This talk details gathering at Dharma Cloud Temple in 2004, embracing togetherness and mindfulness without plans. It explores the concepts of time, mindfulness, and the presence of Buddha and Jesus within ourselves. Through mindful breathing, sitting, walking, and daily activities, we embody qualities like solidity, freedom, compassion, and aliveness. Mindfulness connects us to the divine energies akin to the Holy Spirit, fostering clarity and compassion. Taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha brings harmony to our being, influencing our future through mindful actions. The Buddha’s 16 mindful breathing practices harmonize the five skandhas, nurturing peace and happiness. Suffering is crucial for cultivating understanding and compassion, transforming our reality into a sacred space. By facing suffering, we nurture empathy and insight, embodying divine energies. The essence of Buddha and Jesus resides within us, guiding us to transform suffering and cultivate compassion, bringing renewal to ourselves and the world.

Mindfulness frees us to enjoy what is available twenty-four hours a day—fresh air, sunshine, the stars—and even God, “happiness” and “peace,” if our mind is truly present. There are two levels of relationship:

1. the horizontal line (horizontal theology) linking us with human beings, animals, plants, minerals,
2. the vertical line (vertical theology) touching God, the ground of being.
   Like a wave on the ocean, we inter-are with other waves (sự, the phenomenal): our coming, going, size and shape depend entirely on them. By looking deeply we also touch the water (lý, the noumenal): the foundation of our being in which all phenomena arise.

Buddhism teaches us not to mix these two levels. The Madhyamaka school (śūnyatā, emptiness) and the Dharmalakṣaṇa school (Pháp tướng, phenomena) stress tánh tướng biệt quán—separate contemplation of the noumenal and the phenomenal. Phenomena follow cause and effect among waves, while the noumenal is the ground of all phenomena: God or Nirvana, beyond birth and death, coming and going, being and non-being. Though indescribable by concepts, this ultimate dimension is available to us in every breath, every cup of tea, every step, every gesture.

Impermanence and non-self make rebirth, personhood and transformation possible. Nothing arises from nothing, nothing returns to nothing—every “birth” is a continuation, every “death” a metamorphosis. Deep looking into our own suffering and that of others dissolves anger and hatred, for understanding is the very ground of love and compassion. In daily life—eating a piece of bread, practicing walking meditation, celebrating Christmas—we touch the phenomenal deeply and thus touch the noumenal, discovering the peace, solidity and freedom that are always here.

Thầy invites the poets, composers, and musicians in the Sangha to write new verses and songs for the practice. He recalls the gāthās he memorized as a novice monk, beginning with the verse for waking up, which greets twenty-four brand-new hours as a gift, and shows how each line goes with an in-breath or an out-breath, so that everywhere becomes a meditation hall, even the bathroom.

Thầy then proposes three gāthās for the Sangha to write during the retreat. The first is for when we suffer or are angry: to remember that the other person suffers too and needs help, not punishment, rather than escalating our anger and creating hell for each other. The second is for moments of confusion, when the right thing to do is to go home to ourselves with mindful breathing, like someone who stays calm in a boat about to capsize. The third is for when we feel restless in the present moment. Here Thầy teaches aimlessness, one of the Three Doors of Liberation, with the image of a wave that knows she is already water.

In the second part of the talk, Thầy turns to the Buddhist teaching on genesis. He speaks of the nonduality of the Creator and the creature, invites theologians to look again at the words “creation” and “creator,” and suggests that we touch God when we touch a pebble or contemplate a cloud. He then introduces three kinds of arising from Mahāyāna Buddhism: arising from suchness, like clouds arising from the ocean; arising from the dharma realm, where all phenomena lean on each other, which Plum Village expresses, in answer to Descartes, as “You are, therefore I am”; and arising from store consciousness, taught by the Manifestation-Only School, whose place in the Abhidharma literature Thầy briefly traces. The talk closes on the seeds from which everything manifests: there is no creation, only manifestation.

This is the fifth talk in a series of twelve given during What Happens When We Die?, the Twenty-One-Day Retreat in the year 2014. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.