We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track. If this problem persists help us by reporting it so we can investigate it.
Watch this talk
Login or create a free account to watch this talk and discover other teachings from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Log in or create an account
How to Take Care of Our Suffering
Today children learned how to invite and use a mini bell as bell masters in a forty-five-minute Dharma talk. At home they may set up a tiny meditation hall with a few cushions, a bell, and maybe a pot of flower. Each morning and evening they invite the bell three times, each sound followed by three in-breaths and three out-breaths:
- Breathing in, I enjoy breathing in. Breathing out, I smile.
-
Breathing in, I am aware of my body. Breathing out, I release the tension in my body.
That’s nine in-breaths and nine out-breaths per session.
Thay’s four Dharma talks for the children were on teletransportation; a grain of corn (matter contains knowledge, talent, consciousness; exercise: plant a seed of corn and ask it in silent corn language to remember); and a very funny story about a man who believed he is a grain of corn. Teenagers heard a fifth talk and were invited to stay.
A visiting English high-school science professor, Mike Bell (True Sword of Understanding), used a three-step inquiry mirroring the First, Second and Fourth Noble Truths—What makes you suffer? Why? What do you propose to stop it?—and discovered thirteen- to fifteen-year-olds proposed preventive measures essentially identical to the Five Mindfulness Trainings without ever seeing them. Thay then explained mindfulness sees two things—wonders of life and what you don’t like—and generates two desires: to foster the good and to stop suffering. He noted thirty to thirty-three young people commit suicide every day in France, tens of thousands in Japan, underscoring the urgent need for mindful breathing, walking, and the practice of the Five Mindfulness Trainings.
