Thầy opens with an account from Berlin, where he addressed some four thousand people at the Kirchentag—the first joint national gathering of German Catholics and Protestants. Sitting afterward with a group of bishops, he had made the case that the Church should teach and demonstrate the Kingdom of God in the here and now, so that teachers themselves become living proof that fame, profit, power, and sex don’t need to be chased for happiness. He shares one bishop’s reply—that he still wanted “another Kingdom of God outside of here”—and reflects gently on how hard it is to release a belief we’ve loved for a long time, however clearly we understand it isn’t needed.

Thầy then turns to the Pure Land, distinguishing popular Buddhism from deep Buddhism, and shares the Buddha’s own image for the teaching: a beach you can wade into gradually, at whatever depth you’re ready for.

From there, Thầy traces how the Buddha came to be given three bodies. He describes the Mahāsāṃghika’s protest, roughly a hundred and twenty years after the Buddha’s death, against a teaching grown repetitive and small—“Your Buddha is too small”—and shows how that protest grew into the doctrine of nirmāṇakāya, sambhogakāya, and dharmakāya. He traces its roots back further still, to the dying Venerable Vakkali and his attachment to the Buddha’s physical presence.

Thầy closes by drawing Jesus and the Buddha back into their human, historical forms—the Son of Man rather than the Son of God, Śākyamuni rather than Vairocana—pointing to the teacher in flesh and bone, rather than an idealised figure held at a distance, as where the deepest liberation can be reached. Buddhism, he says, has to stay a living organism, renewed through contact with other traditions and other people, rather than something admired and kept still, like a mummy in a museum.

This talk is from a series given during the Ninety-Day Fall Retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Dwelling happily in the present moment means to live peacefully and at ease right in the here and now: “present” is what is happening, “dharma” is the teachings, “dwelling happily” is to live happily and at ease. Through the Upāsaka Sūtra, the Buddha taught the lay friend Anāthapiṇḍika and about 500 merchants to practice the Three Refuges and the Four Recollections (recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and the Precepts) so that each step and each breath brings joy and peace. The practice is not to wait for happiness in the future, but to enjoy joy right in every moment: when washing the dishes, cooking rice, sweeping the house… we need to have full mindfulness so that the mind is not caught in worries and anxieties.

The Buddhadharma is a living body that has gone through three periods (early, middle, and late) and is transformed according to cultural context. In forty-five years of teaching, the World-Honored One skillfully “transformed” the prevailing ideas of the time (rebirth, the Four Immeasurable Minds…) into distinctive teachings, and left behind the essence:

1. The Four Noble Truths;
2. The Noble Eightfold Path – the path of right practice;
3. The Three Dharma Seals – impermanence, non-self, Nirvāṇa;
4. The Three Doors of Liberation – Emptiness, Signlessness, Aimlessness;
5. The teaching of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination (some sutras mention 6, 9, or 12 links).
   The Buddhadharma continued as the Mahāyāna through the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and so on, about 300–400 years after the Buddha’s passing, and then entered Tibet, Thailand, China, and Japan by harmonizing with local cultures. Today, monks and lay friends are invited to continue “turning the Dharma wheel” with wisdom and insight, digesting new cultural elements so that the Dharma is always alive, serving the suffering of society, and deeply integrating into the present moment.

Every morning, sit in meditation for at least 5–20 minutes before the scheduled time, keeping your body upright, relaxed, making no noise, and sitting inside so as not to disturb those who come later. Each Dharma talk of 1–2 minutes serves as a compass for the whole day—breathing in is to return to the present moment and to feel ease and peace, and that peace is not only for ourselves but also radiates to our parents and ancestors. The practice of mindfulness can be applied at any time and in any place—walking, standing, sitting, lying down, washing 200 dishes, sweeping the meditation hall—every action is an opportunity to stop and find happiness right in the present moment.

The essence of meditation is stopping (samatha): “stopping” to end the wandering of the mind, placing ourselves in the Pure Land, touching the wonders of life and our ancestors; when we stop, we have already “become a Buddha,” there is nothing more to attain. If a tradition does not bring joy, it is useless, and if we do not renew the way we present, the language and the forms to suit the times, the Dharma will become a “mummy”—the meditation hall now does not need pillars and the temple must be as flexible as the Buddha, who always adapted the teachings to respond to the suffering and questions of his time.

Studying the history of the original Sangha is not for accumulating knowledge as in taking exams, but for contemplating the present, seeing clearly our own path of practice, determining what needs to be continued or abandoned, and making a firm commitment to practice what the future requires. While listening to the Dharma, we need to reflect on our own position, recognize suffering inside and outside, and from there apply the teachings to resolve those sufferings.

The diversification of schools in Buddhism is healthy because it brings a diversity of insight. From the split into the Sthavira and Mahāsāṃghika schools 140 years after the Buddha’s Parinirvana, to about twenty schools after several hundred years, there was a “hundred flowers blooming” without conflict. For twenty-two years, Plum Village has been both conservative in preserving the essence and progressive in renewing, offering practical fruits:

• The Earth Touching Practice responds to the aspiration for repentance of both monastics and laypeople
• The Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Ten Novice Precepts are presented clearly, practically, in non-religious language
• Prostration meditation and the second body renew the methods of practice
• The novice monastic code textbook has been compiled to replace the 400-year-old version
• The Vietnamese Chanting Book continues the tradition, carrying the essence of the Dharma

The tenth day of the three-month retreat, with 80 days left to cherish each moment of dwelling peacefully in the practice. Shamatha and Vipashyana meditation are inherently inseparable: shamatha brings concentration, vipashyana gives rise to insight, and concentration and insight are interwoven in a single moment of stopping. Practicing walking meditation in Plum Village is to take each step in mindfulness, refraining from conversation to hold firmly the “reins” of our steps; each in-breath and out-breath is an opportunity to stop the wandering of the mind, to connect with our father, mother, ancestors, and to encounter the “Pure Land” right in the present moment. When eating, dressing, or sitting, doing only one thing at a time, dwelling fully in the present, is to find peace, nirvana, and freedom.

From 450 BCE (the Buddha’s Parinirvana) to the early stages of Original Buddhism: the Buddha was born around 530 BCE, and for the next 100 years the Sangha continued the transmission until 350 BCE; about 140 years after the Buddha’s passing, the Mahasanghika and Sthavira schools formed, and in the following 255 years, many Hinayana schools emerged. From the first century BCE to the third century CE, the Prajnaparamita Sutras marked the beginning of the Mahayana; Master Nagarjuna systematized “Emptiness” and Maitreya expounded on the Yogacara teachings, and finally Asanga and Vasubandhu completed the Consciousness-Only school. King Ashoka (third century BCE) erected stone pillars and supported the Dharma, expanding Buddhism, blending the Buddha’s teachings with culture, from the Jataka–Avadana tradition to the ancestor worship customs of Vietnam, creating a path of practice for both monastics and laypeople.

Thầy teaches Touching the Earth as yoga—the practice of connecting, of reunifying. Touching the Earth is sometimes seen as devotion: someone who is lost turns to another for protection and support. In Plum Village, it has become a practice of insight, touching our nature of nonself and interbeing, and that insight can free us from fear, loneliness, and despair.

Thầy describes the practice itself: joining the palms with mind, heart, and body together, then the five limbs touching the earth in an act of surrender, completely open. Seeing that our talents come from our ancestors and that we are made of the whole cosmos, we can let go of the complexes of superiority, inferiority, and even equality. “You are not a lotus flower, you are a chrysanthemum. But you are a wonder.”

From the person sitting opposite us on the subway to the way we pray, Thầy shows how we may touch only our notions rather than reality. He shares the Buddha’s words about something that has no beginning and no end, offers a correction to Paul Tillich’s “ground of being,” and asks why we spend so much time discussing whether God exists. A wave that realizes she is water does not need to turn to the left and to the right to seek for water.

Thầy speaks of two levels of Touching the Earth: devotion, which can bring relief, and the insight that the one who bows and the one who is bowed to are both empty. He reflects on Śāriputra, our eldest brother in the Dharma, and on Mañjuśrī, who need not be a historical person to be very real. He tells newly ordained monastics how to let people pay respect to the Three Jewels through them. He also speaks of the Asian dream of great togetherness, and of the qualities we now bow to as deities—liberty, great understanding, great compassion, love—to be touched as reality, not as concept.

In closing, Thầy responds to a question from a mother, showing how we can touch a loved one in the here and the now.

This talk is from a series given during the Ninety-Day Fall Retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Keep each step solid, relaxed, and filled with happiness by nourishing mindfulness, concentration, and insight with every step of walking meditation. Each step is an opportunity to return to the present moment, to dwell solidly like a green mountain, to be at ease like a white cloud, and to manifest sovereignty over body and mind, so that we “become the king, the emperor of ourselves.” Using verses such as

“I have arrived, I am home, dwelling in the here and now, solid as a green mountain, free as a white cloud; thus the door of the unborn opens, just with one step, calm and unmoving”
helps maintain mindfulness, so that the Pure Land, the Kingdom of God is right in the present moment.

The early teachings of the Theravada tradition include the 37 factors of enlightenment, among which are the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of spiritual power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of awakening, and the Noble Eightfold Path. In the beginning, there was only the Ninefold Teaching (Nava Anga), later developed into the Twelvefold Teaching (Dvadasa), which includes:

1. Sutra (Discourses)
2. Geya (Repetitions)
3. Gatha (Verses)
4. Itivrittaka (Stories of This Is What Happened)
5. Jataka (Stories of Former Lives)
6. Adbhutadharma (Marvelous Dharma)
7. Avadana (Illustrative Stories)
8. Upadesa (Instructions)
9. Udana (Inspired Utterances)
10. Nidana (Causes and Conditions)
11. Vaipulya (Extensive Teachings)
12. Viakarana (Prophecies)
    The two literary forms, Jataka and Avadana, became a great body of literature, contributing to the widespread dissemination of Buddhism throughout India during the period of the early schools.

Maitrī, that is, friendship, is the root of all love – not only romantic love between man and woman, but also the love between father and child, mother and child, siblings, friends, descendants, homeland, humanity, and the environment. In the Buddha’s teaching, there are three other words alongside maitrī:

• karuṇā (compassion)
• muditā (joy)
• upekṣā (equanimity)

The monastic life and the sangha require the cultivation of brotherhood through the practice of mindfulness. The four elements that nourish oneself and the sangha, as mentioned in the morning meditation, are:

• freshness
• solidity
• calmness
• freedom

Every day, we should ask ourselves, “Today, what have I generated to nourish myself and to nourish the sangha?” so that we do not starve ourselves or our companions.

The upcoming three-month trip to Vietnam is a historic adventure, requiring each person to be diligent in purifying body and mind, to practice repentance, and to offer wholeheartedly their clarity and sincerity. Those of you who remain at home also need to offer your support through daily mindfulness, ensuring that the atmosphere both inside and outside the country is solid, so that the mission may be accomplished.

King Trần Thái Tông, though holding the throne, practiced diligently and once sought to leave home and ordain at Yên Tử Mountain, until Zen Master Viên Chứng advised him that “practice is not only on the mountain or in the temple,” but right in the palace, “while governing the country, the king can still study the Buddha’s teachings and practice the true Dharma.” He walked steadily in meditation with the mantra “each step touches the earth of reality,” every footstep touching “the ground of truth,” and transmitted this method to future generations. The Pure Land, according to the profound teachings of the Buddha, is not something to wait for after death or in the Western direction, but is “the Pure Land of the mind” present here and now – “the Pure Land in our hands” –, where each breath, each step with mindfulness and concentration brings us back to the present moment and to “the wonders of life” such as the blue sky, white clouds, birds singing, pines whispering, and flowers blooming.

During the period of the Lesser Vehicle after the Buddha’s passing, about twenty schools arose, among which the three main schools were:

1. Theravāda (School of the Elders)
2. Mahāsaṅghika (Great Assembly School)
3. Sarvāstivāda–Vibhajyavāda (School of All Exists–Distinctionists)

Sarvāstivāda and Mahāsaṅghika were pioneers in developing the Avadāna literature (Stories of Deeds) and Jātaka (stories of previous lives) – where the Bodhisattva ideal of the Lesser Vehicle was early revealed. Sarvāstivāda also added “emptiness” to the three Dharma seals (suffering, impermanence, non-self) to form the four Dharma seals, and deeply analyzed the five aggregates, the twelve sense bases, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path – heritages that the Mahāyāna later received and developed.

Thầy invites us to go home to the little boy or little girl in us—still alive, often deeply wounded, and calling for our attention. As four- or five-year-olds, we may not have understood why our parents fought, but, as Thầy says, “Maybe we did not understand, but we felt. We felt everything.”

Thầy describes a child with nowhere to take refuge: no garden or neighbor’s house to run to, only a small apartment and a locked restroom door. Even as adults, with a house, a family, and a job, we may not feel at ease, because the child inside continues to suffer and no one is taking care of him or her.

Thầy offers a practice of recognizing and embracing the child with mindfulness and compassion: breathing, smiling, and speaking to the little one directly. He names what happens if we don’t practice—we do the same thing to our own children—and suggests inviting the child to join us through the day, watering the vegetable garden, listening to music, driving, or cooking dinner together.

Thầy shares a morning in the hermitage when he told his father, “Papa, we have succeeded,” and explores how our father and mother, as five-year-old children, have been transmitted to us, so that in healing ourselves we can liberate them too. He suggests taking a photo of a parent at five from the family album into our meditation, and points to understanding as the source of compassion, which can let anger toward a parent give way.

The talk closes with Thầy’s poem “Looking for Each Other,” read in Vietnamese and then chanted by the monastic Sangha.

This talk is from a series given during the Ninety-Day Fall Retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

Today is the twentieth day of the retreat; there are still seventy days left to fully dwell in the practice. The retreat requires that “both feet are inside, not one foot in and one foot out,” in order to realize collective happiness. Observing nature gives us vivid lessons about the spirit of community and communication—bees, ants, termites, and the brain all operate as harmonious communities, without a master, relying only on the Dharma and the Vinaya. The energy of diligence (virya)—one of the five important sources of energy—not only protects the individual but also protects the whole. These five sources of energy are:

1. Faith
2. Diligence
3. Mindfulness
4. Concentration
5. Insight

Buddhism has gone through three main periods:
• 350 – 100 BC (Early Theravada)
• 100 BC – 300 AD (Sectarian Theravada)
• From 100 BC – 300 AD (Origin of Mahayana)

Among these, King Ashoka spread the Dharma throughout India by erecting stone pillars inscribed with Brahmi script. Mahayana expanded the ideal from Arhat to Bodhisattva with the path of the Three Vehicles (Śrāvaka, Pratyekabuddha, Bodhisattva), developing the “Bodhi mind” and the six Paramitas:

1. Generosity
2. Precepts
3. Patience
4. Diligence
5. Meditation
6. Wisdom

The key doctrines of Mahayana include the Three Bodies of the Buddha (the physical body, the Dharma body, the reward body), the theory of emptiness (śūnyatā), the store consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna), and skillful means, aiming to combine great wisdom and great compassion to liberate all beings.

Happiness is not a strictly individual possession: it is built together with the happiness of others. In the family as in society, we all have both the duty and the right to be happy; this right is born from our capacity to recognize the suffering around us and to act, even for just a few moments each day, to relieve a parent, a neighbor, or anyone in distress. This compassionate action connects us to others, gives meaning to our life, and produces within us a deep joy, independent of wealth, fame, or power.

Living happily here and now is possible thanks to mindfulness: by walking, breathing, and touching the wonders of life (the sky, the flowers, the fresh air), we cultivate the inner freedom that liberates us from fear, anger, and craving. For this, three practices are central:

1. Recognizing the suffering in ourselves and around us
2. Understanding its deep roots through meditative looking
3. Transforming suffering into compassion, the seed of true happiness
   By thus applying the Four Noble Truths—the reality of suffering, its origin, the possibility of its cessation, and the path leading to it—each moment becomes an opportunity to sow calm, freedom, and joy.

*The two original schools of Buddhism are the Theravada (Thượng Tọa Bộ) and the Maha Sanghika (Đại Chúng Bộ), from which the remaining 18–21 schools emerged. The main sources include:

1. Kathāvatthu (Points of Controversy) of the Theravada school
2. Dipavamsa – a 4th-century Theravada chronicle from Sri Lanka
3. The Śāriputra Inquiry Sutra (T 1465) of the Maha Sanghika, compiled in the Taisho Tripitaka
4. Treatise on the Schools (Dị Bộ Tông Luân Luận) – Xuanzang’s Chinese translation and Thích Trí Quang’s Vietnamese version
5. The Mañjuśrī Inquiry Sutra (T 468) – translated by Thích Già Bà La
6. The list of 21 schools recorded by Bhaviveka and Taranatha, in which the Vibhajyavāda is divided into four groups: Mahīśāsaka, Kāśyapīya, Dharmaguptaka, and Tāmraśāṭīya (present-day Theravada).

*The concept of the Buddha’s body developed from the two bodies (the physical body and the Dharma body) in the Early Buddhist tradition to the three bodies (the transformation body, the enjoyment body, and the Dharma body) in the Mahayana, emphasizing that the Buddha is one who is free from afflictions, transcending birth and death, “with one voice teaches all Dharma.” Every word, every action, and even his silence is a teaching. In the retreat, there are also collective activities with mindfulness songs:
“Come let us practice… We can sit down and breathe in and smile like Buddha smiles,”
and the melody “Happy birthday to you… Everyday we are born. Everyday we are free,” depicting the joy of mindfulness and being reborn in every moment.

This talk details the path to enlightenment, emphasizing mindfulness and practice leading to liberation. It’s believed seven lives are typically needed, but diligent practice can shorten this to three, four, or even this very life. By nurturing inner holiness, one can cultivate freedom and peace without seeking it elsewhere. Progressing leads to becoming a stream enterer, returner, non-returner, or arahant, achieving total freedom from afflictions. Buddhism teaches eight types of holy people, each embodying varying levels of freedom. Embrace suffering with respect and tenderness to transform it into wisdom and compassion. Live mindfully, finding holiness in everyday tasks like drinking tea, brushing teeth, or sweeping, embodying freedom and peace in daily life.

Deep listening is the most precious gift we can offer to the person we love: without the capacity to listen with compassion, we remain deaf to their suffering, we lose our calm, and communication breaks down, opening the door to pain, to anger, even to ultimate despair. To develop this quality, we train ourselves to:

1. practice mindful breathing to calm ourselves and bring body and mind together,
2. engage in deep looking, total presence in the here and now,
3. address the other with loving speech, without reproach, offering a safe space for them to express their pain.

This path of compassionate listening echoes Avalokiteśvara (Quan The Am), the bodhisattva of compassion: only compassion, nourished every day, protects us from anger and allows us to hear the “cries of suffering in the world.” At the same time, the Four Noble Truths offer the framework:

• to recognize suffering,
• to identify its causes (unwholesome nutriments, prejudices, ignorance),
• to take refuge in the possibility of transformation,
• to follow the Noble Path (right view, loving speech, mindfulness of body and mind, mindful walking and eating) in order to cultivate well-being and restore communication.

Thầy begins with a line from an old Irish song—“All the praties, they are small over here, and we eat skin and all”—that carries the fear of hunger our ancestors have passed down to us. From there, he invites us to eat, sit, and breathe not only for ourselves but for those who have not had the opportunity: grandparents who lived through hard times, and people today who have no food, or no time to sit.

Thầy shares his memory of the famine in Hanoi in 1944, when, as a young student, he went from house to house asking for a little rice for the hungry. He explores how a meal eaten in mindfulness touches three seeds in us at once—fear, happiness, and compassion—and why true happiness is made of non-happiness elements. Eating for the grandmother and mother within us, we become a bodhisattva: “To be a bodhisattva is what you can do right here, right now, while you eat your piece of bread.”

Thầy points to sitting for our ancestors as the greatest kind of filial piety, and to what the world really needs: not more goods, but more compassion and freedom, generated even while watering the vegetables. He closes with Nelson Mandela’s wish to just sit down and do nothing, and reflects on why those of us lucky enough to have time to sit and walk might practice for those who cannot.

This talk is from a series given during the Ninety-Day Fall Retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The practice of Touching the Earth is the reverse process of filling up with gas; it is an opportunity to faire le vide, to make oneself empty by letting go of knowledge, fame, degrees, and even complexes. When the five parts of the body touch the earth and the hands are open, the practitioner lets go of the self to become a Dharma instrument of wonder, no longer caught in reverence or material gain. Happiness in the Sangha depends on the capacity to entrust one’s life like a drop of water merging into the river, instead of holding onto personal demands or the seeds of resentment from the past.

The theses from 42 to 48 in the Samayabhedoparacanacakra affirm that the nature of the mind is originally pure and luminous, and afflictions are only guests. Latent tendencies are blocks of afflictions lying asleep, which are neither mind nor mental formations and have no object, unlike entanglements which are bindings and drives which are propulsions. Phenomena are divided into five categories:

1. Form phenomena
2. Mind phenomena
3. Mental formation phenomena
4. Phenomena not associated with the mind
5. Unconditioned phenomena

Regarding cognition, the 12 bases include:

1. Eye base
2. Ear base
3. Nose base
4. Tongue base
5. Body base
6. Mind base
7. Form base
8. Sound base
9. Smell base
10. Taste base
11. Touch base
12. Dharma base

Among them, the dharma base is not an object that consciousness can apprehend. The past and the future do not have a true entity, at the same time there is no existence of an intermediate body, and a person who has attained the fruit of stream-entry has the capacity to attain the power of concentration.

On the 34th day of the autumn retreat, the monastic regulations are very strict: morning sitting meditation begins at 6 o’clock, and everyone must arrive at least 5 minutes early; once the door is closed, no one is allowed to enter, and those who are late are invited to practice walking meditation outdoors or go to the library. The orientation for newcomers, held on the afternoon of their arrival, includes the regulations, walking meditation, sitting meditation, and attending Dharma talks to help them integrate and practice correctly, avoiding incidents like this morning. The memorial ceremony for Ancestor Tang Hoi will be held on the 28th, in collaboration with the Tu Hieu and Plum Village sanghas; Tang Hoi was ordained at the age of 10, established the Luy Lau center, and then went to China to found Kien So temple, marking the beginning of Chinese Buddhism.

Walking meditation is a wonderful Dharma door that helps us “stop with each step,” not thinking about the future; each solid, leisurely step is a sign of happiness and supports our friends in the practice. Relaxing the body and calming the breath brings two main benefits: (1) ease and peace, allowing us to deeply touch the present moment; (2) creating the conditions for the body to heal itself. Currently, in the United States, more than 220 hospitals and care centers are applying this method in the spirit of Buddhism.

Regarding the teachings, the Bahuśrutīya school originated from the Mahāsāṃghika, emphasizing “hearing much – learning much,” and advocated five transcendent teachings: impermanence, suffering, emptiness, non-self, and the stillness of nirvana, opening the way to complete liberation. The most complete Three Dharma Seals are impermanence, non-self, and nirvana, in which nirvana is the ground of all phenomena (like waves relying on water). Suffering is not the nature of things, but arises from delusion and attachment; when we deeply penetrate impermanence and non-self, we touch nirvana right in the midst of birth and death.

This talk details the importance of mindful communication and consumption, emphasizing timing and environment to prevent misunderstandings and promote healing. Mindful consumption extends beyond food to include art, media, and conversations, avoiding negativity that harms well-being. Creating and consuming responsibly nurtures compassion and reduces suffering. Mindfulness in all endeavors, from growing vegetables to writing, nurtures seeds of compassion. Laypeople and monastics should collaborate to deepen practice collectively, fostering an inclusive community. Historical examples like King Ashoka illustrate the power of compassionate governance. Mindfulness, compassion, and responsible consumption are key to healing ourselves and the world.

The American Dream of wealth and freedom is not enough to bring true happiness, as many successful people still live in anxiety, violence, and hatred. In the United States, the number of people in prison is greater than the number of full-time farmers. Instead, the dream of brotherhood and compassion is the path that helps people live without fear, embracing all species and the Earth. The three mottos of France, including liberty, equality, and fraternity, also reflect this ideal. This practice is based on the four elements of the Four Immeasurable Minds:

1. Maitri (Loving-kindness): bringing joy and happiness to others.
2. Karuna (Compassion): helping others overcome suffering.
3. Mudita (Joy): rejoicing and being happy with the joy of others.
4. Upeksha (Equanimity): having no discrimination.

Unifying people’s hearts through brotherhood is an art that was successfully practiced by kings such as Ashoka, Ly Thai To, and Tran Nhan Tong. King Tran Nhan Tong, after passing the throne to Tran Anh Tong, became a monastic, studied under Tue Trung Thuong Si, and traveled to encourage the people to practice the teachings of the Ten Wholesome Actions, while also marrying Princess Huyen Tran to King Che Man to build peace. In daily life, building a Sangha and generating brotherhood through actions such as walking, standing, speaking, smiling, cooking, or washing the dishes are opportunities to nourish happiness and eradicate corruption and the collapse of ideals.

Sectarian history records that in the year 140 after nirvana, Buddhism divided into the Sthaviravada and the Mahasanghika schools. Around the year 200 after nirvana, the Vātsīputrīya or Sammatiya school appeared, advocating for a self called Pudgala. Among the 254,000 monastics in India during the time of Master Xuanzang, up to 66,000 followed this school because their reasoning about a subject of practice and receiver of karmic retribution was very sharp. They used the image of fire and wood (the burning and the burnable) to explain that the self is neither identical to nor separate from the skandhas (not the skandhas, but also not non-skandhas), while quoting the Buddha’s words: “O bhikkhus, there is one person whose appearance in the world brings benefit to countless others in humanity. Who is that person? That person is the World-Honored Buddha.” This view was later refuted by great minds like Master Nagarjuna in the Mulamadhyamakakarika and Master Vasubandhu in the Abhidharmakosha. To prove the existence of the person, the Vātsīputrīya school relied on:

• The Five Skandhas: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.
• The Twelve Ayatanas: the six sense organs and the six sense objects.
• The Eighteen Dhatus: the six sense organs, the six sense objects, and the six consciousnesses.
• The Eight Types of Noble Persons: path of Stream-Entry, fruit of Stream-Entry, path of Once-Returning, fruit of Once-Returning, path of Non-Returning, fruit of Non-Returning, path of Arhatship, and fruit of Arhatship.

We are in the Upper Hamlet during the Autumn Retreat, day 42 (November 2, 2004). Thay begins with the image of the oak tree and the century plant producing seeds for continuation, comparing it to monastics generating seeds of mindfulness, concentration, and insight to transmit to the future, emphasizing the spirit of nonself and the common career of the Sangha.

We begin with questions from the community:

1. Thay teaches that practicing is practicing for one’s whole family and lineage, but how should we understand the saying “whoever practices attains, whoever eats gets full”?
2. How can a Sister let go of her anger when I have tried to reconcile and asked for help, but she still rejects my friendly gestures?
3. How should we live in accordance with the spirit of the elder brothers, and how should the sisters down there live in accordance with the spirit of the younger ones, so that later we can live in greater harmony and closeness?
4. What about the phenomenon where I sleep very well at night, but people in the room say I scream, laugh, and cry, and does it affect my health?
5. How do I practice letting go of my own views and accepting the insight of others to work together without dominating or taking away the space of a younger sibling when I have more experience and want to help?
6. How can Elder Brothers and Sisters work harmoniously and play with the younger ones while still maintaining respect, without being seen as bossy or losing their dignity, and is a hierarchy needed to maintain that respect?
7. What are the regulations regarding younger siblings visiting a Bhikshu who has left the community and is living at a lay friend’s house near the Village, and regarding organizing a party when that teacher comes to visit while the community is observing the retreat boundaries?
8. What is true hope, given that hope is usually based on an image of the future, and when hope is lost, people fall into despair?
9. Since the trip to Vietnam could not happen, does Thay plan to extend the retreat by another 3 months to make it a 6-month autumn retreat so we can learn more?
10. What is the boundary between joking and speaking ill when talking about a brother or sister who is not present, even if there is no negative intention?
11. How can one perceive the compassion of a monastic who does not have a good appearance or compassionate features, and whose daily gestures are very unpleasant?

Thầy offers a simple question to ask the person we love: “Darling, do I deprive you of your freedom?” Answering a question left over from an earlier session, he shares how nonattachment is not carelessness, and how we can love in a way that keeps both people free.

Speaking the day after the 2004 US presidential election, Thầy begins by applying interbeing to politics: Mr. Bush contains Mr. Kerry. He encourages us to keep sharing our insight and hope, trusting that in time they can penetrate the other side.

Asked how to open the door to the practice for others, Thầy points to being a living Dharma talk, and to Sangha building, which he calls the most noble task we may undertake: “If you don’t know what to do with your life, build a Sangha.” He tells of the Buddha going to look for the five friends he had practiced with, and of the king of Kosala, both men now eighty, seeing the Buddha in his Sangha. Thầy offers the image of a rock and a boat for what it means to take refuge in the Sangha.

A final question asks why difficult feelings can surface when we come to a practice center. Thầy describes mind consciousness as a living room we usually keep busy, and shares how mindfulness, supported by the Sangha when needed, can greet and embrace what arises. He closes with cutting wood in summer for the winter, and a poem by the Vietnamese poet Mai Thảo on manufacturing our own sunshine.

This talk is from a series given during the Ninety-Day Fall Retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

The Four Basic Breaths are to focus entirely on the breath, not interfering but simply observing and dwelling in the present moment:

1. Recognizing the breath – knowing this is an in-breath or an out-breath.
2. Following the breath – knowing whether it is long or short, in or out, staying with it from beginning to end (following the breath).
3. Calming the breath – allowing the breath to become long and light, creating peace and ease (calming/soothing).
4. Enjoying the breath – breathing as a source of joy, enjoying the happiness in each breath (enjoying my in-breath, I breathe in).

When practicing more deeply, the breath becomes a bridge between body and mind:

5. Recognizing the whole body – embracing the breath and the body in the present moment (sabbakāya).
6. Calming the whole body – letting go, relaxing completely.
7. Experiencing joy and ease throughout the body – deep joy and ease, like soaking in a warm bath, nourishing and healing areas of tension.

The Discourse on Mindful Breathing has been present in Vietnam since the early third century (around the years 200–210) through the An Ban Thủ Ý translation by Master An Thế Cao (of Parthian origin) in Lạc Dương, who transmitted it to Master Tăng Hội in Giao Châu. Tăng Hội wrote a commentary and a preface, recorded in the Tripitaka, before bringing the sutra to Eastern Wu. The original name, Annapānasati: “Annapāna” means in-breath and out-breath, “sati” means mindfulness; An Ban Thủ Ý means “using awareness to hold the breath,” keeping the mind at ease and dwelling peacefully. Both the Northern (Chinese) and Southern (Pali) traditions have preserved this teaching in its entirety, allowing for comparison and parallel exploration.

The practice of Mindful Breathing guides us through four domains:

1. the body,
2. feelings,
3. mental formations,
4. perceptions.
   Each domain is practiced in four steps: recognizing → embracing → calming → happiness. The An Ban Thủ Ý Sutra teaches a total of sixteen breaths, of which the first two breaths manifest joy (mirth) and happiness (ease), which can be expanded into eight breaths to deeply cultivate joy. The Buddha emphasized that we must first nourish joy and then happiness, because only with true joy born from letting go (detachment), mindfulness, concentration, and insight, can we have enough energy to transform suffering and build lasting happiness.