In Buddhism, the historical dimension corresponds to changing phenomena (like waves), while the ultimate dimension, hidden beneath these forms, is unchanging: “nothing is created, nothing is lost.” Birth, death, being, non-being, coming and going are only notions of the mind; meditation allows us to touch the ultimate (nirvana/God), non-birth and non-death, and to dissolve all fear.

Organization of the Heart Sutra of Perfect Understanding:

1. The five skandhas: form, feeling, perception, mental formation, consciousness
2. The eighteen spheres of elements: six sense organs, their objects, six consciousnesses
3. The four noble truths: suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering (well-being), the path
4. The twelve links of interdependent origination

Three doors of liberation:

1. Śūnyatā (emptiness)
2. Animitta (signlessness)
3. Apranihita (aimlessness)

Three kinds of gifts:

1. Material: food, shelter, money
2. Dharma: teaching to relieve suffering
3. Non-fear: the most precious gift, offered by Avalokiteśvara

Three things to take home:

1. The inspiration of mindfulness (breathing in—breathing out)
2. Mindful walking
3. The Sangha in the heart

Teaching offered by Thay during the 2010 Francophone Retreat at Plum Village. Here, Thay addresses being and non-being, emptiness, consciousnesses, the 12 nidanas (interdependent origins), and the Four Noble Truths.

N.B. Incomplete video

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Thay invites us to recognize two energies within ourselves:

1. the destructive energy of anger, despair, and suffering,
2. the energy of mindfulness and concentration generated by walking, breathing, and daily activities (cooking, washing, etc.), which allows us to bring the mind back to the body, to recognize and “embrace” this suffering “like a mother tenderly holding her baby in her arms.”

To strengthen this energy, we can draw upon the “collective energy of the Sangha”:

1. taking refuge in the Sangha,
2. building a Sangha in our neighborhood,
3. visualizing the Sangha within ourselves, and
4. practicing together to generate a “tremendous energy of mindfulness.”

The Bodhisattva Avalokita, practicing perfect understanding, turned his enlightened gaze upon the five skandhas and saw that they were equally empty:

1. form (rūpa)
2. feelings (vedanā)
3. perceptions (saññā)
4. mental formations (saṃskāra)
5. consciousness (vijñāna)
   After this realization, he transcended all suffering.

Welcoming Well-Being and Happiness through Mindfulness
During a week of retreat, practicing conscious breathing, walking meditation, and mindful breakfast allows us to generate the energy that helps us to recognize, in ourselves and around us, the well-being that is already present (the absence of toothache, headache, tension).
Mindfulness (Sanskrit smṛti, Chinese niệm: “now” + “mind”) is the energy that brings the mind back to the body and to the present moment:

1. I breathe in and I know that I am breathing in.
2. I walk and I know that I am walking.
3. I eat my breakfast and I know that I am eating my breakfast.

Walking and Breathing as a Celebration of Life
Each step, invested one hundred percent body and mind, brings solidity, freedom, and joy:

• Not thinking, not talking, remaining attentive to the present moment.
• Saying “I have arrived” with each step, “I am home” with each in-breath.
• Touching the wonders of life: the flower, the mist, the ray of sunshine, our own eyes, each human being – “I come from the Kingdom of God.”

Transforming Suffering into Understanding, Love, and Sangha
Lasting happiness is born from understanding suffering (the first noble truth) and its roots (the second noble truth). Just as the lotus grows in the mud, we must use suffering as compost to allow the flower of understanding and love to bloom.
The teaching of the Dharma is a rain that waters the seeds of wisdom in you; walking, sitting, and eating in mindfulness are practices of “selective watering” of the wholesome seeds.
A practice center or a sangha is a mini pure land, a concrete space where the art of happiness, transformation, and healing is learned.

The Sangha is gathered in the Upper Hamlet, in the Assembly of Stars Meditation Hall, on April 14, 2010.

1. How can we educate adolescents in a blended family who are caught up in the consumer society and react negatively to meditation?
2. For an alter-globalization activist feeling great aversion toward the capitalist system, how can one act without suffering excessively, and is it possible to have compassion for a system?
3. In a couple’s life, how do we handle love and letting go, tell the other person that we do not feel they are present, and should we save the relationship at any cost?
4. Do animals, plants, and minerals have a soul, and are they aware of inter-being?
5. Facing the political conflicts in Thailand, how can a journalist remain neutral when every statement risks being interpreted as taking sides?
6. What are the concrete ways to handle sexual energy according to the Mindfulness Trainings, and how can we support each other in this practice within the Sangha?
7. What does the Order of Interbeing represent in Europe today, and what paths should be followed so that a study group on the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings can flourish harmoniously?
8. What are the keys to loving oneself and having confidence in oneself as well as in life?
9. When one does not have children, what is the view on cellular transmission, and of whom does one become the ancestor?
10. Is working for the army, even in a security role, compatible with the practice of the Five Mindfulness Trainings and Right Livelihood?
11. How can we plan for the future while remaining in the present moment, find Right View in a job involving suffering, and accept the present when a loved one is dying?
12. Since fusion relationships create suffering, can you elaborate on the concepts of inter-being and personal identity?
13. How can I support a friend who is suffering from anxiety while caring for her mother at the end of life, while protecting myself from this suffering?