Full talk’s original title: “Bốn Lĩnh Vực Quán Niệm 01[CPNĐSNC 22] | TS Thích Nhất Hạnh(12-02-1998, Làng Mai)”

Full talk originally posted by: Làng Mai (Plum Village’s Vietnamese YouTube Channel) https://youtu.be/G6ARoojXiP0, on Jun 17, 2023

Full talk given: on February 12, 1998, New Hamlet, Plum Village France, in the Winter Retreat 1997-1998

Excerpt’s length: 10 minutes 37 seconds

This is an excerpt from one of the Dharma talks on the “Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness” given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh on February 12, 1998, New Hamlet, Plum Village France, in the Winter Retreat 1997-1998.

To watch the full talk with English subtitles and transcript, please go to: Satipatthana Sutta Part I (to be published June 29, 2024)

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Transcript

“Moreover, when the practitioner is going forward or backward, they apply full awareness to their going forward or backward. When they look in front or look behind, bend down or stand up, they also apply full awareness to what they are doing. “They apply full awareness to wearing the sanghati robe or carrying the alms bowl. “When they eat or drink, chew, or savor the food, they apply full awareness to all this. “When passing excrement or urinating, they apply full awareness to this. “When they walk, stand, lie down, sit, sleep or wake up, speak or are silent, they shine their awareness on all this.”

The teachings of the Buddha are very clear. As a practitioner, in each bodily action, we should be fully aware, we should be fully mindful, whether it’s going forward or backward, looking in front or looking behind, bending down or standing up.

…when dropping a marker

Now you turn around, dear child. Now you drop… You pretend that you happen to drop the marker. You’re mindfully aware of that. Then you bend down and pick it up. You do it in mindful awareness.

When you’re bending down, you’re aware of your bending down. Then, when you’re taking hold of the marker, you’re aware of your taking hold of the marker. And when you’re standing back up again, you’re aware of your standing back up again.

You’re bending down, and you’re aware of your bending down. You’re picking it up and holding it in your hand, and you’re aware of that. Standing up, you’re aware of your standing up. That’s the practice of mindfulness in the right spirit.

…when working in the kitchen

So, when you work in the kitchen, even if you work alone, you still practice exactly that. When you turn on the faucet, you turn it on in mindfulness. When you pick up a carrot, you pick it up in awareness. When you hold a knife, you hold it with full awareness. And when you peel the carrot, you peel it mindfully. So, the kitchen is a meditation hall.

By observing a monastery’s kitchen, we can tell if people practice mindfulness in the right spirit or not. If, upon entering the kitchen seeing six people working in the kitchen, seeing everybody being fully aware of what they’re doing — when they hold a carrot or turn the faucet, they’re fully aware of what they’re doing, we’ll feel a very powerful energy in the kitchen. Going into such a kitchen, we feel the energy of mindfulness sinks into our being.

So, the kitchen needs to be organized and decorated in such a way that it’s appropriate for the spirit of this practice. It means, to turn the kitchen into a place appropriate for practicing mindfulness.

That’s why, in the kitchen, we can also light incense. First thing in the morning, when we go into the kitchen, before making breakfast, we can light an incense. We can fix a small altar in the kitchen. And before the altar, we offer a slight bowing of the head first. Then we take an incense out and we start lighting it up in full awareness. Then we offer it up. With that, we start a new day in the kitchen with that act of offering an incense in full awareness.

Of course, in the kitchen, we can put a vase of flowers. Organize the kitchen in such a way that it becomes a place to practice, a practice center, a meditation hall. In the kitchen in New Hamlet, somebody has hung a sign that reads, “What am I doing?” That’s a bell of mindfulness.

Are we really doing what we’re doing, or are we tuning in to our worries, our afflictions, our past, and our future, and not really practicing being mindfully aware?

Because according to this practice tradition, when one cuts a carrot, one does so in full awareness. Our body and mind have to be fully present for the carrot. Otherwise, the carrot will pity itself. Because it’s in the monastery, and we’re also in the monastery. So, we and the carrot have to be fully present in the kitchen the same.

And in the Plum Village Practice Center, we often encourage there to be a bell of mindfulness in the kitchen. Sometimes, when the bell is invited, everyone can pause to breathe, smile, and look to recognize each other’s presence.

Or we encourage there to be a clock which chimes every 15 minutes. As the chime goes, everybody stops what they’re doing to breathe, smile, and come back to being fully aware, allowing us to carry out whatever we’re doing in full awareness. Because cooking is a practice of mindful awareness.

When we practice working outdoors, we also do everything in the same spirit. Because the only difference between a monastery and the world out there is exactly that. Because out there, they also cook, shower, wash clothes, and work. And inside the monastery, we also cook, shower, wash clothes, and work the same.

But if we don’t have this sutra’s teachings on living in full awareness, then, what’s the difference between us and those out there?

In Plum Village, every summer, sometimes we’re tempted by the idea of hiring a professional chef to relieve the monastics, lay friends, and Dharma teachers from responsibilities. But after turning it over in our minds, nobody wants to proceed with that idea. Because we can hire Mister Professional Cook, but coming here, he won’t practice. While cooking like crazy, even though he’s good at his job, the energy of practice in the monastery will be ruined completely.

Because in a group of mindfulness practitioners, there’s suddenly a mister who isn’t practicing mindfulness at all. That’s something that has a lot of destructive influence. That’s why we’ve never let that temptation get the better of us.

…when in the toilet or bathroom

The same with using the toilet. When one goes into the toilet, the toilet is also a place to practice, a practice center. I mean, the toilet or the bathroom. That’s why, in the bathrooms of many monasteries there’s a vase of flowers. In their toilets, there’s also a vase of flowers. That means, in the toilet or in the bathroom, we also practice mindful awareness.

When we wash our face, when we wash our feet, when we shower, when we scrub our body, or when we defecate, we have to practice being mindful the same.

The gist of this passage in the sutra

This is the content of this passage.

When newly-ordained bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs learn the gathas to practice mindfulness during daily activities and the chapter on mindful manners in the Vinaya, they may not know that all these gathas, and all the mindful conducts written in the Vinaya are to implement what the Buddha has taught in this sutra. Every action and every position of the body must be put under the light of mindfulness the same. Whether we succeed in our practice or not depends on this.

Because once we take hold of the body, we can begin to take hold of the mind. Once we’ve taken hold of both body and mind, we have sovereignty over ourselves. Only from there, is transformation possible. We take hold of it, we befriend it, we become one with it. Only with that, can mindfulness sink in and transform our body and mind.

If there’s no taking hold of the body, it’s difficult to take hold of the mind.

So, being mindful or being fully aware of the body is the first practice. When we walk but we can’t take hold of each step, if we’ve lived in the monastery for 5 years but still can’t take hold of our steps, how are we supposed to take hold of our mind? But once we take hold of each step, of course we can take hold of our mind. Because body and mind are one single unit.

Even if we’ve known the Three Baskets (Tripiṭaka) by heart, if we still don’t know how to take hold of our breath and our step, nor how to be mindful of each action of the body, the knowing of the Three Baskets by heart doesn’t lead us anywhere. That’s why we have to really get down to the practice.

To someone who practices full awareness of the 4 positions of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, to someone who practices full awareness of every action of the body, concentration and insight are dawning on them, because they’ve already had (right) mindfulness. Mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

Those observing mindfulness trainings and mindful conducts are those who are practicing mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness in the right spirit, sooner or later one will have concentration and insight. Once there’s mindfulness, concentration, and insight, sooner or later there’ll be transformation.

🌷

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Recommended book

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