This is the orientation given on Wednesday, Oct. 5th, 2011, offered by Thay during the Stepping Into Freedom, Savoring Life Retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush, NY. Its too late to go to the kingdom, if you wait until this body disintegrates. You dont have to die to go to the kingdom. In fact, you have to be very alive. And that can be possible when breathing in mindfully and breathing out mindfully. So breathing and walking meditation is to enjoy the Kingdom of God with every step. After an initial introduction, Thay hands over the orientation to Brother Phap Khoi and Sister Thoai Nghiem.

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Thay teaches that when you love someone, the most precious gift you can offer him or her is your true presence. In the tradition of Buddhist practice, there is a way of breathing in mindfully, or making a step mindfully, in order to bring your mind home to your body and become fully present in the here and the now. When mind and body are together, you are truly there and you can offer your presence to your beloved one. The practice is to be there for ourselves, for our beloved ones, for life.

Thay demonstrates the pebble meditation that was designed for children yet also enjoyed by adults. The four pebbles represent a flower, a mountain, still water, and space, reminding us that we contain freshness, stability, calm, and freedom.

Thay elaborates on nine practices of mindful breathing. Mindfulness is a source of joy because it brings us home to the here and the now where we can get in touch with the many wonders of life that are in us and around us.

This is the second talk of a series of five given during the Stepping Into Freedom, Savoring Life retreat in the year 2012. This talk was offered at the Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush, New York, in the United States.

October 7, 2011. 109-minute dharma talk with Thich Nhat Hanh from Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, NY. The sangha is on the North American Tour and this is the second dharma talk for the Stepping Into Freedom, Savoring Life Retreat. Over a thousand people are in attendance.

When the Buddha breathes, the quality of breathing is superb. When the Buddha sits, the quality of sitting is superb. And the Buddha is always inside of you and if you invite the Buddha to sit or breathe with you then you can benefit. High class breathing. Today we return to the mantras for being truly present and bringing happiness to yourself and to your loved ones. We should express our appreciation and this is the practice of mindfulness. This isn’t a Buddhist practice; anyone can practice the mantras. Darling, I am here for you. Darling, I know you are there and it makes me happy.

Thay offers the story on a grain of corn. In the grain of corn is also a plant of corn. This is a common story given to illustrate signlessness and is usually offered for the children. Meditation is to look deeply and see things that other people cannot see. Interbeing. Can we take the cloud out of the tea? Can we take the mother or father out of the child?

Continue with the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing. Aware of our in breath and our out breath. Follow our in breath and our out breath. Aware of our body. Releasing tension in our body. The importance of abdomen/belly breathing. It is the trunk. No thinking. You are much more than one emotion. We should memorize this, especially when strong emotions arise. Thich Nhat Hanh recently met with California Governor Jerry Brown to suggest bringing this practice into the public schools. It is non-sectarian. Emotions are impermanent.

The mind is a river with drops of water called mental formations. Meditation is sitting on the bank of the river and not being carried away by the mental formation. The 10th exercise of breathing is to cultivate the mind. To make the mind more beautiful. Four aspects of the practice of Right Diligence. First, we don’t water the negative seeds. Second, if a negative seed arises we try to help it not stay too long in our mind consciousness. We don’t fight or suppress, but invite up a good seed. The third aspect is to bring the good seeds to have many chances to arise in the mind. To beautify the mind. Fourth, once you have a good mental formation then we try to keep it as long as possible. This is transformation at the base.

The 11th and 12th exercises on breathing are concentrating the mind and liberating the mind. The last four (13-16) exercises are presented. These last four have three concentrations: emptiness; signlessness, and aimlessness. The Three Doors of Liberation. Finally, we learn about the Buddha-body, the Dharma-body, and the Sangha-body.

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Thay shares the four elements of true love, called the Four Brahmavihāras. Maitrī is the capacity to offer happiness to oneself and to others. Karuṇā is the capacity to remove suffering, to transform suffering. Muditā means joy. Upekṣā means non-discrimination.

Thầy details Right View in terms of the Noble Eightfold Path. He calls the Five Mindfulness Trainings a concrete expression of the Noble Eightfold Path, the path of true love, the path of true happiness. And with the practice of this path, we can transform, we can create happiness through understanding and compassion.

Thầy explains interbeing and non-duality yet cautions against letting notions substitute for insight gained through mindfulness and concentration. What you think, what you say, and what you do is your continuation.

This is the fourth talk of a series of five given during the Stepping Into Freedom, Savoring Life retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at the Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush, New York, in the United States.

In this session of questions and answers the following questions were asked:

By the children:

• How do you control the urge to hit when you are very upset?
  -Do you ever get frustrated with yourself?
• How can I not suffer when people are not being good to this world?

By the teens and young adults:

• How old were you when you decided to become a monk and what commitments are required?
• What should I do with strong positive and negative energy?
• What does it mean to go home to yourself?

By the adults:

• Can we communicate with loved ones who have passed away?
• Does taking the Five Mindfulness Trainings clean away past negative actions?
• How can I handle the discouragement and isolation caused by comparing my practice to Thầy?
• What to do when a commitment made from unclear understanding causes suffering if broken?
• How can the impulse to protect others be reconciled with the practice of non-discrimination?
• How can I reconcile feeling the presence of Jesus with what I was taught to believe about other religions?

During this session, Thầy Pháp Lưu introduces Wake Up, a movement of young practitioners aged seventeen to thirty-five dedicated to bringing mindfulness into their daily lives and local communities. He highlights the synergy between the youth and the older Sangha as the movement expands through university tours across the U.K. and the United States.

This Questions and Answers session was organised during the Stepping Into Freedom—Savouring Life retreat in the year 2011. Thầy offered this session at Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush, New York, the United States.

Thay reminds us that walking on the planet Earth is a wonder. Zen Master Lin Chi said the miracle is to walk on earth. Just like Neil Armstrong on the moon, we should be mindful of each step because happiness is possible with each step. Thay tells us we can touch eternity and transcend time as time is a product of our mind that is born from dualistic thinking. We can transcend birth and death, being and non-being and all pairs of opposites with mindfulness and concentration. Furthermore, Thay explains how before we bow to the Buddha, we have to meditate to truly establish a deep communication with the Buddha and a Christian can practice the same way when bowing to Jesus. Thay continues to share about the Three Doors of Liberation (emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness) and the four signs, from the Diamond Sutra, in which we may get caught: the concept of a self, of man, of living beings, and of a lifespan.

This is the final talk in a series of four given during the Stepping Into Freedom, Savoring Life retreat in the year 2011. Thay offered this talk at Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush, NY, in the United States.