With guided meditation Thay teaches that when we let the Buddha within us breathe, sit, and walk, we release the idea of a separate self who performs these actions. In that deep letting go, we see that breathing is just breathing, sitting is just sitting—there is no breather, no sitter. Like wind being the blowing and rain being the falling, action and actor are one. In this direct experience of no-self, peace and happiness reveal themselves naturally, and we touch the true nature of emptiness and interbeing.

Thay shares about deep listening and loving speech and illustrates with stories of people attending retreats and transforming their communication. We hear examples of Israeli and Palestinians coming together. In a discussion about the Five Mindfulness Trainings, particularly the Fifth, Thay introduces and shares about The Sutra on the Son’s Flesh, and the Four Kinds of Nutriments. He continues on to discuss three kinds of concentrations called the Three Doors of Liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness. Thay ends with the story of the lay person, Anāthapiṇḍika, from The Sutra on The Teachings to be Given to the Dying.

This is the final talk in a series of five given during the Body and Mind are One retreat, in the year 2011. Thay offered this talk at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, United States.