In this first dharma talk of the Winter Retreat, Thầy shares about how to find peace, happiness, and healing in our breath and our steps.

Today’s society is organized in such a way that we live with a lot of pressure. We are pushed by the habit energy of running, and always looking for something to make us happy. Thầy teaches us how mindful breathing and mindful walking help us stop running. If we breathe and walk in such a way that we find peace and happiness, we are nourished and we can be healed. If we walk with an idea to achieve something, we are still running. But just the willingness to stop alone is not stopping. Thầy reminds us that we need insight to be able to really stop.

Thầy introduces foundational teachings from the Manifestation Only school of Buddhism: the fifty-one mental formations (including the five universals and the five particulars), as well as store and mind consciousness. When seeds in our store consciousness are touched, they become mental formations. Mindfulness and concentration are two mental formations that grow together. When both of them are powerful enough, we will get insight. Insight can help free us from our suffering and illusion, and help us to really stop. We can touch the insight that running cannot get us anywhere, it is not bringing us happiness. Then we can be in touch with the wonders of life again.

Thầy also shares about the mental formation called ease, one of seven factors of enlightenment. Ease helps us to heal, and we can cultivate ease through mindful breathing and walking. Restlessness is mental formation of the opposite nature. When we are restless, we don’t know what to do. We don’t know how to handle the suffering and loneliness in ourselves, and we keep doing things to cover up our loneliness and suffering. Restlessness can compel us to work or to seek refuge in our electronic deices to distract ourselves.

Thầy encourages us to stop running, to recognize our restlessness and suffering, and to transform the energy of restlessness in us. By looking deeply at our habit energies, we will find insight that liberates us. With insight, we can stop running. We can recognize that time is more than money, time is life. And we can live simply, deeply, and happily.

Thầy shares that the Sangha will continue learning the teachings of the Manifestation Only school and how to apply them to daily life throughout the Winter Retreat.

This the first talk of the 2013-2014 Winter Retreat. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The details of this Dharma Talk took place on November 21, 2013, at the Full Moon Meditation Hall, Từ Nghiêm Temple, Plum Village. Thầy recounts the meeting with the young poet Quách Thoại in 1949 in Saigon under French control. Thầy shares about the reverence for the delicate beauty of flowers and the connection between natural beauty and art in literature. He emphasizes that everything manifests the teachings of no birth and no death, and every sound contains a profound message. He explains that everything manifests from a common foundation called “alaya” or “store consciousness.” He deeply analyzes the concepts of manifestation and non-manifestation in Buddhism, emphasizing that everything exists in an unclear form of manifestation. He also discusses the cultivation of mindfulness energy through breathing and listening to the bell, focusing on the cultivation of mindfulness, concentration, and insight to nourish the body and mind. He encourages building a collective practice community to enhance positive energy and reduce suffering for everyone. He emphasizes that all manifestations are interconnected between the individual and the collective, and everything exists in parallel and reflects each other.

Practice is to “generate” joy, happiness, and peace through the three energies of mindfulness, concentration, and insight: in every step, every breath, whether sweeping the floor or brushing your teeth, if you maintain these three energies, joy, happiness, and peace will naturally be present. A practitioner knows how to make use of every action to generate mindfulness, concentration, and insight, and from there, peace and happiness overflow; if these three energies are not present, even if you practice for a long time, it is difficult to transform suffering.

The Four Noble Truths consist of four realities: (1) Suffering, (2) The Cause – the cause of suffering is the lack of mindfulness, concentration, and insight, (3) The Cessation – the absence of suffering, which is happiness, (4) The Path – the path of happiness. The path is not a means to happiness; the path itself is happiness: “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” Each step, each word, each thought, and each action must carry the essence of peace and happiness, being both the path and the destination in this very moment.

Hearing the bell invites every cell in our body to participate, so that the wholesome energy of mindfulness deeply penetrates; within each cell, our ancestors, parents, and descendants are all present and enjoy peace. When we hear the bell, the listener and the sound of the bell become one, there is no longer any distinction between subject and object, the one who hears and what is heard become a seamless whole.

The five universal mental formations arise very quickly, including:

• Contact (xúc): the state of vibration when sense organ, sense object, and consciousness come together, serving as the basis and foundation for feeling.
• Attention (manaskāra): the mental action of directing the mind toward an object, of which there are two kinds:
  • Appropriate attention (Yoni­so manaskāra) leads the mind to beneficial objects.
  • Inappropriate attention (Ayoniso manaskāra) leads the mind into afflictions.
• Feeling (vedanā): the sensation of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
• Perception (saññā): the abstraction of the sign of the object, helping with recognition but also capable of deception.
• Volition (cetana): the will that urges the mind to act, leading to actions of love-hate, grasping-rejection.

Mindfulness (anusmṛti) intervenes as soon as contact and attention arise, to maintain mindfulness, to transform feeling and perception in the direction of peace and happiness. Alayavijñāna — store consciousness — preserves all seeds, both constant and changing, serving as the foundation for the arising of the other six consciousnesses and for the maturation (vipāka) of each moment.

According to the theory of “no-birth, no-separation between Buddha and living beings,” Buddha and living beings are not separate: “without living beings, there can be no Buddha,” just as the lotus cannot bloom without the mud. All things arise from conditions (earth, water, fire, wind, plants, animals…), and the Buddha also contains living beings, suffering, and afflictions that have been transformed. Happiness, enlightenment, and insight are all impermanent and require continued practice by “using suffering, afflictions, and ignorance as the very materials to build enlightenment,” just as the World-Honored One continued to practice walking meditation, sitting meditation, and mindfulness of breathing. When we breathe gently and sit in stillness, “the Buddha breathes with our lungs, sits with our spine,” and there is no longer any boundary between self and others, transcending all dualities.

The Alaya Consciousness (store consciousness) preserves and maintains the seeds of karma, the five sense faculties (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body), and the physical form. It manifests in two main ways:

1. Appropriation – receiving and maintaining the seeds;
2. Locality – “emplacement,” the place where body and mind exist.

The entire process of transformation in the Alaya Consciousness is “inconceivable” (asamviditaka), beyond the capacity of words and thought, wondrous like the way children absorb the French language from their environment.

To be born as a human being with a limited lifespan of about one hundred years is a precious opportunity to live deeply, to cherish each present moment instead of running after money, power, or fame. Practicing mindfulness through daily gathas, walking meditation, sitting meditation, or through ordinary activities such as drinking tea or sweeping the house helps to nurture the quality of life, bringing peace, joy, and happiness right in each step and each breath. The path of the Dharma is not to escape from life, but to generate the energy of love and understanding, in harmony with science and philosophy, helping us to transform suffering and difficulties into insight and deep love.

In the study of Manifestation-Only, all phenomena—self and dharmas—arise thanks to the store consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) with its seeds (vāsanā) that are always arising and passing away, transforming and continuing. From there arise the seven evolving consciousnesses (manas, mind consciousness, and the five sense consciousnesses), which both perfume the store consciousness with wholesome and unwholesome, happiness and suffering, and serve as the intermediaries manifesting the world. Understanding the impermanent, interdependent, and interpenetrating nature of the seeds helps us to let go of attachment, to maintain insight, happiness, and lasting liberation.

• Six characteristics of seeds in the store consciousness
  1. Arising and ceasing in every instant—impermanent
  2. Continuous succession—like a flowing river
  3. Determinate nature—only manifesting corresponding results
  4. Collective conditions—requiring sufficient conditions to manifest
  5. Leading from result—maintaining the relationship between cause and effect
  6. Individual manifestation and collective manifestation (sva and saha vijñapti)—manifesting both as individuals and as a community

New year, new me – the two calligraphic phrases welcoming Tet 2013 at Still Water Meditation Hall remind us that “When the person is happy, the scenery will also be happy”: joy arises from the mind and illuminates the circumstances, not the other way around. The concise English version “New year, new me” encourages us to transform ourselves, while the French “Année nouvelle, je me renouvelle” and “La joie en soi, la joie tout autour” express the inner joy that radiates outward. The practice of printing these phrases on red paper helps to renew body and mind, and to spread peace and happiness within the family and society.

“Going forth” means stepping out of the small family to join the great spiritual family of the Buddha Shakyamuni, letting go of old identities to live simply, celibately, and wholly in service to life. Ordination – as with the 27 young people who have just been “planted” – brings body and mind into the great work of the Sangha, letting go of the separate self in order to share in the collective suffering and joy, like fingers on one hand.

Buddhadharma must always be renewed to be “appropriate to the times”:

1. sowing the seeds of mindfulness, altruism, and joy in the store consciousness;
2. transcending the duality of mind and object to practice non-duality;
3. renewing forms of practice – from the Wake Up program for young people to the Five-Year Ordination;
4. simplifying ceremonies while keeping their deep meaning (Sanghakarman, the Five Mindfulness Trainings).
   Only when the teachings are in harmony with human needs and circumstances can they remain fresh and continue the revolutionary work of the Tathagata.

• When we hear the sound of the bell, “breathing in gently, breathing out gently,” we are no longer “separate individuals but merge into a single sangha body.” This is the phenomenon of synchronization: just like “millions of neurons … always communicating and working together,” water below 0°C crystallizing into ice, laser beams being created when “atoms are stimulated … emitting photons … in phase,” and the Bose–Einstein condensate—“each particle is no longer separate but merges into one.” That collective power is “a thousand times stronger” and has the capacity to heal, nourish, and deeply transform.

• In the study of Consciousness-only (Vijnanavada), the store consciousness (alaya-vijnana) is “indeterminate” (neither wholesome nor unwholesome) but contains all seeds. According to the Yoga-Sasatra, there are “twenty-two faculties”: the six sense faculties, three faculties of masculinity, femininity, and vitality, five feeling faculties, five faculties of Faith, Diligence, Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight, and three undefiled faculties (what should be known, what has been known, and complete knowing). These three undefiled seeds “rely on” the store consciousness but are not embraced by “retribution,” and are the pure source leading to liberation.

In the nonviolence retreats that began in 2006 at UNESCO, Paris, with the support of Frédéric Mayor, there was a proposal to establish a training center so that teachers could learn methods to transform the energy of violence in the classroom—according to statistics in 2006, there were up to 88,000 cases of school violence in France. Plum Village drafted and published two materials, Anger and Creating True Peace, as textbooks for the Wake Up School movement, which have been sent to many countries (Bhutan, India, Thailand, France, the United States, the United Kingdom). Direct cooperation with UNESCO, the United Nations (proposing ten years of nonviolence practice for young people), and the Ministry of Education of Vietnam is expected to bring this practice into schools, helping teachers and students together create an environment of peace and loving-kindness.

In the teachings of Manifestation-Only (Vijnaptimatra), the eighth consciousness—Alaya (store consciousness)—is fundamentally indeterminate (neither wholesome nor unwholesome, neither defiled nor pure), serving as the common ground for all dharmas, containing the seeds of the six realms of samsāra and nirvana. These six realms are:

1. the heavenly realm (deva)
2. human
3. Asura
4. hell
5. hungry ghost (preta)
6. animal

From Alaya arises both birth-and-death and liberation; they inter-are—whenever the six realms are strong, nirvana is weak, and vice versa; the outflows and the non-outflows also rely on each other. When we practice transformation, Alaya becomes the mirror-like wisdom (immaculate consciousness), containing only wholesome seeds, in harmony with the five particular mental formations (desire, determination, mindfulness, concentration, insight), manifesting the clarity and freedom of true understanding.

*The store consciousness (alaya) operates together with the seven universal mental formations: contact, attention, feeling, perception, volition, concentration (one-pointedness), and vitality. A key mental formation is volition (cetanā) – the will, the aspiration to accomplish something – not just a fleeting thought but a “true intention,” a persistent motivation that nourishes our vitality. When true intention is lacking, a person loses their vitality; on the other hand, even a negative aspiration such as the desire for revenge can generate a powerful energy. Recognizing our own true intention – for example, the Bodhi mind in Prince Siddhartha before his renunciation – is the first step to living a meaningful life, transforming suffering, and nurturing the joy of sharing with the sangha, family, and loved ones.

*The store consciousness also has the function of storing seeds, learning (imprinting), maturating (ripening), and self-healing, similar to a hard drive or a pot of beans being simmered: it preserves, arranges, and “cooks” experiences, helping body and mind to heal themselves. Thanks to store consciousness, the main manifestation (body, six sense organs) and the supporting conditions (environment) arise; it drives retribution – the continuous arising and passing away in every instant and over a lifetime. Impermanence exists on two levels: in each instant (every moment of arising and passing away) and over a lifetime (the stages of human life), creating the unceasing flow of birth and death. Understanding and living deeply in each present moment, allowing the old to “die” so the new can be “born,” is the practice of Applied Buddhism, transforming the ideal into each breath and step of daily life.

We sow karma every day through right thinking, right speech, and bodily actions, nourishing love and understanding in order to harvest wholesome fruits for the present and the future. Family life—each shared meal, moments of sitting silently together, or practicing mindful walking at Plum Village—are means to cultivate ease and brotherhood. Ease is not merely the absence of busyness, but the cutting off of the ropes that bind the soul—vimukti, or liberation—which arise from

1. busyness
2. worry
3. anger
4. craving
5. jealousy
6. fear
7. inferiority complex
8. delusion

Only when we sever these chains can we have inner freedom, perceive the simple beauty of each moment, and nurture happiness in every step, every breath, and every mouthful of food.

In the Buddha’s teaching, store consciousness (alaya) is the beginningless ground that nourishes all actions and phenomena—both the main manifestation (our form) and the environment—while mind consciousness (mano vijñāna) and the five sense consciousnesses are only the surface manifestations. When we practice mindfulness—sitting, walking, eating, chanting—mind consciousness creates “neural pathways” that penetrate deeply into store consciousness, transforming the practice into a living action and leading to liberation.

The Dharma body (Sanskrit: Dharmakaya) is the indestructible body of the teachings and the practice, which the Buddha has transmitted to each disciple from ancient times, alongside the physical body that is subject to decay. The Dharma body shines most radiantly in the morning—when the mind is clear and the body is healthy—because at this time, each peaceful breath and each mindful step in walking meditation help to nourish the practice body. If our Dharma body is weak, we will not have enough solidity to generate joy, happiness, or to handle suffering. After about forty days of conditioning at Plum Village, the sound of the bell and the images of walking meditation become natural reflexes, reinforcing the Dharma body even when the sangha is not present.

The Dharma body is nourished not only during sitting meditation (thirty to forty-five minutes in the morning) but throughout all daily activities when we practice the four elements:

• letting go
• concentration
• mindfulness
• insight
  These help to generate the three core states—joy, happiness, and ease—and at the same time are concrete methods to face, embrace, and to transform suffering, avoiding the “second arrow” caused by our additional reactions. When the Dharma body is strong, we can nourish ourselves and radiate joy and peace to our family, our sangha, and society.

Sitting in stillness, heart at peace, lips smiling—seven simple words, yet deeply imbued with essence, reminding us that when we sit in meditation in the morning, we must harmonize the three karmas:

• body at ease (sitting truly still)
• mind at peace (calm and settled)
• speech gentle (a gentle smile)

When the three karmas are purified, then “the holy face appears”—we can see the serene Buddha in each breath.

“The fifth watch has come, the Dharma door opens; the first watch has come, we ascend the meditation hall, when the three karmas are purified, the holy face appears”—meaning, when dawn arrives, the Dharma door opens, and we need to purify body, speech, and mind so that the Dharmakāya shines forth with the morning light. To realize the Three Vehicles (Śrāvaka, Pratyekabuddha, Bodhisattva) is to penetrate the teachings of the three vehicles, harmonizing the two truths (conventional truth and ultimate truth), embracing both the relative and the absolute in our practice.

Walking, eating, and breathing with mindfulness is the path that brings us freedom in every moment:

• each step is filled with peace, joy, and happiness, transcending “walking as if chased by ghosts”
• each in-breath is a moment of concentration, letting go of sorrow, awakening inner freedom
• eating in the present moment is to be in full contact with life and the Sangha

Through this, we directly experience all things as the wondrous Dharmakāya, and at the same time, recognize the store consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna)—which contains seeds, sense faculties, and the world—as the ever-present foundation leading us to direct realization of ultimate reality, transcending all dualities of being–nonbeing, good–evil.

Details of this Dharma Talk include Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on the misunderstanding of the concept of “Emptiness” and the distinction between “Emptiness” and “Non-being.” He warns of the dangers of mistranslation and emphasizes that right view is a crucial element in Buddhism. He explains that everything contains causes and effects, similar to matter and energy. He also speaks about the interdependence between form and emptiness, matter and spirit, and emphasizes that everything is in constant transformation. He provides a deep analysis of the interrelation between happiness and suffering, encouraging the acceptance of suffering to achieve happiness. He teaches that everything exists in dependence on each other, not independently, and that perception is always divided into the perceiving part and the perceived part. He also emphasizes that everything depends on the surrounding environment and that the contrast between subject and object is the foundation of perception.

Some people can stay only seven days, a month, three months, or three years; even a week can be a lot if we know how to use our time to practice mindfulness. This practice helps to generate peace, joy, and happiness in every step, every breath; mindfulness dwelling in the present moment, recognizing body-feeling-mind. Practicing mindfulness for one week can increase our strength two or three times, and happiness can rise from two out of ten to nine out of ten, even ten out of ten, thanks to insight—the deep seeing that arises from the energy of awareness.

In all activities—breathing, walking, eating, standing, sitting, brushing your teeth, or urinating—mindfulness helps us to let go of the past and the future to dwell peacefully in this very moment, thereby generating joy, happiness, and peace. The practice can rely on the collective energy at Plum Village, but it can also be maintained in the city. Thanks to mindfulness, remembering past experiences of suffering and happiness, we cherish our breath and understand how to transform suffering into the lotus of insight.

Plum Village reminds us that even after becoming a Buddha, happiness and insight are still impermanent; it is necessary to practice regularly—from sitting meditation, walking meditation, silent meals, to going on retreat—in order to strengthen and persevere, not to be swept away by the hurried pace of life. The story with Father Daniel Berrigan shows that practicing slowly and wholeheartedly is like a raft that takes us across the river, but it is not the final shore; only when our steps and our breath are firmly rooted in mindfulness can we maintain peace amidst the chaos of life.

In the talk, Thay also tells the story of the Buddha inviting Mara into the meditation cave, symbolizing the non-dual nature between good and evil, Mara and Buddha, compassion and delusion. In Vietnam, the legend of spreading the monk’s robe represents the vast territory of the Buddha’s practice, recalled through the New Year’s bamboo pole on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month and the custom of making square and round sticky rice cakes—so that each family may maintain mindfulness, generate happiness, and reduce suffering during the ten days of Tet.

Key concepts in the teaching on Manifestation-Only (Vijnaptimatra) include:

• Indeterminate (avyākṛta)—neither wholesome nor unwholesome, neither with outflows nor without outflows
• Store consciousness (alaya-vijnana) contains seeds that are “neither existent nor non-existent” and are subject to momentary impermanence
• Interbeing and interdependence—subject and object, good and evil, birth and death… all “are each other” and rely on each other to manifest
• Momentary impermanence and lifetime impermanence—continuous transformation in every instant and throughout the cycle of a human life, not just at the moment of death

When we encounter difficulties in communication, we often blame the other person and forget to look back at ourselves. Both sides carry their own conflicts and inner struggles; only when we know how to love ourselves and love them, to recognize the loneliness, sorrow, and anger in ourselves and in them, will our hearts feel lighter. Mindful breathing is the main path that leads us back to our body and mind:

• First is regulating the breath—harmonizing the breath so that it becomes gentle, not hurried or rough.
• Next is regulating the body—sitting upright but relaxed, not tense.
  By maintaining mindfulness and concentration on the breath (in and out, deep and slow) for a few minutes, the breath will become gentle and soft, bringing peace to body and mind.

Store consciousness (the eighth consciousness), manas or the faculty of appropriation (the seventh consciousness), and the consciousnesses that perceive objects (the first to the sixth consciousnesses) are the three kinds of consciousness in Manifestation-only Buddhist psychology; among them:

1. Store consciousness is “direct and true perception,” containing seeds—formless seeds that give rise to myriad forms and appearances.
2. The first characteristic of seeds is momentary impermanence, always changing; the second characteristic is cause and effect are not separate;
3. The fifth characteristic is waiting for conditions—a seed only manifests when the conditions are sufficient;
4. The sixth characteristic is neither existent nor non-existent—it cannot be determined as existing or not existing according to fixed concepts.

The life faculty consists of rupa jivita (physical life faculty) and nama jivitindriya (mental life faculty): form (matter) and name (feeling, perception, mental formation, consciousness) are present as soon as the body is formed, inseparable from the life source of both mother and child. The boundary between sentient and insentient is not clear—a corn kernel, a speck of dust, a subatomic particle, or a cloud, a star, all contain vitality and consciousness, manifestations of a common life faculty of the universe.

Practicing mindfulness to live deeply, to generate peace and joy through three main activities:

1. Breathing: when the bell sounds, breathe in for 4 seconds, breathe out for 6 seconds, for a total of 9 breaths; recognize each breath, let go of worries, generate mindfulness–concentration–insight.
2. Walking meditation: each “legendary” step is connected with the breath, walking slowly (“slow walking”) to nourish joy, whether alone or with the sangha.
3. Eating: mindfulness of rice and mindfulness of the sangha, chewing at least 30 times, maintaining mindfulness, savoring the gift of earth and sky and the sangha in every bite of rice.

Dharma talk on February 9, 2014, Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France. Applying the first 8 breaths in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing to generate peace and happiness.