Today, Thay presents the concept of formation (Sanskrit: Samskara, English: formation) in Buddhism: every phenomenon is a formation, the result of the coming together of many conditions. For example, a flower or a cloud is a formation, and according to the Tathagata’s words, “all formations are impermanent” – that is, all formations are impermanent, from bodily formations (the hand, the eye) to mental formations (sadness, anger, love). In our practice, we must take care of both bodily formations (relaxation, breathing, refraining from alcohol and drugs…) and mental formations, distinguishing between positive mental formations – such as love and joy – and negative mental formations – such as anger and despair. Each negative mental formation can lie dormant as a seed in the store consciousness, but will sprout when watered; therefore, we need to learn to recognize, take care of, and transform them in time.

To nourish wholesome mental formations and deal with unwholesome ones, the Buddha taught:

1. The method of changing the peg (or changing the CD): when a mental formation of anger or despair arises, replace it with a better mental formation (love, forgiveness…)
2. The Four Right Efforts, four principles for dealing with mental formations:
   • Do not let unwholesome mental formations be watered
   • When they arise, change the peg right away
   • Water the seeds of wholesome mental formations so they can arise
   • Keep wholesome mental formations alive as long as possible
3. Mindfulness – the energy to recognize all phenomena in the present moment (breathing, walking, washing dishes… with full awareness) – helps us embrace and transform sadness and anger, just as a mother holds and soothes her baby, bringing relief after just a few minutes.

Along with practicing mindful breathing and mindfulness, each young person is encouraged to receive and keep the Five Mindfulness Trainings – the miraculous medicine for happiness and mental safety:

1. Protecting the lives of all beings and the environment
2. Sharing time and material resources with those in need, eliminating corruption
3. No sexual misconduct, preserving family happiness and protecting children
4. Loving speech and deep listening to restore true communication
5. Consuming mindfully, refusing toxic products (greed, hatred, delusion…)

A noteworthy statistic: every day in France, 33 young people commit suicide (about 17,000 per year), the deep cause being not knowing how to recognize and transform the mental formation of despair. With the Dharma door of abdominal breathing – sitting firmly, paying attention to the rising and falling of the abdomen with deep breathing – together with the Four Right Efforts and daily mindfulness, each person can master their emotions, maintain peace, share this method with family, students, and friends, and help build a healthy, compassionate society.

In our consciousness, there are two main kinds of seeds:

• “the seed of love, forgiveness, and acceptance,” and
• “the seed of anger, sadness, and jealousy.”
  Each time we water a particular kind of seed, that seed is nourished and grows stronger. In order to protect each other from suffering, two people in any relationship (lovers, fiancés, spouses, parents and children) can make with each other a love contract (peace treaty, love treaty), committing not to water the seeds of suffering in one another, but to do everything possible to water each other’s wholesome seeds. For example: the wife saves, reads, and rewrites old love letters for her husband, helping to water the seeds of happiness; the husband takes the sweet words from those letters as material to come home, express his love, and transform his daily actions.

The practice of watering wholesome seeds can also be done by:

1. Contemplating and recognizing all the “good seeds” and “unwholesome seeds” in ourselves and in the other person, and writing them down on paper
2. Helping each other to deeply understand the suffering and difficulties, so as not to sow more seeds of suffering for one another
3. Applying the Four Immeasurable Minds (Brahmaviharas) in true love:
   • loving-kindness (maitri) – the capacity to bring happiness to oneself and to the other
   • compassion – the capacity to relieve the suffering of the other
   • joy – the joy that is shared between both sides
   • equanimity (upeksha) – non-discrimination, non-attachment, seeing happiness and suffering as belonging to both.

Depending on the situation (spouses, family, parents and children), when this method is practiced sincerely, it only takes from fifteen minutes to one hour to see positive results right away.

Sowing the seed of compassion, preserving Mother Earth is the theme of the three-day retreat within the International Vesak Celebration. Each person has the seed of love, forgiveness, and acceptance, but it is often covered by sorrow, anger, and prejudice. We need to water these seeds with the energy of loving-kindness so that they can sprout and blossom into the fruits of understanding and harmony in our families, schools, and society. Through practice, the seed of compassion can be awakened in just half an hour or an hour; if we practice correctly for three days, our relationships with loved ones can change significantly.

Two main methods are transmitted: sitting meditation with the breath and walking meditation.

• Sitting meditation with the breath (the third exercise in the Anapanasati Sutta consisting of 16 methods)
  – Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body
  – Breathing out, I relax my whole body and smile
• Walking meditation with four gathas, each step is
  1. life
  2. a miracle
  3. healing
  4. freedom

By relaxing body and mind for 5–10 minutes each day, or practicing for 5–6 days as in the West with 1,000–1,200 people, many families have restored communication and reconciled with parents and children. When we practice relaxation and mindfulness, each step, each breath becomes a miracle of healing, bringing happiness right into our daily life.