Each monastic contains within themselves three bodies – the Buddha body, the Dharma body, and the Sangha body – all of which need to be cared for so that the seed of enlightenment can sprout and grow.

1. The Buddha body is the seed of enlightenment, though fragile, it can be nourished through insight and the practice of mindfulness.
2. The Dharma body is the living reality in our daily life: walking, breathing, speaking – all must be accompanied by mindfulness so that insight is not lost.
3. The Sangha body is the body of the monastic community; one needs to take refuge in the Sangha, rely on the precepts and the guidance of the community in order not to practice alone.

Building the Sangha is the most noble work of a monastic, simply called Sangha building.

• Brotherly love: nourishing each other through simple gestures – offering praise, rejoicing in each other’s merits, supporting one another’s shortcomings.
• The practice of shining light: the community gathers, each person offers their reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the practitioner, then writes a shining light letter consisting of three parts: watering the positive seeds, pointing out the weaknesses, and offering methods of practice.
• Continuous mindfulness practice: each step, each breath, each smile helps to nourish oneself and the Sangha.

Building a meditation hall or translating sutras is not yet the essence if there is not a strong brotherhood. Each sitting meditation, walking meditation, Dharma discussion must be accompanied by the question: does this practice help to nourish body and mind and build the Sangha? If not, we must stop and adjust so that we do not starve ourselves and the community of practice.

The path of monastic life is the path of ethics, of spirituality, a nonviolent revolution based on the mental formation of non-harming (ahimsa/avihimsa) – that is, the mind of great compassion, not causing harm to oneself or to any living beings. Among the fifty-one mental formations, non-harming is the last wholesome mental formation in the group of eleven wholesome mental formations, equivalent to the mind of great compassion. Non-harming is not passive resignation; it requires a readiness to sacrifice oneself in order to save living beings. Siddhartha (the Buddha) refused the political machinery, which was full of craving, anger, and ignorance, choosing first the spiritual path, and only then helping the world. Although not crushed by the machinery of politics, a monastic can still become lost in the machinery of study and practice, causing the beginner’s mind – the original bodhi mind – to wither away if there is a lack of right thinking and mindfulness.

The path of the eightfold noble practice (The Noble Eightfold Path) is presented through three closely connected elements:

• mindfulness – the capacity to dwell in the present moment in order to recognize all motivations, freeing oneself from craving, anger, ignorance, and the pursuit of fame and gain
• concentration – maintaining insight into impermanence, non-self, and interdependent co-arising in each breath, each step, each action
• insight – arising from concentration, a view that is in accord with reality, giving rise to the true substance of the mind of loving kindness and compassion
  Practicing mindfulness–concentration–insight helps us generate love each day, so that our words, actions, and the only legacy we leave behind when we “pass away” is not worldly achievements, but a compassionate heart, words of forgiveness, and actions that relieve suffering.

Today, I would like to introduce the concept of the machine as a dangerous political-religious apparatus, capable of crushing the wholehearted aspirations of patriotic youth.

1. The Chinese Revolution of 1911 marked the transition from the feudal Qing dynasty to the Republic, with Puyi abdicating and Sun Yat-sen becoming the first president before yielding to Chiang Kai-shek.
2. The two parties—the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party—first allied and then struggled for power, leading to internal purges in which hundreds of thousands of patriotic youths lost their lives.
3. Vietnamese youth before 1945 joined both the Vietnamese Kuomintang and the Vietnamese Communist Party, swept into the international machinery directed by Moscow, and then experienced mutual purges—exemplified in the novel “The Thanh Thuy River” (by Nhat Linh), where three travelers received orders to eliminate each other on their journey home.

From the political machine to the religious machine, Vietnamese Buddhism was also not spared from oppression and elimination:

1. Venerable Thich Mat The—the author of “A Brief History of Vietnamese Buddhism”—was surrounded and starved until he had to emigrate; many young devotees were not allowed to be ordained during the time of division.
2. Elder Thieu Chuu—the chief editor of the Sino-Vietnamese Dictionary, who cared for seventy orphans at Quan Su Pagoda—was forced to commit suicide, showing how the machinery of authority viewed religion as “opium.”

The key lesson: love and idealism are only genuine when inseparable from the lives of our compatriots. The spirit of non-attachment to views—as taught in the Diamond Sutra and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings—is the path for the Dharma not to become a fanatic machine, helping us transcend all isms and dogmas.

Three foundational questions to begin the journey of practice

1. Who am I?
2. What am I doing here?
3. Where am I going, in which direction am I heading?

In daily life, we easily fall into the illusion that we know who we are and the path we are walking. Practice is the art of looking deeply into our perceptions to see our mistakes, to correct them, and to awaken insight, thereby clearly recognizing our true destination.

The path of a monastic and of Siddhartha is propelled by two unchanging sources of energy:

• love: love for our ancestors, culture, homeland, family, and ourselves
• revolution: the determination to break down the old structures full of afflictions, to build a new order based on peace, happiness, and social justice

Unlike political revolutions, which are full of violence and conflict, the revolution of the Buddha’s way is a nonviolent revolution, beginning with the transformation of our own hearts—letting go of anger, craving, and ignorance. The mind of awakening, the mind of loving kindness, and the spirit of brotherhood—as manifested in the nonviolent, self-sacrificing act of Thich Quang Duc and the poem The Fire of Compassion—are powerful energies for transforming both the individual and society in a sincere and wholesome way.

This retreat invites each person to contemplate these three foundational questions, to kindle the energy of love and the will for nonviolent revolution, so that the youthfulness of our spirit does not fade, our hands remain unstained by blood, and each step we take brings our entire lineage, ancestors, Sangha, and future generations to the shore of peace and happiness.