Thay details the significance of Sangha, emphasizing unity, mindfulness, and collective intelligence akin to bees, ants, and termites. Living in Sangha supports spiritual practice, diminishes suffering, and enhances joy. Mindfulness in daily activities like walking and eating nurtures the Sangha and individual well-being, and leads to concentration and insight, connecting us to life’s wonders and ultimate dimensions. Building Sangha is crucial in a world plagued by individualism and compassion.

This is the first talk of a series of twelve given during The Eyes of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet in Plum Village, France.

The wisdom of non-discrimination, or Nevikampanana, is a reality observed in the way the right hand naturally tends to the left hand’s pain without a sense of separate self. Like bees in a hive or ants in a hill, practitioners function as an organism rather than individuals. When one cooks, cleans, or speaks for the community, they do so with the energy and hand of the Sangha. This collective strength brings joy and protects the practitioner from the suffering of the individual self.

Freedom from suffering is found by transcending three kinds of complexes based on the notion of self:

1. The complex of superiority.
2. The complex of inferiority.
3. The complex of being equal.
   In the ultimate dimension, the past and future are present in the now. When one walks mindfully or smiles in awareness, all ancestors and future generations smile and walk within every cell of the body. This practice is healing and nourishing, allowing one to arrive in the here and now for the benefit of the entire Sangha.

The Buddha is recognized through several bodies available to every practitioner:

• Dharmakaya (Dharma body): The spiritual body that manifests when living the Dharma; it is more important than the physical form, as shown in the story of the monk Vakali. The Dharma is characterized by addressing the here and now, being Karika (timeless), and inviting one to come and see for themselves.
• Sanghakaya (Sangha body): The community as a concrete expression of practice and a refuge for all beings, living according to the Six Togetherness.
• Nirmanakaya (Transformation body): The many forms through which the Buddha and practitioners continue to manifest, transcending birth and death.
• Sambhogakaya (Enjoyment body): The body of joy and satisfaction.

This talk details the exploration of the Fourfold Sangha during a 21-day retreat at Lower Hamlet’s Dharma Nectar Temple. The Sangha comprises four parts: fully ordained monks, fully ordained nuns, laymen (Upasaka), and laywomen (Upasika). Lay practitioners follow the Five Mindfulness Trainings and participate in Sangha Karma. The Sangha operates collectively, emphasizing practice, harmony, and mutual support. Regular gatherings and mindful activities strengthen the Sangha’s unity. Plum Village practices vegetarianism naturally, without attachments to possessions or money, fostering simplicity and freedom. The Sangha teaches letting go of attachments for security and peace. Cultivating Sangha and Dharma bodies is essential for stability and interconnectedness, transforming both mind and body through mindfulness, concentration, and insight. Understanding suffering through the Four Noble Truths guides the Sangha’s practice. The Sangha eyes provide collective wisdom, guiding individual growth and harmony. Decisions are made collectively, emphasizing democratic traditions and interconnectedness.

Thay discusses the Buddha’s teaching on the Four Nutriments, namely edible food, sense impressions, volition and consciousness. Through stories from the time of the Buddha and our present time, Thay teaches about the transformative power of mindfulness and simple living, how to nourish true love and transform suffering through understanding, deep listening and loving speech, insights on how our deep desires can lead to happiness or suffering and the nature of consciousness as individual and collective.

This is the fourth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet in Plum Village, France.

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Thay discusses the importance of cultivating mindfulness and practicing in harmony as a Sangha. Thay emphasizes collective mindfulness, compassion, and understanding, practices that guide us toward liberation and joy. The Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness, awareness, and liberation from suffering are highlighted, stressing the importance of non-attachment to views and doctrines. The Buddha’s eyes symbolize clarity and perception of ultimate reality, transcending notions and concepts. The teachings caution against rigid beliefs and attachments, advocating openness, humility, and liberating the mind. The essence of Buddhist practice is freeing oneself from fixed perspectives, leading to true happiness and Nirvana.

This is the fifth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of The Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village. France.

Thay teaches us that all emotions are impermanent and pass with time. He teaches us how to take care of ourselves and how to handle strong emotions. He offers concrete practices for embracing our despair and encourages us to be in touch with our ancestors for support and healing. He also teaches ways to cultivate love and understanding.

This is the sixth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of The Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village. France.

Thay details the transformative power of mindfulness and compassion in healing the scars of war, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all beings and the illusion of a separate self. Reflecting on the Vietnam War and advocating for peace since 1966, mindfulness helps embrace suffering, transforming it into tranquility. Understanding the Five Skandhas—form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness—reduces unnecessary suffering. Buddhism recognizes fifty-one mental formations, both wholesome and unwholesome. Consciousness holds these formations, manifesting based on conditions. Meditation nurtures mindfulness, transforming negativity gently. Understanding interconnectedness reveals the absence of a separate self, emphasizing manifestation over creation. The Diamond Sutra teaches recognizing the four marks of existence: self, man, living beings, and lifespan. Understanding interconnectedness reduces hatred and cultivates compassion. Practices shared with prisoners emphasize mindfulness and compassion. The teachings of non-self are tools for liberation, emphasizing aimlessness and present happiness. Meditation reveals timeless essence, freeing from notions of liberation and nirvana. Aimlessness is a tool for immediate happiness, recognizing life’s wonders in the present. Forming mindful lay communities can benefit society, drawing wisdom from monastic practices.

This is the seventh talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of The Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village. France.

The practice of mindfulness begins with returning to the breath and steps to establish a sense of safety and security within the environment of the Sangha. By not closing our eyes to suffering, we get in touch with the first holy truth, allowing for transformation and healing. The Sangha functions not as a collection of individuals but as an organism where every member is a cell, and decisions are made through the collective Sangha eyes. This communal harmony serves as a refuge and the main Dharma talk for those seeking peace.

Mindful breathing is a tool for healing both physiological and psychological distress, such as severe depression. Every deep, mindful breath renews billions of blood cells with oxygen, supporting the healthy cells so they can embrace those that are not healthy. Establishing oneself in the present moment allows one to get in touch with the miracles of life, such as the eyes, the heart, and the beautiful Earth. This shift from worrying about the future or regretting the past enables the work of transformation, as seen in the story of a man who transformed a terminal diagnosis into fifteen years of True Life by learning to enjoy a simple cup of tea and the present moment.

The practice of the Three Touchings of the Earth facilitates deep reconciliation:

1. The first touching: recognizing the presence of all ancestors and posterity within oneself. We are a continuation of our parents and ancestors, carrying their wisdom and their shortcomings. Understanding this allows for forgiveness and the transformation of negative habit energies.
2. The second touching: recognizing all living beings and bodhisattvas in the present moment. This practice of non-discrimination fosters reconciliation between nations and individuals.
   Through these practices, we realize the insight of inter-being (tương tức or pratītyasamutpāda). Just as mitochondria live within our cells in symbiosis, we cannot be by ourselves alone; to be is to inter-be with the entire cosmos.

Our practice of transformation and healing is to go back to the present moment in order to get in touch with both the positive elements and also the suffering that is present in us and around us. Thay talks about the three causes of ill-being in our current time: loneliness and individualism, violence and intolerance, fear and uncertainty. He tells us that we should get together and address these issues together as a sangha.
Thay presents Buddhist teachings on dependent co-arising, interbeing, emptiness, the middle path, pairs of opposites like birth and death, being and non-being, and the three doors of liberation. When we hear these teachings we should ask what they have to do with our suffering, both individual and collective. The Dharma should address the real issues, the real suffering, of our times for healing and transformation of ourselves and society.

This is the eighth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

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This talk details the profound concept of “this is because that is” through the 12 links, Nidana, highlighting interconnectedness and causality. Ignorance (Avijja) clouds perception, but mindful examination can dissolve its grip. Ignorance extends to Sangha, encompassing bodies and minds. Pratitya Samutpada signifies dependent arising, emphasizing interdependence. Ignorance leads to formations, consciousness depends on formations, and Nagarjuna illustrates cause and result arising together. Consciousness resides in nama rupa (name and form), crucial for senses. Practicing mindfulness transforms consciousness into mirror wisdom. Feelings (Vedana) arise from contact and senses, leading to craving. Buddha teaches mindfulness to break cycles of craving, grasping, and suffering. Understanding impermanence aids in letting go of attachments. Buddha emphasizes self-discovery of teachings. Anuradha’s inquiry illustrates Buddha’s teachings on existence and aggregates. Sutra discusses avoiding extremes and practicing the middle way for peace, joy, and compassion.

The Middle Path transcends all pairs of opposites, such as being and nonbeing, or coming and going. This teaching is grounded in four technical terms:

1. pratitya-samutpada (dependent co-arising)
2. shunyata (emptiness)
3. prajnapti (metaphor or conventional designation)
4. madhyama (the Middle Path)
   Phenomena arise when conditions are sufficient and stop manifesting when they are not. There is action and retribution, but no separate self or actor. Everything is a conventional designation, including the self (atman) and things (dharma). In the light of interbeing, the word I is only a metaphor, as the one is made of the all.

The very small contains the very large; the whole cosmos can be seen in a flower or on the tip of a hair. This mirrors the implicate order in physics, where things are inside each other. Every somatic cell contains the totality of the body’s genetic heritage and the information of all ancestors. Reality manifests like a wavicle or namarupa (name and form), appearing sometimes as matter and sometimes as mind. In a particle of dust, there are countless buddhas, and one second contains eternity.

Every cell and mental formation contains the ten realms:

1. Humans
2. Gods
3. Asuras
4. Animals
5. Hungry ghosts
6. Hell
7. Disciples
8. Self-enlightened beings
9. Bodhisattvas
10. Buddhas
    When one realm manifests, the other nine hide. Genes are not deterministic; they follow instructions from the environment, which turns them on or off. While genetic engineering offers hope for treating disease, it lacks control and can be dangerous. We must create a collective awareness and a favorable environment to turn on the realms of buddhas and bodhisattvas, relying on our capacity to heal through mindful living.

Speaking the Dharma Appropriately and Living It In Action

In this talk, Thay expounds on the four viewpoints or modes of expression that the Buddha used in helping others perceive the Dharma, the truth of reality. He shares that the Buddha spoke in the plain language of the world, adjusted to match the background and understanding of each individual, while offering a therapeutic or healing view. To those who could understand, the Buddha also shared the Absolute Truth. In the second half of the talk, Thay expands on the therapeutic view of the Dharma as a kind of medicine for ourselves, and the world, as realized through mindfully living the teachings of the Four Nutriments.

This is the eleventh talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Transforming Anger. Learning the Language of True Love.

Thay touches the depth of true love, real love, made possible with the full understanding that we are not separate from the “other”, no-self. Offering examples of communications between parents and children, and between husband and wife, particularly in times of difficulty, he teaches how mindfulness practice, anchored in the Dharma teachings, and using the language of true love, can bring about compassion, reconciliation, and healing. Creating sacred spaces for mindfulness at home, such as a breathing room available to the whole family, also helps nurture harmony and provides self care. Thay teaches that “Love is not possible without insight.”

This is the twelfth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thay begins with an introduction to deep listening, explaining how listening with compassion can offer us protection. This is followed by a teaching on the Noble Eightfold Path, interwoven with insights from the Five Mindfulness Trainings. Thay concludes by outlining UNESCO’s Manifesto 2000 and shares how to practice it alongside the Five Mindfulness Trainings, guiding us to live as bodhisattvas with Buddha Eyes, fostering both collective and personal awakening.

This is the final talk in a series of thirteen given during The Eyes of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2000. Thay offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

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