The Freedom to Make One Happy, Peaceful Step

Thầy reminds us that in order to succeed in the practice, we need to be able to take one happy and peaceful step, he then discusses various mindfulness practices that can help us recognize when we are not doing so. Thầy then expands on the previous day’s discussion of hetu vidyā with explanations of analogy and contrast. He also discusses how habit energies form and how they are the foundation of suffering. Thầy ends with an explanation of the Kāḷaka Sutta and the limits that scientists have when exploring whether the mind and the brain are separate entities.

This is the eleventh talk in a series of fourteen given during The Feet of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.