Bich Nham is situated on the green mountain with the warm Great Together Meditation Hall, which has welcomed more than 1,000 practitioners from the United States and Canada in a large tent during the cold season. The famous work Bich Nham Luc records over a hundred Zen koans, beginning with Zen Master Yuanwu and including forty koans of King Tran Thai Tong. The first king of the Tran dynasty practiced sitting meditation six times a day and performed half an hour of repentance according to the Six Times Repentance Ceremony.

Two couplets in Chinese characters written by the teacher:

• Clear blue water, when a thousand rivers have water, a thousand rivers reflect the moon (Clear blue water, a thousand rivers have water, a thousand rivers have the moon)
• Beautiful and elegant mountain cliffs, each time you look back, each time is completely new (Beautiful mountain cliffs, each time you look back, each time is new)

Mindfulness in the breath leads to the complete happiness of the present moment. After nearly two years of suffering from pneumonia caused by antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas, the teacher was treated with a combination of two antibiotics for 14 days in America, and now breathes in and out gently, grateful for the two lungs—such a simple yet priceless condition for happiness.

Phuoc Hue currently has 194 monks and nuns residing in a cramped space, but it is the Bat Nha Sangha that is the heart of the country. For that heart to be nourished, each practitioner needs to let go of anger, breathe in and smile, cherish the breath, and radiate loving forgiveness, nurturing faith for oneself and for the community.

The Anapanasati Sutra presents sixteen methods of breathing; during the first two days of the retreat, we only study the first eight methods, which include
1–4 related to the body,
5–8 related to feelings and emotions, in order to take care of body and mind.

1. Recognizing the in-breath and out-breath – breathing in, I know I am breathing in; breathing out, I know I am breathing out (in and out)
2. Following the breath – following the breath from beginning to end (long and short)
3. Awareness of the whole body – breathing in, I am aware of my whole body; breathing out, I bring body and mind together (bodily formation awareness)
4. Releasing tension in the body – breathing in, I release all tension; breathing out, I calm any pain or discomfort (calming the body)

From the fifth to the seventh breath, we cultivate joy and happiness, and then with mental formation awareness we recognize suffering and embrace and transform our pain:

• The method of generating joy and happiness begins with letting go (joy and happiness born from letting go) of notions and obstacles to happiness
• Mindfulness brings joy and happiness – being aware of the conditions of happiness in the present moment, the joy of practice (the joy of meditation as nourishment)
• Recognizing suffering – aware of the painful feeling, embracing and soothing the inner suffering as a mother holds her child (mental formation awareness)

The retreat emphasizes dwelling happily in the present moment: dwelling in mindfulness to generate countless joys and happiness, increasing the strength of the mind—before receiving and transforming suffering.

The practitioner must first learn how to take care of their own body and mind, just as a gardener knows how to tend the garden of body-mind to cultivate the flowers of peace and happiness, while also composting the garbage of afflictions into green fertilizer to nourish the flowers. Body and mind are likened to two organic elements, containing both flowers (joy, peace) and garbage (anger, despair, fear, delusion, jealousy), and the practitioner does not run away or merely pray, but must practice embracing suffering, generating peace, and nourishing the flowers of happiness within themselves before they are able to help others.

The practice of mindfulness (Sanskrit: smṛti) begins with the breath and the steps, bringing body and mind together in the present moment. The basic exercises include:

1. recognizing the in-breath and out-breath
2. following the breath from beginning to end
3. being aware of the whole body while breathing
4. releasing tension in the body
5. generating joy (pīti)
6. generating happiness (sukha)
7. recognizing and embracing pain

Thanks to mindfulness, concentration, and insight, the practitioner clearly sees the truth of suffering—the First Noble Truth—and courageously returns to observe and to transform suffering, thereby bringing peace and happiness to themselves and to the community.

Practicing mindfulness is to recognize what is happening in the present moment, so that we know where we are, what we are doing, and how we are feeling; mindfulness is the heart of Buddhist practice and the source of happiness. A five-day retreat requires turning off the phone, maintaining silence, eating meals, washing dishes, walking meditation, sitting meditation… all must be practiced with mindful breathing to nourish joy, solidity, and liberation from anxiety and fear.

Thay Thich Nhat Hanh first attained realization in America in 1962 at Princeton and wrote A Rose for Your Pocket as an acknowledgment of his first insight: mindfulness is the condition for happiness to be present right away, without needing to seek in the future. The Buddha also taught in the Discourse to the Layperson that the phrase dwelling happily in the present moment is repeated five times, affirming that happiness can be attained right in the present moment.

Main steps of practice

• Breathing in, know you are breathing in; breathing out, know you are breathing out; smile, do not worry
• Walking meditation: each breath is linked with each step to dwell in “I have arrived, I am home – I have arrived, I am home”
• Sitting meditation: back straight, eyes half-closed, return to the breath whenever the mind is distracted
• Eating and washing dishes in silence, chewing each bite thirty times to nourish insight and gratitude
• Maintaining collective silence so the mind can settle, generating the energy of mindfulness and concentration, opening the path for insight

We have a mental formation called “attention” (manaskāra), which means to pay attention to objects that bring us benefit and happiness. When our attention is correct—appropriate attention (yoniso manaskāra)—we direct our mind toward positive elements such as the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, joy, and happiness. On the other hand, turning our mind toward suffering, conflict, and anxiety is inappropriate attention (ayoniso manaskāra), which sows seeds of suffering in ourselves. Thanks to appropriate attention, we can generate right thinking (thoughts of love, understanding, forgiveness), right speech, right action, and right livelihood (especially through vegetarianism, using solar energy, and practicing “car-free days”) to protect ourselves, others, and the Earth.

Love and gratitude in family and couple relationships also need to be practiced with appropriate attention by writing down, recording, or reading again happy memories. According to Thay, there are three main kinds of love:

• Passionate love—intense but short-lived
• Gratitude—arising when someone has helped or sacrificed for us in times of danger
• Faithful love—loyalty, arising from gratitude and keeping the relationship from betrayal
  When passionate love fades, gratitude and faithful love will nourish and sustain the happiness of the family.

In the Noble Eightfold Path, the remaining seven steps (right diligence—practicing the Four Right Efforts, right mindfulness, right concentration, right view) help us water wholesome seeds, remove unwholesome seeds, and realize that suffering is interdependent with happiness (no mud, no lotus). Thanks to non-dualistic right view, we understand that the world is not separate from our mind, and from there, we can transform suffering and develop insight.

Our True Agenda is “Tending the Space Inside”—living each moment as a realization. With full presence in breath and step, we cultivate solidity and freedom, touch the Buddha’s Pure Land, and offer the best gift—space—to ourselves and those we love. Mindfulness brings us home to the body, allows us to recognize and embrace pain, sorrow, fear, and anger, and with concentration and insight transform them into peace, happiness, and well-being in every activity: brushing teeth, showering, eating, walking, breathing.

Four Sources of Nutriment for monks, nuns, and lay practitioners:

1. Volition: the deep desire to practice, transform afflictions, and help as many beings as possible—Bodhicitta, the mind of love or enlightenment.
2. Collective Consciousness: the wholesome energy generated when practitioners sit, walk, and breathe together, nourishing mindfulness, concentration, and insight.
3. Sensory Impression: what we hear, see, touch, and think; we need an intelligent policy of consumption, choosing only what brings peace, joy, and compassion.
4. Edible Food: eating to sustain health, lightness, and compassion; reducing meat by 50 percent or practicing vegetarianism to preserve compassion and the planet.

Before eating, practice the Five Contemplations:

1. This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, numerous beings, and much hard work.
2. May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude, worthy to receive it.
3. May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially greed, and learn moderation.
4. May we keep compassion alive by eating in such a way that reduces the suffering of living beings, preserves our planet, and reverses global warming.
5. We accept this food to nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, strengthen our Sangha, and nourish our ideal of serving all beings.

Enlightenment is Now or Never. In walking meditation say oui, oui (yes, yes) on the in-breath and merci, merci (thanks, thanks) on the out-breath, recognizing “so many wonderful things” – blue sky, hills, mother, father, Sangha – and each “yes” brings happiness. Mindfulness is to be mindful of what is there; awakening happens each time you see something positive and say, “This is a moment of happiness.” Saṃtuṣṭa (Sanskrit) or Tri túc (Chinese) means you already have enough conditions to be happy right here, right now.

The path of practice includes Exercises 9–16:

1. Ninth: Liberating the mind – awareness of mental formations.
2. Tenth: True right diligence – strengthen and gladden the mind.
3. Eleventh: Concentration – to get insight and liberate from afflictions.
4. Thirteenth: Contemplating impermanence.
5. Fourteenth: Contemplation of no-craving.
6. Fifteenth: Contemplating cessation – no birth, no death, no being, no non-being (Nirvāṇa).
7. Sixteenth: Letting go of all notions.

Contemplation of cessation is at the heart of Buddhist meditation: by looking deeply – like a wave touching water or a cloud never born nor dying – you touch Nirvāṇa, the extinction of all notions of birth, death, being, and non-being. Continuous mindfulness and concentration lead to the insight (Right View) that underpins Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, and the new Five Mindfulness Trainings.

In Rome, each retreatant—adults and children—received one seed of corn to plant in a pot and care for at home. Once the young plant has two or three leaves, you “talk to the plant of corn,” reminding it that it was once a seed. This exercise mirrors our own journey:
• at conception we were “a very tiny seed” containing both father and mother;
• within the womb—a “palace of the child” (tử cung)—we lived in perfect comfort, free from fear or desire;
• birth cuts the umbilical cord, forcing us into our first in-breath and original fear coupled with the original desire to survive;
• every subsequent desire is a continuation of that original desire, and every suffering and joy recalls our forgotten paradise of the womb.

The ninth and tenth exercises of mindful breathing train us to transform our mental formations (cittasaṃskāra, of which there are fifty-one):

1. Ninth exercise­—aware of mind: sit “on the bank of the river of mind” and recognize each mental formation (anger, doubt, compassion, etc.) as it arises without grasping or pushing it away.
2. Tenth exercise­—gladden the mind (right diligence):
   1. sign a peace treaty to avoid watering negative seeds (fear, anger, craving, doubt);
   2. if a negative formation does arise, “change the CD” or “change the peg” by inviting a wholesome formation;
   3. selectively water positive seeds (mindfulness, concentration, compassion) so they manifest more often;
   4. when a wholesome formation is present, maintain it as long as possible.

Our deepest source of sustenance comes from four nutriments:
• volition (our fundamental aspirations, whether to survive or to awaken);
• collective energy of consciousness (the Sangha’s shared peace, concentration, joy);
• sensory impressions (what we consume via eyes, ears, conversation—mindful consumption prevents poisoning);
• edible food (choose what sustains both body and compassion).

Building and living in a Sangha provides the wholesome collective energy needed to nourish these nutriments and sustain our practice.

When I was sixteen, I became a novice monk and learned a book of poetry—fifty-five four-line poems in classical Chinese, each line five words. These gatha accompany every daily action (sitting, opening a tap, brushing teeth, lighting a lamp, riding a bicycle) so that “my mind and body dwell perfectly in the here and the now.” Later I translated them into Vietnamese, English, French, German… and even composed new gatha for boarding an airplane or riding a bicycle, sharing this monastic culture with lay friends worldwide.

The Anapanasati Sutta offers sixteen exercises for mindful breathing; the first eight are:

1. identify in-breath and out-breath
2. follow each breath from beginning to end
3. become aware of the whole body
4. release bodily tension
5. generate the energy of joy
6. generate happiness
7. recognize painful feelings
8. release tension in painful feelings
   Mindfulness of breathing bridges body and mind, releasing past and future, bringing freedom, peace, concentration, and insight.

True joy and happiness arise in two ways:

1. Ly sinh hỷ lạc—letting go of obstacles (past sorrows, future fears) so joy naturally appears
2. mindfulness—recognizing the countless conditions of happiness already present (eyes that see, a heart that beats, a morning breeze)
   Supported by the collective energy of the Sangha, each sitting, walking or cup-of-tea becomes a refuge of solidity and freedom.

Happiness is now or never—enlightenment is the transformation of suffering into joy. Two years ago Blue Cliff held its first retreat under a tent; this Great Togetherness hall now shelters our practice. Last August Thây returned mid-retreat despite a serious lung infection (pseudomonas), foregoing a required fourteen-day hospital stay and four IV injections daily. Nine hundred eighty people attended the Colorado YMCA retreat in his absence, and the Sangha’s success led them to make it an annual gathering—proof that “Thây has transmitted himself to his Sangha, and the Sangha will continue Thây for a long time.”

Our Sangha is “true” because every member practices mindful breathing, walking, sitting, and eating, generating a living Dharma—mindfulness + concentration + insight—that carries the true Buddha within. During a ninety-day Winter Retreat in Plum Village, three hundred monastics and lay practitioners studied the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and crafted a new version of the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

1. The Five Mindfulness Trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic.
2. They express the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness.
3. Practicing them cultivates the insight of interbeing (right view), which can remove all discrimination, intolerance, anger, fear, and despair.
4. Living according to them is already the path of a bodhisattva, inviting dialogue across traditions and translation into non-Buddhist language for a shared human ethic.

Every bell invites “deep listening”: 100 % of body and mind return to the in-breath, out-breath, and touch our true home in the here and now. Each mindful step—“I have arrived. I am home.”—brings solidity, freedom, peace, and joy. Whether brushing teeth, drinking water, or eating a morsel of carrot, full awareness of the miracle of life is enlightenment in action. Walking, sitting, cooking, speaking or observing Noble Silence together generates the collective energy of mindfulness that heals and transforms, building the Sangha and continuing the Buddha.

Paying attention to the in-breath and out-breath brings mind and body back together in the present moment, “the only moment for us to live.” Mindful walking—with every step touching the earth, breathing in to “I have arrived,” breathing out to “I am home”—generates an energy of mindfulness that nourishes, heals, and creates space inside and around us. Freedom and solidity are the two basic conditions of happiness; offering space is the most precious gift we can give to someone we love.

Pebble meditation uses four pebbles to restore essential qualities through mindful breathing. Each pebble is placed and contemplated three breaths before moving on to the next:

1. flower – breathing in “I see myself as a flower,” breathing out “I feel fresh,” restoring freshness
2. mountain – breathing in “I see myself as a mountain,” breathing out “I feel solid,” cultivating stability
3. still water – breathing in “I see myself as still water,” breathing out “I reflect clearly,” realizing Buddha nature
4. space – breathing in “I see myself as space,” breathing out “I feel free,” tending the space inside

Transforming fear, anger, despair and other afflictions happens by “going back to ourself” with mindfulness—recognizing, embracing, and releasing them—so that genuine space arises in us. In that space, true happiness, solidity, freedom and the kingdom of God or Pure Land of the Buddha can be received here and now.

I brought corn seeds to Italy and each child planted one in a pot. When the seed sprouts into a young plant, they are to speak to it: “Do you remember the time you were a seed of corn?” In our bodies every cell carries our father, our mother, and all our ancestors—blood and spiritual (Jesus Christ, the Buddha, and Thầy) are fully present in every cell. This morning the children received the two promises:

1. I vow to cultivate understanding in order to live peacefully with people, animals, plants, and minerals.
2. I vow to develop my compassion in order to love and live happily with people, animals, plants, and minerals.

Looking deeply into the present moment reveals “continuation”: each thought, speech, and action (the triple karma) carries our signature and never disappears. Right thinking—non-discrimination, compassion, understanding—brings well-being to ourselves and the world; wrong thinking—hate, anger, fear, despair—brings suffering. Two wrong views to avoid are nihilism (belief in total cessation at death) and eternalism (belief in an unchanging soul). Buddhist psychology describes eight consciousnesses:
1–5. the five senses

6. mind (thinking, perception)
7. manas (clinging, pleasure-seeking and avoiding, ignoring suffering’s goodness, ignoring moderation)
8. store (the ground containing seeds of mindfulness, concentration, and insight)

Right View transcends notions of birth/death, coming/going, sameness/otherness, being/non-being. Meditating on a flame, a cloud, or a lotus shows that nothing “comes from nothing” nor “dies into nothing,” and that each phenomenon “inter-is” with its conditions. Cultivating mindfulness (smṛti), concentration (samādhi), and insight (prajñā) reveals our true nature—nirvana, the extinction of all views—and forms the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic.

To love is to be there—offering your true presence through mindful breathing and walking so you can look into the eyes of the one you cherish and say, “Darling, I am here for you.” Right presence can be sent by breath, step, phone or email, and becomes the most precious gift you can give.

Thay teaches four mantras of love:

1. “Darling, I am here for you.”
2. “Darling, I know you are there, and I am very happy.”
3. “Darling, I know you suffer; that is why I am here for you.”
4. “Darling, I suffer so much. I don’t understand why you have done such a thing to me. Please explain.”

The Buddha’s four elements of true love (Vô lượng tâm) that grow in any loving relationship are:
• Maitrī (loving-kindness): the intention and capacity to bring happiness by understanding real needs.
• Karuṇā (compassion): the energy to remove pain by deep listening and loving speech.
• Muditā (joy): sharing in each other’s happiness so your joy is mine and mine is yours.
• Upekṣā (non-discrimination/inclusiveness): no frontier between lover and beloved, extending love universally.

If there are three people living in the family, place about four or five cushions in the breathing room—one for guests—and decorate it with a bell and a pot holding a single flower. Whenever you feel upset or angry, enter the breathing room, bow to the bell, invite its sound three times, and breathe in and out three times per bell (nine in-breaths, nine out-breaths). This practice brings peace and calm, and when a child does it, parents often hear the bell, join in, and all three can sit, breathe in, breathing out, smiling—more beautiful than any painting. The breathing room is reserved only for sitting and breathing; anyone who follows you there must sit and listen to the bell. Young people are invited to plan a breathing room at home, help decorate it, and when they hear the small bell, stand up and bow before leaving.

In Plum Village, every movement applies mindful walking. Alone, practice slow walking—one step per in-breath, one per out-breath—saying “I have arrived” on the in-breath and “I am home” on the out-breath, investing 100% body and mind so each step truly lands you in the here and the now, the only place life is available. With the Sangha, you might make two steps while breathing in, “I have arrived. I have arrived,” and three while breathing out, “I am home. I am home. Home.” Bring attention to the sole of the foot, as if kissing the ground: you cultivate solidity (being well-established) and freedom (free of past and future) together. You may use a walking song or gatha—lines such as

1. I have arrived, I am home.
2. In the here and in the now.
3. I am solid, I am free.
4. In the ultimate I dwell.
   to maintain mindfulness and concentration, which always brings happiness.

Because store consciousness holds many “seeds” (bījas)—positive (mindfulness, concentration, insight, love, joy) and negative (anger, fear, despair)—we practice true diligence, or selective watering, in four steps:

1. Prevent negative seeds from manifesting.
2. If a negative seed does manifest, “change the peg” by inviting a wholesome seed to replace it.
3. Arrange to water wholesome seeds before they manifest.
4. When a wholesome seed does manifest as a mental formation (e.g., joy, compassion), keep it alive as long as possible.
   This management of seeds cultivates the three energies in us—mindfulness (smṛti), concentration (samādhi), and insight (prajñā)—allows us to touch and dwell in the kingdom of God or Pure Land here and now, and heals, transforms, and liberates us.

In Plum Village, walking meditation with children brings “freshness” and “innocence,” nourishing both adult and child. The bell is treated as a bodhisattva friend who “helps us to wake up,” so we invite the bell to sound rather than striking it. Even a mini-bell rests on the palm as a lotus-flower cushion: bow, mindful breathing, recite the four-line poem, then proceed.

Mini-bell invitation procedure:

1. Bow, hold bell on palm (imagined as a lotus flower), practice two full in-breath/out-breaths with the poem:
   • “Body, speech, and mind in perfect oneness…”
   • “…I send my heart along with the sound…”
   • “…awaken from forgetfulness…”
   • “…transcend the path of anxiety and sorrow.”
2. Offer a half-sound (“inviter” against bell) and allow one in-breath + one out-breath (8–10 sec) for listeners to prepare.
3. Offer three full sounds; after each, listeners take three in-breaths/out-breaths with the two-line verses:
   • In: “I listen, I really listen (with all my cells).”
   • Out: “This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.”
4. Between sounds, allow extra time for adults to complete their breaths. Lower the bell, bow to it, and the bell-master’s task is complete.

A breathing room at home (a small bell + cushions) allows family members to sit before school or bedtime, or in moments of anger or sadness, to practice listening together and restore peace.

The Sutra on Mindful Breathing offers eight exercises; the first two are:

1. Identify your in-breath as in-breath and out-breath as out-breath.
2. Follow each in-breath (and each out-breath) from beginning to end without interruption.

The Art of Happiness (or The Art to Be Happy) will be the topic for this winter’s three-month retreat, with monastics and Dharma teachers studying Dignāga’s Treaty on the Object of Perception. The next twenty-one-day retreat will be “The Happiness of the Buddha,” exploring how the Buddha “builds his happiness.” Thay and novice monk Pháp Triển have designed a Now watch—1,000 ordered for Deer Park, 300 received—to remind practitioners that every glance can bring mindfulness to “It’s now.” During the last winter retreat, about 300 monastics and laypeople practiced sitting meditation, walking meditation, Dharma discussion, and reflected on a global spirituality, resulting in a new version of the Five Mindfulness Trainings as a Buddhist vision for a global ethic.

At the European Institute of Applied Buddhism (near Cologne), a permanent monastic and lay Sangha offers courses on life’s challenges, including:

1. a 21-day marriage preparation course,
2. a course for young people at odds with parents,
3. a course for parents struggling with children,
4. a course for those in mourning,
5. a course for those diagnosed with cancer or serious illness.
   Participants receive a certificate upon completion and live with the resident Sangha to learn selective watering of seeds of joy or anger.

Mindfulness enables practitioners to recognize and generate moments of happiness by touching the many physical and mental conditions of well-being already available—healthy lungs, a functioning heart, even the simple act of brushing teeth with love. Happiness is recognized against the background of suffering (as when a 24-hour ceasefire brought relief during wartime), and every mindful in-breath and out-breath becomes a source of happiness. A true Sangha carries the living Dharma—visible in peaceful walking, sitting, and smiling—and inter-ares with the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha as the soul of our spiritual family.

What we encounter at retreat is our Sangha—a concrete community of people who each try to be fresh, smiling, attentive, careful, loving, and understanding. Whether sitting, walking, or eating, every member contributes to a solid, relaxed, peaceful Sangha that manifests even after we’ve gone home. Like a cloud that becomes rain or tea yet never vanishes, the Sangha is always there. Wherever you are, help build a Sangha as a “safe island” where people can take refuge, feel happy, and practice peace, joy, and hope.

We take refuge in the three jewels, each interdependent and present in every moment:

1. Sangha – the community that lives in harmony and mindfulness
2. Dharma –
   – spoken Dharma: giving a talk
   – written Dharma: reading a book
   – living Dharma: radiating peace and joy through practice
3. Buddha – not a god but a human being who overcomes suffering through understanding, compassion, and wisdom

Children begin the Q&A by sitting close to Thay, holding the microphone, and together breathing in and out three times before asking a practice-focused question. Questions may be asked aloud or written for Sister Pine; five or six go first, then teenagers and adults.

Thay emphasizes that breathing in and out mindfully was the day he “began to learn the practice of mindful breathing” and discovered he could “bring peace into his body and my mind.” The sutra on mindful breathing’s exercises are:

1. focus on in-breath and out-breath only
2. recognize body while breathing in and out, unifying breath, body, and mind
3. release tension in the body as you breathe
4. use right thinking to transform painful feelings and emotions

Inviting the child within to walk, sit, or have tea with you, you remind him or her each day, “I know that we have grown up as an adult. We have means to protect ourselves,” so fear “will stop slowly.” Memories of the past are “only pictures, images” that continue to project films of suffering unless you “abandon the cinema hall and come into real life.”

Being Peace was proposed over Doing Peace because “if you are peace, then what you do will be for peace.” Peace in the body must come first—releasing tension, relaxing, healing pain—so that peaceful feelings and emotions can follow. Mindfulness, concentration, and insight give the faith and capacity to deal with whatever future or present difficulties arise.

I love you means to offer your freshness, true presence, joy, service, and understanding. We often think we know a tree, a cloud, another person, even ourselves, yet our knowledge is minimal. The story of a young nun who, after three years’ practice, answers “I don’t know who I am yet,” teaches us to stay open to exploring our true self rather than cling to names or labels.

A simple exercise with a grain of corn illustrates “continuation”:

1. Plant a seed in a pot, water and keep it warm.
2. As it sprouts, talk to the plant, asking “Do you remember the time you were a grain of corn?”
3. Patiently show that the plant is the seed’s continuation—you still see the seed alive within its new form.
   Likewise, before birth each of us was a tiny “grain” in our mother’s womb; our parents’ seeds continue in us. In meditation, you learn to see your father and mother alive within yourself, and to reconcile any anger by recognizing they are part of you.

In Buddhist psychology, our store consciousness holds fifty-one categories of seeds—positive (mindfulness, concentration, insight) and negative (ignorance, craving, hate, violence, doubt, etc.). Practice “selective watering”:
• Water joy, peace, and mindfulness seeds daily to nourish them.
• When a negative seed (anger, habit energy) arises, recognize “Hello, anger,” breathe in, smile to it, and refuse to fight or suppress it.
This non-dual, non-violent method transforms habit energies and brings insight. The path—from Right View (insight into inter-being), through Right Thinking, Right Speech, and Right Action, to Right Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration—is expressed concretely in the Five Mindfulness Trainings, offering a global ethic of love, compassion, and healing.

After inviting the bell to sound, breathe in and enjoy your in-breath, breathe out and enjoy your out-breath three times, then allow about ten extra seconds for everyone to complete their three in-breaths and three out-breaths. At home, set up a simple “breathing room” with a bell, cushions (one per family member plus one for a guest), and perhaps a single flower for freshness. Each morning before work or school and each night before sleep, sit together, invite the bell three times, and enjoy nine in-breaths and nine out-breaths. When tension arises in the family, go mindfully into that room, ring the bell, and breathe in and out together to calm and restore peace.

True love is first of all offering and recognizing presence:

1. Two mantras to practice—“Darling, I’m here for you” (offering your presence) and “Darling, I know you are there, and I’m very happy” (recognizing their presence).
2. Deep listening and loving speech to understand the other’s suffering before offering consolation.
3. The four unlimited elements of love:
   1. Maitrī (loving-kindness),
   2. Karuṇā (compassion),
   3. Muditā (sympathetic joy),
   4. Upekṣā (equanimity, non-discrimination).

With mindful breathing and presence, each moment—whether ringing a classroom bell every fifteen minutes, proposing a bell in Congress, or walking slowly step by step—is an opportunity to live happily in the here and now and to cultivate understanding, compassion, and joy.

We just finished the Summer Opening in Plum Village about five days ago with young people and children from fifty nationalities enjoying Sitting Meditation, Walking Meditation, Dharma Talk and deepening together in Noble Silence. Children practiced mindful walking and breathing, generating “the energy of peace, of joy” without TV or games. One young mother breastfed her baby in the hall, and both mother and child were nourished by mother’s milk and by “living Dharma” in the Noble Silence created by over a thousand people breathing together.

Listening to the bell invites every cell in the body to practice deep listening, creating Noble Silence for collective peace and joy. As a Bell Master you:

1. Wake up the bell with a half-sound
2. Offer time for “one in-breath and one out-breath”
3. Invite the first full sound with three in-breaths and three out-breaths while reciting:
   – I listen, I listen
   – This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home
4. Repeat for the second and third full sounds
5. End with bowing to the Sangha

The Buddha’s first eight exercises of mindful breathing are:

1. Identification of the in-breath as in-breath and the out-breath as out-breath
2. Following the in-breath and out-breath from beginning to end
3. “Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body.”
4. “Breathing in, I release the tension in my body.”
5. Bringing in a feeling of joy
6. Bringing in a feeling of happiness
7. Recognizing the pain, the sorrow, the distress, the despair in us
8. Releasing the tension in painful feeling

Practicing these steps generates mindfulness, concentration and insight, enabling us to touch the miracles of life, embrace our suffering and cultivate lasting peace and joy.