I brought corn seeds to Italy and each child planted one in a pot. When the seed sprouts into a young plant, they are to speak to it: “Do you remember the time you were a seed of corn?” In our bodies every cell carries our father, our mother, and all our ancestors—blood and spiritual (Jesus Christ, the Buddha, and Thầy) are fully present in every cell. This morning the children received the two promises:

1. I vow to cultivate understanding in order to live peacefully with people, animals, plants, and minerals.
2. I vow to develop my compassion in order to love and live happily with people, animals, plants, and minerals.

Looking deeply into the present moment reveals “continuation”: each thought, speech, and action (the triple karma) carries our signature and never disappears. Right thinking—non-discrimination, compassion, understanding—brings well-being to ourselves and the world; wrong thinking—hate, anger, fear, despair—brings suffering. Two wrong views to avoid are nihilism (belief in total cessation at death) and eternalism (belief in an unchanging soul). Buddhist psychology describes eight consciousnesses:
1–5. the five senses

6. mind (thinking, perception)
7. manas (clinging, pleasure-seeking and avoiding, ignoring suffering’s goodness, ignoring moderation)
8. store (the ground containing seeds of mindfulness, concentration, and insight)

Right View transcends notions of birth/death, coming/going, sameness/otherness, being/non-being. Meditating on a flame, a cloud, or a lotus shows that nothing “comes from nothing” nor “dies into nothing,” and that each phenomenon “inter-is” with its conditions. Cultivating mindfulness (smṛti), concentration (samādhi), and insight (prajñā) reveals our true nature—nirvana, the extinction of all views—and forms the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic.

To love is to be there—offering your true presence through mindful breathing and walking so you can look into the eyes of the one you cherish and say, “Darling, I am here for you.” Right presence can be sent by breath, step, phone or email, and becomes the most precious gift you can give.

Thay teaches four mantras of love:

1. “Darling, I am here for you.”
2. “Darling, I know you are there, and I am very happy.”
3. “Darling, I know you suffer; that is why I am here for you.”
4. “Darling, I suffer so much. I don’t understand why you have done such a thing to me. Please explain.”

The Buddha’s four elements of true love (Vô lượng tâm) that grow in any loving relationship are:
• Maitrī (loving-kindness): the intention and capacity to bring happiness by understanding real needs.
• Karuṇā (compassion): the energy to remove pain by deep listening and loving speech.
• Muditā (joy): sharing in each other’s happiness so your joy is mine and mine is yours.
• Upekṣā (non-discrimination/inclusiveness): no frontier between lover and beloved, extending love universally.

If there are three people living in the family, place about four or five cushions in the breathing room—one for guests—and decorate it with a bell and a pot holding a single flower. Whenever you feel upset or angry, enter the breathing room, bow to the bell, invite its sound three times, and breathe in and out three times per bell (nine in-breaths, nine out-breaths). This practice brings peace and calm, and when a child does it, parents often hear the bell, join in, and all three can sit, breathe in, breathing out, smiling—more beautiful than any painting. The breathing room is reserved only for sitting and breathing; anyone who follows you there must sit and listen to the bell. Young people are invited to plan a breathing room at home, help decorate it, and when they hear the small bell, stand up and bow before leaving.

In Plum Village, every movement applies mindful walking. Alone, practice slow walking—one step per in-breath, one per out-breath—saying “I have arrived” on the in-breath and “I am home” on the out-breath, investing 100% body and mind so each step truly lands you in the here and the now, the only place life is available. With the Sangha, you might make two steps while breathing in, “I have arrived. I have arrived,” and three while breathing out, “I am home. I am home. Home.” Bring attention to the sole of the foot, as if kissing the ground: you cultivate solidity (being well-established) and freedom (free of past and future) together. You may use a walking song or gatha—lines such as

1. I have arrived, I am home.
2. In the here and in the now.
3. I am solid, I am free.
4. In the ultimate I dwell.
   to maintain mindfulness and concentration, which always brings happiness.

Because store consciousness holds many “seeds” (bījas)—positive (mindfulness, concentration, insight, love, joy) and negative (anger, fear, despair)—we practice true diligence, or selective watering, in four steps:

1. Prevent negative seeds from manifesting.
2. If a negative seed does manifest, “change the peg” by inviting a wholesome seed to replace it.
3. Arrange to water wholesome seeds before they manifest.
4. When a wholesome seed does manifest as a mental formation (e.g., joy, compassion), keep it alive as long as possible.
   This management of seeds cultivates the three energies in us—mindfulness (smṛti), concentration (samādhi), and insight (prajñā)—allows us to touch and dwell in the kingdom of God or Pure Land here and now, and heals, transforms, and liberates us.

In Plum Village, walking meditation with children brings “freshness” and “innocence,” nourishing both adult and child. The bell is treated as a bodhisattva friend who “helps us to wake up,” so we invite the bell to sound rather than striking it. Even a mini-bell rests on the palm as a lotus-flower cushion: bow, mindful breathing, recite the four-line poem, then proceed.

Mini-bell invitation procedure:

1. Bow, hold bell on palm (imagined as a lotus flower), practice two full in-breath/out-breaths with the poem:
   • “Body, speech, and mind in perfect oneness…”
   • “…I send my heart along with the sound…”
   • “…awaken from forgetfulness…”
   • “…transcend the path of anxiety and sorrow.”
2. Offer a half-sound (“inviter” against bell) and allow one in-breath + one out-breath (8–10 sec) for listeners to prepare.
3. Offer three full sounds; after each, listeners take three in-breaths/out-breaths with the two-line verses:
   • In: “I listen, I really listen (with all my cells).”
   • Out: “This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.”
4. Between sounds, allow extra time for adults to complete their breaths. Lower the bell, bow to it, and the bell-master’s task is complete.

A breathing room at home (a small bell + cushions) allows family members to sit before school or bedtime, or in moments of anger or sadness, to practice listening together and restore peace.

The Sutra on Mindful Breathing offers eight exercises; the first two are:

1. Identify your in-breath as in-breath and out-breath as out-breath.
2. Follow each in-breath (and each out-breath) from beginning to end without interruption.

The Art of Happiness (or The Art to Be Happy) will be the topic for this winter’s three-month retreat, with monastics and Dharma teachers studying Dignāga’s Treaty on the Object of Perception. The next twenty-one-day retreat will be “The Happiness of the Buddha,” exploring how the Buddha “builds his happiness.” Thay and novice monk Pháp Triển have designed a Now watch—1,000 ordered for Deer Park, 300 received—to remind practitioners that every glance can bring mindfulness to “It’s now.” During the last winter retreat, about 300 monastics and laypeople practiced sitting meditation, walking meditation, Dharma discussion, and reflected on a global spirituality, resulting in a new version of the Five Mindfulness Trainings as a Buddhist vision for a global ethic.

At the European Institute of Applied Buddhism (near Cologne), a permanent monastic and lay Sangha offers courses on life’s challenges, including:

1. a 21-day marriage preparation course,
2. a course for young people at odds with parents,
3. a course for parents struggling with children,
4. a course for those in mourning,
5. a course for those diagnosed with cancer or serious illness.
   Participants receive a certificate upon completion and live with the resident Sangha to learn selective watering of seeds of joy or anger.

Mindfulness enables practitioners to recognize and generate moments of happiness by touching the many physical and mental conditions of well-being already available—healthy lungs, a functioning heart, even the simple act of brushing teeth with love. Happiness is recognized against the background of suffering (as when a 24-hour ceasefire brought relief during wartime), and every mindful in-breath and out-breath becomes a source of happiness. A true Sangha carries the living Dharma—visible in peaceful walking, sitting, and smiling—and inter-ares with the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha as the soul of our spiritual family.