In this retreat Dharma talk, our teacher explores the healing power of taking refuge in our body, feelings, perceptions, and mental formations. He offers many concrete practices that heal: looking deeply, understanding our ignorance, trusting our body, mindful breathing, stopping and resting, fasting, embracing the present moment, offering gratitude to our body, enjoying our practice, sitting meditation, walking meditation, acknowledging the wonders of life, quieting the mind.

This is the second talk in a series given during “The Path of Emancipation,” twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1998. Thay offered this talk at St. Michael’s College, Burlington, Vermont, in the United States.

Thay continues on The Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, c. 20 BCE)–Mindfulness of body, Mindfulness of feelings, Mindfulness of mind (mental formations), and Mindfulness of dharmas (or objects of mind)–drawing also upon the “16 Exercises on the Full Awareness of Breathing” in The Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Ānāpānasati Sutta). Thay recommences with how to work with the three categories of feelings–pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant—and how they in turn often are preconditioned by our body and by our mental formations.—All are interconnected. We tend to overemphasize what we do not like—the unpleasant, our suffering—often failing to appreciate all that is neutral or going well. Thay then turns to the Four Nutriments, in particular what we eat as food; what we consume via sense impressions, such as through media; and what we tell ourselves (or are told by culture) that motivates us, our volitions. His teaching is that we often mindlessly consume and fail to recognize how what we consume determines our ill-being or our well-being. He prescribes recognizing what we consume that brings us ill-being, practicing mindfulness of our mental formations, and choosing the volitions of loving kindness and compassion. Thay counsels us to go to our true home, sit with our avoidance of self-knowing, and take care of our wounded and unattended child, which is our sorrow, our sense of failure, our depression, etc. Thay closes the talk with practical meditation guidelines for how to work with mindfulness to take care of recurring mental formations and embrace those that feed us with well-being and joy.

This is the third talk in a series given during The Path of Emancipation, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1998. Thay offered this talk at St. Michael’s College, Burlington, Vermont, in the United States.

Thay presents the tenth exercise, Gladdening the Mind, from the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing. He explores selective watering: cultivating positive seeds and avoiding watering negative seeds. Thay then moves to the eleventh exercise, Concentrating our Mind, offering teachings on mindfulness, making a peace treaty with ourselves and our beloveds, the practice of beginning anew and embracing our suffering in order to transform it.

This is the sixth talk in a series given during The Path of Emancipation, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1998. Thay offered this talk at St. Michael’s College, Burlington, Vermont, in the United States.

Thay explores interbeing and non-discrimination, looking at the four notions to let go of: self, human beings, living beings and life span, from the Diamond Sutra. He then goes onto the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, focusing on the objects of desire and craving, as a path to suffering instead of happiness. Thay shares a wonderful story about a young stream and her journey to the ocean.

This is the penultimate talk in a series given during The Path of Emancipation, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1998. Thay offered this talk at St. Michael’s College, Burlington, Vermont, in the United States.

Thay explores the Six Pāramitās: generosity (dāna; 布施), diligence ( vīrya; 精進), the Mindfulness Trainings (śīla; 持戒), inclusiveness (kṣānti; 忍辱), meditation (dhyāna; 禪定) and insight (prajñā; 般若), as ways of crossing over to the other shore, the shore of well-being. He then advises practices to do in daily life when returning home from a retreat, such as creating a breathing room, practicing at work, encouraging children to participate, building sangha and more.

This is the last talk in a series given during The Path of Emancipation, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1998. Thay offered this talk at St. Michael’s College, Burlington, Vermont, in the United States.