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Transforming Our Suffering
In this 65-minute dharma talk from the New Hamlet of Plum Village, Thay teaches a message on transforming our suffering. Dhyana is the Sanskrit word for meditation. In meditation, we have stillness, relaxation, mindfulness, concentration, insight, joy, and happiness. These virtues can be cultivated through the practice of “leaving behind,” the first act of meditation. Joy and happiness are born from this practice.
Many young people aspire to “leave behind” and become monastics, experiencing joy and happiness. However, after a few years, this joy may not be deep enough to reach our blocks of suffering, which are hidden in the depths of our unconscious. If we can’t move into deeper practice, we may blame and point to problems, leading some monastics to leave the community. We must go home to ourselves, recognize, and embrace our suffering. Thay illustrates this teaching through bitter melon, showing that suffering can heal us.
In the Plum Village tradition, belonging to the School of Linji, we use our intelligence and insight to transform suffering. Buddhism speaks of the three worlds: Desire, Craving, and Form. We may leave behind the world of desire but still have mental discourse. We practice stillness, made of two elements: vitaka and vijara (thought and reflective thinking).
Thay discusses the issue of monastics leaving and returning to the community, emphasizing the need to go deeper to preserve happiness and transform pain, anxiety, and deep suffering in our consciousness. When suffering emerges, Thay recommends not running away but staying and welcoming it.
He also addresses working with suffering rooted in injustice and from our parents. Bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, and the beginners mind, inspired by the desire to practice and transform suffering, are powerful sources of energy. As practitioners, maintaining this beginners mind is essential for helping ourselves and others.
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