Mindfulness is the energy that helps us realize what is going on, beginning with our in-breath and out-breath. By focusing entirely on the breath, smiling to it, and allowing it to relax, the breath becomes deeper and more harmonious, which directly improves the quality of our body and feelings. The first eight exercises of mindful breathing proposed by the Buddha are:

1. Recognizing the breath
2. Relaxing the breath
3. Recognizing the body
4. Relaxing the body
5. Bringing about a feeling of joy
6. Bringing about a feeling of happiness
7. Recognizing the painful feeling
8. Relaxing the painful feeling

Feelings are mental formations, or saṃskāra, and are among the fifty-one kinds of mental formations. Our consciousness consists of store consciousness, which contains seeds or bīja, and mind consciousness. When a negative seed like anger manifests in the mind consciousness, we generate the energy of mindfulness to recognize and embrace it tenderly, rather than suppressing or fighting it. Mindfulness functions through:

• Recognizing what is there
• Embracing the painful feeling
• Bringing relief
• Bringing insight into the roots of the pain
• Liberating us from the pain

Suppressing blocks of pain creates stagnation and bad circulation of the psyche, which can lead to symptoms of mental illness. By practicing mindful breathing and walking, we strengthen the seed of mindfulness so we can unlock the door of our store consciousness, allowing our pain to come up and take a bath of mindfulness. Practicing the fifth mindfulness training on mindful consumption prevents negative seeds of craving, fear, despair, and violence from being watered by toxic items of consumption, allowing positive seeds to grow and facilitating the transformation of suffering.

Mindful breathing, walking meditation, and sitting meditation are forms of music that can calm our fifty-one mental formations, such as anger, jealousy, depression, worries, and despair. Utilizing a bell of mindfulness in the home helps families stop conflict, release tension, and return to the present moment through the practice of breathing and smiling. Establishing a dedicated breathing room or happiness room in every home provides a sanctuary to care for the nervous system, where family members can support each other’s practice.

The last four exercises of mindful breathing suggested by the Buddha are:

13. Contemplating Impermanence (quán vô thường): Looking deeply to discover non-self, interbeing, and emptiness, realizing that nothing can exist by itself alone.
14. Contemplating Non-craving (quán vô dục): Letting go of the objects of craving—money, fame, power, and sex—by touching the wonders of life and the Kingdom of God in the here and now.
15. Contemplating Nirvana (quán diệt): Experiencing the extinction of all notions, which is the cessation of suffering and the realization of great joy.
16. Contemplating Letting Go (quán phóng khí): Releasing all concepts, including the four basic notions of the Diamond Sutra:
    • The notion of self (ngã)
    • The notion of human being (nhân)
    • The notion of living beings (chúng sinh)
    • The notion of lifespan (thọ giả)

Happiness is born from the practice of letting go (ly sinh hỷ lạc), which means giving up ideas, prejudices, and attachments rather than running away from relationships or commitments. When an enterprise, a relationship, or even the body becomes a source of suffering, releasing means freeing oneself from the habit energy and attachments that transform these objects into cows. The second stage is happiness and joy born from mindfulness (niệm sinh hỷ lạc), which allows us to stop running toward the future and touch the conditions of happiness already available in the present moment. The third stage is happiness and joy born from concentration (định sinh hỷ lạc), where the joy of meditation becomes daily food (thiền duyệt vi thực), allowing us to stay with conditions of happiness and eventually go deeper into the practice of looking deeply.

Building a Sangha is building a pure land, which is a collective creation of our minds. We make the land pure through thoughts of loving-kindness, loving speech, and caring actions, while thoughts of discrimination, fear, and unmindful actions pollute it. To support this, the first eight exercises of mindful breathing are practiced:

1. Breathing in and out
2. Following the breath as long or short
3. Being aware of the body
4. Relaxing the body
5. Creating joy
6. Creating happiness
7. Recognizing a painful feeling
8. Calming and relaxing the feeling

When handling a painful feeling, it must be recognized and embraced with nonviolence, like a mother taking care of her baby. It is crucial to prevent the second arrow from striking, which is the anger, fear, frustration, or imagination that exaggerates a physical or mental pain and makes it ten times more intense. Practicing relaxation of the body, mind, and feelings brings about relief and healing, allowing us to handle the river of feelings skillfully.

There are two kinds of truth: conventional truth and absolute truth. Conventional truth offers halfway teachings (bất liễu nghĩa), which are caught in pairs of opposites:

1. Birth and death
2. Same and difference
3. Coming and going
4. Being and non-being
5. Eternalism and annihilation
   Absolute truth (liễu nghĩa) hits the bottom of the truth, where these notions are removed. When the notions of birth and death die, perfect silence and great joy are realized.

To understand what happens after the body disintegrates, one must observe what is happening in the present moment. To be means to become, and we are reborn in every moment through three kinds of action, or karma:

1. Mind action (thinking)
2. Speech action (mouth)
3. Bodily action (body)
   These actions exist as karma cause (karma-hetu) and karma fruit (karma-phala). Our views, thinking, speech, and action are our true continuation, and no action is ever lost.

Liberation from fear, despair, and attachment to forms is achieved through three doors of liberation:

1. Apraṇihita (aimlessness), which means no searching, running, or attainment.
2. Animitta (signlessness), which allows us to recognize our continuation and our loved ones in different forms, like seeing the cloud in the rain or tea.
3. Śūnyatā (emptiness).
   By practicing mindfulness and concentration, we can use the keys of impermanence, non-self, interbeing, emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness to unlock the doors of reality and touch the ultimate in the here and the now.

This 74-minute dharma talk in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall takes place on Sunday, February 1, 2004, during the 2004 Rainy Season Retreat at Deer Park Monastery. The monastic and lay community are practicing together from January 4 to March 14. In the process of renewing Buddhism, many people disagreed with me. Today, Thay offers some words on renewing Christianity. The teaching of living deeply in the present moment is also very clear in the gospel. We should take care of today. Living happily in the present moment is possible. Our basic practice during this Rainy Season Retreat is this: living happily in the present moment. If the Buddha is there, the pure land is there too. If God is there, then the kingdom of God is there too. This practice is not difficult. Mindfulness will help us be in the present moment. Thay proposed that theologians and Christian teachers offer us the teaching and practice to help us live in the present moment. The same is said to Buddhist teachers. Walking and contemplating in the pure land or the Kingdom of God, we no longer have to run after fame, power, wealth, and sex.

The teaching should be embodied by the teacher. The life of the teacher can then be authentic. If you are Dharma Teacher, you have to embody the teaching of living happily in the present moment. Every moment of our daily life can be seen as a miracle. If you are a beginner, there are brothers and sisters who are more experienced, and these more experienced practitioners can show how we can live in the present moment. Mindfulness and concentration bring about happiness, solidity, understanding, and compassion, and this will nourish us and the other people around us. Practicing is helping the sangha. Anyone can be the teacher. Our teacher is a little bit everywhere. Signlessness: not caught by the form. As members of the Order of Interbeing, our real value is how we practice the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings. We have a duty of setting up a sangha. The sangha is protecting and supporting us.

Daily Practice worksheet: there is a column for each day, and in the evening before you go to sleep, you can evaluate your practice—waking up, putting on your shoes, folding your blanket, opening and closing the door. During this retreat we have been learning about how to take care of our body and our feelings through the Exercises on Mindful Breathing proposed by the Buddha. We are learning how to handle our feelings, whether they are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. We have learned how to produce a feeling of joy and a feeling of happiness. In the Buddhist teachings, we learn there are 51 categories of mental formations—confidence, compassion, diligence, joy, anger, despair, jealousy—and mindfulness is one of the fifty-one. These all exist in our consciousness and are of an organic nature; they can change and transform. How do we cultivate understanding and compassion?

In this short teaching video from Deer Park Monastery (February, 2004), Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh guides us on how to take care of emotions when they come up. Every time a painful feeling is born, we go home and take good care of our feelings with the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness here is like a mother coming to hold and embrace the pain that is crying out to us. This is the practice of love: telling our painful emotions, “Darling I know you suffer. That is why I am here for you.” Thay teaches four practical steps to help us: 1. Recognize our pain, 2. Embrace the pain, 3. Bring Relief, 4. Touch Insight and transformation.

Note: this description was automatically sourced from existing YouTube descriptions and other sources. Please ‘Suggest Changes’ if it’s incorrect.

The story of David, a lonely young man unable to communicate with his family and friends, illustrates the suffering of isolation and the transformative power of mindfulness. After losing his companion Angelina due to his anger and inability to listen, David is saved from despair by remembering a temple teaching on restoring communication through three kinds of incense:

1. The incense of the precepts or mindfulness trainings
2. The incense of concentration
3. The incense of understanding or wisdom
   By practicing these, he recognizes his past behavior, reconciles with his family, and restores his relationship.

The sixteen exercises of mindful breathing proposed by the Buddha are reviewed to guide practitioners in working with the body, feelings, and mind:

1. In/out (xuất tức nhập tức)
2. Long/short (trường đoản)
3. Aware of body (toàn thân giác tri)
4. Relaxing body (toàn thân hữu tức)
5. Feeling joy (hỷ giác tri)
6. Feeling happiness (lạc giác tri)
7. Aware of feeling (thọ giác tri)
8. Calming the feeling (thọ hữu tức)
9. Aware of mental formations (tâm giác tri)
10. Gladdening the mind (tâm duyệt giác tri)
11. Concentrating the mind (tâm định)
12. Liberating the mind (tâm giải thoát)
13. Contemplation on impermanence (quán vô thường)
14. Concentration on non-craving (quán vô dục)
15. Concentration on extinction (quán tịch diệt)
16. Concentration on letting go (quán phóng xả)

Special attention is given to gladdening the mind by watering positive seeds like love, forgiveness, and joy in ourselves and others. Concentration acts like a lens, focusing the mind to burn afflictions and bring about the insight that leads to true liberation. Ultimately, happiness is found not in acquiring things, but in the capacity of letting go of our ideas and attachments.

When you show your pain to the Buddha within, you are helped to generate the energy of compassion. Sitting and looking deeply reveals that not only do you suffer, but the person you want to punish or consider your enemy suffers as well. Embracing yourself and your so-called enemy with understanding and compassion stops the cycle of trying to punish each other. Everyone is a Buddha-to-be, and a wise course of action includes and embraces both sides, transforming enemies into friends.

True giving, or dāna pāramitā, is based on understanding and compassion without expecting anything in return or using political maneuvering. It can be the offering of food, medicine, comforting words, or a path. Practicing the mindfulness trainings, or śīla pāramitā, such as the Fifth Mindfulness Training on mindful consumption, is also an act of giving that protects the body, consciousness, society, and the Earth.

Just as an orange or a log of wood stores sunshine during the summer to provide warmth in the cold winter, we must live mindfully to store the energy of understanding and compassion. During difficult times, such as the Vietnam War or being in a re-education camp, having this stored energy prevents us from giving in to despair. By absorbing and storing this sunshine of understanding and compassion in our daily lives, we become a strong refuge for ourselves and others.

During the 2004 Rainy Season Retreat at Deer Park Monastery (January 4 – March 14), the monastic and lay community gathered in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall for a 76-minute Dharma talk on Wednesday, January 28, 2004. This session is devoted to questions and answers from retreat attendees:

1. A dream and a sacred story—“practice means enjoyment”—raised by an author of children’s books.
2. How to remain in the Pure Land and cultivate merits: Sister Dang Nghiem asks about continuing as a monastic and what offerings monastics can bring. Thầy speaks on the three kinds of offering—money, Dharma, and non-fear—and the four kinds of pleasures.
3. Sangha-building and conflict: where individual practice meets collective practice, harmony within the Sangha, the seven steps of reconciliation, and using the Vinaya to build a lay Sangha.
4. Working with children and adults with severe disabilities: handling the negativity that arises and whether to include it when writing about their experiences.
5. Engaged action: our role and contribution in reducing suffering, especially through social-justice work.

Note: this description was automatically sourced from existing YouTube descriptions and other sources. Please ‘Suggest Changes’ if it’s incorrect.

The realm of the mind and its fifty-one categories of mental formations are accessed through the exercises of mindful breathing proposed by the Buddha:

1. Breathing in and out
2. Following the breath all the way through, aware of its length as long or short
3. Being aware of the body
4. Calming and relaxing the body
5. Bringing about the feeling of joy
6. Bringing about the feeling of happiness
7. Becoming aware of the unpleasant or painful feeling
8. Embracing and relaxing the painful feeling
9. Recognizing and being aware of the mental formation that is there
10. Gladdening the mind by watering positive seeds
11. Concentrating on the mind and looking deeply into the nature of pain
12. Liberating the mental formation through deep understanding
    Joy and happiness are born from the capacity of releasing, letting go, and practicing mindfulness, concentration, and true love. True love in Buddhism is maitrī, which means friendship, originating from mitra. It respects freedom rather than trying to possess.

Building a solid lay Sangha is essential for the fourfold Sangha, which consists of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Lay practitioners must organize their own Sangha and conduct precept recitations separately. Before a recitation ceremony can take place, reconciliation must occur, as established by five traditional questions and statements:

1. Has the whole community assembled?
2. Is there harmony in the community?
3. Is there anyone absent who has asked someone to represent them and declare they have not broken any precepts?
4. What is the purpose of the meeting today?
5. Confirming that it is the right moment and there is harmony to authorize the recitation.
   A solid fourfold Sangha can collaborate to run an Institute for Applied Buddhism, offering courses on Buddhist psychology, training for couples preparing for marriage, and retreats for business leaders, politicians, and police officers.

The legendary singer Thái Thanh visits the Sangha to perform songs by Phạm Duy, including Giọt Mưa Trên Lá, Ngậm Ngùi, and My Dream, which is based on a poem written by Thay in 1964 about peace, reconciliation, and brotherhood during the war in Vietnam.

The Buddha sought liberation from afflictions like craving, anger, despair, jealousy, and delusion, realizing that building a Sangha is essential for transformation and healing. The fourfold community consists of:

1. Monks
2. Nuns
3. Laymen
4. Laywomen
   Taking refuge in the Sangha protects, supports, and guides us. To become a member, one practices mindfulness, concentration, and insight (smṛti, samādhi, and prajñā), concretely expressed through the Five Mindfulness Trainings:
5. The First Mindfulness Training: Protecting the life of humans, animals, plants, and minerals.
6. The Second Mindfulness Training: Sharing time, energy, and material resources, and refraining from stealing or exploiting.
7. The Third Mindfulness Training: Protecting the integrity of individuals, couples, and families from sexual misconduct and abuse.
8. The Fourth Mindfulness Training: Restoring communication through loving speech and compassionate listening.
9. The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Mindful consumption of food, drink, and cultural items to avoid ingesting toxins of hate, violence, fear, and anger.

Lay practitioners (upāsaka and upāsikā) must organize themselves to recite the trainings at least twice a month to help their training body (śīlakāya) grow in purity (trưởng tịnh). The trainings consist of both chỉ (refraining from doing) and tác (doing), which together constitute trì (holding the precepts). During the recitation ceremony (upoṣadha), the community performs saṅghakarma by asking three questions:

1. Has the community assembled?
2. Is there harmony in the community?
3. Is anyone absent that has asked to be represented, and has he declared that his śīla body is clear?
   If there is discord, the recitation cannot take place until the community practices reconciliation and Beginning Anew.

The monastic community is practicing during the Rainy Season Retreat from January 4 to March 14 at Deer Park Monastery with the lay community. This 83-minute Dharma talk in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall takes place on Sunday, January 18, 2004, at the beginning of the third week.

About five minutes are spent working through technical difficulties before the talk begins. During that time Thầy reflects on the freshness of the air in Deer Park and the upcoming Year of the Monkey. The monkey is in the mind; our practice is not to force the monkey to stop but to become aware of the movement of the mind. We don’t try to suppress our mind.

Last time we spoke about how to become fully present and fully alive. The practice is so easy that it would be a pity if you don’t do it. The power and energy of mindfulness is available because we all have the seed of mindfulness in our consciousness. If we keep the energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight then we are good continuations of the Buddha. But we also live in forgetfulness, and we can transform this with the flower of mindfulness. Garbage and flowers: we are like organic gardeners who can produce the flowers of peace and happiness. Our happiness arises from elements of affliction, and we don’t need to be afraid of the garbage. We don’t need to run away from our pain and sorrow.

Mindful Breathing Exercises. The Buddha offered very simple and effective methods of practice. We can master these methods and no longer be afraid of sickness, fear, despair, or even death.

1. The first exercise is simply breathing in and out—simple identification and awareness. When mindfulness is there, concentration is there too; concentration is born from mindfulness. This practice is a gift, and when we practice mindfulness, we are a Buddha.

2. The second exercise is long and short breathing, following our breath all the way through. Breathing in a long breath, I know I am breathing in a long breath; breathing in a short breath, I know I am breathing in a short breath. Don’t try to force your breath; just turn on the light of mindfulness. It is like the sunshine and the flower: our in-breath and out-breath are like a flower. Body, mind, and breath are interconnected; they can become one, inheriting the energy of mindfulness and concentration brought about by mindful breathing. Enjoy your in-breath and out-breath from beginning to end.

3. The third exercise is awareness of the whole body. Breathing in, I am aware of my body; breathing out, I am aware of my body. This is a practice of going home to your body and being present, reconciling with your body. Awareness is already enlightenment. We recognize our body as a formation, and this practice can help to heal the body. Practice with a smile—it’s yoga of the mouth.

Awareness of feelings is the fifth exercise. Breathing in, I feel joy; breathing out, I feel joy. Joy and happiness are mental formations for our nourishment and healing. We start with these seeds before moving to feelings that cause suffering. This is not auto-suggestion; joy and happiness can be born if we know how to touch the seed. One way to bring joy is to let go—maybe something we believe to be crucial to our happiness.

Thầy offers very specific methods to practice meditation using these exercises. Everyone can succeed with these exercises.

Note: this description was automatically sourced from existing YouTube descriptions and other sources. Please ‘Suggest Changes’ if it’s incorrect.

The monastic community is practicing during the Rainy Season Retreat from January 4 to March 14, 2004 at Deer Park Monastery with the lay community. This 55-minute Dharma talk, offered by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 during the second week of the retreat, reminds us of the gatha learned in the prior talk, a verse we can use while sitting, standing, walking, and lying down to listen to the music of our breathing in and breathing out.

The teaching explores the practice of Stopping (samatha) and Looking Deeply (vipasyana), “the two wings of a bird.” Stopping is not only for the mind; it also applies to the body, which often has a habit of running and a feeling of restlessness. Helping the body to stop is also helping the mind to stop. In a retreat environment the first insight is to stop running: with our practice of walking, each step is a healer, allowing us to totally surrender ourselves to the present moment and to the power of healing that is inherent in our body.

In the Plum Village tradition we offer the practice of total and deep relaxation, using the techniques of mindful breathing to allow the body to rest and embracing the body with tenderness: “Darling, I am home.” Thay guides meditations on the body and presents exercises from the Sutra on Contemplation of the Body in the Body. This practice can be very pleasant and healing.

Stopping means to be fully present, in the here and the now, and when you are fully present you are fully alive. Vipasyana helps us to see this. Another function of samatha is to recognize what is happening in the present moment; when we are able to recognize, the “blue sky” is always there. We come to Deer Park so that we can learn to practice stopping.

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In early 2004, Thich Nhat Hanh and about two hundred monastics came to Southern California to spend several months at Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California for the Rainy Season Retreat from January 4 to March 14, practicing together with the lay community. This 80-minute dharma talk was given on Sunday, January 11, 2004, at the beginning of the second week in the recently opened Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall.

Thay begins with an overview of how to begin the day in the monastery—the bell, walking meditation, sitting meditation, and chanting. How much time should we allow for these activities? Do we need to wait to begin meditation? When you hear the bell announcing sitting meditation, you begin right away with your walking. What is our practice when we are walking? What is our practice when we arrive at the meditation hall? Thay shares and outlines the Plum Village practice.

What can the dharma teacher do to contribute to the practice? The dharma teachers have a responsibility to be present for the orientation, to help support those who have newly arrived, and to assure that people truly practice in the practice center so we don’t become a “non-practice” practice center.

A reporter recently asked Thay, what happens after we die? The question is kind of a trap. What happens in the present moment? The answer to both these questions is the same. If we can answer the second question, there is no need to answer the first. What is our practice to be fully present in the here and now—to become a free person—and, with our practice, to free our ancestors?

What is the role of the sangha in helping with sitting meditation? Practicing with the wonders of life in the practice center with the support of the sangha. Thay reflects on the meaning of the kingdom of God: transforming our homes, sanghas, and practice centers into a pure land, a place of refuge where we can experience brotherhood and sisterhood and enjoy deeply every moment of our daily life.

The practice of walking, sitting, and chanting is for the care of the present moment; it is not for the future. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. There is no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way. We don’t sit for anything and do not expect anything. Just be present in the here and now. That is good enough. Don’t be caught by the idea of the Buddha that is outside of you—you are already a Buddha.

Living and working in harmony with nature, plants and animals, at Deer Park Monastery, even though we are many hundreds, we can walk in the pure land in harmony with nature. How do we practice walking meditation?

I have arrived.
I am home.
I am solid.
I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.

Note: this description was automatically sourced from existing YouTube descriptions and other sources. Please ‘Suggest Changes’ if it’s incorrect.

The sound of the bell is the voice of the Buddha from within, calling us back to the present moment where life, the Pure Land, and the Kingdom of God are available. Going home to the present moment frees us from regret concerning the past, fear concerning the future, worries, projects, and business, which is essential because happiness is not possible without freedom. Stopping our running and riding on the sound of the bell allows us to get in touch with life and all its wonders within and around us.

The sổ công phu, or kung fu notebook, is used to evaluate our daily mindfulness. At the end of each day, we evaluate our practice using three signs:

1. Zero: if we forgot or failed to practice mindfulness.
2. One: if there was even just one flash of mindfulness.
3. More than one: if we succeeded more than one percent.

These signs are applied to a series of daily practices:

• Toothbrushing: brushing in such a way that peace, happiness, solidity, and freedom are possible, stopping the habit energy of running.
• Urinating and defecating: practicing so that joy, happiness, stability, and liberation are present.
• Using running water: opening the faucet mindfully and appreciating the wonder of water.
• Putting on clothes and shoes: coming home to oneself, putting them on mindfully, and walking for our ancestors.
• Serving food: holding the plate mindfully and nourishing compassion.
• Eating: eating like a Buddha to generate peace, joy, freedom, compassion, and loving-kindness.
• Washing the bowl: washing the dishes as if giving the baby Buddha a bath, smiling to our habit energy.
• Sitting: being fully present for our body, feelings, and emotions, and contributing to the collective energy of the Sangha.
• Taking care of feelings: going home to recognize and tenderly embrace pleasant and painful feelings.
• Washing hands: appreciating the water and seeing our hands as the continuation of our ancestors and the Buddha.
• Taking a shower: enjoying the act fully and deeply with concentration.
• Being in a meeting: organizing meetings so that the Pure Land is always there.
• Sweeping the ground: mopping the floor or sweeping outside with compassion.

Practicing these daily activities as acts of awakening allows us to be the Buddha in every moment. The talk concludes with instructions on practicing walking meditation by touching the earth with the Feet of the Buddha, followed by sharing a silent formal meal in thundering silence, full of the collective energy of mindfulness, concentration, and compassion.

Practicing mindfulness of being in the Deer Park Monastery, feeling the fourfold Sangha, and recognizing the Sangha builder within. The theme of the winter retreat is Sangha building, inviting everyone to participate in establishing a real fourfold Sangha consisting of:

1. Monks
2. Nuns
3. Upasaka (laymen)
4. Upasika (laywomen)
   These groups recite the mindfulness trainings and perform Sangha karman to continue the practice of mindfulness in daily life.

Lay members of the core Sangha share their experiences of transformation, gratitude, and community service during the retreat. These include practicing mindfulness throughout the day through sitting, walking, and eating meditation, as well as working on the soy milk, breakfast, and dishwashing teams. Practitioners describe learning to look past personal ideas to see the goodness in others, caring for sick community members, and shifting their attitude toward meetings to view them as opportunities to simply be together.

The community shares songs on the impermanence of formations and the compassionate heart, alongside reflections on the Sangha acting as a lighthouse where each person reflects the others. The talk concludes with instructions on eating in mindfulness and practicing the Five Contemplations:

1. This food is the gift of the whole universe, the earth, the sky, all species, and much hard work.
2. May we eat with gratitude and mindfulness so as to be worthy to receive this food.
3. May we recognize and transform unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed.
4. May we take in only foods that nourish us and prevent illness.
5. We accept this food so that we may nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, build our Sangha, and nourish our ideal of serving living beings.

The monastic and lay community are practicing together during the 2004 Rainy Season Retreat (January 4 – March 14) at Deer Park Monastery. This 95-minute outdoor event, filmed on Saturday, January 31, 2004 in San Dieguito County Park, Solana Beach, opens with a slideshow of the alms round, followed by chanting and Thay’s introductory words on asking questions.

Practitioners pose questions such as: Are we supposed to spend all our time in the here and now? How can we help someone transform anger? How do we practice to do the right thing when it is difficult? How do we practice when someone we love dies? Can anger ever be beneficial? How do we balance practice with professional fulfillment? How do I forgive myself and believe in myself? What if my son wants to marry outside our tradition? What do you think of humans living in this place and time?

In response, Thay explains that the past is already gone and the future is not yet here; true life is available only in the present moment. Being present does not prevent us from learning from the past or planning for the future—both can become objects of practice here and now. He illustrates how a deceased grandmother is still alive in every cell of our body, showing that nothing is lost.

Addressing anger, Thay teaches that its roots lie in the things we consume. Mindful consumption and the Fifth Mindfulness Training protect us and our families. We should not suppress anger but recognize and embrace it with mindfulness, then use loving speech to communicate. Although some see anger as a powerful tool, it can be dangerous without understanding and compassion.

Thay discusses integrating mindfulness with career: business leaders suffer like everyone else, and if they suffer less they can succeed more. Mindfulness at work—walking, breathing, caring for employees as family—helps harmonize practice, family, and professional life.

On grief, he points to our true nature of no-birth and no-death, illustrated by the image of a cloud. He closes with the story of a Vietnam veteran who, through practice, transformed deep suffering after having killed children during the war, showing that personal transformation can lead to societal healing.

The gathering ends with the sangha practicing walking meditation.

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The sound of the bell helps to calm the body, speech, and mind, bringing us back to our true home. Deep in our store consciousness, or ālayavijñāna, we carry both positive seeds, such as compassion, joy, and understanding, and negative seeds, such as anger, fear, and violence. Taking care of our mind like a garden requires the practice of selective watering, where we make a commitment to water only the positive seeds in ourselves and in others, while refraining from watering the negative ones.

Nothing can survive without food, including love, hate, anger, and depression. To transform suffering, we must look deeply into its nature to identify and cut off its sources of nutriment. There are four kinds of nutriments:

1. Edible food: What we eat and drink. We practice mindful eating using the five contemplations: first, recognizing food as a gift of the sky, earth, living beings, and labor; second, eating with mindfulness and gratitude; third, preventing negative mental formations like craving; fourth, eating only what brings well-being and prevents illness; and fifth, determining to practice transformation, healing, and compassion.
2. Sensory impressions: What we consume through our six sense organs, including television, music, books, and conversations. We must guard our sense organs to prevent toxins like craving, anger, and violence from entering our consciousness.
3. Volition: Our deepest desire, intention, and motivation. Wholesome volition aims to bring relief and cultivate compassion, whereas desires for revenge, fame, power, or wealth lead to suffering. True happiness is found by living happily in the here and now, or dṛṣṭaDharmasukhavihāra.
4. Consciousness: Individual and collective consciousness. We must protect ourselves from toxic collective consciousness, such as collective anger and hate, and instead nourish ourselves with environments of harmony and brotherhood.

Transformation and healing are cultivated through mindful breathing, mindful walking, and the practices of compassionate listening and loving speech. These practices allow us to recognize the suffering of others, which gives rise to compassion and enables reconciliation, even among groups in deep conflict like Palestinians and Israelis. On a global scale, violence and hatred cannot remove violence and hatred; they only create more. The root of terrorism and conflict lies in wrong perceptions, which can only be resolved through deep listening and gentle, compassionate speech to understand the suffering and misunderstandings of all sides.

Questions from the audience:

• How do you approach nationalism with our responsibility for global understanding, global brotherhood and sisterhood, and how do we deal with national identity?
• Is there another way, without eating the flesh of their son, they can cross the desert?
• What directions and intentions should a scientist have when scientific knowledge could potentially be used in a dangerous, deadly way?
• How can one avoid watering the seed of fear, and once fear is present, how do we deal with it?
• What was the collective consciousness of those who participated in the Buddhist movements in Vietnam in the 1960s, and who holds responsibility for causing the release of poisons during the war?

A three-month retreat has concluded with about 240 monks and nuns practicing alongside lay people. Moving forward, Sunday morning Dharma talks in English will address real difficulties of our time concerning individual, family, and community life, as well as daily life, the workplace, and school. Listeners are invited to contribute topics by dropping written suggestions into the donation box or the bell of mindfulness. These talks will be offered by Dharma teachers Sister Annabel Laity (Chân Đức), a scholar and translator who is the abbess of Green Mountain Dharma Center, and Brother Pháp Dung, a former architect and the abbot of Deer Park who focuses on youth and family practices.

Monastic practice for young people and families emphasizes friendship, space, and acceptance rather than trying to fix anyone. During family retreats, parents practice non-parenting by breathing to recognize and smile at the parent seed when it arises. The basic tool for handling boredom, irritation, self-judgment, and peer pressure is following the breath at the nostrils, observing the cool inbreath and the warm, damp outbreath to calm and relax the body and mind.

To bridge communication gaps across different ages and cultures, one must first feel connected in oneself through mindful breathing or walking before reaching out to others. When verbal communication is difficult, the Meditation on Loving-Kindness is practiced to understand others and enter the garden of their heart. This meditation involves wishing three specific things, first for oneself and then for another person:

1. To be happy and peaceful in body and spirit.
2. To be safe and free from accident.
3. To be free from anger, craving, and confusion.

Do not go seeking in words and letters, which only makes the mind more agitated, the intellect more exhausted, and the lungs gasp useless cold air. Instead of studying sutras and commentaries to get degrees without being able to transform afflictions, we only need to see in a single moment that dependently co-arising phenomena are unborn. The word no-birth represents the eight negations:

1. no birth
2. no death
3. no being
4. no non-being
5. no coming
6. no going
7. not one
8. not many.
   When we see the unborn nature of all things, we can touch the Buddha in a cloud, a pebble, and in ourselves without needing to pass through the ten grounds from the first ground to the tenth ground like hired laborers with an inferiority complex. We can be a Buddha instantly in the present moment through each leisurely, peaceful step, without needing to strive in our practice or procrastinate as the days and months pass by.

Instead of using the words dependent co-arising or dependent origination, we should use the word dependent manifestation to see that all things do not pass from non-being into being, but are merely a manifestation from a hidden state to a revealed one. Vijnapti is manifestation, avijnapti is non-manifestation, and vijnapti-matra is Manifestation-only, meaning there is only manifestation and no creation, as in the poem “You are not created but only manifested.” The ultimate truth of the path is not to use reasoning to conquer others with an Asura state of mind that always wants to be number one. Verbal teachings are merely skillful means to guide people into categories:

• The Three Vehicles: Hearer Vehicle, Solitary Realizer Vehicle, and Buddha Vehicle.
• The Five Natures: the determinate nature of Bodhisattvas, the determinate nature of Solitary Realizers, the determinate nature of Hearers, the indeterminate nature of the Three Vehicles, and sentient beings without the nature of enlightenment.

The perfect and sudden teaching does not need to pass through stages or the 53 consultations of the youth Sudhana. When the mind is no longer wrongly used to seek or accumulate knowledge, the sun of insight will naturally shine. Nirvana is precisely the absence of concepts of birth and death, coming and going, being and non-being; it is that very thing present right here and right now. Encountering a spiritual friend is as rare as the blooming of the udumbara flower, so we should rely on them to inherit insight and peacefulness instead of getting caught in emotional attachments or the material comforts of food and clothing, fame and profit. “The great ocean never accepts a corpse,” therefore each person must make their own effort to become a dynamic living being in the world of enlightenment.

The Winter Retreat aims to build a powerful, solid, harmonious, and happy sangha. The Sangha consists of all four components:

1. Male monastics
2. Female monastics
3. Male lay friends
4. Female lay friends

The art of sangha building is practiced based on the material “Joyfully Together“ with the main methods:

• Happiness meeting: A weekly meeting applying deep listening and loving speech to resolve difficulties and increase the level of happiness for the community.
• Shining light: The practitioner bows down for the Three Touchings of the Earth for the sangha to shine light on their strengths to praise and encourage, and to point out shortcomings to transform with compassion.
• Beginning anew: Being aware of mistakes and clumsiness to correct perceptions and habits, and to renew one’s mind through the Earth Touching Repentance text.

In addition, the practice of sitting and walking helps heal the wounds in body and mind. Sitting is to bring the mind back to the body, to take care of the garden of body and mind, and to be present for loved ones. Practicing walking with peaceful steps to tread on the Pure Land in the present moment through four elements:

1. Breathing with mindfulness
2. Steps with mindfulness
3. Mindfulness
4. The earth

In life, each person has their own Giang Kieu; it could be a spouse, a son, a daughter, a father, or a mother. Because we do not have the capacity to listen to their suffering and blockages, always blaming, harshly criticizing, and not knowing how to use loving speech, we make our Giang Kieu suffer and make ourselves suffer. The practice is to restore communication, opening the spring of love and understanding by sitting down to look deeply into the first two truths of the Four Noble Truths:

1. The Truth of Suffering
2. The Truth of the Origin of Suffering

According to Buddhist psychology, consciousness has two parts:

1. Store consciousness
2. Mind consciousness

In consciousness, there are both positive and negative seeds (seeds); when they manifest in mind consciousness, they are called mental formations or manifestations. To transform difficulties and restore communication, the World Honored One offered methods of practice, among which are two methods:

1. Watering Seeds of Joy (selective watering): Practicing right speech (right speech), speaking words that have the effect of Watering Seeds of Joy in ourselves and others, while simultaneously applying the Fourth and Fifth Mindfulness Trainings.
2. Listening with a compassionate heart (deep listening or compassionate listening, compassionate listening): Using the eyes of compassion to listen in order to help the other person release their pain and suffering, then step by step using loving speech to help correct wrong perceptions (delusions) and restore happiness.

The poetry collection Autumn Evening Flute (Tiếng Địch Chiều Thu), published in 1949 in Saigon, marks the meeting between the Way and poetry. There is no distance between the Way and poetry; they are one. Wherever there is the Way, there is poetry; wherever there is true poetry, there is the Way of poetry. The same is true for tea; drinking tea in tranquility, tea itself is the Way. Through poems such as Poetic Inspiration (Thi Tứ) by Trụ Vũ or Peony (Thược Dược) by Quách Thoại, the Zen quality manifests when the human mind has freedom, not caught up in afflictions or anger, and from there, can touch the wonders of the ultimate dimension and the Pure Land.

Sutras in the temple carry the deep, resonant tones of sutra music, helping to uplift or settle the mind and heart. Before sitting meditation, the hô canh (announcing the watch) gathas are chanted to help the sangha gather and settle the three karmas of body, speech, and mind, and enter into mindfulness:

1. Morning gatha: The Dharma body shines in the early morning / Sitting still, heart at peace, a smile on the lips / A new day, vowing to walk in awakening / The sun of wisdom shines everywhere.
2. Evening gatha: Sitting firmly under the Bodhi tree / The three karmas settled, all right and wrong are gone / Gathering body and mind into mindfulness / Clearly illuminating the original face, escaping the shore of delusion.

Music in the Zen tradition plays a role as a form of music therapy helping to transform sorrow and pain, bringing ease and joy to body and mind. Many sutras and poems have been set to music, typically the repentance chant: I have made so many mistakes / When speaking, when acting, when thinking / Out of passion, anger, and ignorance / Now I bow my head in repentance… When the mind is renewed and becomes pure, the traces of mistakes will be eradicated, helping the human heart become as light as a white cloud leisurely drifting over the ancient forest.

The work Biển sau giông tố (The Sea After the Storm) by composer Lê Thương expresses the pain of the nation and the tragedy of 75,000 boat people who perished in the depths of the ocean. Despair is the greatest enemy of human beings when caught in a dead end. To help writers, artists, and scholars back home overcome despair and continue to create, the practice community at Phương Vân Am sent Western medicine along with letters to uplift their spirits through manifestations such as Phương Hương, Angelina, Cô Chín, Dì Năm, and Đào Thị Mây.

To rescue those crossing the sea, the campaign Máu chảy ruột mềm (When Blood Flows, the Heart Aches) was organized in Singapore starting in late 1976, using the ships:

1. Roland
2. Leapdal
3. Koozara
4. Saigon 200

The presence of Vietnamese people in the West has two purposes:

1. To learn the good and the beautiful of the outside world in order to transmit it back to our homeland, to our country.
2. To share with the people here the good and the beautiful of our own culture.

Practice beginning a new day with twenty-four brand new hours using the gatha in the book Stepping Into Freedom: “Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment. And to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” In order to live with three things:

1. Beauty
2. Freedom
3. Love

We need to have wisdom, which is insight or Right View. That insight includes the view of neither same nor different, impermanence, no-self, and wisdom of non-discrimination (Nirvikalpa jñāna).

From Right View, we generate:

1. Right Thinking
2. Right Speech
3. Right Action

Every view, thought, word, and action is a person’s offering and continuation in every moment. Continuation and rebirth do not wait until the physical body disintegrates but take place right in the present moment through momentary impermanence and cyclical impermanence. With the eyes of signlessness and the insight of no birth and no death, no coming and no going, neither being nor non-being, a person can live in leisure, freedom, and full of love.

The text The Essentials of Master Linji summarizes the teachings of Master Linji, helping us understand the spirit of dwelling in the present moment, not seeking outside for the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, Prajñā, liberation, or the Pure Land. The Plum Village Dharma door provides concrete practices to head towards the ideal person of Linji Zen, which is the businessless person, free, living with ease, and having sovereignty in the present moment. Success in the life of practice also depends on merit; those with little merit need to cultivate more by frequently practicing bowing and repentance to eradicate karmic obstacles and serving the Sangha wholeheartedly.

The habit energy of always seeking recognition, praise, or admiration from others will destroy our happiness and harm the collective atmosphere of the Sangha. All practice activities such as walking meditation, sitting meditation, working meditation, cleaning, or washing dishes are first of all to nourish ourselves, bringing letting go and peace to ourselves instead of depending on the evaluation of those around us.

The Discourse on Knowing the Better Way To Live Alone (Bhaddekaratta) is a text teaching the art of living happily in the present moment with the following main points:

• Not regretting the past
• Not worrying about the future
• Returning to dwell in the present moment with solidity and freedom
• Distinguishing between living alone (solitude), which has the capacity for deep communication and generating peace, and loneliness (loneliness), which is due to a lack of capacity to communicate.

Memories from 1946 and 1947 at Bao Quoc Buddhist Institute with student monks such as Venerable Duc Tam, Venerable Thanh Tri, Chon Tri, Venerable Minh Chau, Venerable Vien Giac, Tri Khong, novice Phung Xuan, and fellow students. The conversation recalls an anecdote about a poem by Chief Justice Le Van Dinh dedicated to monastic poets: “Monastics reciting poetry wanting to show off their talent, Golden words of mindfulness to advise whom? Spewing pearls scattered on the worldly realm, Spitting gems unevenly before the Buddha’s altar. Having vowed to cross to the shore of awakening and turn away, Yet still wishing to rub shoulders in literary circles. No matter how fragrant the reputation of a master poet, Missing a step on the path of practice is truly a waste.” and the responding poem: “Valuing the virtue of a monastic, not counting talent, Right and wrong, just leaving it to the minds of others. Hoping people in the Dharma-ending age leave the ocean of sorrow, Advising literary friends to turn towards the precious altar. Rowing the boat against the current with a steadfast heart, For the world and for the Dharma, carrying a heavy load on both shoulders. Not bothering to learn the skillful Dharma doors, Closing one’s eyes to feel the elephant is truly a waste.”

The journey of practice and study in Japan, the international Dharma teaching career, along with reminiscences about Sister Tri Hai, the works The Golden Light of the Dharma and The Trial of the Sutra by Vo Dinh Cuong, as well as the historical story of King Ashoka. The poetry collections mentioned include:

1. Poems Without Shores
2. Earthly Fragrance
3. Space Becomes a Robe
4. Leisurely White Clouds
5. The Lonely Traveler

The practice of the here and now philosophy, the meaning of insight meditation through Zen stories, and the image of the traveler on the path of serving the Dharma, concluding with the mindfulness practice song: “I am happy right in this moment, My heart is determined to drop all worries, Nowhere to go, nothing to do, Learning to let go, living at ease and lightly.”

The Dharma door of practice is to live our daily life in such a way that we feel we are in the Pure Land right in the present moment, called the manifest Pure Land or the Pure Land is here and now. Thanks to the practice of mindful breathing and mindful walking, the Pure Land is present right here and right now. According to the teaching of the non-duality of Buddha and living beings of the Linji school, the Buddha and living beings are not two separate realities. Within each person, there is a shining mind; we only need to come back to ourselves and peel away the layers of afflictions, delusion, and anger in order to live in peace and freedom.

Each person has two streams of tradition, two families:

1. The blood family: transmitting the genetic heritage, the genes, and the experiences of our ancestors and parents, which are present in every cell of the body.
2. The spiritual family: transmitting the capacity to understand, to love, to forgive, and the path leading to complete freedom, overcoming sorrow and suffering.

To transform suffering and generate happiness right in the present moment, the practitioner cultivates three energies:

1. Mindfulness (smṛti): coming back to the present moment, recognizing and getting in touch with the shining mind and the seed of love and understanding.
2. Concentration (samādhi): the focused attention, concentrating the mind on an object.
3. Insight (prajñā): the deep seeing and understanding, which is the foundation for love to arise, expressed through the eyes of compassion (the eyes of love) and loving speech (words of love).

The poem “I Have Gone Looking for the World-Honored One”, a masterpiece by Thay of Plum Village, was adapted into a chant and performed at Deer Park Monastery (Escondido, California, January 25, 2004) with the recitation of Thay and the Plum Village Sangha. The work recounts the journey from childhood, listening to the call of the World-Honored One, wandering through ten thousand perilous paths of life, experiencing deep anguish, cold, hunger, and yearning, to finally realize that the World-Honored One is always present in the heart, the distance no longer than a single heartbeat. The images of falling autumn leaves, the moon hanging over the gate, the rain of Dharma Nectar, and storms that dissipate to make way for peace, show that when reflecting oneself in the mirror of the moon, the child sees themselves and sees the World-Honored One, with a smile of no birth and no death. The World-Honored One sits there as solid as Mount Sumeru, as peaceful as the breath, having never been absent; to find the World-Honored One is also to find oneself. With tears of happiness, the child vows to nourish and transmit the substance of freedom and solidity for today and tomorrow.

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Đi thiền hành là đi từng bước an lạc, thảnh thơi, có hạnh phúc trong từng bước chân và đi như trong cõi Tịnh Độ. Chúng ta không suy nghĩ về quá khứ, không dự tính về tương lai mà hoàn toàn an trú trong giây phút hiện tại. Ta Bà hay Tịnh Độ đều là những biểu hiện của tâm thức. Khi tâm có an lạc, nhẹ nhàng, thương yêu thì cõi này trở thành Tịnh Độ, ngược lại khi tâm chứa đựng lo lắng, giận dữ, tuyệt vọng thì cõi này trở thành địa ngục. Khi thở vào bước hai bước và xướng con đã về, khi thở ra bước hai bước và xướng con đã tới để dừng lại sự chạy nhảy và sống trọn vẹn trong hiện tại.

Buổi thực tập cổ Phật khất thực tái hiện lại phương pháp hành trì của Đức Thế Tôn và tăng đoàn ngày xưa. Người cư sĩ cúng dường trong sự im lặng, theo dõi hơi thở và duy trì chánh niệm. Cúng dường cho một vị xuất gia cũng chính là cúng dường cho toàn thể tăng đoàn, Bụt và Pháp. Khi thọ trai theo phương pháp nhất tọa thực, người thực tập không đứng dậy trong suốt bữa ăn và chỉ tập trung vào hai điều:

1. Thức ăn.
2. Tứ chúng đang ngồi ăn chung.
   Trước khi ăn, đại chúng cùng thực tập năm phép quán niệm để nhìn thấy công phu lao tác cùng các yếu tố đất, trời, mây, mưa trong thức ăn, giúp nuôi dưỡng cả thân lẫn tâm.

Tình thương giống như một bông hoa, nếu không biết cách chăm sóc thì hoa sẽ héo và tình thương có thể biến thành hận thù. Sự thiếu truyền thông giữa cha con, mẹ con hay vợ chồng gây ra rất nhiều tổn thương và khổ đau. Để tái lập truyền thông và phục hồi hạnh phúc, người thực tập cần làm dịu cảm xúc qua hơi thở chánh niệm, sử dụng ái ngữ và thực tập lắng nghe sâu. Việc chủ động nhận lỗi, lắng nghe những khó khăn của người thương mà không trách móc sẽ giúp mở cửa trái tim và đem lại sự hòa giải trong gia đình.

Lay friend Sudatta Anathapindika was a wealthy merchant who wholeheartedly helped the poor, orphans, and the sick, and offered the Jeta Grove monastery to the Buddha and the Sangha. His family had six members in total:

1. Mr. Anathapindika
2. Mrs. Anathapindika
3. Elder sister Subhada
4. Younger sister Subhada
5. Sumagada
6. Kāla

Thanks to Mr. Anathapindika’s encouragement, his son Kāla went to listen to the Dharma and attained the fruit of Stream-Entry. A person’s continuation does not only lie in their children or disciples, but is also expressed through every thought, word, and action (body, speech, and mind). Every seed of thought, speech, and action goes into the future, creating the next life right in the present moment.

When Mr. Anathapindika was severely ill, Venerable Sariputra and Venerable Ananda came to visit and practiced The Four Recollections with him:

1. Recollection of the Buddha
2. Recollection of the Dharma
3. Recollection of the Sangha
4. Recollection of the Precepts

Venerable Sariputra continued to guide him to contemplate that this body is not me, to contemplate the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air, along with the teaching of interbeing, no birth, no death, no coming, no going. Mr. Anathapindika was deeply moved and earnestly requested that this profound teaching be transmitted to lay friends before passing away peacefully. Watering the seeds of happiness and spirituality helps soothe the pain, bringing peace to the dying person.

Trinh Cong Son was born in the year of Ky Mao, receiving from his father the seed of patriotism and the courage to express honest feelings through songs about human brotherhood and the absurdity of fratricidal war. His mother, a devout Buddhist, transmitted to him the seed of compassion, loving kindness, and the practice of the First Mindfulness Training on protecting life. At the age of 15, after his father passed away, he took refuge at Pho Quang Temple with the Dharma name Nguyen Tho. Staying at the temple, he learned chanting and praising with Venerable Master Chanh Phap and Venerable Master Hieu Quang, bringing the resonance of the sutras into his bloodstream and his musical compositions.

The music of Trinh Cong Son contains the insight of Happiness in the Present Moment, living mindfully in every moment of daily life. He treasured friendship because friendship has the capacity to redeem; the silent presence of friends is like a rest in music. Although he experienced loneliness and the haunting of death because he had not yet practiced looking deeply to touch the true nature of no birth and no death, he left behind his continuation through the three actions:

1. Body
2. Speech
3. Mind

Trinh Cong Son did not come from nothingness and does not return to nothingness; his true nature is no birth and no death, like a cloud transforming into rain or a stream. His wholesome actions, expressed through his thinking, his lyrics, and his loving behavior, are still continuing to be present, continuing the mission of conveying the message of love and hope.