Thầy opens this talk by observing that when we’re able to see the suffering in another person, compassion arises in us, and we see that even though we may have been hurt by this person, it’s because they’re suffering that they cause harm. We begin our deep looking into suffering by examining our own wounds and becoming a bodhisattva of deep listening for ourselves and others.

Thầy then introduces the first eight exercises of mindful breathing from the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing. He explores the first four exercises that help cultivate awareness of the breath and the body. Next, he delves into the next four, which help cultivate joy and happiness in order to embrace strong emotions. Toward 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’ve caused someone in the past?

• My brother was murdered eighteen years ago. How can my family 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.

Thầy begins with teaching on transforming our own personal suffering which can become the foundation for transforming the suffering in the family, as well as the suffering in the classroom. In the remainder of the talk, Thầy expounds on the basic practices of mindful breathing, mindful walking, listening to the bell, and mindful eating.

This is the first talk in a series of three given during the Educator’s Retreat: An Exploration of Mindful Education in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at The American School in London, the United Kingdom.

March 31, 2012. 53-minute dharma talk given at The American School in London by two senior dharma teachers. The sangha is on the UK and Ireland Tour and this is part two of the Educators’ Retreat: An Exploration of Mindful Education. The talk focuses on how to take care of the teacher and this results in taking care of the student in the classroom.

This spring, March 31-April 15 a group of monks, nuns and layfriends, all young adults, all students of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh will travel from San Diego, via Los Angeles, via Merced to the Bay Area. We will offer mindfulness workshops and major universities, bring the practice of sitting and walking meditation to public places and more. We hope to practice breathing and smiling together with many young adults during this tour.

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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 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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April 5, 2012, at The University of Nottingham, during the UK and Ireland Tour, Thich Nhat Hanh offered a 125-minute dharma talk as the orientation for the Cultivating Happiness Family Retreat (Nottingham Retreat), joined by Brother Phap Ung and Brother Phap Lai.

The session opens with an introduction to chanting; by recognizing the suffering in ourselves and the world, we can gain understanding and compassion. The Avalokiteshvara chant begins about 23 minutes into the recording.

Around the 46-minute mark Thay gives a short dharma talk: a cultivated mind can bring a lot of happiness, transforming suffering. Awareness of breathing is presented as a form of enlightenment, a practice of returning to the here and now.

Afterward, Brothers Phap Ung and Phap Lai guide basic practices such as listening to the sound of the bell, mindful eating, noble silence, and attentive listening to dharma talks.

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Thay teaches how a cultivated mind can bring a lot of happiness. How do we cultivate our minds? When we are practicing to come back to the here and now and touch the wonders of life with every in-breath and out-breath. And if we know how to release the tension in our body while breathing out, this is an act of compassion directed to our bodies. So compassion, love, understanding, happiness, enlightenment, everything is possible just with one in-breath or one step taken in mindfulness.

Mindfulness and concentration are the two kinds of energies that bring about insight. One important insight being how to transform suffering into happiness and the interbeing of all things.

Thay states his promise to be truly present for all activities during this retreat and encourages everyone to do the same.

This is the first 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.

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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Thầy elaborates on the practice of maintaining our inherent freshness and flower-ness through meditation, offering concrete ways to see ourselves and others as flowers in the garden of humanity. He shares touching reflections on recognizing our parents, teachers, and the Buddha within every cell of our bodies—illustrated by the wisdom of his two hands, where non-discrimination brings total harmony and removes suffering.

Looking deeply into a rose, Thầy demonstrates the nature of interbeing (“This is because that is”) and deconstructs the notions of birth, death, being, and non-being alongside Lavoisier’s law of conservation of matter and energy.

He concludes with a practical exploration of the Three Powers and the Five and Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, showing how loving speech and compassionate listening restore communication and bring about deep reconciliation.

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

Thầy presents the foundational practices of the Noble Eightfold Path, focusing on how Right View gives rise to Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, and Right Diligence.

He outlines the four contemplations of pebble meditation—flower, mountain, still water, and space—and introduces the first mantra of love: “Darling, I am here for you”.

The talk highlights the non-local nature of mind, explaining how generating a compassionate thought in the present can actively reach back to transform and repair the past for ourselves and our ancestors. Thầy also explores the four aspects of Right Diligence in relation to store and mind consciousness.

Drawing on Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger, Thầy reflects on mindfulness as a moment of waking up to life, connecting it to the living presence of the Holy Spirit and true resurrection on Easter Sunday.

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

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.

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.

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.

Thầy prepares the retreatants with an overview of mindful walking, mindful eating, and mindfulness as the primary practice. Thầy outlines both individual, meditative slow walking and, then, collective group walking, which is at a more natural pace and, therefore, preparation for mindful walking in daily life. He reviews how to use walking gāthās, such as “I have arrived / I am home,” and to synchronize the breathing with walking.

Thầy teaches us that the overarching purpose is to practice presence in the here and the now, which is our one and only “true home,” “because life is available only in the here and the now.” Though many do not believe that happiness can be possible in the here and the now, Thầy shows that happiness is available in every present moment. And, when a group, such as that of the retreat, practice together, it “can generate a very powerful collective energy.” Thầy draws an analogy between the way that mindfulness “allows us to live deeply the mystery of our life in every moment” and the Christian concept of the “Kingdom of God.” In Thầy’s understanding, the Kingdom of God is not a distant or future state but rather is present in the reality of this life, this body, and this present moment.

Thầy then discusses mindful eating, that it can be a joyful collective practice that, like walking on Mother Earth, is a direct contact not just with the one carrot we eat but rather with all of the natural conditions—sun, rain, earth, farming, etc.—that inextricably connect us to the entire cosmos—in effect, a divine experience. Thầy concludes by discussing the importance of noble silence during the retreat. He then introduces Sister Jina, who, in the final five-to-ten minutes, welcomes everyone with loving kindness and laughter; reviews the nuts and bolts of maintaining silence comfortably and with good humor; absorbing Dharma talks without being overwhelmed; managing etiquette, blessings, and silence at meals; and how to help oneself be on time to early morning sitting meditation.

This is the opening 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.

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.

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.

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.