The Four Noble Truths - Vulture Peak Gathering - 2016-06-04 Lower Hamlet - Sr. Dinh Nghiem

Sr. Đinh Nghiem offers a teaching on the Four Noble Truths from Lower Hamlet, Plum Village. This is Part 1 of the dharma talk during the 21 Day Retreat.

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(Bell)

Dear respected Thay,

dear beloved sangha,

This morning

we will share about our practice
of the Four Noble Truths

and I though of a --

When we talk about the Four Noble Truths

immediately we think of the Buddha,

because it is the first Dharma talk
the Buddha gave,

and the last one.

And I also think of Thay
because his whole life,

what he has been doing is

to show us the way to end suffering.

Or we can say, the way to build
peace and happiness.

I have written down the Four
Noble Truths on the board.

And I thought while writing on the board,

I thought: If I write only one truth,

talk about one by one.

And then I said to myself:
No, I need to write all four.

I need to write everything.

Because they interare,

and it would be too difficult for me
to talk about one truth,

like the first one, suffering,
without talking about the others.

The Buddha said:

'I teach about suffering,
and the way to end suffering.'

Two things together.

And they are together,
we cannot separate them.

Somebody asked,

somebody asked this question:

'The Buddha already taught
that life is suffering.

Why Thay always teaches about
living happily in the present moment?

But the Buddha always taught
two things together,

suffering and the way to end suffering.

I don't think that the Buddha,
compassionate as he is,

he only talks about suffering.

I'm sure that the Buddha did not want
to make us depressed.

(Laughter)

The Buddha didn't want us
to be pessimistic.

When there is suffering,

there is always a way, a path,
to end suffering, or to lead,

we can say, a path leading to happiness.

But in our daily life, in our family
or among our friends

from time time we see
somebody or some people

who suffer, but they don't see
that they suffer.

And they don't want
to get out of their suffering.

It is like someone who is angry

and you say: 'Oh, you are angry!'

'No, I am not angry!'

(Laughter)

'I am not, you are! I' m not angry.'

And the same thing,

someone suffers

and he or she denies:
'No, I don't suffer, I'm okay!'

But when we suffer and we deny it,
we don't see that we are suffering

and then there is no way for us
to get out of our suffering.

So in the Four Noble Truths,

there must be awareness.

Suffering is awareness of suffering.

If we want the way out,

we need to be aware of our suffering.

Without the awareness,

it is impossible to get out of suffering.

And awareness is Right Mindfulness,

it is already in the Noble Eightfold Path.

It is already in the way to end suffering.

So in the suffering we already see

the way to end suffering.

Without the awareness, it is not --

that suffering is not
the noble truth yet,

it is not the First Noble Truth
that the Buddha taught about.

So if we deny our suffering,
we are not aware of our suffering,

it is like someone who is sick

and who thinks that 'I'm okay,
I don't need to see the doctor,

I don't need to take medicine,
I don't need to do anything,

because I'm okay.'

So suffering here, as a Noble Truth,

means awareness of suffering.

So that is already the path
to end suffering.

I imagine there is a path,
a beautiful path.

But there is no suffering.

Is it possible?

I remember when I was a teen,
the first time I came to Plum Village.

It was in 1985,

the year when that brother
received the lamp.

I was a teen.

My parents brought me to Plum Village.

I often heard they talked about Thay's
books, Thay's Dharma talks, Plum Village,

and when Thay went to Paris,

when we had the practice center
Fleur de Cactus in Noisy le Grand,

near Paris,

when Thay went there
and gave Dharma talks,

my parents also went
and brought me with them.

So I often heard about Thay,
about Thay's teachings,

about Thay's books.

I saw how my parents admired Thay.

And every time, I noticed that,

every time when they came back
from a Dharma talk,

they were much happier.

They were much more in harmony.

They stopped quarreling for a while.

(Laughter)

For a certain time.

So I knew, I knew

that there is a great teacher,
there is a beautiful path,

but I felt that it was not for me.

So I went to Plum Village to have fun,
to play, to run around with the other kids

but I didn't practice at all.

Until the day when my father
suddenly passed away.

It was the first time in my life
I experienced deep grief.

And deep suffering.

I remember, at that moment
right away I thought of Thay.

Because I remembered he taught:

'When you look at your hand,

you see your father's hand.

You see your father in your hand.'

So I did as I remembered
but still I suffered.

And I wrote Thay a letter:
'I did like you say but I still suffer!'

(Laughter)

Then, with my family,
I came back to Plum Village.

And that time I started to practice.

And the more I practiced,
the more I appreciated the practice.

For me, suffering is really precious.

It is really a noble truth.

Without the suffering

I would never make good use
of the Noble Path.

I only use it when I need.

And what makes me need it is my suffering.

Before, I heard about Thay's teachings
but it was just ideas.

This noble path was only ideas, concept.

It was not really a Noble Path.

Until I practiced, until I really wanted
to get out of my suffering

and I practiced.

That is why I cannot write down
just suffering, number 1,

suffering and then talk
about suffering. No.

I had to write down everything,
because they are together,

they mingle, they interare.

We cannot separate them.

So there is no Noble Path separated

without suffering.

There is no path leading
to happiness without suffering.

For me, it is my own experience.

If I do not need it, I don't --

Until I suffer, then I feel the need
and then I find that path.

It becomes a path for me.

Maybe the path is for other people
but is not for me

until I really experience
the pain, the suffering,

and then I really feel the need.

But when I look around, in my family,

I also see people who suffer a lot,

but who cannot make good use of the path
the way out of suffering.

Even though we show them:
'There is a path.'

They cannot make good use,
they cannot get profit from it.

And why?

Because this person is totally desperate.

When the suffering
is so deep and overwhelming,

we lose all our energy,
we don't have energy,

we can fall into depression
and we don't believe in anything else.

We lose faith, we lose trust,

and we don't believe in the fact
that there is an end of suffering.

I was very lucky

because I received many beautiful seeds

and I saw people, I saw models in my life,

I saw people, how they lived
their daily life,

how they helped other people suffer less.

How they helped people
generate happiness and joy.

How they can make people happy,
how they can make people stop crying.

Because I see it, I experience it,

because I see it, I know that it is true.

It is something real, it is true,
so I have trust, I have faith,

and when I suffer I know that
there is a way out.

There are many people in the world

who need to see environments

like I did in the past,
to have faith, to trust.

The first day when we gathered together,

when I came in this hall
I was so touched, I was so moved,

because I see that
we all are the continuation of Thay.

Thay has spent his whole life
building something.

Even though there are many people
who don't know Plum Village,

who do not come here,
who are not here yet,

but just the fact that we maintain such
an environment, we maintain this place,

we maintain the practice,

I am sure that in the future
there will be people,

people who suffer deeply,

they have a place to go, to return.

They have something to grasp
not to get drowned in suffering.

Just the fact that you come here,

I don't talk about your practice,
you just come here,

and you are participating in Thay's work.

You are continuing Thay's work,
Thay's life, Thay's teachings,

Thay's practice.

There are people who suffer,
who know the path,

who have listened to Dharma talks,

who know about the Eightfold Path,

but when they suffer so much,

they don't have enough energy

to practice.

And they need friends,
they need a sangha

who can help them.

It is very easy for us

just to flow with our habits.

It is much more difficult

to do something different
from our habits.

Thay often talks about habit energies.

When we do something

or when we think in a certain way,

in our brain the neurons fire together

and wire together
and they make a neural path.

Neuropathways.

And the more we repeat

this neuropathways become
deep, and clear, and deep,

and that is why it is so easy
just to follow these patterns.

When we practice, we have to --

Sometimes, we do something
very different from our habit,

we have to create new neuropathways.

That is why it is more difficult,

and we need friends, we need sangha,
we need the energy of the sangha

to have more energy,
to have more strength to do it.

In our daily life,

some sufferings we think
that they are unnecessary.

Because they are just misunderstandings.

We just need to go
and check with that person

or communicate with that person
and we can solve the problem right away.

And if we don't communicate,
if we are not open enough to check,

to talk, to clear that misunderstanding,

then our friend will say:

'You! Why you let unnecessary suffering
invade you like that?

It is unnecessary.'

It is so easy to transform
those wrong perceptions.

Then there are other sufferings

when we see other people suffer,
we understand: Yes, of course.

When their lose their parents or
their beloved ones they suffer, yes.

It's normal. And we have lot of sympathy.

We share their suffering.
They have the right to suffer.

It is one of the deepest sufferings,

when we lose someone we love.

We have the feeling that some suffering

we can control.

Other sufferings we cannot.

They are out of our hands.

If somebody passes away,
it is out of our control.

But still the Buddha shows us

the way to end that suffering,

It is Right View.

Because we are so used
to a certain way of thinking,

we think of birth and death,

so we suffer.

But when we have Right View,
there is no birth, no death.

It is just a current,
a continuation of all phenomena.

After my father passed away,

one year later I became a nun.

A few months later
I came back to Plum Village

and learned to practice.

Then, months after months,
I asked a question:

'Oh! The practice is wonderful.
Why don't I devote my whole life in it?'

Because I am the second youngest
member in my family

and I knew that -I thought-

I would see my older brothers,
my older sisters, my mum,

they would pass away and I would be
second last one who bore all this grief,

this losses.

(Laughter)

Too much for me.
Just one person

and I thought that I couldn't survive.

Now I had to go through
6 more times. Too much.

Then I know that on this path

I will know how to handle.

Then a year and a half ago,
Thay tested me.

Thay tested me.

When Thay was in the coma,
in his bed and the neurologist said:

'He has a few more days.'

And Thay really tested me how I faced --

I didn't face my father's death.

It was afterwards.

Afterwards, after his death,
I practiced to overcome the grief.

Then, a year and a half ago, Thay wanted
to see me how I deal, I face death.

And one more time,

one more time I saw
how the practice saved me.

With the Right View.

When my father passed away
I looked at my hand, I thought

as Thay taught.

But I didn't really see my father's hand.

I couldn't really see
my father in this hand.

I still suffered.

There were still ideas, I had to practice
day after day, months after months

years after years,

in order to really experience, to feel it.

Ideas didn't help me.

A year and a half ago,

when I heard that neurologist say it,

what really helped me
was the Right View.

I thought: Ok, I am Thay's continuation.

And right away,

I didn't fall into sadness and depression
like the time when my father passed away.

But when I remembered
that I am Thay's continuation,

I was full of energy.

I saw that there are so many things
I need to do for Thay.

To realize Thay's aspiration,
Thay's dream.

And I see that the rest of my life,
I have so many things to do.

I was full of energy.

And the sadness transformed right away
into strong energy, action.

I have the sangha,

I have Plum Village,
the sangha of Plum Village

and the fourfold sangha
everywhere in the world.

And together, hands in hands,
we still have many things to do.

We are Thay's continuation.

And I was so grateful,

so grateful for the teachings,

Thay's teachings, the Buddha teachings,

handed down to us

after so many centuries.

And we are so fortunate today,

we have all these tools

to help us get out of our suffering.

(Bell)

(Bell)

We, as human, we have the capacity

to bear,

to bear suffering.

Sometimes suffering becomes a routine

and we are able to bear it.

Then it becomes something normal.

And we feel that
we don't need to get out of it.

We don't need to go on the path
to get out of it.

And the same thing with happiness.

We get used to happiness.

After we

After we learn something,
we learn the path, it is so wonderful

and we, I could solve
some problems in my daily life

and I am so happy.

But after a while,

I get used to that happiness

and then I go back to my habits.

I am not happy anymore.

Or I do not appreciate anymore
what I have.

And slowly, I lose my happiness.

When I became a nun,

the first few years I was so happy,

because I was bathed in the beautiful
teachings, in the beautiful practice.

Then, after a few years,

this environment became a routine,
became something normal to me.

But fortunately, Thay kept reminding us
to cultivate our beginner's mind

and not to get used to our happiness.

Not to get used to our comfort,

spiritual comfort, for example.

We need to look back
at our own suffering to remember

that in the past there were moments
when we suffered so much

because of this, because of that,

to remember that today

we are in a different situation.

We don't suffer anymore.

When we remember it we can wake up

and appreciate what we have

and appreciate our situation now.

Otherwise,

we can get used to our own happiness

and lose it.

It is the same thing with suffering,

When get used to suffering,

we see that it is normal.

We continue to make ourselves suffer
we continue to make the others suffer

and then we don't feel
the need to get out of it.

Until one day,

somebody yells at us:

'Stop making me suffer, please!'

And then we wake up.
'Oh! Really?

I didn't know that I make people suffer.'

So we need the sangha
we need friends,

we need spiritual friends.

When we look deeply into our suffering,

to see the cause,

the cause of it,

what is the cause of my suffering?

Is it --

I suffer because I don't know
how to appreciate what I have?

I don't know how to really, to live fully

what is happening
in the here and the now?

Is it because I always run towards
the future looking for some happiness?

When we stop
and we look deeply at our ill-being,

we have Right Mindfulness,
we have Right Concentration,

and we are already
on the path to end suffering.

[The Plum Village Online Monastery]

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