Today’s session began with questions from children, teens, then adults, each ringing the bell and breathing three times before speaking.

1. How do plants grow? Sit close, breathe, observe—biologists do this work.
2. Why don’t monastics fall in love? Monks and nuns practice celibacy so they can devote their time to practice, love without suffering, and help others.
3. How did you decide to become a monk/Buddhist? Thay’s family was already Buddhist; at school five friends discussed their futures—four became Buddhist monks, one a Catholic monk. To be a Buddhist means having compassion, understanding, openness; ideas and labels aren’t required.

Noble silence and laughter support each other if we remain fully aware. A non-dualistic view sees suffering and happiness “inter-are”: like lotus and mud, one nourishes the other. Feelings are impermanent; strong emotions are “storms” in our “store consciousness.” To handle them, practice belly breathing—focus 100 % on the rise and fall of your abdomen until the storm passes.

Five skandhas:
• form
• feelings
• perceptions
• mental formations
• consciousness

Each emotion is one of fifty-one mental formations; we are much more than any single emotion.

1. During a retreat in Italy, each person planted a corn seed and, when the plant had two or three leaves, asked it the question:
   “My dear corn plant, do you remember the moment when you were a corn seed?”
   We must listen patiently, confirming that the plant is truly the continuation of the seed, even if it does not immediately recognize its origins. This meditation invites us to recognize that, just as the plant comes from the seed, we come from our mother (and father) and exist in a stream of continuation: the seed has not died, it still lives on in the plant.

2. When we create two flames and ask the second: “Are you the same flame as the other, or a different flame?” it answers:
   “I am not exactly the same flame, but I am not entirely a different flame either.”
   This truth of the middle way is called non-identification and non-differentiation, that is:

   1. identical/identification
   2. differentiation

3. Mindfulness is the energy of the present moment: while walking, breathing, brushing our teeth, preparing breakfast, or driving, we can notice tension (the first noble truth), release it (the third noble truth), and taste peace, happiness, and freedom. Breathing in, “I am home”; breathing out, “I have arrived”; inviting the spirit of our father, our mother, or the Holy Spirit to inhabit every cell: every activity becomes meditation, a moment of awakening, and an opportunity to make “Plum Village” wherever we live.

I meet him, I meet the novice under a pine tree and I ask: “Is your master here?”
– Sir, my master went to look for medicinal plants in the forest since this morning.
He must be somewhere in this mountain, but because of the thick mist, I cannot locate him.

One day, the master and his young novice find a wonderful place in the mountains to meditate.
“Young novice, this is my true temple; the other is not mine: there are too many visitors,” says the master.
To hide oneself allows the practice of sitting meditation, to become “still water that reflects things as they are,” and to attain liberating truth.

During retreats at Plum Village, meditation and sharing have led to a global spirituality and a global ethic founded on:

1. The Four Noble Truths: suffering, its roots, its cessation, and the path leading to that cessation.
2. The Noble Eightfold Path, beginning with right view.
3. The Five Mindfulness Trainings, concrete expressions of this vision.

To establish right view, three energies arising from meditation are indispensable:

1. Mindfulness: to be truly present in each moment.
2. Concentration: to deepen attention on the object of mindfulness.
3. Prajñā (deep looking): intuitive insight into the nature of no-birth and no-death of all things.

Four pine trees were planted twenty-eight years ago to become today’s Upper Hamlet Dharma Hall. During the Summer Opening—now in its fourth week—over one hundred children, teenagers, and adults have practiced sitting and walking meditation together. Sitting meditation is simply enjoying each in-breath and out-breath and the peaceful presence of others; walking meditation is fully aware, one-step-one-breath, no thinking, no talking, celebrating life’s wonder on “this beautiful planet called Earth.” Holding a child’s hand, Thay offers stability and peace, and in return is nourished by their freshness and innocence.

True love, Thay teaches, must include non-discrimination and equanimity, as illustrated by the harmony of the right and left hands, which never fight, never compare, and care for each other’s suffering. From that true love emerges shared happiness and shared suffering. To prevent unmindful mistakes—like hammering a finger—mindfulness and concentration must underpin every action.

Three kinds of complexes

1. complex of superiority
2. complex of inferiority
3. complex of equality

Four exercises in mindful breathing

1. identify in-breath as in-breath, out-breath as out-breath
2. follow the in-breath and out-breath all the way through
3. become aware of the whole body while breathing in
4. release tension in the body while breathing out

Three energies generated by Buddhist meditation
• smṛti (mindfulness)
• samādhi (concentration)
• prajñā (insight)

Today, the umbilical cord first connects the baby to its mother for nine months:

1. the mother breathes and the oxygen “enters the baby’s body through the umbilical cord”;
2. she eats and the nutrients “enter the baby’s body through the umbilical cord”;
3. every joy of the mother or father also penetrates the baby, just as the love the baby already returns;
4. after birth, this invisible cord endures between the child, the mother, the father, then extends to the forest, the clouds, and the rivers, revealing “a multitude of umbilical cords that connect us all together.”

True love is a practice to cultivate first within oneself, before addressing others:

1. Maitrī (loving kindness) – the capacity to bring happiness;
2. Karuṇā (compassion) – the capacity to relieve suffering;
3. Muditā (joy) – the capacity to generate joy;
4. Upekṣā (inclusiveness) – love without discrimination, without boundaries.

Life and continuity after death are conceived as the production of seeds: thoughts, words, and actions form karma, “action”; each right thought, each right word, and each right action are seeds that ensure a beautiful future.

Four pine trees were planted by Thay about twenty-eight years ago to form today’s Dharma Hall, where more than one thousand of us—children (three or four questions), teenagers, then adults—take turns asking questions after three collective breaths at the bell.

Among the questions and answers:

1. Waking early: monks and nuns choose pure-air, starry, quiet hours for breathing, walking, and sitting meditation, and go to bed early so rising is easy.
2. Loving without attachment: attachment robs freedom; to love deeply yet remain free, learn the Buddha’s way of love.
3. The tree in the Dharma Hall: it represents Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; bowing to it reveals all three.
4. Sibling conflict: practice deep listening—“when I talk, don’t interrupt me; let me finish.”
5. Famous life: “Pour être heureux, vivons cachés.”
6. Baby Buddha growth: nurture the capacity to understand, love, and be peaceful by deep listening, loving-kindness, and daily check-ups.

Mindful silence and speech:
– Noble Silence means noticing mental responses, writing down unspoken reactions, and reviewing them—then choosing not to speak.
– True silence also calms thinking: “to be, not to think,” enjoying breath, sounds, sights.
– Even nonverbal responses (facial expressions, looks) must be peaceful.

Consumption, ego, and inter-being:
– Five Mindfulness Trainings, especially mindful consumption, call us to use science’s helpful technologies without feeding craving. Bring the Sangha home or meet weekly to support each other.
– Vegetarians allow others’ choices, set a tolerant example, offer delicious vegetarian dishes, or reduce meat by 50 percent (UN recommendation).
– Ego arises from habit-energy seeds of love and anger; humans alone can practice mindfulness to “selectively water” seeds, transcend self, and realize non-self and inter-being.

Staying present amid intense emotions: invest 100 percent in each action (walking, toothbrushing), generate mindfulness and concentration to “be there” for irritation rather than react, and respond with understanding and compassion.

Sangha building: identify like-minded friends, practice together, and expand your island of peace as the Buddha did at Deer Park.

Three Jewels

1. The Buddha: the capacity to understand suffering and to love, present in each person as a “little Buddha” that we nurture through sitting meditation and mindful walking.
2. The Dharma: the teaching of the Buddha in three forms—written, spoken, and living—which guides us to transform suffering into peace, love, and understanding.
3. The Sangha: an authentic community that practices the Dharma, radiating peace, brotherhood, and mutual support.

Each jewel carries the other two and manifests through interdependence: “the Buddha cannot be without the Dharma,” and so on.

The Noble Eightfold Path

1. Right Thought – oriented toward understanding and love
2. Right Speech – full of understanding and love
3. Right Action – to protect, support, and help
4. Right Livelihood – to preserve the planet and live simply
5. Right Effort – to water the “good” seeds within
6. Right Mindfulness – to return to the present moment, to celebrate life
7. Right Concentration – to penetrate reality for liberation
8. Right View – deep vision of interbeing, the foundation of global ethics

Learn to sit like a Buddha—upright, relaxed, smiling—in lotus or half-lotus so you feel “light, peaceful, free,” as if on a lotus flower. Practice Sitting Meditation to cultivate peace and joy, and create Noble Silence together: a powerful, nourishing “thundering silence” that feeds both mother and baby in the Dharma Hall with two kinds of milk—mother’s milk and Dharma milk.

Happiness is possible right here and now—dṛṣṭadharma-sukha-vihāra, dwelling happily in the present moment. Bring the mind back to the body with mindful breathing or walking (“I have arrived. I am home.”) to stop running toward future conditions. All afflictions need food to survive; to uproot them see the Second Noble Truth in terms of four kinds of nutriment:

1. edible food
2. sensory impression
3. volition
4. consciousness
   Mindful consumption of wholesome nutriments leads to the cessation of ill-being and opens the path of liberation.

Learn to sit like a Buddha: upright, relaxed, smiling, as if on a lotus flower—light, peaceful, free. In Plum Village’s Dharma hall nearly a thousand people create Noble Silence, an alive, nourishing silence. A baby there receives two kinds of food at once:

1. mother’s milk
2. Noble Silence (Dharma milk)

Mindful breathing and walking bring us home to the present moment. In walking meditation, breathe in for two steps and out for three, saying “I have arrived. I am home.” This practice stops mental chatter and cultivates mindfulness and concentration (samādhi), leading to deep insight (vipassanā).

Suffering has roots in four kinds of nutriment:

1. edible food
2. sensory impression
3. volition
4. consciousness

By practicing mindful consumption (the fifth of the Five Mindfulness Trainings) and the rest of the Noble Eightfold Path, we learn to dwell happily in the present moment (dṛṣṭadharmasukhavihāra), transform suffering, and end ill-being.