The Wisdom of Adaptation: Bridging Conventional and Ultimate Truths

Thầy begins with a question from the Rohitassa Sutta in which the god Rohitassa asks if there is a way to get out of this world of suffering by traveling. The Buddha tells him that he cannot escape the world of suffering by traveling even at the speed of light, but that it is possible just by looking into his body, with enough mindfulness and concentration, he will get the insight of no-birth, no-death–and that will help him get out of the world of suffering.

Thầy offers a detailed teaching on realizing this insight of the Buddha through the wisdom of adaptation, showing how to bridge the conventional and ultimate truths. He explores the interconnectedness of non-self and ancestral healing, drawing parallels between Newtonian science, quantum physics, and the nature of conditioned and unconditioned dharmas.

Thầy teaches: “You are not only conditioned; you are conditioning.” He explores interbeing, the Middle Way, and the transcendence of pairs such as sameness and otherness, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, and subject and object. He further clarifies the true nature of perception and the relationship between the creator and the created, concluding with Spinoza’s insight that “God is nature.”

At the end of the talk, Thầy comes back to Rohitassa’s question about a way to escape suffering. He says: “The conclusion of this talk is that there is a way. There is a way that leads you from the realm of the conventional truth to the realm of absolute truth, and the wisdom that you may use to do that is called the wisdom of adaptation.”

This is the twenty-fifth talk in a series of thirty-five given during the 2012-2013 Winter Retreat. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.