The Sutra on Mindful Breathing.

Thay shares why the Buddha continued to practise even after achieving enlightenment and details the six types of Right Perceptions and the four benefits of mindful breathing. Thay shares his personal experience with the healing power of mindful breathing and includes insights on his current walking meditation practice. Finally, Thay shares his experience at the Cannes Film Festival, where he announced the making of a film version of Old Path White Clouds.

This is the first talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The Sutra on Mindful Breathing - Exercises One to Eight

Thay continues exploring the sutra with an emphasis on the Chinese translation.Thay teaches that mindful breathing, identifying the in-breath and out-breath, is crucial as it bridges the body and mind, emphasizing their unity. Through a single conscious breath, we can experience the “Oneness of Body and Mind,” crucial for healing and rest. He stresses that healing comes when we allow ourselves to rest, by stopping our mental discourse and fully experiencing our breath. Thay also suggests letting the body lead the mind, exemplified by the act of smiling, to encourage relaxation and healing. Thay underlines the significance of Total Deep Relaxation, uniting mindful breathing with awareness of the body, to restore our innate healing capacities. Generating joy and happiness through our practices is essential for nourishment and completing our spiritual journey. Similarly, calming mental formations and strong emotions is vital. Thay illustrates this with the metaphor of a tree in a storm; while the branches might shake, the trunk—our focused breath—remains stable and grounded.

This is the second talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha , twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet in Plum Village, France.

Sutra on Mindful Breathing: Exercises Nine to Twelve

Thay explains contemplating the body in the body and how to practice with the six elements: water, fire, earth, air, space, and consciousness. Thay shares how mindful breathing combined with mindful verses can support continuous mindfulness throughout the day and encourages practitioners to develop new verses for modern circumstances, like boarding a plane. The talk also covers caring for mental formations, explaining their Buddhist context and Thay draws a diagram to illustrate the relationship between mind consciousness, store consciousness, seeds, and mental formations.

This is the third talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

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The Sutra on Mindful Breathing - Exercises Thirteen and Fourteen

Thay explains what it means to concentrate and a number of specific concentrations are mentioned before going into detail on the three concentrations known as The Three Doors of Liberation, namely: emptiness, signlessness and aimlessness. Thay describes the healing power of compassion and tells of the fruits of his own practice of looking deeply into the life of the sea pirate, seeing how insight is freedom and people really need our understanding and support and not our punishment. Compassion is explained as an essential practice in stopping the cycles of violence and Thay calls us all to become bodhisattvas of great listening and loving speech to resolve misperceptions and put an end to war.

In talking about impermanence Thay emphasises the importance of distinguishing between the notion of impermanence and the insight of impermanence and tells us how to put the insight into practice. In contemplating non-craving Thay details the suffering that can arise through running after things that are inevitably impermanent and shares with us four images offered by the Buddha.

This is the fourth talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the Lower hamlet in Plum Village, France.

The Sutra on Mindful Breathing: Exercise Fourteen - Throwing Away Notions & Wrong Views.

Thay shares that our wrong views and notions are responsible for our suffering and can be held at both the level of the individual and at the collective or national level. We are encouraged to throw away the wrong perceptions and ideas that are at the base of our suffering. This includes the ideas we may have about our happiness itself, ideas that may be the biggest obstacles to our happiness. Thay shares the four notions that the Diamond Sutra advises us to throw away, namely: self, human being, living being and lifespan). Thay also shares the five kinds of wrong views to be thrown away, namely: you are this body, pairs of extremes, wrong (perverted) views, attachment to views and attachment to rituals. Thay uses the analogy of the little match flame to illustrate the pair of opposites; no coming, no going. As an illustration for not sameness, not otherness, the practice of looking at a photo of your younger self in the family album is used.

This is the fifth talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the New hamlet in Plum Village, France.

The Sutra on Mindful Breathing - Exercises Thirteen to Fifteen

Thay continues with the sixteen exercises of Mindful Breathing, going more deeply into the profound practice of writing a letter to a suicide bomber in order to skilfully remove wrong perceptions. Thay shares that removing wrong perceptions is working for peace and advises the organization of televised deep listening sessions at the national level first followed by a widening to the international level, including other countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. Thay speaks about the universal desire within all beings for continuation. Everyone wants to continue, including the monks and nuns. We are encouraged to look more deeply to see other ways of ensuring our continuation e.g. for monastics continuing through their disciples. When we become aware that other ways of continuation are possible, then our sexual desire becomes less important. Thay identifies the base of all our complexes as an attachment to our idea and belief in a separate self. A deep understanding and insight into non-self is at the root of the practice.

This is the sixth talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk in the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Transcending Dualistic Views

Thay delves deeply into the teachings of contemplating body, feelings, mind, and mind objects, emphasizing merging the observer with the observed for genuine contemplation.

Buddhism views humans as having five components: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Mindfulness is seen as the key to practicing with these five components without dualistic thinking. Through concentrated awareness, we cultivate understanding of impermanence, no-self, and interbeing, embracing each moment deeply in our daily lives.

This is the seventh talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk in the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thay speaks about the practice of mindful breathing through the teachings of the Buddha on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness – the body, the feelings, the mind, and the objects of mind. He also shares how the results of our thinking, speaking and acting , or karmic retribution, affects both the individual and the collective, that right thinking and loving speech have the power to heal and uplift, and that reconciliation and healing the past can occur through mindful and compassionate actions.
“Our practice is not to get lost in the past, to get lost in the future. Our practice is to establish ourselves in the present moment, touching the present moment deeply. And by touching the present moment deeply, we can touch the past and the future, we can heal the past, and we can build a future. The best way to build a future is to take good care of the present moment.”

This is the eighth talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Questions & Answers, No description yet, ‘suggest edit’ to add one.

Using verses from The Sutra on Mindful Breathing, Thay elaborates on the interconnectedness of the practices of The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. Thay highlights that if we practice The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, enlightenment is something tangible, something concrete that we can get in touch with right here and right now. Thay draws on the teachings of the Avatamsaka Sutra and quantum physics concepts to deepen our understanding of the interbeing of all phenomena.

This is the tenth talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thay speaks of the importance of mindful breathing to keep us in touch with the wonders of life, even as we face difficulties. While breathing for the Buddha we can access our store consciousness where the seeds of our experiences are stored and processed. He explores the eight consciousnesses and explains that much of our suffering comes from illusion, delusion, and discrimination, using examples from computing, driving a car, and gardening. Touching the seed of mindfulness we can be awake, to develop insight and freedom.

This is the eleventh talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thay details previous retreats focusing on Buddhist teachings and practices, emphasizing the exploration of Buddhist scriptures like the Pali Canon and Chinese Tripiṭaka. Winter retreats offer in-depth study, such as comparing sūtras and exploring consciousness. Sūtras studied include Prajñāpāramitā, Ratnakūṭa, Vimalakīrti, Lotus, Avataṃsaka, Diamond Sutras, and teachings like Transformation at the Base and Mahāyānasaṃgraha-śāstra. The Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path stress right view, liberation from fixed perspectives, and non-attachment to views. Understanding interconnectedness, non-self, and mindfulness reveals the true nature of nirvāṇa, emphasizing continuous mindfulness and embracing the present moment for enlightenment.

This is the twelfth talk in a series of fourteen given during the Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Thay discusses the importance of building Sangha, emphasizing its role as a continuation of the Buddha’s teachings and embodying mindfulness, insight, and concentration. He shares that the Buddha was an excellent Sangha builder and that the Sangha is his masterpiece. The Fourfold Sangha includes male and female monastics, laymen and laywomen, and is based on the Buddha’s teaching of the Six Harmonies: living together, observing the precepts or Mindfulness Trainings, sharing essentials of daily life, using loving speech and deep listening, sharing insights, and respecting the views of others. The Mindfulness Trainings, rooted in protecting, healing, and transforming, are crucial for a true Sangha. Sharing resources, avoiding excessive comfort, and practicing simplicity are vital in fostering community. Sanghakarman procedure guides decision-making through consensus, emphasizing unity over voting. Loving speech and deep listening foster reconciliation and harmony. Realizing the interconnectedness of all beings, akin to the concept of no-self, helps build a harmonious, healthy community.

This is the thirteenth talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet in Plum Village, France

Questions & Answers, No description yet, ‘suggest edit’ to add one.

Thay reviews the evolution of earlier twenty-one-day retreats, beginning in 1990. He describes practices and skills expected of members of the Order and the extended community. Thay underscores the importance of sangha-building and cultivating harmony within communities. He then describes the historical and ultimate dimensions, and the four kinds of perception. He explains how nirvana is here and now, not in the future; it is our true nature of no birth and no death. In the final part of the talk, Thay describes how to accompany a dying person, using the teachings of no birth and no death, as taught over 2,500 years ago by the Buddha’s disciple Sariputra to the dying lay practitioner Anathapindika. Thay recounts how he and Sister Chan Khong helped their friend and fellow peace activist Alfred Hassler to pass. Thay ends his talk with the encouragement to bring Plum Village home in our heart. The session ends with Sister Chan Khong singing “This Body Is Not Me” in Vietnamese and English.

This is the final talk in a series of fourteen given during The Breath of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2006. Thay offered this talk in the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.