holding the cup of tea or coffee in your hand, you still won’t feel content and happy because you’ll think of what’s next. With that, you will forever go around in circle, never having happiness.
So, in our tradition, walking is happiness. Whether from your parking lot to your office cubicle. Or from your tent to the toilet. Walk as a content and happy person. Walk like a buddha, like a bodhisattva. There’s happiness and contentment in each footstep. That’s possible. We are alive, taking steps on this planet. That’s a miracle.
So, this is the way of practicing happiness and bestowing happiness. As we practice walking in mindfulness, breathing in mindfulness, chopping vegetables in mindfulness, doing dishes in mindfulness, driving in mindfulness, cooking in mindfulness, or working in mindfulness, we create happiness for ourselves first of all. We are our own fairy. We bestow happiness on ourselves first.
When we can do that, we can bestow happiness on others. All the thoughts that we give rise in our mind, all the words that we utter, and all the actions that we commit, can bring happiness to those around us.
Today, each monastic is a fairy. Each novice monk is a fairy. Each novice nun is a fairy. Each lay brother or sister is a fairy. We can make those around us happy today.
Bestowing happiness is not only done through the offering of a good meal. There are many ways to do this. Your kind look, your full attention, your gentle smile, your deep and compassionate listening, your nod of understanding and acceptance, and your mindful gesture can all bestow happiness. That’s our practice.
When pains and sufferings come up from within, we need to know the ways of handling them, of taking care of them. In our everyday life, when pains and sufferings come up from within, people tend to run away.
They turn up the music. They turn on the TV. They go to the fridge looking for something to eat. They do everything they can in order to never be in touch with the discomfort of the pains and sorrows inside, to suppress them, to cover them up, to fill up the vacuum inside. That’s what they do out there.
But as practitioners, we don’t act unwisely like that. As mindfulness practitioners, whenever a pain, or a sorrow, comes up, first we come back to ourselves through our breath. We have to recognize that pain or that sorrow non-judgmentally, embrace it the way we take care of our innocent baby child, and then look deeply into them to see why our pain or suffering is there.
Oftentimes, our pain and suffering are handed down to us by our father and mother. We need to give rise to a heart and mind of true love to understand and have compassion (for our sufferings, ourselves, and our parents).
Practicing mindful sitting, mindful walking, and mindful breathing, and recognizing and embracing our pain and suffering, always brings about a lessening, or a relief, of suffering. Soulagement. The relief of suffering.
We can relieve and take away our own pain and suffering if we know how to breathe mindfully, sit mindfully, or walk mindfully. And if this allows us to be still enough to look deeply into our pains, we’ll find their roots.
Once its roots get exposed, and once we’re equipped with these practices, we can transform those pains and sufferings into safety, peace, and happiness.
It’s like using mud to grow lotus flowers. Mud is very essential in growing a lotus flower and making it bloom. If we know how to use our pains and sufferings, if we can see into our sufferings and have insights into them, we can nourish our happiness.
In the past we suffered and we didn’t yet have any insights into our pains and sufferings. We didn’t yet know how to use our sufferings to cultivate peace and happiness. Just like we have garbage but we don’t know how to turn it into fertilizer to cultivate flowers. This is the 2nd thing we need to learn.
Then, when we live with one another under one roof, we should practice mindfulness together. You practice mindfulness. I practice mindfulness. So do our children.
And we share with each other the difficulties we have in our daily life. We help each other out with our direct experiences in the practice. With that, happiness in the family will increase significantly. Because living in the family, we can become friends walking on the same spiritual path. Fellow practitioners.
To summarize, happiness is something we can have in the present moment, and suffering is something we can handle and transform in the present moment if we know how to practice mindfulness, understanding, and compassion.
When we practice mindfulness, we need our fellow practitioners’ support. These friends can be found in a sangha, or a mindfulness practice community. And if this community is out of our reach, we should find a way to form a group of friends with whom we can practice mindfulness.
Those friends can be the members of our family. Our children, our spouse or partner, our grandchildren, etc. can all become part of this community. Everyone is learning to be mindful, understanding, and compassionate.
Let’s say we have a small bell in the house. Every morning, before leaving for school or office, the whole family can sit down, invite the bell to sound, and then enjoy a few mindful breaths before offering a kind smile to each other. That’s something we can do.
Every time there’s a heavy atmosphere or there’s tension in the family, anyone in the family can invite the bell so others can come back to their breathing to recognize that we’re making one another suffer, that we’re behaving foolishly. That’s awakening.
What does Buddhism mean? Buddhism is the path of awakening. It’ll dawn on us we’re behaving foolishly, making ourselves and our beloveds suffer. All thanks to one sound of the bell. The sound of the bell is the sound of the Buddha calling us to come back to ourselves, to awaken to the reality that we’re causing ourselves and our beloveds to suffer.
When we can breathe and smile, we’ll behave differently. We no longer behave out of force of habit like we did in the past. When anger manifests, we tend to say something and do something to vent our rage. That’s our habitual tendency in the past.
Upon hearing the sound of the bell, we know that we should neither say anything, nor do anything the way we always did. The horse shouldn’t go on its familiar path again.
When we can bring understanding into love and compassion, that anger can be handled. And from that point of being triggered and irritated, we no longer arrive at anger, but we arrive at understanding, love, and compassion.
The images you should keep in mind after this Dharma talk
So the image that we should keep in mind after today’s Dharma talk is that of a child wandering from place to place, begging for a living. And that child is us. We have to come back to take our inheritance. We have in the lining of our jacket a very precious stone. We can become a rich person again.
The second image of today’s talk is that of a fairy. Don’t think fairies live in heaven. Those fairies are us. And today, we can make those around us happy with the thoughts we think, the words we use, and the deeds we do. We’re richer than thought. We have more magical powers than thought.
Now, let’s invite Sister Thi Nghiêm to come up here and sing us a song. That song is called “There’s a parasol tree for the phoenix to rest on“. This song is a tribute to those who have spoken out and taken the monks and nuns in Bát Nhã (Prajñā) Monastery under their wings.
[Sr Thi Nghiem starts singing]
| Poem: THERE’S A PARASOL TREE FOR THE PHOENIX TO REST ON “There’s a parasol tree for the phoenix to rest on. There’s a great being for deep humanity to be possible. Laws and regulations are sometimes like steel barbed wire that locks people up in a lifetime of trials and tribulations. “But altruism is like the hand of the Buddha smashing hells and shattering blocks of sorrow into pieces. This morning, the city observes a glorious sun, rising in the immense. There’s a dove soaring in the big, open sky. “I remember You, the one with an upright heart, and a breezy smile like magical nectar. Children know You like flowers know the sunlight, like water knows its source, like the moon knows the stars. “The heart’s calling is strong, no matter how brutal it’s going to be. The body engages in the world, fearlessly riding on the waves of life. Let’s build a bridge from the cave of hell that leads straight up to the heaven realm, where we will hold assemblies of stars.“ |
Thank you, dear Sister.
Before wrapping up the talk: What Plum Village has accomplished over 40 years
Dear Sangha, the day after tomorrow, there’ll be a Dharma talk in the Upper Hamlet. Following the talk, we’ll take a mindful walk together down to Sơn Hạ Temple. There’s going to be a Western concert and there’s probably a lion dance. There’s also an opening ceremony of Thay’s calligraphy exhibition. We’re having a picnic there.
This year, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Plum Village. And there are a number of activities to celebrate. This year, the 21-day retreat for scientists is to celebrate Plum Village’s 30th anniversary. There’s also going to be a Francophone retreat, which is also another activity of celebration. And the upcoming 4-week Summer Retreat is also to celebrate this event.
In 30 years, we have sown the seeds of understanding and compassion of Buddhism in many places around the world. Not only in the West but also in Asian countries. We really need a renewed Buddhism in order to respond to new kinds of sufferings, difficulties, and impasses.
Our Buddhism is very close to the primitive Buddhism, which means the kind of Buddhism people practiced when the Buddha was still alive. We go back to the root, and we bring out the Buddhism practiced in the Buddha’s time, and we present it in a way that it can be of help for new generations of practitioners in today’s era.
Over the past 30 years, we have succeeded. The youth and intelligentsia in the West have come and practiced mindfulness, understanding, and compassion very successfully. Every summer retreat, retreatants come here from at least 50 countries. And this happens not just in the summer retreats, but also in the retreats we organize around the world.
Every time the retreatants get back home from these retreats, they all make efforts to establish sanghas, or mindfulness practice communities, to continue practicing mindfulness where they live. For that reason, now around the world there are many sanghas like that. There are thousands of sanghas like that around the world.
We’ve had well-established mindfulness practice centers like Deer Park, Blue Cliff, and Magnolia Grove monasteries in the USA. We’ve also had the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Germany, and the Asian Institute of Applied Buddhism in Hong Kong. And we’ve had an international practice center of Plum Village in Thailand. Have Thay missed out any names?
Besides that, we’ve also had lay sanghas everywhere, in big cities like New York in the US, and also in the UK. There are tens of sanghas there. In the UK, there are roughly 80 sanghas. In Germany, there are also roughly 70-something sanghas. In the US, we have around 600 or 700 sanghas. Our sanghas are everywhere.
And the Wake Up movement for the youth is getting bigger and bigger. The number of young people who come and practice with us is on the rise. And this mindfulness practice has also entered politics, education, and healthcare, bringing about many positive changes.
Doctors have now applied mindfulness in treating patients with mental illnesses and physical illnesses. And educators also bring mindfulness into their school districts. And we also organize retreats for police officers, public safety officers, for officers and professionals of correctional facilities.
We also hold retreats for congresspeople, and members of the lower house and parliament. We also hold retreats for veterans. We also hold retreats for young people, social workers, and activists. We also hold retreats for psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists. We also hold retreats for businesspeople in many places.
Even in China, we also hold many retreats for businesspeople there. Plum Village monks and nuns have organized such retreats in big cities like Yangzhou.
And for that reason, mindfulness practices are being well-received all over the world. At the moment, we’re having a few Dharma teachers training educators in Bhutan to bring mindfulness into multiple educational levels in schools.
Although we say Plum Village is celebrating its 30th anniversary, our mindfulness practices actually began 10 years prior. Which means 40 years ago.
In the year 1968, we already started organizing mindfulness retreats in Paris. At that point, we didn’t have any facilities yet. We borrowed the headquarters of the Quakers to practice meditation. And we practiced right inside the office of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation. Because back then, the war was still raging on.
We established the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation in Paris, and took part and intervened in peace talks in Paris. We had young men and young women coming from all over the world helping us do social work and peace work. Everyone was practicing mindful walking, mindful sitting, and mindful breathing while doing all humanitarian work and peace work.
During the period when the war was still going on, we had successfully called for the adoption of more than 10,000 orphans in Vietnam. And we had successfully called for the establishment of resettlement camps and refugee camps for Vietnam War victims. And we had also run campaigns helping hungry children and abandoned senior citizens.
So, much social, spiritual, and peace work was carried out in the spirit of mindfulness. Those working on the frontline — the activists, were at the same time mindfulness practitioners. With that, it’s actually 40 years, not 30.
The 30-year period started when Plum Village was established. But before that, there was Phương Vân Am in Southern France. But in Phương Vân Am, we could only hold retreats for a maximum of 50 people because it was a bit small. And so, we headed south to look for a new place.
So at the beginning, we found the land which is the Upper Hamlet now. And then, we found another one which is then the Lower Hamlet.
This year marks the 30th anniversary since Plum Village first opened its doors that summer. Having said that, it doesn’t mean we only practice mindfulness in the Summer. In winter, spring, and autumn, there are also retreats.
But summer is the most crowded season. Because we can pitch tents outdoors during this time, retreatants come in crowds from over 50 countries.
Well, among them are those coming to Plum Village in its first years, having witnessed Plum Village’s change and maturity. Some of them have grown into seasoned doctors or engineers now. When they first came here, they were only 3, 5 or 7 years old.
Plum Village is the work of a community. Many people have put their hearts into it and their hands to it. And Plum Village is also a gift of Vietnam to the world.
We don’t produce dried shrimps or fish sauce. We only produce mindfulness practices enriching lives with a spiritual dimension to help society suffer less. We have trained many Dharma teachers — both monastic and lay, who are now teaching and mentoring people in the mindfulness practice across 5 continents.
And this year, when you come here, it’s not only to learn and practice mindfulness, but it’s also to celebrate Plum Village’s 30th anniversary.
Thay remember as Plum Village celebrated its 20th anniversary, we had the calligraphy, “The day young me turn twenty.” “Young me” here means Plum Village.
Now celebrating the 30th year, we can’t be childish anymore, We can’t say “The day young me turn 30”. We’re grown-up now. So we’ll change it into, “Standing firm on our own feet.” Because Confucius says, “At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground.” “Tam thập nhi lập” in Vietnamese.
Now as we celebrate the 30th anniversary, we can also stand firm on our two feet to continue our life of servicing all beings with the spiritual practice.
One thing quite interesting is every time people come for a retreat, it takes only 5 or 6 days for us to observe significant transformation in them. And we monastic and lay practitioners can see very clearly that we’re capable of making people happy.
And when we help people transform suffering and taste happiness, we also have a lot of happiness. The result is so clear. As soon as mindfulness is present, there’s transformation and happiness. This happens in every retreat. There are always people who can transform suffering, and reconcile with one another.
So, we come here in celebration of a life’s work, a vocation. It’s a life’s work, a vocation, of a community. And Plum Village is a gift of our country and our Vietnamese culture to the world. Next week, we will have another Dharma talk in Vietnamese. This is the first Dharma talk of this year’s summer retreat.
[Thay bowing out]
🌞🍃
Relevant materials
🌿[Song] Happiness Makes You Beautiful, from A Basket of Plum 2 (with link to downloadable MP3): https://web.plumvillage.app/item/happiness-makes-you-beautiful
🌿[Short teaching] Thich Nhat Hanh, “How Should You Suffer Exactly: 2 steps“: https://tnhtalks.wordpress.com/2023/12/16/2-steps-to-suffer-better/
🌿[Short teaching] Thich Nhat Hanh, “Three Steps To Make Your Heart Bigger“: https://youtu.be/gGZK09hDX1Y (please turn on CC under Video Settings, i.e. Gear icon, to see subtitles in English)
🌿[Dharma talk transcript] Thich Nhat Hanh, 1993, Dharma Talk: Finding Our True Heritage, from the Mindfulness Bell Magazine Issue no.09 – Returning To Our Roots: https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/dharma-talk-finding-our-true-heritage/
🌿[Book] Thich Nhat Hanh, “Peaceful Action, Open Heart: Lessons from the Lotus Sutra,” California, USA: Parallax Press. https://www.parallax.org/product/peaceful-action-open-heart/
References
- Thich Nhat Hanh, 1993, Dharma Talk: Finding Our True Heritage, originally published in the Mindfulness Bell Magazine Issue no.09 – Returning To Our Roots, retrieved online from the Mindfulness Bell Magazine website, https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/dharma-talk-finding-our-true-heritage/
- Thich Nhat Hanh, 2012, “ĐỨA CON CÙNG TỬ” (Vietnamese transcript of the excerpt “The Destitute Child”), retrieved online from Làng Mai Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/langmai.org/posts/1680590582099634/
- Thich Nhat Hanh, n.d., “Going Back to Our Religious Roots,” retrieved online from Honey Locust Sangha, https://honeylocustsangha.weebly.com/thich-nhat-hanh–going-back-to-our-religious-roots.html
- Thich Nhat Hanh, 2022, “Thich Nhat Hanh on Transforming Suffering: How to ease pain and generate joy through meditation,” retrieved from Tricycle, https://tricycle.org/article/thich-nhat-hanh-transforming-suffering/
- Thich Nhat Hanh, given on December 02, 2010, Dharma talk “Space Outside of Space”, during the Winter Retreat 2010-2011, Still Water Meditation Hall, Upper Hamlet, retrieved from SourceOfLightMon YouTube Channel, https://youtu.be/CgfQBlh0K7Y
- Sr. Chan Duc (Sr. Annabel), 2024, Dharma talk “Suffering and Happiness Inter-Are,” published Mar 23, 2024 on Plum Village YouTube channel, https://youtu.be/B8Et-WqI-jc
- Plum Village, 2015, “Thich Nhat Hanh Receives the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award,” https://plumvillage.org/articles/thich-nhat-hanh-receives-the-pacem-in-terris-peace-and-freedom-award
- Ajahn Sucitto, n.d., “Working with the stuck places,” https://ajahnsucitto.org/articles/working-with-the-stuck-places/
- Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 1969-1978, “Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation Collected Records,” retrieved from TriCollege Libraries Archives & Manuscripts website, https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/repositories/8/resources/8475
- Confucius, n.d., “Confucius > Quotes > Quotable Quote,” retrieved from GoodReads, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/216110-at-fifteen-i-set-my-heart-upon-learning-at-thirty
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Prajñā (Buddhism),” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praj%C3%B1%C4%81_(Buddhism)
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Merit (Buddhism),” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_(Buddhism)
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Sattva,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sattva
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Đông Kinh,” https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90%C3%B4ng_Kinh
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Pre-sectarian Buddhism”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-sectarian_Buddhism
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Theravada”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theravada
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Quakers,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers
- Wikipedia, n.d., “General Buddhist Association of Vietnam,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Buddhist_Association_of_Vietnam
- Wikipedia, n.d., “Kinh Bắc,” https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinh_B%E1%BA%AFc
- Wikipedia, n.d., “The Story of Tấm and Cám,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_T%E1%BA%A5m_and_C%C3%A1m
- Definition of “kẻ đón người đưa”, https://chunom.net/Tu-dien/Y-nghia-cua-tu-ke-day-thung-khinh-nguoi-lung-dau-32102.html
- Definition of “cơ nghiệp”, https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/c%C6%A1_nghi%E1%BB%87p
- Definition of “tiếp cận”, https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/ti%E1%BA%BFp_c%E1%BA%ADn
- Definition of “quý phái”, https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/qu%C3%BD_ph%C3%A1i
- Definition of “tình thâm”, https://vtudien.com/viet-viet/dictionary/nghia-cua-tu-t%C3%ACnh%20th%C3%A2m
- Definition of “ốt dột”, https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BB%91t_d%E1%BB%99t
- Definition of “bé thơ”, http://tratu.soha.vn/dict/vn_vn/Tr%E1%BA%BB_th%C6%A1
- Definition of Vietnamese proverb “ngựa quen đường cũ,” https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ng%E1%BB%B1a_quen_%C4%91%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Dng_c%C5%A9
- Definition of “cô thôn,” https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/c%C3%B4_th%C3%B4n#Ti%E1%BA%BFng_Vi%E1%BB%87t
- Definition of “Tù và,” https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B9_v%C3%A0
- Defitnition of “présence d’esprit,” https://www.linternaute.fr/dictionnaire/fr/definition/presence-d-esprit/
Thich Nhat Hanh's Talks 
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