Thầy guides the Sangha in how to listen to the chanting of Namo’valokiteśvarāya—touching first our own suffering, then the suffering of those around us, then the suffering of the world.

Thầy reflects on sitting meditation and the importance of learning to enjoy it—simply enjoying the pleasure of being alive and doing nothing. When Nelson Mandela visited France, he told the press that what he most wanted was simply to sit down and do nothing. Whenever we feel restless, Thầy recommends sitting and following the breath. In a gentle inversion of Descartes: “I think, therefore I am not there. I breathe, I am there.”

He then presents the first four exercises from the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, before turning to mindful walking. Thầy offers concrete guidance on how to coordinate our breath and steps. Using the gāthā: I have arrived. I am home. Thầy shares how we can apply this gāthā to the practice of walking meditation.

This is the opening talk in a series of thirteen given during The Science of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.