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Talk on Non Duality beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodghaya, India

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Talk to Antioch University Students on Preactice of Peace at Vietnamese Temple, Bodhgaya

Thich Nhat Hanh · November 2, 1988 · Bodhgaya, India

The practice of peace begins with the practitioner, dissolving the distinction between inside and outside. Meditation is the practice of mindfulness, living with awareness to unite body and mind. The Sutra on the Awareness of Breathing offers sixteen ways of breathing to realize peace. Conscious breathing recuperates the person, bringing body and mind into perfect oneness. When the bell sounds, it is an invitation to stop thinking and return to the true self, listening to the sound as the voice of the Buddha. Thinking can be an obstacle to encountering reality; true encounter requires stopping the thinking to see the marvelous reality of the present.

Five specific breathing exercises are detailed to cultivate this awareness:

In, Out: Recognizing the in-breath as in-breath and out-breath as out-breath to stop thinking and enter direct contact with life.
Deep, Slow: Breathing deeply to nourish every cell and slowing down to enjoy the breath, creating harmony in body and mind.
Calm, Ease: Calming the functions of the body and feeling light and at ease.
Smile, Release: Smiling to release tension in the facial muscles and letting go of pain and discomfort.
Present Moment, Wonderful Moment: Used during walking meditation to establish oneself in the here and now, the only moment where life and enlightenment are found.

Mindfulness extends to daily activities like eating, where one sees the sunshine, clouds, and soil within a piece of bread. Addressing the suffering of begging children requires transforming personal pain into intelligent compassion, rather than simply giving money which may perpetuate a cycle of begging. Peace involves harmony and non-duality; good and evil are of the same reality. Just as a flower is made of non-flower elements like garbage, enlightenment is made of non-enlightenment elements. Anger should not be rejected or vented through pillow pounding, but embraced with mindfulness, allowing understanding to penetrate its roots like sunshine opening a lotus. Finally, Telephone Meditation utilizes the telephone ring as a bell of mindfulness to breathe and smile before answering, ensuring words are as beautiful as gems.

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Part of the following collection

India Pilgrimage 1988

Curated by Jonas Czech

Previous Talk November 1, 1988

Dawn Expedition on Ganges River at Varanasi

Next Talk November 4, 1988

Talk on early Bhuddist Figures at Nalanda University

Next: Talk on Non Duality beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodghaya, India

Next from: India Pilgrimage 1988

39m

Talk on Non Duality beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodghaya, India

November 7, 1988 • English • Thich Nhat Hanh

5/24 • Autoplay next: Off

The title, description and transcript may contain inaccuracies.

Some parts of the talk are in black and white

Transcript

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Q & A introduction

00:00:26

As a monk in Vietnam in 1966, he was invited by the Fellowship of Reconciliation to tour the US and speak out against the war. Before that, he was the founder, with Sister Phuong who is here, of the School of Youth for Social Service in Vietnam and also of Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon. He was the head of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks and was nominated by Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace Prize. And he asked me not to say any of that. He wants to be described as a lazy monk.

00:01:08

[one sound of the bell.]

The Seamless Inside-Outside

00:01:15

Good morning. I have been asked to talk about the practice of peace this morning. I think that the practice of peace should begin with the practitioner and in the practitioner. We used to say peace inside and peace outside. I believe both are the same thing. So when we practice peace, we practice for both inside and outside. Anyway, the notion of inside and outside is more in our mind, in our thought, than in reality.

00:02:14

The basic teaching of the Buddha on meditation is the practice of mindfulness. And anywhere you see the practice of mindfulness, you can be sure that Buddhism is there, even without the word Buddhism. To practice meditation is to live with awareness. To be aware of what is going on inside yourself and around you. The things that go on inside yourself have an influence on the things that are going on around yourself. And the opposite is also true.

00:03:22

The teaching of mindfulness is a very clear, precise, and practical teaching. In a sutra with the title The Sutra on the Awareness of Breathing, Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha proposed sixteen ways of breathing in order to realize peace. He didn't say peace inside, just peace. I think that we are very lucky to be able to have that text today. There are two versions in Chinese, one version in Pali. And it would be interesting if you have the opportunity to make a comparative study of the three texts.

00:04:38

Conscious breathing is a wonderful means to restore yourself as a human being, a real human being. Because in our daily life we may be very dispersed. Some of us are here, some of us are elsewhere.

Uniting Body and Mind with the Bell

00:05:45

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00:06:56

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In-Out, the End of Endless Thinking

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00:16:48

Smile of Mahakasyapa

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Deep and Slow Nourishment

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00:31:53

Calm, Ease, Smile, Release, Present Wonder

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00:40:06

Encountering Life in the Present Child

00:41:26

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Holding Suffering for Intelligent Compassion

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Refuge and Village Friendship

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01:08:24

Understanding as the Root of Love

01:09:26

01:09:38

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01:10:57

01:11:50

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Harmony Beyond Good and Evil

01:16:09

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Transforming Anger into Insight

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01:27:27

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Telephone Rings as Bells of Mindfulness

01:31:13

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01:33:11

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Engaged Buddhism, Word-Gems, and Closing Chants

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