Enlightenment is Now or Never. In walking meditation say oui, oui (yes, yes) on the in-breath and merci, merci (thanks, thanks) on the out-breath, recognizing “so many wonderful things” – blue sky, hills, mother, father, Sangha – and each “yes” brings happiness. Mindfulness is to be mindful of what is there; awakening happens each time you see something positive and say, “This is a moment of happiness.” Saṃtuṣṭa (Sanskrit) or Tri túc (Chinese) means you already have enough conditions to be happy right here, right now.

The path of practice includes Exercises 9–16:

1. Ninth: Liberating the mind – awareness of mental formations.
2. Tenth: True right diligence – strengthen and gladden the mind.
3. Eleventh: Concentration – to get insight and liberate from afflictions.
4. Thirteenth: Contemplating impermanence.
5. Fourteenth: Contemplation of no-craving.
6. Fifteenth: Contemplating cessation – no birth, no death, no being, no non-being (Nirvāṇa).
7. Sixteenth: Letting go of all notions.

Contemplation of cessation is at the heart of Buddhist meditation: by looking deeply – like a wave touching water or a cloud never born nor dying – you touch Nirvāṇa, the extinction of all notions of birth, death, being, and non-being. Continuous mindfulness and concentration lead to the insight (Right View) that underpins Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, and the new Five Mindfulness Trainings.

In Rome, each retreatant—adults and children—received one seed of corn to plant in a pot and care for at home. Once the young plant has two or three leaves, you “talk to the plant of corn,” reminding it that it was once a seed. This exercise mirrors our own journey:
• at conception we were “a very tiny seed” containing both father and mother;
• within the womb—a “palace of the child” (tử cung)—we lived in perfect comfort, free from fear or desire;
• birth cuts the umbilical cord, forcing us into our first in-breath and original fear coupled with the original desire to survive;
• every subsequent desire is a continuation of that original desire, and every suffering and joy recalls our forgotten paradise of the womb.

The ninth and tenth exercises of mindful breathing train us to transform our mental formations (cittasaṃskāra, of which there are fifty-one):

1. Ninth exercise­—aware of mind: sit “on the bank of the river of mind” and recognize each mental formation (anger, doubt, compassion, etc.) as it arises without grasping or pushing it away.
2. Tenth exercise­—gladden the mind (right diligence):
   1. sign a peace treaty to avoid watering negative seeds (fear, anger, craving, doubt);
   2. if a negative formation does arise, “change the CD” or “change the peg” by inviting a wholesome formation;
   3. selectively water positive seeds (mindfulness, concentration, compassion) so they manifest more often;
   4. when a wholesome formation is present, maintain it as long as possible.

Our deepest source of sustenance comes from four nutriments:
• volition (our fundamental aspirations, whether to survive or to awaken);
• collective energy of consciousness (the Sangha’s shared peace, concentration, joy);
• sensory impressions (what we consume via eyes, ears, conversation—mindful consumption prevents poisoning);
• edible food (choose what sustains both body and compassion).

Building and living in a Sangha provides the wholesome collective energy needed to nourish these nutriments and sustain our practice.

When I was sixteen, I became a novice monk and learned a book of poetry—fifty-five four-line poems in classical Chinese, each line five words. These gatha accompany every daily action (sitting, opening a tap, brushing teeth, lighting a lamp, riding a bicycle) so that “my mind and body dwell perfectly in the here and the now.” Later I translated them into Vietnamese, English, French, German… and even composed new gatha for boarding an airplane or riding a bicycle, sharing this monastic culture with lay friends worldwide.

The Anapanasati Sutta offers sixteen exercises for mindful breathing; the first eight are:

1. identify in-breath and out-breath
2. follow each breath from beginning to end
3. become aware of the whole body
4. release bodily tension
5. generate the energy of joy
6. generate happiness
7. recognize painful feelings
8. release tension in painful feelings
   Mindfulness of breathing bridges body and mind, releasing past and future, bringing freedom, peace, concentration, and insight.

True joy and happiness arise in two ways:

1. Ly sinh hỷ lạc—letting go of obstacles (past sorrows, future fears) so joy naturally appears
2. mindfulness—recognizing the countless conditions of happiness already present (eyes that see, a heart that beats, a morning breeze)
   Supported by the collective energy of the Sangha, each sitting, walking or cup-of-tea becomes a refuge of solidity and freedom.

Happiness is now or never—enlightenment is the transformation of suffering into joy. Two years ago Blue Cliff held its first retreat under a tent; this Great Togetherness hall now shelters our practice. Last August Thây returned mid-retreat despite a serious lung infection (pseudomonas), foregoing a required fourteen-day hospital stay and four IV injections daily. Nine hundred eighty people attended the Colorado YMCA retreat in his absence, and the Sangha’s success led them to make it an annual gathering—proof that “Thây has transmitted himself to his Sangha, and the Sangha will continue Thây for a long time.”

Our Sangha is “true” because every member practices mindful breathing, walking, sitting, and eating, generating a living Dharma—mindfulness + concentration + insight—that carries the true Buddha within. During a ninety-day Winter Retreat in Plum Village, three hundred monastics and lay practitioners studied the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and crafted a new version of the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

1. The Five Mindfulness Trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic.
2. They express the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness.
3. Practicing them cultivates the insight of interbeing (right view), which can remove all discrimination, intolerance, anger, fear, and despair.
4. Living according to them is already the path of a bodhisattva, inviting dialogue across traditions and translation into non-Buddhist language for a shared human ethic.

Every bell invites “deep listening”: 100 % of body and mind return to the in-breath, out-breath, and touch our true home in the here and now. Each mindful step—“I have arrived. I am home.”—brings solidity, freedom, peace, and joy. Whether brushing teeth, drinking water, or eating a morsel of carrot, full awareness of the miracle of life is enlightenment in action. Walking, sitting, cooking, speaking or observing Noble Silence together generates the collective energy of mindfulness that heals and transforms, building the Sangha and continuing the Buddha.