Observing the Five Mindfulness Trainings is not a ritual, but a practice that ensures freedom, ease, peace, and happiness. The Five Trainings help protect our freedom from being caught in painful situations such as the cycle of addiction, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, and so on. Without practice, there is no stability. Seven years ago at The State of the World Forum, the only topic presented was the Five Mindfulness Trainings—if global citizens practice them, they will protect people, nature, the Earth, and help rebuild broken families. With the Three Refuges—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—and the Five Trainings, happiness can be lived right in the present moment (dwelling happily in the present moment).

True love must contain all four elements—loving kindness (offering happiness), compassion (sharing and relieving suffering), joy (bringing joy to both), and inclusiveness (keeping freedom for each other, not possessing or discriminating). Relationships based only on sexual desire, making promises and then betraying them, comparing, violence, and delusion about each other’s value are all sources of suffering that come from not keeping the Five Trainings. To be free from suffering, there are two paths: either diligently practice the Five Trainings, relying on the Sangha to help and transform the other person; or, if you have enough will and determination, decisively cut off the relationship. True love can only be lasting when both sides deeply understand, respect, and recognize each other’s value.

Formlessness is the ability to see through to the true nature (tánh) within all forms (lakṣaṇa or nimitta). For example, cloud, rain, snow, and ice are simply different forms of the same substance, H₂O (substance, svabhāva). The eye of formlessness does not wait for rain to see rain; it sees rain in the cloud, snow in the ice, a drop of water in the popsicle, or the cow in the glass of ice cream (milk). As Lavoisier exclaimed: “Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd”—nothing is created, nothing is lost—no birth, no death. The story of Tú Uyên and Giáng Kiều shows that each of us has a Tú Uyên—a person easily lonely due to the lack of the fragrance of precepts, concentration, and insight. Only when we light the incense of precepts (keeping the precepts), the incense of concentration (mindfulness), and the incense of insight (deep looking), does Giáng Kiều return—that is, our consciousness is reconciled, transformed, and love begins to blossom again.

Practicing mindful breathing according to the principle of “dwelling happily in the present moment” taught by the Buddha helps to nourish body and mind with happiness right in this very moment. The practice of breathing consists of two simple mantras, then recognizing the quality and result:

1. In – Out: being aware of the in-breath, the out-breath.
2. Deep – Slow: the breath naturally becomes deeper, slower.
3. Calm – Light: body and mind become calm, light.
4. Still – Smiling: tranquility, letting go, gently smiling to oneself.
5. Present moment – Wonderful moment: dwelling in mindfulness, seeing the wonder of this moment.

Apply this practice right when eating ice cream, eating rice (remembering the gift of earth and sky, the labor involved—“Dear friend, as you lift the bowl of rice, fragrant and full, remember the hardship in every grain”), walking meditation, driving, cooking… to nourish the wonderful moment and to maintain lasting happiness.

A Vietnamese speaker is not limited to Vietnamese people, but is anyone who can speak Vietnamese—Sister Chan Nghiem (Thailand), Chan Duc (England), To Nghiem (Germany)… and at Plum Village there are many who have graduated from university, there are cardiologists, surgeons, engineers, lawyers, doctors… who have left their professions to become monastics because “practicing is more joyful and helps more people.” All the sisters at Plum Village have Dharma names ending with Nghiem, affirming the spirit of continuation of ancestors and family—their parents are always present in this body.

Meditation is to develop the formless eye to clearly see the inseparable relationship between elements:

1. The cloud in the tea (no cloud, no rain, no tea)
2. The sun in the flower (no sunshine, no flower)
3. Parents in the child’s hand (you cannot take your parents out of yourself)
   and to understand that this body is both the continuation of our parents and contains them, not one, but not two either (neither one nor different).

The Buddha’s teaching is to apply meditation in daily life through Hugging Meditation, deep listening, and loving speech to transform suffering, heal relationships between father and child, husband and wife, mother and child. A mindful hug with three breaths:

• Breathing in: “I am so happy my loved one is still alive”
• Breathing out: “I am very joyful”
  and the silence of compassionate listening gives the other person a chance to express all their suffering; then, slowly, using sincere words of apology, sharing the collective responsibility for suffering, to restore happiness in the family.

The three-year-old child’s finger compared with the seventy-seven-year-old hand of the teacher, through the French poem:

Voici ma main, elle a cinq doigts—Here is my hand, it has five fingers—consisting of five lines, each corresponding to:

• the thumb (gros pouce)
• the index finger (l’index qui montre le chemin—the finger that shows the way)
• the middle finger (majeur, the big brother)
• the ring finger (annulaire, the one that wears a ring)
• the little finger (minuscule auriculaire, the little one that walks alongside)

The hand is the continuation of our parents; the child is the parent, and the parent continues to live in the child. If we are angry with our mother, we are angry with ourselves; if we are angry with our child, we are angry with our mother. By practicing mindfulness with our hands and our hearts, we can recognize the presence of our ancestors and the Buddha in every cell, and from there, love and heal each other in the present moment.

Practice inviting the bell and walking meditation to maintain mindfulness:

1. Before inviting the bell, breathe in—calm; breathe out—smile (three times)
2. Tap the bell (half-sound) → wait for everyone to stop talking, stop their activities
3. Invite the bell fully, repeat three breaths → make three prostrations
4. Walking meditation with the gatha:
   • I have arrived, I am home (two steps)
   • I have arrived, I am home—arriving and being at home in the present moment
   • Walk solidly like a green mountain, freely like a white cloud

Each breath and each step brings us into the Pure Land in the present moment—a place of happiness, love, and freedom, right here and right now.

Please send energy to the Hong Kong Sangha, who are facing the outbreak of atypical pneumonia, with more than one thousand people infected, 35 deaths in one month, and over 200 healthcare workers affected. Plum Village has stayed up late to pray, written comforting letters accompanied by the book “Each Step Is Peace,” and chanted the names of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas to support the doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, and hospital staff there.

Practice nurturing the baby Buddha within through mindfulness of breathing and mindful steps, and encourage children to discover joy and love in each moment. To strengthen intimacy and presence, each day remember these two sentences, written in familiar language and offered to your parents, children, brothers, and sisters:

1. Daddy, do you know that I am here for you—fresh and sweet?
2. I know you are there for me, and I am very happy.

The teaching of non-duality is practiced through the prostration meditation: “The one who bows and the one who is bowed to are both by nature empty and quiet,” letting go of the notion of subject and object to merge with the stream of ancestors and future generations, activating the wondrous communion of spiritual energy. Bowing down is not superstition but a yogic practice that liberates the self, opens up spaciousness, and heals body and mind.