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The Five Mantras for Happiness
Draw Me Peace, “Monsieur, dessine-moi la paix”
How do we become buddha’s and so make a beautiful, peaceful world, like that of the Little Prince? This is the question—both profound and whimsical, and highly appropriate for Christmas Eve—with which Thầy opens this talk. Throughout, Thầy references Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s timeless classic La Petit Prince (1943). In contrast to the Little Prince, we are destroying a lot of our planet, erasing many species without knowing “whether we can draw them again and bring them back into existence.” Thầy’s insight is that what we need most is peace, and that we must be the ones to bring peace to ourselves and to the world through our “capacity to become a budda full of peace, understanding, and compassion.”
The early sections of the talk focus on ways that we can generate peace and happiness, including through Sangha building and through developing our capacity to cultivate presence, mindfulness, and insight. Thầy reminds us that “insight, enlightenment, awakening is not something far away” but rather brings ”moments of happiness into our daily lives”: “every step can bring you joy, happiness, and every step can be a celebration of life.” This is what Christmas can mean, can be.
Likewise, practicing how to take care of our suffering—our anger, fear, loneliness, etc.—through mindfulness can “bring peace into your body,” “calm down our body, calm down our feelings, so that peace becomes possible.” Thầy’s vision recognizes that our inner lives, relationships, and community interactions inter-are with generating peace and non-discrimination at national and global levels. Thầy challenges us: “everyone can be a peacemaker. ‘Dessine-moi la paix. Dessine-moi le bonheur’”—draw me peace, draw me happiness, because “with our mind we can create peace and happiness.”
The latter half of this talk focuses on the Five Mantras of Happiness, in short: 1) Gifting true presence: “Darling, I am here for you.” 2) Recognizing the other’s presence: “Darling, I know you are there, and I am so happy.” 3) Offering care and compassion: “Darling, I know you suffer. That is why I am here for you.” 4) Asking for help: “Darling, I suffer. Please help.” 5) Accepting present-moment happiness: “This moment is a moment of happiness.”
Thầy contextualizes the fifth mantra in relationship to the revision of the Five Mindfulness Trainings that he and the Plum Village Sangha undertook in winter 2008, a momentous rewriting of foundational trainings as “representing the Buddhist vision of a global ethic, global spirituality, reflecting the Buddha’s teaching, how to bring peace, how to bring love to us and to the world.” Thầy does not fully explain specifically how the revised Mindfulness Trainings shaped the fifth of the mantras. Rather, Thầy observes that “Living happily right in the present moment is [the Buddha’s] basic teaching: dṛṣṭadharmasukhavihāra” which can be translated as “living happily in the present moment.” Thầy closes with the joy and happiness of this season, including the name of Christ, “Namo Kṛṣṭāya”: “Joyeux Noël à tous et à toutes.”
This talk was offered on Christmas Eve during the Christmas and New Year Retreat in the year 2009. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.
