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Resting in God: Taking Refuge in the Ultimate
This title has been reviewed for accuracy.
Peace in Oneself, Peace in the World
Thầy speaks not only with the authority of Buddhism but also from long experience of war and peace activism. But he chooses to open lightly with an invitation to consider the retreat as a pleasant picnic, challenging us to cultivate the courage to live in the present moment even—or especially—in time of war. He makes the point, which he develops throughout the talk, that the intention is not to talk ideas about peace but rather that “our intention is to be peace in the here and the now.”
One primary strand of the talk is about how to practice being peace. Thầy therefore focuses on how we can develop that capacity in our own body, our feelings our emotions, our perceptions, our mental formations, and our consciousness (the Five Skandhas). This is “the basic practice of peace”: “You cannot become an instrument of peace if you have no peace within yourself.” Violent emotions and limited perceptions of others within individuals make wars.
A second primary strand of this talk is to outline a Buddhist understanding of contact with the divine or the ultimate, which, as Thầy shows, is the outcome of the practice of being peace within oneself. Thầy teaches throughout the talk how being present in each current moment is the only place where life, freedom, and ultimate meaning exist, not in the past and not in the future, and it is only by being peace in the present moment that we, collectively, can generate the conditions for peace to emerge: “God is available only in the present moment.” God is neither an “objective entity” nor a “vague notion”; God is “the ground of your being,” the ever-present “reality of the ultimate.” Therefore, as Thầy teaches the practice that makes peace, the way to contact God, Allah, or the ultimate, is to be present in the here and the now. Then, we are free from the past, free from the future, free from discrimination against others, and free to access the fullness of life, because then “you are always with God.” The path to this freedom is mindfulness.
Thầy demonstrates practical techniques for mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful tea drinking, mindful eating, etc., showing with his ease and gentle humor how to perform the practices of the retreat. This is “the art of living in the present moment,” the “art of stopping,” stopping running, rushing, acting unskillfully. These practices build peace in the world in a long-sighted and sustainable way: from the inside out, one person, one community, one nation at a time. And that is why and how “we have to enjoy our picnic right here and right now,” in our only true home, mindfully and fearlessly smiling.
This is the first talk in a series of five given during the Israeli-Palestinian retreat in the year 2003. Thầy offered this talk in the Lower hamlet, Plum Village, France.