(Join us for the annual New Year’s Eve Dharma talk of Thay, scheduled at 3pm France (9 am New York/Eastern) in the Lower Hamlet of Plum Village.)((Can this sentence be taken out as it is repeated in the next sentence.)) This talk by Thich Nhat Hanh is from the Lower Hamlet of Plum Village on Tuesday, December 31, 2013, on the occasion of New Year’s Eve. It is the fourteenth talk of the 2013-2014 Winter Retreat. This talk is in English.

The talk begins with a lovely guided meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh followed by a teaching on compassion to help us listen to the monastics chanting. The second half of the talk focuses on love and healing our suffering. A few months ago, we visited Stanford University where the topic of compassion was discussed. Many of us do not know how to take the mud to make the lotus. Compassion can be used to embrace and understand suffering. Without suffering, no compassion is possible. We shouldn’t run away from our own suffering. How do we do that? We can use mindful walking, mindful breathing, then we can generate the energy of mindfulness and we won’t feel overwhelmed. We can take care of the suffering inside.

In Mahāyāna Buddhism, we have a great being capable of overcoming great suffering and helping other people. This is the Bodhisattva of Compassionate Listening, Avalokitesvara. The monastics will chant her name today to help us all generate the energy of compassion. We can stop the thinking and just listen to the chant. Thay gives us instructions on how to best listen to the chant - we practice as a drop of water in a river and allow it to embrace us.

We have been discussing home and the new year. The first element is our body. Learning how to breathe, to walk, and to build our home. The second element is our feelings and emotions. We have to learn to take care of this as well in order to have a true home. The third element is our perceptions. We should always be asking, are you sure of your perceptions?

Do we know how to love ourselves and how to take care of ourselves? If we can love and take care of ourselves, then we’ll know how to take care of someone else. Self-love is the foundation. We have been discussing the new year. The year is made of time, speech, and action. The year 2013 will continue from our action. The fruit of our action will stay. Nothing is lost. This is retribution. This coming year we have the sentence “New Year. New Me.” To liberate us. We should renew ourselves. To create a feeling of joy, happiness, and compassion. This is the practice of mindfulness.

Have you been able to enjoy the Kingdom of God, the Pure Land? The new year is your chance to enjoy it and practice. In Plum Village, we have the time to walk together. We can challenge ourselves to walk in mindfulness. Every step. Happiness is possible. Mindfulness is being aware…aware of our steps. The practice of mindfulness is the practice of happiness.

Suffering is part of life. The Buddha spoke about the second arrow. It is a teaching to help us suffer much less. If we allow fear and anger to grow, then we are allowing the second arrow. But don’t be afraid of suffering, especially if we know how to practice. Being aware of the painful feeling and calming the painful feeling. The first step is to suffer less. The second is to make good use of our suffering. Our true home is in every step and in every breath.

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Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh has been practising meditation and mindfulness for 70 years and radiates an extraordinary sense of calm and peace. This is a man who on a fundamental level walks his talk, and whom Buddhists revere as a Bodhisattva; seeking the highest level of being in order to help others.
Ever since being caught up in the horrors of the Vietnam war, the 86-year-old monk has committed his life to reconciling conflict and in 1967 Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying “his ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”

So it seems only natural that in recent years he has turned his attention towards not only addressing peoples’ disharmonious relationships with each other, but also with the planet on which all our lives depend.

Thay, as he is known to his many thousands of followers, sees the lack of meaning and connection in peoples’ lives as being the cause of our addiction to consumerism and that it is vital we recognise and respond to the stress we are putting on Earth if civilisation is to survive.

What Buddhism offers, he says, is the recognition that we all suffer and the way to overcome that pain is to directly confront it, rather than seeking to hide or bypass it through our obsession with shopping, entertainment, work or the beautification of our bodies. The craving for fame, wealth, power and sex serves to create only the illusion of happiness and ends up exacerbating feelings of disconnection and emptiness.
Thay refers to a billionaire chief executive of one of America’s largest companies, who came to one of his meditation courses and talked of his suffering, worries and doubts, of thinking everyone was coming to take advantage of him and that he had no friends.
In an interview at his home and retreat centre in Plum Village, near Bordeaux, Thay outlines how a spiritual revolution is needed if we are going to confront the multitude of environmental challenges.
While many experts point to the enormous complexity and difficulty in addressing issues ranging from the destruction of ecosystems to the loss of millions of species, Thay sees a Gordian Knot that needs slicing through with a single strike of a sharp blade.

Move beyond concept of the “environment”
He believes we need to move beyond talking about the environment, as this leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet in terms only of what it can do for them.
Change is possible only if there is a recognition that people and planet are ultimately one and the same.

“You carry Mother Earth within you,” says Thay. “She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment.

“In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. In that kind of relationship you have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change your life.
“Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.
“Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.
“So to breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it and realise you are the Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the earth. Not to cut the tree not to pollute the water, that is not enough.”

Putting an economic value on nature is not enough
Thay, who will this spring be in the UK to lead a five-day retreat as well as a mindfulness in education conference, says the current vogue in economic and business circles that the best way to protect the planet is by putting an economic value on nature is akin to putting a plaster on a gaping wound.
“I don’t think it will work,” he says. “We need a real awakening, enlightenment, to change our way of thinking and seeing things.”
Rather than placing a price tag of our forests and coral reefs, Thay says change will happen on a fundamental level only if we fall back in love with the planet: “The Earth cannot be described either by the notion of matter or mind, which are just ideas, two faces of the same reality. That pine tree is not just matter as it possesses a sense of knowing. A dust particle is not just matter since each of its atoms has intelligence and is a living reality.
“When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.
“We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one. When you love someone you want to say I need you, I take refuge in you. You do anything for the benefit of the Earth and the Earth will do anything for your wellbeing.”
In the world of business, Thay gives the example of Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, who combined developing a successful business with the practice of mindfulness and compassion: “It’s possible to make money in a way that is not destructive, that promotes more social justice and more understanding and lessens the suffering that exists all around us,” says Thay.
“Looking deeply, we see that it’s possible to work in the corporate world in a way that brings a lot of happiness both to other people and to us … our work has meaning.”
Thay, who has written more than 100 books, suggests that the lost connection with Earth’s natural rhythm is behind many modern sicknesses and that, in a similar way to our psychological pattern of blaming our mother and father for our unhappiness, there is an even more hidden unconscious dynamic of blaming Mother Earth.
In a new essay, Intimate Conversation with Mother Earth, he writes: “Some of us resent you for giving birth to them, causing them to endure suffering, because they are not yet able to understand and appreciate you.”

How mindfulness can reconnect people to Mother Earth
He points to increasing evidence that mindfulness can help people to reconnect by slowing down and appreciating all the gifts that the earth can offer.
“Many people suffer deeply and they do not know they suffer,” he says. “They try to cover up the suffering by being busy. Many people get sick today because they get alienated from Mother Earth.
“The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch Mother Earth inside of the body and this practice can help heal people. So the healing of the people should go together with the healing of the Earth and this is the insight and it is possible for anyone to practice.
“This kind of enlightenment is very crucial to a collective awakening. In Buddhism we talk of meditation as an act of awakening, to be awake to the fact that the earth is in danger and living species are in danger.”
Thay gives the example of something as simple and ordinary as drinking a cup of tea. This can help transform a person’s life if he or she were truly to devote their attention to it.
“When I am mindful, I enjoy more my tea,” says Thay as he pours himself a cup and slowly savours the first sip. “I am fully present in the here and now, not carried away by my sorrow, my fear, my projects, the past and the future. I am here available to life.
“When I drink tea this is a wonderful moment. You do not need a lot of power or fame or money to be happy. Mindfulness can help you to be happy in the here and now. Every moment can be a happy moment. Set an example and help people to do the same. Take a few minutes in order to experiment to see the truth.”

Need to deal with ones own anger to be an effective social activist
Thay has over many years developed the notion of applied Buddhism underpinned by a set of ethical practices known as the five mindfulness trainings, which are very clear on the importance of tackling social injustice.
However, if social and environmental activists are to be effective, Thay says they must first deal with their own anger. Only if people discover compassion for themselves will they be able to confront those they hold accountable for polluting our seas and cutting down our forests.
“In Buddhism we speak of collective action,” he says. “Sometimes something wrong is going on in the world and we think it is the other people who are doing it and we are not doing it.
“But you are part of the wrongdoing by the way you live your life. If you are able to understand that, not only you suffer but the other person suffers, that is also an insight.
“When you see the other person suffer you will not want to punish or blame but help that person to suffer less. If you are burdened with anger, fear, ignorance and you suffer too much, you cannot help another person. If you suffer less you are lighter more smiling, pleasant to be with, and in a position to help the person.
“Activists have to have a spiritual practice in order to help them to suffer less, to nourish the happiness and to handle the suffering so they will be effective in helping the world. With anger and frustration you cannot do much.”

Touching the “ultimate dimension”
Key to Thay’s teaching is the importance of understanding that while we need to live and operate in a dualistic world, it is also vital to understand that our peace and happiness lie in the recognition of the ultimate dimension: “If we are able to touch deeply the historical dimension – through a leaf, a flower, a pebble, a beam of light, a mountain, a river, a bird, or our own body – we touch at the same time the ultimate dimension. The ultimate dimension cannot be described as personal or impersonal, material or spiritual, object or subject of cognition – we say only that it is always shining, and shining on itself.
“Touching the ultimate dimension, we feel happy and comfortable, like the birds enjoying the blue sky, or the deer enjoying the green fields. We know that we do not have to look for the ultimate outside of ourselves – it is available within us, in this very moment.”
While Thay believes there is a way of creating a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the planet, he also recognises that there is a very real risk that we will continue on our destructive path and that civilisation may collapse.
He says all we need to do is see how nature has responded to other species that have got out of control: “When the need to survive is replaced with greed and pride, there is violence, which always brings about unnecessary devastation.
“We have learned the lesson that when we perpetrate violence towards our own and other species, we are violent towards ourselves; and when we know how to protect all beings, we are protecting ourselves.”

Remaining optimistic despite risk of impending catastrophe
In Greek mythology, when Pandora opened the gift of a box, all the evils were released into the world. The one remaining item was “hope”.
Thay is clear that maintaining optimism is essential if we are to find a way of avoiding devastating climate change and the enormous social upheavals that will result.
However, he is not naïve and recognises that powerful forces are steadily pushing us further towards the edge of the precipice.
In his best-selling book on the environment, The World we Have, he writes: “We have constructed a system we can’t control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims.
“We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and in which we are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the human family or our planet Earth.
“In my mind I see a group of chickens in a cage disputing over a few seeds of grain, unaware that in a few hours they will all be killed.”

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Thich Nhat Hanh addresses a gathering at the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, hosted by Action for Happiness. He speaks on the necessity of generating love and compassion to heal suffering, particularly for the younger generation, and introduces the practice of mindful breathing and the insight of interbeing to transform suffering into happiness.

1. How can a business based on financial desire be helped to be less desirous and more happy without being considered unsuccessful?
2. How can those driving transformational change balance awakening themselves with helping others, and is a collective awakening possible in time to avoid environmental and social collapse despite government resistance?
3. How can a young person addicted to drugs or alcohol find love for themselves when their actions cause self-hatred?
4. What advice is there for politicians and educators on how best to spread mindfulness and motivate children to learn its benefits?
5. How can the difference between consciousness and observing consciousness within the five aggregates of clinging be explained?
6. How can humans overcome the fear of the future lived through the past when previous love, compassion, and reconciliation have been betrayed?
7. How can teachers and children come to recognize each other’s suffering without causing extreme embarrassment?
8. What exactly is meant by the instruction to understand our suffering?
9. Given the negative signs regarding the environment and leadership, what will trigger a spiritual revolution and the understanding that change is necessary?
10. What is the place of competition in this philosophy and belief?
11. Is there a compassionate way to help trigger awareness in those who are suffering but are unwilling to begin the journey or talk about their pain?
12. Could the famous bell in this building be used to help the noisier members come back to themselves and practice loving speech?

Communication. We trust to much in our instruments of communication – mobile phone, email Skype, etc. Behind the instruments is our mind, and the question to ask is whether you can communicate with yourself. Many of us are angry or don’t respect ourselves. It is a mess inside. In that situation, how can we communicate with another person?

In Plum Village, we try to teach you how to come back to yourself. We learn to breath in mindfulness. We learn to eat in mindfulness. We learn to walk in mindfulness. We connect with our body and our mind. We need to let go our thinking – the practice of non-thinking.

Related to our suffering and being connected to our body is our consumption. We read a book, listen to music, drive the car, etc. We look to consumption to help us forget the pain their ourselves. Again, learning mindful breathing and walking we can gain the energy of mindfulness and be able to look at the pain and the sorrow. If you have mindfulness, you are no longer afraid.

Mindfulness is generated from your practice. And when we are together, we can generate collective mindfulness.

This talk was given in English, with a second part in Vietnamese (linked below). Includes 10 minutes of silent sitting & chanting before the talk.

Buddha, Sangha, Dharma Are Your True Home

Thầy invites us to return to the simple miracle of mindful breathing and the supportive presence of community. When we breathe, walk, and sit together, we touch the wonders of life available in each moment. From this ground of mindfulness, he reflects on time, impermanence, and how our practice shapes the quality of our days. A year becomes truly new only when we renew ourselves—learning to generate joy, care for suffering, and transform anger into understanding.

Nothing truly disappears—not a year, not our childhood, not our ancestors. Like clouds becoming rain, everything continues in new forms. Through this insight of interbeing, Thầy encourages us to touch the Earth, recognize our shared destiny, and look deeply into the suffering of those who hurt us. This is the heart of mindful living: returning home to our body, feelings, and mind, and taking gentle care of what we find there.

Our true home is an inner refuge built through mindfulness and compassion. When each of us cultivates this home, we help create a collective home, a Sangha where peace and understanding are generated together. Such a community becomes a refuge not only for its members but for all who come near it. In this way, the living Dharma is found in the way we breathe, speak, listen, and walk alongside one another.

This talk was offered during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2013. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

“There is No Way to Nirvāṇa—Nirvāṇa is the Way”_

Thầy teaches that nirvāṇa means cooling down in order to find peace, joy, and healing; it means extinguishing the fires within—the fire of anger, the fire of fear, the fire of afflictions and wrong perceptions.

The talk explores how to take refuge in the island within—the true home in the here and the now that is within ourselves where we can find healing and nourishment. Here, the power of mindfulness helps us get in touch with the wonders of life. We are invited to practice mindfulness in order to be fully alive in moments like brushing our teeth, taking a shower, and doing the dishes. Our teacher adds that when you walk mindfully, “You might be aware that Mother Earth is not only beneath, but inside you.” Living in mindfulness, he says, is the art of living.

A detailed explanation follows each element of the Noble Eightfold Path, showing how they are interrelated and interconnected—how they inter-are. To conclude, Thầy explains how we can better understand the teachings of Buddhism—and Christianity—by letting go of our dualistic thinking.

So what kind of resolution would Thầy make before the coming of the New Year?
I am determined not to waste my life, not to waste my time. I dare to live the life that I want to live. And I want every step I make on this planet bring joy, happiness to me and to the people. I want every step I make on this planet is a step I made in the Kingdom of God, in touching nirvāṇa because it’s my conviction—the path and nirvāṇa, the path and the Kingdom are the same. You cannot remove the Kingdom from the path. You cannot remove nirvāṇa from the path. You cannot remove the path from the Kingdom or nirvāṇa.
“There is no way to nirvāṇa—nirvāṇa is the way.”

This talk was offered on New Year’s Eve during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thầy shares the practice of going home in the Buddhist tradition: “The most wonderful Dharma talk that has ever been offered in Plum Village is, ‘I have arrived, I am home.’” Every mindful step and breath brings you home. Walking meditation and mindfulness has the power to heal and to nourish and helps us get in touch with everything: Mother Earth, Father Sun, our body, feelings, consciousness, our ancestors and the wonders of life. We are not lonely or separate. We are a river, a continuation. Loneliness is an illusion, a wrong perception. You have all your ancestors with you, and all of life.

Thầy reflects on the insights of no-birth, no-death; no being no non-being, and interbeing as our true nature. He speaks of the living Jesus and the living Buddha as having this nature of no-birth and no-death. Jesus and the Buddha continue and manifest in different forms. Our Sangha is a continuation of the Buddha. The way we walk and the way we breathe with the energy of mindfulness, concentration, peace and joy shows that the Buddha is here.

This talk was offered on Christmas Eve during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2013. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

In Plum Village, our practice is to always go back to the present moment. We do this in many ways, like mindful breathing and mindful walking. Simple, but very important practices. We have the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing is one of the most important sutras. In this talk we review the first six exercises.

When going through a difficult situation can be supported with these practices. It can be your second body. That is the Buddha.

Thay briefly discusses the Abidhamma literature – super dharma. Stick to the sutras and what they stay and don’t venture into metaphysical speculation.

Though past, present, and future look different, they are actually the same.
They are ideas. Notions. This is Interbeing.

Nothing is born. From nothing you cannot create something. This removes the notion of creation. This is something stated by science. This is the product of the intellect and is equivant to our idea of no birth and no death. Nothing has a separate existence.

“Breathing In” is not just for beginners. It is the most wonderful thing to do.

This is a Day of Mindfulness. We begin with chanting.

When you set up a practice center, you have to think of the sangha. A sangha is a group of people who practice together and the environment is good, nourishing, and healthy. When people arrive at a practice center, she should feel the energy right away.

We practice mindfulness as manifested from the Five Mindfulness Trainings. These generate a healthy environment. This is what the Buddha did right away and we too can create such a practice center.

Suffering is part of life and with mindfulness we can make good use of our suffering. We can produce joy, happiness, and compassion. The law of Interbeing is suffering and happiness. The mud and the lotus.

The holy is made of non-holy elements. We can generate holiness if we understand suffering and allow compassion to arise in us and we don’t suffer anymore. The Five Mindfulness Trainings can help cultivate this holiness.

Being a monastic. We have 10-precepts. It is a holy life. Training as a monastic, you also need a sangha. You cultivate the mind of love. Boddhichita.

The Buddha has spoken about Mother Earth as patience and equanimity, the two great virtues of the planet. Our society is very sick and many of us need healing; our body and mind contain many poisons. Mother Earth can heal herself and help us if we know how to take refuge in her. When we walk we can be aware that the earth is holding our steps; Mother Earth is also inside us. Walking meditation allows the earth to be in us and around us. We are the earth. Healing begins when you are not trying anything: the practice of non-practice.

There is a dimension of reality called the historical dimension, in which we see things as separate. Classical science, represented by Newton, operates here. A deeper science such as quantum physics reveals another truth that seems to contradict the historical dimension. In meditation there are also two kinds of truth: conventional truth and ultimate truth. The Buddha taught, “This is because that is.” Using a sheet of paper we can illustrate co-arising / inter-arising, the path that leads from the historical to the ultimate.

In the ultimate dimension we use words like Emptiness, the absence of notions and concepts, equivalent to God. The teaching of interbeing shows that nothing can exist by itself. Rebirth, karma, and retribution are possible without a self; believing a self is required is a deluded view influenced by pre-Buddhist teachings. The deep teaching is no-self.

The classical presentation of the Twelve Nidanas explains the chain of samsara:
Avidya (delusion); Sanskara (impulses, actions, dispositions); Vijñana (consciousness); Namarupa (body and mind); Sadayatana (six sense organs and objects); Sparsa (contact); Vedana (feelings); Trsna (craving, attachment); Upadana (grasping); Bhava (existence); Jati (birth); Jara-marana (old age and death). The first two links belong to the past, the next eight belong to this life, the present.

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May 27, 2012. 65-minute recording given at New Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is a Day of Mindfulness. We learn who the Buddha is through the teachings of the Buddha. When we bow to the Buddha, we should see our true connection. Interbeing. The Buddha is enlightened with deep understanding and compassion. How can we produce it? The first step is awareness of suffering. The four noble truths. The Buddha is a human being. He is not a god. The Buddha is made of non-Buddha elements. Thay then makes the connection to the planet and science. The Buddha can be a sub-atomic particle. We hear two questions from the audience. How can we handle our habit energy in daily life? How can I heal violence around me? Thay reminds us the 21-day retreat begins in a few days. This will be part of our 30-year anniversary. For each dharma talk during the retreat, we will sit together in silence for 8-minutes. Stop our thinking and feel the presence of ourselves and others. There should be no noise during this time. Thay also wrote an intimate letter to a young scientist in preparation for retreat.

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Thầy explains how each act in our daily lives can become a spiritual practice when done with mindfulness, whether drinking tea or eating a tangerine and truly being present for the experience. He invites us to invest in every breath and every step, cultivating greater peace and concentration.

He goes on to share how happy teachers can change the world by bringing the three powers into their lives and classrooms: the power of understanding, the power of love, and the power to let go. In this way, the classroom can become a second chance for a suffering child to experience care, stability, and transformation.

This is the third in a series of three talks given during the Educators’ Retreat: An Exploration of Mindful Education, on the UK and Ireland Tour in the year 2013. Thầy offered this talk at The American School in London, England.

April 19, 2012. A 65-minute Dharma talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh in Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, during a Day of Mindfulness after the sangha’s return from the UK and Ireland Tour. The session begins with chanting and moves into a teaching on the first two verses of the Discourse on Happiness. Thay explores well-being, saying, “Spring is a messenger,” and speaks about dreaming, having a path, and making tofu.

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Nirvāṇa is Available in Each Sound of the Bell

Thầy organizes the talk in two sections, the first one addressed to the families and, at times, especially to the children and the second addressed foremost to the adults. Section one focuses on the practices and practicalities of listening to and inviting the meditation bell, and section two provides an overview of a series of interconnected concepts that are foundational to Buddhism.

Thầy opens and closes the bell section with encouragement of families to bring the bell into their home and to use it for facilitating mutual respect, love, and harmony in the household, especially when unhappiness or disagreement arises. Thầy empowers the children, as well as the adults, to initiate use of the bell and to serve as bell masters in the home. He recommends a family “treaty” concerning use of the bell and regular inviting of the bell at agreed upon times each day. He then provides a tutorial in bell practices: “waking” the bell with a “half sound”; the bell-waking gāthā; synchronizing gāthās with in-breaths and out-breaths; and, “inviting” the “full sound” of the bell three times, interspersed with the bell-inviting gāthā and synchronized breathing. Thầy coaches the children on their breathing and on the specifics of inviting the big bell. In closing this section, Thầy encourages families to create a small meditation space in the home, a “breathing room.”

Thầy opens the second section with a short history of karma and reincarnation prior to the emergence of Buddhism in ancient India, concluding that those doctrines are “not at the heart of the Buddhist teaching,” because they rely upon the concept of a separate, autonomous self. Thầy shows us how the Buddhist concept of “non-self” emerged from a deeper understanding of the true nature of impermanence and interdependent origination. Accordingly, all selves consist of non-self elements, “continuation” is a more accurate description than “rebirth,” and karma, rather than being formulaic award or reparation, is the ongoing ramifications of our thoughts, speech, and actions that constitute our continuation.

Thầy then turns to showing how these understandings issue from the bedrock teachings of the Buddha, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths. In short, the first of the Eightfold Path, Right View, is the true nature of reality as expressed by non-self, impermanence, and inter-being. Thầy shares as good news that non-self means that there is no birth and no death; no sameness and otherness; no coming and going; no being and non-being. Thus, nirvāṇa is available in this life, in this body, in the here and in the now; that is the only place it is available. Happiness is available—literally, physically—in every step.

This is the ninth of thirteen talks given during the Summer Opening in the year 2013. Thầy offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

In Upper Hamlet, the practice of breathing in—breathing out with the phrases “Breathing in, I feel alive” and “Breathing out, I smile to life in me and around me” helps us to touch deeply the wonders of life, but is often accompanied by the fear of death. Instead of avoiding this fear, we are encouraged to contemplate it directly: “I have the nature to die; I cannot escape death,” so that this fear becomes a motivation to live more fully.

The practice of contemplating death consists of four parts:

1. Aging – recognizing the fear of growing old, smiling to it, and facing it directly.
2. Sickness – facing our pain and weakness so that they no longer have power over us.
3. Death – accepting the certainty of death with a calm and peaceful mind.
4. Letting go – learning to leave behind our position, fame, possessions, and loved ones, carrying only our actions with us.

Looking deeply into impermanence and the interbeing nature of birth and death, we see that there is no true birth, no true death—there is only transformation, as Lavoisier said, “rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd, tout se transforme.” When we understand “no birth, no death,” our fear of dying calms down, our joy of living becomes complete, and Nirvana—the nature of no birth and no death—manifests right in each breath.

Details of this Dharma Talk took place on November 18, 2012, at the Full Moon Meditation Hall, Thien Nghiem Temple, New Hamlet during the Winter Retreat 2012-2013. In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path are not the central teachings, contrary to Brahmanism where Brahma and Atma represent the universal soul and the individual soul. In Buddhism, samsara represents the cycle of rebirth but without a fixed soul. Thich Nhat Hanh taught that Buddhism changes the concept of karma to reflect the philosophy of impermanence and that each person is responsible for their individual and collective actions. He provided a profound analysis of the concepts of self-nature, interbeing, and the connection between suffering and happiness. He also emphasized that understanding the causes of suffering leads to happiness through the practice of the path. He explained that everything is interdependent and that peace and tranquility should be found within. In today’s walking meditation, he encouraged everyone to practice unity and convey the message in Vietnamese, English, and French.

*On the last day of the lunar year, when “three thirty in the afternoon” strikes, the poetry recitation invites us to pause, to let go of our worries and sorrows in order to reflect on the “glowing hearth”—not simply a kitchen, but a state of mind that is warm, gathered, and filled with love. The image of carrying water on New Year’s Eve, with jars and urns brimming full, symbolizes material comfort, but it is also a sacred symbol of sharing, equality, and trust in life. If we are unable to kindle the flame of love in our own hearts, it will be difficult to understand and love ourselves, and only then can we hope to light up the hearts of others. The temple, Plum Village, and the retreats are places where that flame is cultivated, transforming suffering and despair into smiles and bright eyes—so that each person may bring it home to continue warming their community.

*The music of Pham Duy is introduced as a stream of love and peace, especially through three unfinished musical epics:

1. Con Đường Cái Quan – realistic music, a symbol of the road of national unity.
2. Mẹ Việt Nam – symbolic music with images of motherland, mother river, mother sea, and the longing to overcome separation.
3. Trường Ca Trường Sơn – allegorical music, not following conventional rhythms, expressing spiritual heights.

Together with “Tâm Ca,” a collection of ten anti-war songs and the aspiration for peace, his music affirms that love, not violence, is the most powerful weapon for building true happiness.

The details of this discussion show that mindfulness is essential for managing emotions such as anger and fear, by welcoming them with tenderness and non-violence. Cultivating positive seeds like compassion and avoiding nourishing negative seeds is crucial for transforming suffering into peace. Mindfulness, practiced through conscious breathing and walking meditation, helps to recognize and embrace disturbing emotions, thus allowing for inner healing. By practicing right diligence, one quickly brings disturbing mental formations back to their initial state. Cooperation and mutual support in a practice community strengthen this collective energy to recognize and transform suffering. Cultivating the wisdom of non-discrimination and deep listening leads to compassion and reconciliation, reducing suffering for all. Meditation and mindfulness allow for the transformation of the mind and the cultivation of true happiness by understanding interbeing.

The details of this discussion include mindfulness meditation practiced at New Mountain, the interconnection between happiness and suffering, and the importance of recognizing suffering to achieve happiness. The deep understanding of this interdependence is based on the Buddha’s teachings and the Four Noble Truths: suffering, its causes, the cessation of suffering, and the path to well-being. Cultivating mindfulness and concentration allows us to transform suffering and touch our true nature. Meditation reveals that birth and death are illusory notions, and understanding this leads to inner peace. Right thinking, speech, and action shape our karma, which is essential for harmonious continuation. Cultivating positive thoughts and avoiding watering negative seeds is crucial for happiness. By practicing right diligence, we create an environment conducive to peace and joy, following the Noble Eightfold Path to live each day fully.

This archive is used for the teaching of the 2021 Rain Retreat. Thay’s teaching during the 2011 Francophone Retreat.

On May 4, 2012, Thay offered a very comprehensive final teaching, summarizing the essence of the Buddha’s teachings in a simple, humorous, and applicable way for daily life. He revisited the teaching of the Four Noble Truths in terms of consumption, emphasizing that societal suffering stems from improper consumption. Understanding suffering is essential to understanding happiness, and this path of understanding is noble because there is holiness within us, which the Five Mindfulness Trainings help to develop.

Thay then reviewed the Exercises of Conscious Breathing (Anapanasati Sutta) and invited us to redefine Nirvana to free ourselves from notions and touch the ultimate dimension of reality: “Nirvana is a word from the peasant vocabulary meaning the extinction of the fire; it is not a place or a country, but the extinction of notions.” He also offered a meditation on Being and Non-Being, using a matchbox to illustrate the release of notions of being, non-being, coming, and going.

He continued with the teaching of the Three Doors of Liberation: Emptiness, Signlessness, and Aimlessness, concluding that “if you want happiness, mindfulness, joy, then everything is already available in the present moment; there is no need to run.” Finally, he shared the story of the death of the generous layperson Anatapindika, illustrating that laypeople can also receive and practice the teachings on Non-birth, Non-death, Non-being, and Non-non-being, applying them in daily life to liberate from the fear of death and help those at the end of life to die peacefully.

A complete, dense, and profound teaching that is also light, joyful, and accessible, this is a final gem offered for our 2012 Francophone Retreat, a piece of art to fill our lives with true energy and wisdom.

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Thay addresses:

• the meditation of the 4 pebbles
• the benefits of the practice
• the 4 mantras of love.

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

By the children:

• How can I feel less sad about my dog passing away?
• What can I do when the atmosphere at home is unhappy?
• How can I stay calm when I am annoyed, for example, when someone steals my idea?
• What does it mean to guess?

By the teens and young adults:

• How do I stop conversations with friends from turning into gossip or judgment?
• How do you change people’s perception of you and ignore the reputation you already have?
• Why does Thầy give these teachings and what does it bring Thầy?
• Any tips on how I can help people in my future profession in science and environment?

By the adults:

• How can I tell patients in an economic crisis to find happiness in the present?
• How do I love myself when I struggle to believe I deserve love?
• How can I better take refuge in the Sangha if I feel more comfortable alone?

Written questions:

• How can I heal from childhood sexual abuse and be truly happy?

This the second of four Question and Answer sessions organised during the Summer Opening in the year 2014. Thay offered this session at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thầy reminds us that meditating means to take the time to be calm and to look deeply into oneself and the world. He then describes “hand meditation,” in which we gaze at our hand and are able to see the hands of our parents. Through this practice, we find consolation if we are far from our parents or they have passed away.

Thầy advises that we must practice the second mantra with our parents and our loved ones while they’re still alive. This brings immediate happiness to us and those we love. We can also use the second mantra to connect with our ancestors, which can be life-changing and joyous. We can connect with our ancestors and our spiritual teachers through touch. Our hands embody non-discrimination—the right hand feels no superiority over the left hand.

The First Mindfulness Training is about protecting life. A human is made of non-human elements, and, therefore, to protect the environment and other species is to protect ourselves. This is deep ecology and a deep practice. The Second Mindfulness Training is about true happiness and its relationship to interbeing. The Third Mindfulness Training is about true love, which has four elements: kindness, compassion, joy, and non-discrimination. Only with true love can we reduce suffering, and true love is always expansive. The Fourth Mindfulness Training is about deep listening and loving speech, which can heal deep divisions between people and groups, recognizing that everyone has suffered. The Fifth Mindfulness Training is about mindful consumption.

By practicing the Five Mindfulness Trainings, we can become better Christians and avoid any discrimination, thus strengthening our Christian roots.

This is the third talk in a series of four given during the Mindful Living Today, family retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at The Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland.

Practicing breathing, walking, and sitting with the Buddha
At the Hall of a Thousand Stars, the gatha inviting “the Buddha to breathe, the Buddha to walk” transforms each breath, each step into a source of joy and peace. The second gatha invites the Buddha to sit with our own back, so that our back is upright and our mind relaxed; the third gatha contemplates that “the Buddha is the breathing, the Buddha is the sitting; I am also the breathing, I am also the sitting,” for only the Buddha breathes and sits with such noble quality. The story “There is the printing but there is no printer” reminds us of non-self: there is only the phenomenon of printing, there is no printer behind it, just as the breath and the sitting are the Buddha, not a separate “self.”

Contemplating non-self and acceptance
All dharmas rely on each other (interbeing, interdependent co-arising). When we contemplate the five skandhas —

1. form (body)
2. feelings (sensations)
3. perceptions
4. mental formations
5. consciousness
   — we see there is no permanent self, only a river of impermanence flowing on. Attachment to self gives rise to suffering, so recognizing and accepting ourselves as a “continuation stream” opens the way to peace. The mantra “You are only partly right” helps us respond to praise and blame with balance, maintaining insight, not letting arrogance or inferiority dominate. When we deeply understand non-self and practice complete acceptance, we create happiness for ourselves and for the community.

“I am here for you” is the first mantra among the six mantras of Plum Village, reminding us that when we love someone, we must truly be present with both body and mind at ease, not allowing our own suffering to harm others. This solid presence requires diligent practice of “I am a flower, I am freshness,” mindful breathing, walking meditation, and sitting meditation to find freshness and stability in body and mind, so that we have something to offer—peace, freedom, and joy—to others. First, we must love, accept, and let go of our own suffering, making use of the energy of the Sangha to heal the emptiness of loneliness, and only then can we offer true freedom and love without attachment.

The work “Contemplation on Conditions” consists of eight gathas with explanations, in which the fifth gatha is missing, and the original text will be read to preserve the spirit of this sastra. The treatise explains the four conditions in Buddhism:

1. Primary cause (Pratiyaya) – the cause, the seed
2. Contributory condition – supporting condition for the seed to grow
3. Object condition (Alambana Pratiyaya) – the object of perception
4. Immediate condition (Adhipati Pratiyaya) – uninterrupted continuity
   Among these, the “extremely small particle” (the smallest dust particle) is only a condition, not an object condition, because we cannot directly perceive it, and all forms we see are merely phenomena dependent on conditions, without a fixed self-nature.

This is the second Dharma talk offered by Thay during the first week of the Summer Opening Retreat, scheduled for 9:30 AM on Tuesday, July 9th, 2013, in the Dharma Cloud Temple, Plum Village.

After a teaching dedicated to children, Thay addresses:

• The establishments of Mindfulness: the first 8 exercises of Conscious Breathing
• The 5 Universal Mental Formations.

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In Buddhism, each person has many kinds of mothers: genetic mother, godmother, foster mother, stepmother, and even surrogate mother. The biological mother of the Buddha was Maha Maya, but she passed away early; her younger sister, Maha Prajapati (the foremost nun Mahapajapati Gotami), raised him. In Buddhist literature, the mother of all Buddhas is called Prajna Paramita—Perfection of Wisdom—wisdom personified as the Mother of Buddhas. The Earth is also honored as Bodhisattva Cooling Earth, the mother of the Buddha and countless bodhisattvas, symbolizing the sacred origin of life and enlightenment.

The story in the Avatamsaka Sutra about Sudhana (Shantideva) and Maha Maya illustrates the path of approaching the source of Buddha-nature:

1. Sudhana sits quietly on the earth, practicing meditation on touching the earth—feeling the connection with Mother Earth.
2. Seeing a thousand-petaled lotus rising from the earth, Sudhana and Maya both sit on two petals of the lotus, symbolizing the encounter with profound wisdom.
3. Realizing there is no need to go far to seek the Buddha, because the mother of the Buddha is the image within each person, the inherent potential for enlightenment.

Meditation and mindfulness in our relationship with Mother Earth help generate love, release suffering, and realize the reality that transcends the discrimination of being and non-being. Each mindful step, each breath, each cup of tea, or the contemplation of a yellow leaf is a contact with the sacred mother—a bodhisattva of infinite patience, embracing all beings, animate and inanimate.

Sutra on Mindful Breathing: Exercises 1—8

Thầy offers teachings on the first eight steps of the Sutra on Mindful Breathing, including belly breathing and awareness of the rising and falling of the abdomen. He reminds us that we are much more than one emotion, and that this practice allows us to recognize and care for our feelings.

Thầy shares about the practices of loving speech and deep listening, particularly in the context of family relationships and education. He reflects on how these practices can help relieve suffering and be transmitted to students. The talk concludes with teachings on how death can be truly understood and approached with wisdom.

This talk was given during the Applied Ethics and Teachers Retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk in the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Mother Earth is recognized as a Bodhisattva with great wisdom, great compassion, and beauty—the source from which the Buddha Shakyamuni, the Bodhisattvas, and all beings are born. The Bodhisattva Cooling Great Earth is an object of reverence, not an inanimate material thing, but one who embodies wisdom and compassion, manifesting as clouds turning into rain, as the undercurrent in a cup of tea, or in each mindful step of walking meditation. The Thanksgiving Ceremony during the Winter Retreat is not merely to thank a distant deity, but to offer our gratitude to Mother Earth, who gives us squash, oranges, pomelos, grapes, air, water, and sunlight—gifts that nourish both body and mind.

Healing body and mind begins with deep contact with our breath and our physical form, then extends to our consciousness through the four breathing exercises in the Anapanasati Sutra and the Sutra on Mindful Breathing. Samatha (stopping, calming) has three essential meanings:

1. to stop so that the mind does not wander
2. to calm and soothe the suffering in body and mind
3. to concentrate and sustain mindfulness on the breath or the body
   Practicing breathing in—“I am aware that I have a body”—helps us connect with our body, embrace our pain—“Breathing in, I recognize my pain; breathing out, I embrace my pain”—and nourish joy—“Breathing in, I recognize the happiness within me.” From mindful breathing to walking meditation, mindful eating, and bowing to the Great Earth, each present moment is an opportunity for awakening, liberation, and peace.

May 24, 2012. 55-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is a Day of Mindfulness. Thay announces the next ordination for novices will be on July 4. The practice of Plum Village is mindfulness in order to transform and nourish. We can generate and store mindfulness with any action.

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Thầy introduces the first eight exercises of mindful breathing from the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing. He first explores the first four exercises that help cultivate awareness of the breath and the body. He then delves into the next four which help cultivate joy and happiness in order to embrace strong emotions. Towards the end of the talk Thầy sheds light on the practices of deep listening and loving speech; particularly the role they can play in reconciliation.

At the end of the talk, Thầy answers the following questions:

• When you live in the here and now, do you actually forget the past?

• How do you resolve someone pushing in front of you on the Tube?

• How can I practice with pain I have caused someone in the past?

• My brother was murdered eighteen years ago—how can we find forgiveness?

After the Q&A Sister Chân Không offers the song “I Smile to the World”

This public talk was offered at the beginning the UK and Ireland Tour in 2012. Thầy offered this talk at Royal Festival Hall, London, England.

Two Guardian Angels: The Full Awareness of Breathing and The Three Doors of Liberation

Thay first offers commentaries on the sixteen breathing exercises in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing: from awareness of the in-breath and out-breath to contemplating letting go. He follows that teaching with a Dharma talk on the Three Doors of Liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness.

This is the final talk in a series of five given during the Cultivating Happiness, family retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at The University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.

*Mindfulness is like a source of “electricity” that sparks our practice, keeping us fully present in each breath and each step. Through the third breath (“Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body”) and the fourth breath (“Breathing in, I release the tension in my body”), body and mind are calmed, paving the way for the fifth and sixth exercises—generating joy and happiness—and then the seventh and eighth exercises—embracing and soothing suffering with mindfulness, to recognize and calm our pain.

*The final gatha of the Treatise on Objects of Mind analyzes form (rupa) and function (seed) as two inseparable aspects of all phenomena. For example, when an electron meets a positron, they become a photon; conversely, when a photon collides, it produces an electron and a positron. Similarly, matter and energy are two manifestations of one reality, as both modern science and the Sautrāntika Buddhist scriptures recognize. In the Mahayana tradition, there were ten outstanding commentators, the Nālandā center once had nearly 10,000 monastics, and the commentator Dharmapāla affirmed the six characteristics of seeds.

The Interbeing Nature of the Three Times: Past Present and Future

Thầy shares that we must practice breathing, walking, and everything in our life in a way that brings us more freedom. We do this by living in the present moment. If we have freedom, we can build a beautiful future and a beautiful past. Thầy describes time as a circle, using the analogy of a slide projector. The past, present, and future are all contained in the present moment. Any thought that we produce in the present moment has an immediate effect on our body and our mind, and it has the power to heal our body and mind and the bodies and minds of others. Thầy points out that all our thoughts, speech, and actions are contained in our store consciousness. What’s in our store consciousness is alive and continues to change and mature to become something different. Collective karma is powerful and can create change. Mindful breathing allows us to realize that we’re alive in the here and the now, and we’re free. Our practice of mindfulness allows us to build a beautiful past so a beautiful future is possible.

This talk was given on a Day of Mindfulness during the spring retreat in 2012. Thầy offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

April 6, 2012. 115-minute dharma talk given at The University of Nottingham by Thich Nhat Hanh. The sangha is on the UK and Ireland Tour and this is the first dharma talk for the Cultivating Happiness Family Retreat. The recording begins with a couple of practice songs before Thay enters the meditation hall followed by 10-minutes of chanting. At 18-minutes into the recording, Thay gives a talk for the children present at the retreat. Cultivating happiness. We begin with a story of a teacher who implements coming back to oneself in the classroom by breathing and resting together. The practice helped the students and teacher in the classroom. The teacher used a bell in a classroom, so Thay teaches us about inviting the bell and how to be a bell master. At 56-minutes into the recording, we begin the primary talk. The focus of our talk is on mindful breathing. This has to do with our suffering and our happiness. Exercise #5, from the Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing, is cultivating joy, followed by #6 on cultivating happiness and #7 is to recognize a painful feeling and #8 is calming the painful feeling.

“When you breathe out, there is another line for you to read silently: I send my heart along with the sound of this bell. This is not a simple sound, there is my love in it. I send my heart along with the sound of this bell. And then you breathe in again. May all of you who listen to me awaken from your forgetfulness. People in the world, they live in forgetfulness. They breathe and yet they don’t know that they are breathing. They walk, but they walk like a sleepwalker, they don’t know that they are walking. They don’t enjoy every step they make. They eat, but they are lost in their thinking. So that is called forgetfulness. Forgetfulness, it means your mind is not there. It’s the opposite of mindfulness. Mindfulness means that you are - your mind is there, always with you. While you breathe, while you walk, while you eat, while you sweep the floor, your mind is always in your body, you are mindful of everything. Mindfulness is what we practise here, and the opposite of mindfulness is forgetfulness.”

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April 2, 2012. 115-minute dharma talk given at The American School in London by Thich Nhat Hanh. The sangha is on the UK and Ireland Tour and this is part four (and final part) of the Educators’ Retreat: An Exploration of Mindful Education.

Memorizing gathas to help us establish mindfulness. There are four domains of mindfulness: body, feelings, mental formations, and objects of mind. Mindfulness can help us be together in these four realms. Once we have established mindfulness, we can have concentration. The final kind of energy is insight - this can liberate you from your fear. This is not the product of your thinking, it is the insight of Interbeing. True education should be based in this insight of Interbeing.

In order to see things, we need an organ (for example, the nose to receive odor). The organ of thinking is called manas, and there is a lot of mis-perception in this organ. For example, the view of a separate self - this is at the base of all our complexes (inferiority, superiority, and equality). We can use mindfulness to gain the insight of non-discrimination. In the field of education, it is the same thing. The happiness of the students is the happiness of the teacher. We need non-discrimination to enjoy the teaching and the learning.

In the teaching of the four noble truths, the first truth is there is suffering. In education, the first thing we should do is identify the suffering and acknowledge it to each other. We have to see the truth so that real change can happen through a collective awakening. Thay continues with the application of the second, third, and fourth noble truth in our lives.

We learn about what is meant by sangha and how it can be applied to the community of teachers. What is suffering and why is it important? The last part of the talk looks closely at the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

Happy teachers will know how to generate understanding and love that will help the younger generation change the world.

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The details of this discussion focus on star meditation and mindfulness, emphasizing the importance of nourishing our mind to avoid suffering and cultivate happiness. The practice of conscious breathing, called bhavana, is essential for uniting body and mind. By living fully in each moment, such as drinking tea or walking mindfully, we generate joy and happiness. Pebble meditation and visualizing oneself as a flower, a mountain, a still lake, or an open space strengthen our loving presence. Mindfulness, concentration, and deep insight are essential for transforming anger and suffering into understanding and love. The five mindfulness trainings offer concrete practices to protect life and save the planet. Understanding the interconnection of all things helps to transcend discrimination and cultivate thoughts of love and compassion. The noble eightfold path, including right speech and right action, guides towards the cessation of ill-being and the attainment of well-being.

Thầy begins with a teaching for the children on pebble meditation and the practice of inviting the bell. After the children leave, he teaches the first eight practices of the Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing. He reminds us that the Kingdom of God is available in the here and the now. Thầy offers mindful breathing practices to help us learn how to make good use of our suffering.

Happiness and suffering, he teaches, are two sides of the same coin, and we should not be afraid of suffering. Compassion arises from suffering, just as a flower grows from compost and eventually returns to compost. The practice of mindfulness — particularly the exercises of mindful breathing — helps us hold our pain and suffering tenderly, like a mother holding a baby. Thầy also shares how we can rediscover Jesus as a spiritual teacher and learn to live like Jesus through the practice of Buddhist meditation. The Gospel, he reminds us, likewise contains teachings on living fully in the here and now.

This is the second talk in a series of four given during the Mindful Living Today, family retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at The Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland.

April 8, 2012. 115-minute recording given at The University of Nottingham by Thich Nhat Hanh. The sangha is on the UK and Ireland Tour and this is the third dharma talk for the Cultivating Happiness Family Retreat. We begin with Br. Phap Trien singing with the children, Sr. Chan Khong sharing about the Thich Nhat Hanh Continuation Fund, monks and nuns chanting “From the Depths of Understanding,” and then a short talk for the children on pebble meditation. The main talk begins at 55 minutes into the recording.

With the three kinds of energies - mindfulness, concentration, and insight - we can produce Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action (karma), Right Livelihood, and Right Diligence. The Noble Eightfold Path.

What if yesterday I have produced a thought of hate, and I had the intention to punish? Is it too late, because I produced that thought yesterday, you may ask? It’s not good to produce such a thought. Because it is going on now. It is your continuation. And that is not a beautiful continuation. You don’t want to be continued like that. So today, looking back, I regret that I have produced such a thought of anger, hate, and what should I do? So the practice is to sit down and breathe and produce a thought of the opposite nature, a thought of non-discrimination, a thought of compassion, understanding, and as soon as the new thought is produced, full of understanding and love, that thought will catch up very easily with the other thought, and neutralize it. Right away. Because the nature of our thought is nonlocal. It doesn’t have to travel much, it can catch up the thought of yesterday very easily, and you can neutralize it. Everything comes from the mind. So it is possible to repair the past. The past is still available. And if you are established in the here and the now, you have the opportunity to repair the past. Even if our parents have done something regrettable, even if our ancestors had done something regrettable, the past is still there, and we continue to suffer, and our ancestors continue in us to suffer. So with the Dharma, with the practice, we sit down and we embrace that, and produce the kind of thought, of compassion, understanding, that can neutralize what was wrong, wrongly done in the past. It is possible. It liberates us, and liberates our parents and ancestors. This is possible. Our ancestors expect us to do that. It is nice to encounter the teaching and the practice, and with that practice, we can change the past. And of course, change the future.

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Thầy focuses on the many healing and nourishing benefits of the practice of mindfulness: the joy of mindful breathing; healing the body with mindfulness; getting in touch with the wonders of life through mindful walking; cultivating mindfulness of the present moment; being present for ourselves and our loved ones through the practice of mindfulness; applying mindfulness in daily life; embracing happiness with mindfulness; and using mindful communication for healing and reconciliation.

This is a public talk given during the _UK and Ireland Tour_in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk in Dublin, Ireland.

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

By the children:

• My mum treats my brother better than me
• Have you ever hurt someone on purpose?
• Where did you get the ideas for your books?
• When you started learning meditation, did you suffer?
• What’s it like in Plum Village?

By the teens and young adults:

• What’s the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
• How do you release the cows (attachments)?
• What are the benefits of being a monk?
• Is assisted suicide and turning off life support a violation of the First Mindfulness Training?
• What is consciousness and where does it come from?
• How can I build confidence to dance without substances?

By the adults:

• Is there a difference between Engaged Buddhism and Applied Buddhism? What is your vision for the institutes of Buddhism?
• What is the relevance and importance of our dreams?
• What is the role of mindfulness and interbeing in competitive environments like the Olympics?
• How can I free myself from inner conflict and suffering due to differing opinions?

Written questions:

• How do I help my family deal with the suicide of a father of four children?

This Questions and Answers session was organised during the Cultivating Happiness, family retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this session at The University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.

On July 21, 2012, Thich Nhat Hanh delivered a 98-minute dharma talk at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, during the Summer Opening Retreat. This talk, the eleventh of the series and the first of the third week, addresses how we often turn to consumption to relieve our suffering. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that mindfulness and concentration can help us embrace our sorrow with tenderness, leading to relief. He emphasizes the healing power of silence and the joy of being alive, providing instructions for walking meditation and discussing the practices of “I have arrived. I am home,” mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

The talk includes a mindfulness exercise of listening to the Avalokiteshvara chant, which helps stop our thinking and allows the sound to penetrate our body. Thich Nhat Hanh explores the concepts of the Buddha body, the real Buddha, the real Sangha, and the Dharma. He explains that freedom is the foundation of peace, and that peace and joy are always possible with practice. The practice of Bhumisparsha, or touching the earth, is highlighted as a method to heal oneself and the earth through walking meditation.

Thich Nhat Hanh stresses the importance of returning to the present moment to encounter life, describing the present moment as our true home and the kingdom of God. He discusses the practice of mindfulness in everyday activities, such as mindful telephone use, and emphasizes that mindfulness is always mindfulness of something, serving as the source of happiness. He references the Anguttara Nikaya, stating that cultivating the mind brings happiness, while neglecting it leads to suffering.

The talk also covers the need for a spiritual dimension in life, the concept of the dharma body (Dharmakaya), and the story of monk Vakkali. Thich Nhat Hanh explains that not only the Buddha has the Buddha body, but all of us possess it as well. He speaks about the original sangha of the Buddha and the “wake up” young sangha, which aims to bring mindfulness practice to young people, especially in schools. The mindfulness practice is described as bringing the mind back to the present moment, encapsulated in the Chinese character for mindfulness (念).

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May 10, 2012. 103-minute recording given at New Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is a Day of Mindfulness and the monastics begin with two chants. The practice of Plum Village is Applied Buddhism. It is characterized by the four dharma seals: I have arrived, I am home; Go as a river; The Interbeing of truth and time; Continuous ripening. Thay teaches what each of these dharma seals mean and how we can practice with them.

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May 20, 2012. 73-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is a Day of Mindfulness and the monastics begin with two chants. The Buddha taught loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Thay thinks we can add two new elements to True Love: Trust. Confidence. Thay teaches on all these elements in addition to a brief examination of the Diamond Sutra as it relates to Interbeing.

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Ethics in Action: The Youth Heart of Sangha

Thầy explores the transformative power of Sangha—the community of practice—and the importance of cultivating aspiration, ethical conduct, and practical mindfulness in daily life. He highlights how young people and practitioners can harness their energy, desire, and collective action to alleviate suffering in themselves, their communities, and the world.

Through reflections on the Uposadha tradition, and the nurturing of brotherhood and sisterhood, Thầy emphasizes that personal growth and social change are deeply interconnected. He offers concrete guidance for cultivating inner strength, compassion, and joy, while also illustrating how mindful action can be applied in schools, retreats, and broader society.

This talk is a heartfelt call to live with intention, to nurture our aspirations, and to contribute actively to a world rooted in understanding, peace, and collective care.

This talk was offered during a Day of Mindfulness in the summer of 2011. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thầy invites everyone to visualize the new year as a giant bird, that will transport all of us in each new moment. Each minute, each second, is a jewel that allows us to fully cherish the preciousness of the here and the now, where life happens, with mindfulness and concentration. When these two are present, we begin to see the wonders of life, we begin to develop insight, and we are not easily carried away by afflictions like anger, fear, despair, and even hope.

The Four Noble Truths and the Five Mindfulness Trainings offer us a path—a path that allows us to transform our afflictions and our wrong views. Free from discrimination, free of notions of birth and death; being and non being, we can enter the realm of interbeing, where the illusion of separateness dissolves.

We have lived in such a way that we have become alienated from the Earth, and from our own bodies. We consider ourselves independent beings, totally separate from others, and from Mother Nature. But if we stop the thinking, and go home to our body, we can see that it is a wonder. And when we see that, we can touch Mother Earth in us, and the healing begins. This is based on evidence, and Thầy suggests that religion should only be based on evidence, and scientists can help prove that. Mother Earth is our refuge, and it is not an abstract idea. She has given us life, and we can go back to her - she will bring us to life again and again. Touching our body and our mind deeply, we can discover the nature of no-birth and no-death, and we can transcend our fear. This is something that everyone can do.

This talk was offered during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2011. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Averting Global Ecological Collapse Through the Practice of the Five Mindfulness Trainings

Thầy answers a number of questions posed by The Ecologist magazine on global ecological collapse. He elaborates on the Five Mindfulness Trainings as a foundation of a lifestyle that supports sustainable living. He especially focuses on mindful consumption as a way out of overconsumption in our society.

This talk was given during the Spring Retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this retreat at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Relinquish Dual Grasping and Find Holiness Beyond Dualism

Thầy bows to the sacred anniversary of Christian faith while at the same time lighting a path to experience God and Jesus in a Buddhist way that transcends limiting dualisms such as birth and death and being and nonbeing. Thầy invites attendees to a candle-lit, walking meditation procession after the talk. He charges us all with generating the collective energy of peace and compassion in the world.

Thầy points to the practice “I have arrived, I am home,” and the question of what is our “true home” recurs throughout the talk. Thầy’s answer that home is available in every present moment, every step, “and that true home is available now and here, not just after you die.” The context of Christmas invites large, difficult questions, from which Thầy does not shy.

He proceeds by showing how traditional dichotomies can limit our understanding. He starts with the finding of modern physics that matter and energy are ultimately indistinguishable one from the other to show that it is not supportable to dismiss “matter”—the body, planet Earth—as simply inert and dead: “We realize that we have a body, a precious body given us by the Bodhisattva Earth. . . . And it is easy enough to see that when you die you go back to Mother Earth,” as part of which none of life’s energy or matter can be created or destroyed. Far from being merely a resource or an environment, “the Earth is us,” and “we are her children, and she is in every one of us.”

Thầy then examines two “kinds of theology,” the vertical dimension (God above human above all else) and the horizontal dimension (historical,temporal). He asks “Is God a force behind—outside—of the cosmos?” He answers with one of his favored metaphors: the individual wave is caught up in the horizontal dimension, and water is the vertical dimension of which all waves are part, yet “the wave may be able to find that she is made of water.” Thầy concludes, “when you get in touch with the vertical dimension—your true nature—you get at the same time in touch with the horizontal dimension,” and, conversely, “if we know how to touch the historical dimension deeply, we will touch the ultimate dimension, and we will touch our true nature of no birth and no death; no being and nonbeing, exactly like the wave.”

And this conclusion prepares the way for the ultimate Christmas question: is Jesus the “son of man” or the “son of God”? Thầy’s answer is both-and the son of God and the son of man, the ultimate and the historical. But, then, in every moment absolutely everybody and everything is potentially both. We all belong to the historical dimension of birth and death, being and non-being, but we also all belong to the ultimate dimension. And so does God: “Yes, God can be a person, God can be a cloud, God can be a rose.” And, as Thầy illustrates with another favored metaphor, the cloud is never born and never dies but always exists in its various forms, because nothing exists eternally and nothingness cannot exist either. “So,” Thầy teaches, “let us try to transcend our notions of body and mind, matter and spirit, consciousness and the material world—that is a big obstacle for us,” the obstacle of “dual grasping.”

Thầy offers in closing that “if vertically we can touch our ultimate dimension, then we will make peace with everything in the horizontal dimension,” and “there will be no war, no conflict, and peace will be possible.” That would be a very blessed Christmas indeed.

This talk was offered on Christmas Eve during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2011. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Insights of the Diamond Sutra: Letting Go of Notions and Understanding the Essential Interbeing Relationship Between Suffering and Happiness

Thay presents the insights from the Diamond Sutra, a scripture that is used extensively in the school of meditation called Zen or Chan Buddhism. As the full title of the sutra suggests, it is like a diamond that can cut through all illusions and bring us to the other shore. This sutra proposes that we need to remove four ideas that we have, which are the causes of much suffering in ourselves: the notions of self, man, living being, and lifespan. These four ideas perpetuate all sorts of problems, suffering, and fear in ourselves; therefore, the sutra encourages us to meditate on these four notions to discover the insight of interbeing. We all hold a strong belief in being separate from others, from nature, and that we have a beginning and an end. But looking deeply into these four wrong notions, we will discover that we are never born and we will never die; that as human beings we are made of non-human elements like minerals, plants, and animals; and that the self is made only of non-self elements. The Diamond Sutra is considered the most ancient text on the teaching of deep ecology, and if we put into practice its advice, transformation and healing will be possible for ourselves and the world.

This talk was given on a Day of Mindfulness during the spring retreat in 2012. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The details of this talk mark the beginning of the winter retreat 2012-2013 at Plum Village, where Thich Nhat Hanh shares about the origin and meaning of the ten mindful movements from Herbert Spencer, which he has adapted to be gentle and incorporate breathing. He emphasizes that mindfulness brings immediate happiness and that life is impermanent, precious in each present moment. He encourages everyone to practice mindfulness 100%, keeping the mind awake, focusing on the breath and steps to achieve peace and freedom from the past and future. He also shares about brotherhood, equality, and independence in society, emphasizing that happiness does not depend on external factors but lies in the ability to be free from afflictions. He explains that correctly understanding the Buddha’s teachings requires flexibility and suitability to each capacity, using the method of the Four Siddhantas and the four standards of truth, including Worldly Siddhanta, Individual Siddhanta, Therapeutic Siddhanta, and Ultimate Siddhanta. He notes that suffering and happiness inter-are, studying the Buddha’s teachings needs to be based on definitive sutras, clearly distinguishing between this and that, and applying the four reliances: rely on the Dharma, not on the person; rely on the meaning, not on the words; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; and rely on definitive meaning, not on non-definitive meaning.

Touching Reality Beyond Signs

Thay emphasizes the importance of practicing mindfulness, concentration, and insight to cultivate a deeper understanding of the ultimate truth. Highlighting the importance of Sangha building, these teachings also remind us of he interconnectedness of suffering and happiness and of the wisdom of non-thinking and non-measuring. The talk ends by stressing the importance of the Five and Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings as embodiment of the wisdom of non-discrimination, and with a call to continue forming Sanghas.

This is the last talk in a series of thirteen given during the Science of the Buddha twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

April 7, 2012. 130-minute recording given at The University of Nottingham by Thich Nhat Hanh. The sangha is on the UK and Ireland Tour and this is the second dharma talk for the Cultivating Happiness Family Retreat. We begin with the new chant by Br. Phap Linh called “Praising the Three Jewels,” followed by a short talk for the children. The main talk begins at 54-minutes into the recording.

Flower Fresh. Breathing in, I see myself as a flower. Breathing out, I feel fresh and I smile. The whole body of a child is a flower. We are all flowers in the garden of humanity. With meditation, we can keep our flowerness for a long time. Thay teaches us how to offer each other a greeting in mindfulness by offering each other a lotus flower.

“I don’t think that the Buddha is outside of me. He is inside of me. Because I got a lot from the Buddha, I learn a lot of the Dharma, if I have compassion, understanding and non-discrimination, that’s thanks to the Buddha, so the Buddha is in me. And my hand also contains the hand of the Buddha. This hand has been practising non-violence. My two hands have not for a long time harmed any living beings. They practise protecting life, not killing. There is a compassion, there is love in my two hands. So I know the Buddha is in my two hands. So every time I want the Buddha to touch me, that is easy. I just put my hand here and I see the hand of the Buddha touching me, it’s wonderful. Now you might like to try.”

The most tricky word is “to be” because nothing can be itself alone. Everything is composed of everything else. Interbeing. This is because that is. This is the foundation of Buddhist ethics. Both The Five- and Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings are grounded in this concept of Interbeing. Birth. Death. Being. Nonbeing. Thay outlines some important aspects and teachings from the five mindfulness Trainings. In particular, the fourth training on loving speech and deep listening.

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Smiling at Death without Fear

Thầy explains that there is no birth and therefore no death. Many scientists agree with this perspective. Thầy uses the example of a cloud to demonstrate how there is no beginning or ending of the cloud’s existence, and so it is with us. We are both matter and energy, which are one. We produce energy—both positive and negative—every moment of our daily life. Actions of thought, speech, and body are all energy, and if they contain compassion, they can heal the world. Karma refers to these three kinds of action, which continue in us through lifetimes. We can practice to neutralize bad thoughts, words, and actions. Thầy speaks about the nature of interbeing, which is in the teachings of Buddha and Jesus. Diligence refers to cultivating an environment to nourish our positive seeds. The Five Mindfulness Trainings are an expression of the Noble Eightfold Path, and the exercises of mindful breathing are part of the Mindfulness Trainings. The last three of these enhance our perception through contemplation of impermanence, non-craving, and extinction. The teaching ends with the group singing together.

This is the last talk in a series of four given during the Mindful Living Today, family retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at The Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland.

Thay discusses the importance of mindfulness in daily life and that every breath, every step can bring us joy and happiness. Mindfulness, concentration, insight, are three kinds of energies that we cultivate in our practice, that can bring joy and peace in every moment and help us transform suffering.

Thay tells the story of the Buddha visiting the monk Vakkali, who is dying. The story illustrates the concept of the Dharma body. Thay then teaches about the Four Recollections and the Four Bodies- the Buddha body, the Dharma body, the Sangha body and the Mindfulness Training body. We practice to cultivate and nuture these Four Bodies within us. He relates how the Four Bodies are interconnected and that a true Sangha– a living Sangha, has the living Dharma and the living Buddha within it.

“Every one of us is a cell of the Sangha body. And we know that the Sangha body carries within herself the Buddha body. So if the Sangha is a true Sangha, the Buddha is in the Sangha. And while you are a cell of the Sangha body, you are at the same time a cell of the Buddha body. It’s wonderful to be a cell in the body of the Buddha. And actually you are one. Every one of us is one cell in the Buddha body. Why do you have to go and look for the Buddha elsewhere? You are already one cell in the Buddha body. Rejoice.”

This is the ninth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Science of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

There is no way to healing, healing is the way. In our daily life we may have small sufferings and as time goes by they may become blocks of suffering in us. We need to recognise this suffering in us. Every breath can bring healing, every step can bring healing. We are able to transform our suffering into peace and joy.

Stopping is very important in our practice. If we can stop, healing will take place right away. Stop doing what brings us suffering, anger and despair. The moment you decided to stop, you feel very light. And the practice of Five Mindfulness Trainings is crucial to our healing.

Can you create a moment of happiness? Through the practice of mindfulness, we are capable to create moments of joy and happiness in our daily life. Take an example, to cook soup we need water, vegetables, tofu. And most of us are capable to cook good soup. To create a moment of little happiness is like that. With some ingredients, we are capable of creating moments of happiness for us and for the others. You need to learn how to create moments of happiness, and to savour moments of little happiness in our daily life.

We practice to stop our NST Non-Stop Thinking Radio, the discourse going on inside us. Stop in order to feel what is happening in the here and now; to feel what is happening in the here and now in order to stop. To feel your body, to be aware of each feeling and to embrace them. We do not chew again and again our sorrow, fear and anger, that is not good for our health. We offer ourselves healthy nutriments. We learn how to walk, sit, eat, do things in our daily life happily and joyfully. Any moment of practice can heal and can help heal other people.

(This is the talk of Thay given on the Daffodil Festival Day of Mindfulness in the Dharma Cloud Temple of Plum Village, France)

Thầy explore the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, emphasizing that deep insight requires a foundation of relaxation and joy. He introduces the vital practice of the separate investigation of the phenomenal (lakṣaṇa) and noumenal (nature) realms—to clarify the relationship between conventional and ultimate truths. Using this framework, Thầy corrects a common scriptural misunderstanding: he explains that all Four Noble Truths must be understood as conditioned (saṃskṛta) and impermanent within the conventional dimension. However, by looking deeply into these conventional realities—just as a wave touches her true nature as water—we directly encounter the ultimate dimension, which is entirely free from the notions of birth, death, being, and non-being.

Turning to the Second Noble Truth, Thầy explains how suffering arises and persists through the intake of unwholesome food, framing the practice of the Fifth Mindfulness Training around the Buddha’s teaching on the Four Nutriments. Drawing from the Sutra on the Son’s Flesh, he unpacks the four types of nutriment: edible foods, sensory impressions, volition, and collective consciousness. Thầy illustrates the highly toxic nature of unmindful sensory consumption by sharing his advice to an editor at the Times of India on how to report devastating news without watering seeds of despair and anger in society.

Finally, Thầy highlights the urgent need to protect ourselves and future generations from psychological toxins through mindful consumption. He shares the classic story of the mother of Mencius (Meng Zi) to demonstrate the power of choosing a wholesome collective environment. To bring these healing practices into the mainstream, Thầy calls upon educators and writers to help “train the trainers” and adapt the Five Mindfulness Trainings into secular manuals for schools worldwide.

This is the seventh talk in a series of thirteen given during The Science of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Letting Go of Four Notions from the Diamond Sutra: Self, Person, Living Beings, and Lifespan

Thay begins with a brief introduction to the three energies of practice: Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight, and how Zen Buddhism and the practice of looking deeply (dhyāna) were first introduced to China by Master Tang Hoi from Vietnam. He then delves into the first notion to release—Self—exploring both conventional and ultimate truths, the role of the five skandhas, the twelve āyatanas, and the eighteen dhātus, as well as the concepts of emptiness and interbeing. Thay offers a meditation practice with gathas to help trust the Buddha within, emphasizing nonself. He continues with the second and third notions—Man and Living Beings—illustrating the nature of interbeing with all that exists. Thay concludes with the fourth notion, Life Span, teaching the concept of no birth and no death, and emphasizes the importance of continuing practice, as the Buddha did after his enlightenment.

This is the fifth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Science of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.