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The Three Dharma Seals and Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment
Plum Village is preparing for the Summer Retreat, followed by a Dharma teaching tour in the United States and a month-long trip to China. Previously, in London and Germany, retreats and Dharma talks took place, including an interview with the BBC regarding the current world situation and an event with approximately 6,000 attendees at the Protestant Church Congress. The teaching content emphasized the Three Dharma Seals, presented as keys to open the door of liberation and as methods of practice rather than merely doctrines describing reality:
- Impermanence
- Nonself
- Nirvana
Through the “Dharma play” method, practitioners are guided to look deeply into the nature of the object of their love or hatred through practical questions: Who are you? Where have you come from? Why have you accepted my suffering as your own suffering? Why have you agreed to accept my happiness as your own happiness? And where will you go in the future? At the same time, the definition of the Kingdom of God or the Pure Land is clarified as a place where understanding and love exist right in the present moment. Suffering is a necessary condition to generate understanding and love, helping human beings not to surrender themselves to the enemies of fear, violence, and craving.
An important teaching that needs to be restored to heal the modern illnesses of stress and depression is dwelling happily in the present moment (drstadharmasukhavihara). The present dharma is what can be seen, touched, and contacted directly in the present moment, sukha is happiness, and vihara is dwelling or living. Besides that, the medicine of having few desires and knowing one has enough helps people escape the pressure of the two negative energies of craving and fear, thereby finding a direction and a true ideal of life instead of running after distant conditions of happiness.
