We have only four days for the retreat “Listening to Understand, Looking Back to Love,” and we need to make the most of our time to grasp the basic Dharma doors of practice: mindful breathing and mindful walking. The breath and the step are like delicate lotus threads, yet strong enough to tie up a fierce tiger, to tame the wild mind like an elephant, and to help us return to the present moment, here and now, which is the address of the wondrous life. When you have fifteen minutes to yourself, instead of chatting or taking photos, practice slow walking meditation: breathe in, take a step, invest 100% of your body and mind in each step until you are fully established in the present moment.

Young Buddhists are entrusted with these two “lotus threads” and must continue to practice after the retreat so as not to waste their efforts. At the same time, young people need a concrete ideal to bring the energy of compassion to serve society. Engaged Buddhism has a long tradition in Vietnam, and for over sixty years has established the Buddhist Youth Family with three aspects of education: intellectual, physical, and ethical. At present, in the context of 47,000 young people running away from home each year in France (with 35 suicides every day) and nearly 10,000 missing through the Internet, it is urgent to reestablish a young Buddhist organization based on the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings:

• The First Training: Reverence for life – protecting human beings, animals, plants, and the environment
• The Second Training: Generosity – not taking what is not given
• The Third Training: True love – practicing fidelity, preventing sexual misconduct and abuse
• The Fourth Training: Loving speech and deep listening – to restore communication and bring about reconciliation
• The Fifth Training: Mindful consumption – not bringing toxins into body and mind through food, drink, books, newspapers, or films

On the basis of the Five Trainings, young Buddhists can establish the European Buddhist Youth for a healthy and compassionate society, to apply the energy of compassion and build a wholesome and loving society.

Infants as young as six months old can already sense the energy of unease when their parents argue, and even a fetus inherits all the stress and anger of its mother and father. Marriage is not without its thorns, so we must prepare in advance with mindfulness, walking meditation, chanting, breathing, and deep relaxation in order to nourish our child from the very moment of conception. A retreat of at least 21 days for young people about to start a family will provide enough basic practices.

Here are three basic steps to help build family happiness and reconcile all tensions:

1. Releasing tension in body and mind through mindful breathing and mindful steps, letting go of all stress
2. Recognizing and embracing the pain and anger in our heart to calm them
3. Listening deeply to understand and using loving speech to share suffering and to correct each other’s wrong perceptions

With six days of deep practice, as in the case of the Catholic woman who successfully “defused the bomb” of anger, anyone—even those who have not formally taken refuge—can reopen the door of their heart and bring happiness back to husband and wife, parent and child.

The retreat “Listening to Understand, Looking Back to Love” at Bat Nha Monastery lasted four days, guiding the practice of sitting, breathing, and walking to relax body and mind, prevent stress and illness. The sitting meditation exercise based on the Anapanasati Sutra includes:

• Breathing in: being aware of the whole body with its tensions and aches
• Breathing out: releasing tension, smiling so that the 300 muscles on the face can relax

In daily activities—sitting in front of the computer, eating, walking meditation—practitioners practice:

1. Sitting peacefully as if on a lotus flower
2. Deep relaxation of the whole body in lying, sitting, or walking positions
3. Eating slowly, chewing thoroughly, contemplating the sources of nourishment from the earth, the sky, and our ancestors

During walking meditation, four gathas are offered to remember and practice with each step:

1. Each step is life
2. Each step is a miracle
3. Each step is healing
4. Each step is freedom

Statistics from 2007 in France show that 46,000 young people left home and an average of 33 people committed suicide each day, emphasizing the need to reduce stress, restore communication between children and parents, and bring happiness back to the family.

We are at Bat Nha Monastery on the last day of the retreat for young people with the theme “Listen to understand, look deeply to love” on April 27, 2008. This is an opportunity to ask questions of the heart regarding one’s suffering and difficulties.

We begin with a question about meditation practice:

1. Is there any way to stop the phenomenon of muscle tension behind the ear running down to the shoulder and heating up, causing distraction during sitting meditation?

Next are questions about the Buddhist Youth Family and social issues:

2. How can current concerns about the Buddhist Youth Family be renewed, and how can the organization return to its true ideal substance?
3. How can young people regain trust and restore communication when witnessing moral breakdowns in the family and at school?
4. What advice should be given when a female friend who is a Buddhist has been sexually abused by a monk, leading to suffering and a loss of faith in the practice?
5. How can we resolve the conflict between dwelling happily in the present moment and thinking about the future or past to generate new ideas, and why not use information technology to spread what is good?

Then there are questions about monastic life and spirituality:

6. How can I communicate with my father when he opposes my ordination and torments my mother every time he receives a letter I send home?
7. How can a young monastic maintain their Bodhicitta, not retrogress, and not be pulled away by the five sensual desires, especially lust and drowsiness when studying sutras?
8. What should be done to have peace of mind when fulfilling the last wishes of the deceased, such as killing or burning votive paper, violates the Five Mindfulness Trainings?

Finally, a cluster of questions from young people regarding education, love, and career:

9. Does Thay have any way to help apply the Dharma in schools so that teachers suffer less and the social environment has fewer social ills?
10. Please give some advice to young people who often withdraw into a dark corner, do not want to share, and do not want to participate in life?
11. What is affinity, how do we know when it comes, and what must we do to suffer less when affinity has not yet arrived or never arrives?
12. How can one escape the impasse and feel that life is meaningful when, after achieving a position, one ambitiously seeks a higher position with jealousy?