Thầy guides the Sangha in how to listen to the chanting of Namo’valokiteśvarāya—touching first our own suffering, then the suffering of those around us, then the suffering of the world.

Thầy reflects on sitting meditation and the importance of learning to enjoy it—simply enjoying the pleasure of being alive and doing nothing. When Nelson Mandela visited France, he told the press that what he most wanted was simply to sit down and do nothing. Whenever we feel restless, Thầy recommends sitting and following the breath. In a gentle inversion of Descartes: “I think, therefore I am not there. I breathe, I am there.”

He then presents the first four exercises from the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, before turning to mindful walking. Thầy offers concrete guidance on how to coordinate our breath and steps. Using the gāthā: I have arrived. I am home. Thầy shares how we can apply this gāthā to the practice of walking meditation.

This is the opening talk in a series of thirteen given during The Science of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The Four Noble Truths: The End of Suffering

At the site where the Buddha gave his first Dharma talk, Thầy presents a teaching on the subject of that talk—the Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth is the presence of duḥkha—suffering. We must acknowledge that suffering exists to understand it and heal it. The Second Noble Truth is samudaya—the cause of suffering. We must know the cause of suffering to prescribe the appropriate relief for it. Believing that suffering can be dispelled leads to the Third Noble Truth—nirodha. Nirodha is the absence of suffering. Thầy notes that nirodha is different than nirvana, which means not only the absence of suffering but a state of well-being and happiness. We all have the seeds of well-being and happiness within us, and these flourish when suffering is removed. The Fourth Nobel Truth is mārga, which represents the many paths for ending suffering.

The message of the Four Noble Truths is simple as taught by the Buddha, but over the centuries, it became distorted into the phrase, “Everything is duḥkha.” Of course, we must get in touch with suffering to arouse compassion in us, which, in turn, moves us to act to relieve suffering. But the Buddha made clear that there are also beauty, peace, and happiness in life.

Regarding the five skandhas—the five aggregates—the Buddha never said that the five aggregates are the cause of suffering. He said that clinging to any of these aggregates is what causes suffering. Reality is impermanent, and if we aren’t aware of this impermanence and try to cling to anything in our life, we suffer.

We may have heard that desire is at the root of suffering, and it’s been said that to abolish suffering, we must abolish desire. In this wrong view, desire is equated with the energy of life we have within us. However, eating when hungry or sleeping when we’re tired isn’t desire. These responses don’t cause us to suffer. The Buddha said that the root cause of all our suffering is ignorance of the true nature of reality.

Thầy points out that at its heart, the practice of Buddhism is the practice of mudita—joy. Bodhisattvas are joyful, and we must emphasize this understanding of Buddhism to banish the misunderstanding of the Buddha’s teaching as “everything is duḥkha.”

In closing, Thầy states: “There is no way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the way. There is no way to joy. Joy is the way.”

This is a talk given during The Footsteps of the Buddha pilgrimage in the year 1988. Thầy offered this talk beside the Dhamek Stupa, Sarnath, India.

Thầy begins with a metaphor of a boat that can take us from the shore of suffering to the shore of joy. Through practice, we can learn how to transform ourselves into a boat that can make that journey. He then tells the story of Brother Adrian and the practice of listening to the bell—be it a Buddhist meditation bell or the bell of a Christian church—as a reminder of mindfulness.

Many of us are still searching for our true home, and Christmas often makes us more aware of this. Jesus was searching for his true home, and he spoke for all of us in that regard. If we can find a brother, sister, or community that has wisdom, compassion, and solidity, they can become our true home.

In the Buddhist tradition, taking refuge means we have found our true home. We take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—the Three Jewels. If we know how to take refuge in our in-breath, peace and freedom can be ours in just one breath. By deeply getting in touch with our in-breath, we get in touch with ourselves, and this puts us on the path to our true home.

Every day is an opportunity to live in peace, stability, brotherhood, and sisterhood. Each moment we spend in mindfulness contributes to a past we can treasure. Our ability to find our true home requires that we have stable roots, so that’s why being part of a Sangha is so important. The Buddha built a beautiful Sangha that provides a true home to this day. Jesus Christ did the same, as did Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Thầy built his Sangha even while spending forty years in exile, and members of that Sangha now live all over the world. We must all participate in Sangha building.

This talk was given on Christmas Eve during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2008. Thầy offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The sangha is gathered at the New Hamlet in Plum Village during the Winter Retreat on January 23, 2003, for a Question and Answer session.

1. What are the four kinds of māras, and how do we work with them?
2. How do near-death experiences and dying people perceiving deceased relatives fit into the teachings on levels of consciousness and practice?
3. How can a mother help her ten-year-old son get over what happened after discovering his father’s suicide?
4. How can one stay calm with one’s feelings when experiencing every thought, emotion, and memory simultaneously?
5. How can one speak about a third party who is not present in a constructive, loving way without creating negativity or alliances in a community?
6. How can one be mindful and allow creativity to happen when creative ideas emerge while lost in an uncontrolled, wandering mind?
7. What is happening when a deceased spouse manifests through a medium, and where do deep trance mediums get their knowledge?