Thầy explains that there are five elements that constitute our being: body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness, and in this talk he focuses particularly on the body (rūpa) and feelings. He offers the practice of body scanning as a technique for coming home to and healing our body. Thầy also speaks of the three types of feeling: pleasant, neutral and painful and reminds us how, with mindfulness, neutral feelings can be transformed into pleasant ones, as in the example of non-toothache. So too can mindfulness enable pleasant feelings to become more wonderful and painful ones to be understood and transformed.

Furthermore, Thầy gives instructions on the practice of walking meditation as a way to return to and enjoy the present moment. Thầy also offers the practice of mindful breathing, focusing on the abdomen, as a way of staying rooted when strong emotions arise. He concludes with the story of his own exile in the West and how he learned to transform his suffering and discover his true home.

This is the first of three talks offered during a short retreat on the Israeli Tour in the year 1997. Thầy offered this talk at Kibbutz Harel, near Latrun, in Israel.

Thầy teaches us how our wrong perceptions, including our perception of happiness, are the cause of most of our suffering. He expands on this with the example of the tragic Vietnamese story of Mr and Mrs Trương, concluding with the lesson that humility is vital in correcting misperceptions in relationships. Using the model of a house, with the living room representing mind consciousness, and the basement representing store consciousness, Thầy explains how we often suppress the negative seeds that rise up from our store consciousness into mind consciousness. He then delves into how we can remedy this poor circulation of our psyche through the practice of mindfulness in our daily lives, compassionate listening, and the ‘watering’ of positive seeds in those we love. He concludes by emphasising how the energy of mindfulness can help us embrace and transform our suffering.

This is the second of three talks offered during a short retreat on the Israeli Tour in the year 1997. Thầy offered this talk at Kibbutz Harel, near Latrun, in Israel.

This talk details awakening our true selves through compassion, mindful breathing, and visualizing offering a lotus flower. Greeting traditions cultivate mindfulness, unity of mind and body, and compassion. Neglecting our inner territory of five elements leads to conflict; meditation helps embrace pain with mindfulness. Mindful activities equip us to face turmoil. Embrace conflicts for healing, visualize vulnerable inner children with compassion, and nurture patience and understanding in children. Breaking suffering cycles and addressing conflicts with spiritual traditions are crucial. Implement teachings deeply, embody traditions’ spirits, and cultivate supportive environments like Sanghas. Practice mindfulness to defuse anger and contribute to peace, recognizing diversity’s nourishment for traditions. Peace originates within, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Join at 3 o’clock for more questions.

This is the third of three talks offered during a short retreat on the Israeli Tour in the year 1997. Thầy offered this talk at Kibbutz Harel, near Latrun, in Israel.

What Makes a Good Peace Activist?

Thầy shares how to be a successful peace activist group, where “successful” means most likely to create a peaceful society and a world without war. Thầy’s model for peace making is profoundly far-sighted and comprehensive, linking personal spiritual practice with activist group communication ethics with that group’s capacity to model and propagate that compassion and lovingkindness as the foundation for peace, safety, and happiness for all. “In order for the group to have the energy needed for transformation and transforming and healing society, the group has to embody harmony and peace.” Thus, peace workers first “have to take care of their spiritual dimension of daily life,” so that contemplation and social action become “two aspects of one reality.” All peace workers, Thay says, should know how to transform suffering—their own and that of others—into compassion and loving kindness. Sometimes, Thầy invites us to see, the person who listens deeply, who resists anger and fear but shows compassion, who embodies a peaceful presence is the true activist, the leader to follow. Sometimes, when no one like that stands up, “you are that person, you have to be that person,” “you are the bodhisattva that can bring salvation.” Thầy asks those attending to propose a conference in Israel to address the well-being of the Palestinians, as balanced in relationship to the well-being of the Israelis. He introduces his then still new concept of interbeing, stating that “peace workers, have to, have to work on that principle,” “and you realize that, in order for you to be really happy and safe, you have to work for the safety and the happiness of the other side.” As Thầy makes clear, there is, ultimately, no other side: “The question is to interbe or not to be at all.”

This talk was offered on a Day of Mindfulness for Peace and Social Change Activists during the Isreal Tour in the year 1997. Thầy offered this talk at Kibbutz Harel, near Latrun, in Israel.

Thay teaches that peace is possible, joy is possible and everything is due to our mindfulness. Thay shares concrete practices recommended by the Buddha on how to nourish our joy, peace and love and heal the wars inside of us. When we have the element of peace and joy within us, we become a source of peace and joy for others. With the insight of interbeing we know that our safety depends on the safety of others. We know that the safety of our nation has to do with the safety of the other nation.

This is a public talk given during the _Israel Tour_in the year 1997. Thay offered this talk in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Thầy draws on the teaching of the Buddha on living in the present moment, “The past is already gone, the future is not yet there. There is only one moment where you can be alive, that is the present moment.” Thầy shares concrete ways of practicing this teaching. How to live deeply and mindfully in the present moment, touching the ultimate dimension while living in the historical dimension. Then we can find our true home, reconnect with our roots, our inner child, and heal past suffering. If we can breathe in and feel calm and breathe out and smile peacefully, we are doing it for all our ancestors and children.

This was a public talk given during the Israel Tour in the year 1997. Thay offered this talk in Jerusalem, Israel.

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This talk details finding stability within oneself through mindful breathing and embracing solidity, firmness, and freedom akin to a mountain, earth, and blooming flower. It emphasizes cultivating mindfulness to release irritation, anger, and fear, reflecting truth calmly like still water. True love in Buddhism is explored through four elements: loving-kindness (Maitri), compassion (Karuna), joy, and equanimity. Maitri involves deeply understanding others’ needs, while Karuna focuses on alleviating suffering. Meditation, mindfulness in daily activities, and caring for one’s body and emotions are crucial for inner peace. The Buddha teaches practicing mindfulness to embrace one’s inner conflicts and cultivate gratitude. Inner harmony fosters peaceful relationships and societal unity. Understanding interdependence and practicing mindful communication can overcome anger and suspicion. Embrace interconnectedness, transforming fear and anger into love and compassion, fostering reconciliation and peace.

Thầy explores the gāthā “In-Out, Deep-Slow, Calm-Ease, Smile-Release, Present Moment-Wonderful Moment”—a sequence of mindful breathing exercises adaptable to any posture and any need. The practice should always be pleasant: we do not force the breath, but embrace it with mindfulness, as we might hold a suffering cat until it calms.

Using a sheet of paper held between two hands, Thầy illustrates how mindful breathing bridges body and mind, returning us to the present moment where life is truly available. He introduces the two dimensions of Buddhist meditation—śamatha, stopping and calming, and vipaśyanā, looking deeply—with mindfulness as the energy that makes both possible.

Thay shares about how a visit to India’s Ambedkar Buddhist community revealed how generations of struggle embed themselves as habit energy; And how Meursault in Camus’s The Stranger, experienced “le moment de conscience” or enlightenment after seeing the blue sky clearly for the first time.

Thầy also introduces hugging meditation—a practice he himself developed—and eating meditation, in which even a piece of carrot is received as a gift from the whole cosmos. The talk closes with the miracle of walking on Earth and an invitation to let every step of the retreat be an act of mindful arrival.

This is the first of three talks offered during a retreat on the Israeli Tour in the year 1997. Thầy offered this talk at Kibbutz Harel, near Latrun, in Israel.

This talk details mindfulness within us all, cultivated through mindful breathing and actions like eating an orange or making breakfast. Recognize interconnectedness in everything, practicing mindfulness to unite body and mind, revealing profound insights. Offer true presence to loved ones, acknowledging their existence and suffering. Mindfulness transforms daily chores into meditation, nurturing joy, peace, and compassion. Avoid distractions and toxins, embracing pain gently with mindfulness. Practice mindful breathing, walking, and relaxation to cultivate mindfulness and compassion, transforming negativity into positivity. Understanding interconnectedness and practicing mindfulness can awaken Buddha nature within, fostering peace and compassion in ourselves and others.

This talk details mindfulness as an inherent capacity within us, nurtured through practice in daily activities like mindful breathing, eating an orange, and mindful walking. Mindfulness reveals interconnectedness, transforming suffering into compassion and joy. Practice mindful breathing to unify mind and body, acknowledging and addressing physical ailments with phrases like “Breathing in, I’m aware of my liver. Breathing out, I smile to my liver.” Recognize interconnectedness in everything, embrace mindfulness in daily tasks, and cultivate mindfulness to alleviate suffering and foster well-being. Practice mindfulness trainings to avoid toxic influences and embrace supportive communities.

This talk details repairing mistakes, learning from them, and acting now to bring happiness to loved ones to lessen suffering when they pass. Reflecting on compassion, mindfulness, and interconnectedness, it emphasizes cultivating compassion to break cycles of violence and nurture peaceful futures. The five mindfulness trainings provide practical guidelines for mindful living, transcending religious teachings. Understanding emptiness and interconnectedness fosters compassion and mindfulness. Birth and death are transformations, not beginnings or endings. Embrace mindfulness practices to alleviate suffering and nurture profound connections, realizing the interconnected essence of all beings and things.

Thay explains how the Vietnam War moved him to develop engaged Buddhism as a practice of “the spiritual dimension” as the essential foundation for the “action dimension” of working to help victims of war while creating the conditions for peace. This practice is best if guided by a community, one “that follows the line of the practice of calm, of tranquility, of compassion, of insight,” as modeled by a Buddhist Sangha. Such a community is less likely to “act out of anger and despair,” which ultimately propagates more war. Practicing happiness, as Thay defines it, means learning to take care of anger, hatred, and despair, rather than feeding our suffering with retaliation and revenge, which only escalates violence, or seeking escape from our suffering in consumable toxins, such as alcohol or media, which only feeds more suffering. In response to a question from a Jewish friend in attendance, Thay focuses the second half of the talk on what “action,” fully understood, really means. In Buddhism, actions—thought, speech, and deed—are a human being’s only true belongings, and the consequences of one’s actions can persist to impact lives for many generations. Thay speaks especially to anger and the risks of making decisions about people’s lives from a place of anger. The question becomes, “Are we able to distinguish the kind of action that will bring destruction and suffering from the kind of action that can bring only the protection of life and friendliness and peace and safety?,” to which Thay answers, “Yes.”
Meditation and mindfulness can prepare us to think, communicate, and make decisions based upon calmness, compassion, lovingkindness, and longsightedness, rather than upon reactive hatred, revenge, terrorism, and retaliation. “And,” as Thay teaches us, “the only way to do it is to live deeply each moment of our daily life, to produce the energy of mindfulness in order to see exactly what kind of thinking, what kind of action, what kind of speech that can surely bring more safety to us and to the people we love.” Mindfulness helps discern right action, in contrast to divisive and destructive action. Cultivating mindfulness enhances deeper understanding, compassion, and harmony within oneself, in relationships, in communities, and between conflicting parties.

This was a public talk given during the Israel Tour in the year 1997. Thay offered this talk in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Contains, all 1997-05-27

• Outdoor sharing circle with monastics and Thay
• wisit to western wall Thay
• sightseeing
• interview thay at cafe (there will not be any better audio for this, no mic visible)