Thầy explores how the practice of mindfulness, concentration, and insight is crucial to produce the element of holiness in a Sangha. If we cultivate these three qualities within us, we will be able to touch the element of holiness that is present in each and everyone of us. Thầy further elaborates that the Sangha is composed of four pairs and eight kinds of holy people that collectively nurture mindfulness, concentration, and insight. Practicing mindfulness transforms our suffering, supported by the Sangha’s collective energy.

Thầy comments that at the moment humanity is not a Sangha yet because we don’t have enough mindfulness, concentration, and insight. We are too dispersed and therefore we are not able to embrace and transform the suffering of the world. People are concerned with their own interests, their own cravings, and pay little attention to the suffering of the Middle East, for example.

Thầy ends by exploring Chapter 15 and Chapter 24 of the Lotus Sutra, which can help us realize that we are all in a family—we are all children of the Earth and we should take care of each other and our environment, concluding that this is possible with a Sangha that practices the six togetherness. This is the way to preserve the Earth and our happiness.

This is the fifth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Hands of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2002. Thầy offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

There are 191 days left until the year 2000. During the retreat at Bailin Temple with 182 Zen practitioners, the practice of mindfulness is expressed through the smallest actions. Sweeping the courtyard, cooking meals, or washing the dishes is as sacred as sitting meditation and chanting. Instead of using mediums like cassette tapes to take refuge or run away from reality, the practice requires investing 100% of our mind into a single object. A lack of mindfulness while working or walking on the street brings two disadvantages:

1. Not paying full attention to vehicles and potential accidents.
2. The mind is scattered, unable to invest 100% of our mind into a single object.

The secret of Zen meditation is one thing each time – doing only one thing at a time, which helps us touch deeply the wonders of life in the present moment, such as the cypress tree in the courtyard, the white clouds, or the blue sky. A koan and a hua tou are seeds that need to be sown into our store consciousness instead of just using our intellect. The process of inquiry requires uninterrupted concentration, a constant care like a gardener taking care of a seed or a mother nourishing her fetus. Many ancestral teachers have used Questions to open up insight:

1. Do you see the cypress tree in the courtyard?
2. Does a dog have Buddha nature?
3. Who are you, brother; who are you, sister?
4. What was your state before your mother gave birth to you?
5. When not thinking of good and not thinking of evil, who are you?
6. All dharmas return to the One; where does the One return to?
7. Who is the one reciting the Buddha’s name?

The tendency of living Zen emphasizes bringing Zen into daily life to transform a society that is being swept away by busyness. However, if we focus too much on mysterious literature, ancient verses, or works like the Blue Cliff Record, Zen can become a form of escaping reality. In Plum Village, a koan is unlocked using three basic Dharma keys:

1. Impermanence.
2. No-self.
3. Interbeing.

This approach helps us face our actual suffering, anger, and entanglements directly, turning every step and every breath into a tool to achieve solidity and liberation.

Live deeply every moment of daily life so that life does not pass by like a dream. Happiness is present right in the present moment if we know how to stop and live deeply, instead of running after conditions of happiness in the future driven by our habit energies. Practice is the process of recognizing and transforming old habits to attain solidity, freedom, and peace right here and right now.

The practice includes using the precepts, fine manners, and mindfulness to protect our body and mind from:

1. The ten fetters: ten bindings that make us lose our freedom.
2. The ten underlying tendencies: ten forces that push us to speak, act, and think in forgetfulness.
   Conscious breathing is a safe home that helps us put an end to our sleepwalking and touch reality. In this practice:
3. Mindfulness is the Buddha shining light.
4. The breath is the Dharma protecting our body and mind.
5. The five skandhas are the Sangha working together diligently.

Every daily action, such as drinking tea, washing the dishes, or gardening, is an opportunity to generate the energy of love and solidity. In order to help those with suffering and pain, such as the 1,500 upcoming retreatants, we must have peace within ourselves. We need to avoid fake practice—which is merely practicing the outward form—and engage in true practice, meaning that every step and every breath contains the essence of awakening. Only when we have the substance of the Buddha within us can we manifest solidity and a compassionate smile to the world, just as an artist must nourish their own peace before sculpting a statue of the World Honored One.

There is no way to healing, healing is the way. In our daily life we may have small sufferings and as time goes by they may become blocks of suffering in us. We need to recognise this suffering in us. Every breath can bring healing, every step can bring healing. We are able to transform our suffering into peace and joy.

Stopping is very important in our practice. If we can stop, healing will take place right away. Stop doing what brings us suffering, anger and despair. The moment you decided to stop, you feel very light. And the practice of Five Mindfulness Trainings is crucial to our healing.

Can you create a moment of happiness? Through the practice of mindfulness, we are capable to create moments of joy and happiness in our daily life. Take an example, to cook soup we need water, vegetables, tofu. And most of us are capable to cook good soup. To create a moment of little happiness is like that. With some ingredients, we are capable of creating moments of happiness for us and for the others. You need to learn how to create moments of happiness, and to savour moments of little happiness in our daily life.

We practice to stop our NST Non-Stop Thinking Radio, the discourse going on inside us. Stop in order to feel what is happening in the here and now; to feel what is happening in the here and now in order to stop. To feel your body, to be aware of each feeling and to embrace them. We do not chew again and again our sorrow, fear and anger, that is not good for our health. We offer ourselves healthy nutriments. We learn how to walk, sit, eat, do things in our daily life happily and joyfully. Any moment of practice can heal and can help heal other people.

(This is the talk of Thay given on the Daffodil Festival Day of Mindfulness in the Dharma Cloud Temple of Plum Village, France)

The practice of non-violence begins in the family, the basic unit of society. Restoring the tradition of the big family helps overcome the loneliness of the nuclear family and provides a sense of being rooted. Touching our roots through an ancestral altar or a family shrine allows us to stay in touch with our ancestors and prevents alienation. This practice includes sharing meals, telling stories to the younger generation, and fostering friendships between grandparents and grandchildren, ensuring that cultural heritage is handed down.

Violence in society is a collective responsibility involving parents, schools, and governments. When looking deeply into acts of violence, we see the emptiness of transmission: all of us are the beaters and all of us are the beaten. To transform the fear, anger, and hatred that inhabit us, we must learn the art of mindful breathing and walking. Every home, school, hospital, and parliament should establish a breathing room—a territory of peace where anyone can take refuge to restore their stability and calm. When one member of the family uses the breathing room, others respect that need for quiet, turning off the television and returning to themselves.

The practice of peaceful living requires an intelligent policy of consumption to protect ourselves and our children from toxic cultural products that nurture the three poisons:

1. Confusion
2. Greed
3. Anger

Through the Fifth Mindfulness Training, we learn to consume only what is healthy and healing. This involves selecting media with mindfulness, practicing Total Relaxation as a family to overcome universal stress, and urging legislators to create laws that prohibit destructive products. Just as mindfulness led to non-smoking flights and warnings on alcohol, it must now be applied to all forms of consumption to protect our collective consciousness.

Today is a special day where the children are playing and practicing as kings and queens. A good question can profit many people and should be a real question of the heart concerning difficulties, experience, suffering, and happiness.

1. If looking deeply means living every moment mindfully, what should one be mindful of, and is psychotherapy a deeper way of looking?
2. Is there a special practice to help make the right decisions for the future, such as what to study or finding a job to serve the well-being of society?
3. How can a mother who feels she needs mothering herself provide guidance and support to her child when faced with ancestral pain and difficulty?
4. How can a person working to save abused dogs deal with the increased pain felt through meditation without turning away from helping sentient beings?
5. What can help heal the cord with ancestors and open the heart to them when feeling cut off by emotional distance from parents?
6. How can one deal with feelings of anger and despair triggered by news of social conflict and instead wake up with a smile?
7. What is helpful to do for people who are dying or for their families when they do not have their own spiritual practice?
8. How can a negative action in life, such as having an abortion, be repaired?
9. What corresponds to the idea of God within Buddhist Dharma and practice?
10. How can one break through addictions to things like cannabis, television, and music used to cover up a sense of emptiness, and how can a parent help a young adult in this situation?
11. How can the circle of compassion be widened to protect life on Earth when many people protect themselves with apathy?

With three hundred days remaining before the new century, the twenty-first century is a beautiful hill to be climbed together as a Sangha with joy, peace, and harmony. Every human being is a flower in the garden of humanity, and the practice of mindfulness is the nourishment of this flowerness. Happiness is available in the here and the now when we cherish the conditions of life and appreciate the wonders within and around us. Loneliness is a prison created by the notion of self and wrong perceptions, preventing us from touching the message of love and hope offered by life.

The heart may refuse to bloom even when “ninety thousand flowers are blooming in nature” due to the poisons of:

1. Anger
2. Jealousy
3. Ignorance or avidyā
   The story of Princess Huyền Trân, an instrument of peace between the two countries of Đại Việt and Champa, illustrates the capacity to open one’s heart for the sake of others. Restoring the freshness and limpidity of our flower requires the practice of mindful breathing, walking, and performing daily tasks with love. To love is to be aware that the person is there, alive, and to do something to help them be happy in the present moment. True love transcends time and space, offering joy and freedom from discrimination, attachments, and the need to possess.

Understanding the suffering, fear, and hope in ourselves and others leads to acceptance and the dissolution of loneliness. This insight applies to relationships between individuals and the two groups of people: Judaism and Muslim. Buddha and Jesus are brothers, and their followers continue their presence by being real flowers of their respective traditions. True religious dialogue is not found in reports or discussions, but in the display of one’s own fragrance, freshness, and beauty through the way one walks, breathes, and smiles.

When experiencing difficulty with a parent or partner, practice walking and sitting meditation to recognize their good qualities and restore communication through writing. In instances of witnessed aggression, such as an adult mistreating a child, there is a responsibility to intervene. If you become angry at the situation, three people are then angry:

1. The adult expressing violence.
2. The child receiving the violence.
3. You, who are angry at the injustice.
   To help effectively, personal anger must be replaced with compassion and calm, allowing for the use of upāya-kauśalya, or skillful means.

A bodhisattva uses skillful means to intervene, such as diverting an adult’s attention by asking the time or winning their heart to eventually help the child. Insight reveals that the roots of a child’s suffering often lie in the parent; therefore, changing the family environment and the parents’ behavior is the way to help the young. This same compassion applies to those who misunderstand or insult us; by recognizing them as victims of wrong perceptions or habit energy, the desire to punish is replaced by the desire to help.

Practicing with a Sangha combines individual mindfulness and concentration to produce greater insight for solving daily problems. Every day requires the application of:

1. Mindfulness.
2. Concentration.
3. Insight.
4. Skillful means.
   A specific meditation involves listing the positive qualities of one’s father and mother to overcome the blindness of anger. This practice can restore relationships even after a parent has passed away, as ancestors remain alive within us. Communicating through the Dharma removes barriers and makes dialogue possible at any time.