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Digging the Inner Well: From Conceptual Dharma to Living Sangha
Today’s talk explores the difference between the conceptual Dharma—a set of teachings learned from books or lectures—and the living Dharma, which springs from our own practice, insight, and experience. Thay invites us to “dig deeply into ourselves” like making a well, until we touch the inexhaustible source of wisdom and compassion within. That inner spring is our Dharma body (pháp thân), which
- heals and liberates us,
- sustains those who take refuge in us,
- flows without drying up, and
- can be transmitted not only through words but through our presence, speech, actions, and way of being.
When we cultivate the living Dharma, every pebble, leaf, and bud preaches impermanence, non-self, interbeing, and nirvana in the here and now.
True practice also demands a collective dimension. A bodhisattva of our time builds Sangha—in family, school, workplace, government, and even the United Nations—so that spiritual life can permeate society. By practicing non-self and working together, we transform individual suffering, touch the insight of interbeing, and shape a future where peace, solidity, freedom, and love replace violence, consumerism, and discrimination.
