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(Bell)

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Dear Thay,
Dear Sangha

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I have two questions.

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So my first question is:

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I am the last child from
the lineage of my ancestors.

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And so there is a lot
of suffering to transform,

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but I was also very lucky to have
enough conditions to encounter the Dharma,

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and not to be running after survival.

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So I could practice.

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Now, I just come back
from a long journey,

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and because I have been far away,
as I come back I can see very clearly

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how the suffering was
built up in our family,

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generation after generation
through historical conditions.

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So I am trying to share with my elders,
so that they might also find relief.

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But some of them are very hardened.

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They have a lot of anger.

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They become very mean
and very desperate.

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And even though
I have some understanding,

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I know I am also not stable enough
in certain situations,

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and I do not know anymore
what to do to help them.

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And I am very worried,
because I have seen some of them,

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from this generation of my parents,
who escaped from the war,

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become completely insane
and really destroy themselves.

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So this is my first question.

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And my second question is:

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Why is it in the Buddhist tradition,
that even until today,

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there is still so much
discrimination against women?

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Thank you.

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(Sr. Pine) Dear Thay, our friend
is asking two questions.

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The first question is a little bit like

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the question of the young man
about helping his father.

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So our friend here is also saying
that she can see a lot of suffering,

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not only in her parents' generation,
but through her ancestors' generations.

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She wants to help them,
but she sees that they are very hard,

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because of the great suffering
they have been through in the war.

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And they destroy themselves
because of the suffering inside.

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She wants to know how she can reach them,

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how she can help them
to go in a more healthy direction.

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And her second question is:

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Why is there still today so much
discrimination against women in Buddhism?

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Do you think that in Plum Village,
we discriminate against women?

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The nuns and...

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the female practitioners
in Plum Village,

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play a very important role...

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in organizing the life and
the practice of the Sangha

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and the practice of the larger Sangha.

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And the tradition of Bhikshunis
still exists in many countries.

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There are countries that
have lost the Bhikshuni Sangha.

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That is not because of Buddhism,
but because of Buddhist practitioners.

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They allowed that kind of
discrimination from society

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to penetrate into the community.

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In Thailand, in Sri Lanka...

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they do not have Bhikshunis anymore.

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And many of the people in these countries
try to restore the order of Bhikshunis.

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So Buddhists are not
practicing well enough.

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That is why we have to do better
than the former generations.

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And Thây is one of those who try...

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to restore...

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to restore the spirit,

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the initial, the primitive
original spirit of Buddhism,

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because the Buddha...

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removed all kind of discrimination.

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He received all kinds of people,
all kinds of race, all kinds of caste

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into his community.

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And he welcomed...

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women to become Bhikshuni.

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He was a real revolutionary
in his own time.

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So difficult, but he was able to do it.

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So we who are the continuation
of the Buddha,

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should practice well enough
in order to maintain his heritage,

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to preserve his heritage.

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No discrimination!

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Suffering is overwhelming.

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And there are those of us...

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who came out of the Vietnam war,

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full of wounds.

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We have seen our brother,
our father, our mother, our sister

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killed and destroyed during the war.

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We have seen many of them imprisoned

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and tortured during the war.

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Foreign ideologies, foreign weapons

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had been brought in
from all over the world

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to destroy us, to kill us.

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And we were forced into
a situation like that for a long time.

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And each of us, each Vietnamese
of the new generation

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carries within himself or herself
that kind of suffering.

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And after forty years of exile,

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Thây has been able to go home
for a few times,

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organizing retreats in order to
help heal the wounds of the war...

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in people, in the younger generations.

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He tried to do his best,

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and he tried to do it
as a Sangha, not as a person.

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Thây went back to Vietnam
not as an individual,

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but as a community.

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300 practitioners went
back to Vietnam with Thây

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for the first time after
forty years of exile.

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That was in...

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2005... right?

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2005.

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We had hundreds of monastics
and lay practitioners coming with us.

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And our practice was very solid.

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Imagine...

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a hotel in Hanoi,

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where we stayed.

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Secret police came and observed us,
because they were afraid of us.

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Everywhere we go, they follow us.

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They want to know what we
are telling people, what we are doing.

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They are forced to
allow Thây to come home,

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but they are afraid...

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that we may say something,

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that we may urge the people in Vietnam
to say something against them.

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And several hundreds of us
practiced with solidity.

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And the way we walk, the way we breathe
the way we eat our breakfast,

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the way we encounter
the people in the hotel

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and those who come to see us,
including secret police men,

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reflect our practice.

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And the hotels where we live
look like a practice center.

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There is mindfulness.
There is peace, brotherhood, sisterhood.

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And they were very impressed.

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And one time we did walking meditation
around Hoan Kiem Lake.

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It was the first time
the people of the city saw

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such a large number of people
walking with peace, joy and happiness.

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They were very struck by the sight.

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It had a very big impact
on the population.

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They saw solid practitioners.

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And we were able to share the practice
with so many people...

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in our public talks and in our retreats.

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And after that we organised...

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ceremonies of prayers.

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We prayed for the many millions of people
that died during the war.

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And thousands and thousands of people
came and practiced with us,

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and prayed together.

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And we promised each other
that never ever again

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we would accept such a war of ideology,

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and kill each other with foreign weapons
and foreign ideologies.

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And that was possible.

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So we practiced to help with
the healing of the whole country.

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So my answer here is:

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In order to succeed...

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in your attempt to help

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you have to...do it with a Sangha.

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You have to belong to a Sangha.

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You need to have
brothers and sisters in the practice.

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We have to be powerful enough
to be able to handle the suffering.

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There is a lot of garbage.

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And since many of us do not know
how to transform garbage into flowers,

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making good use of suffering
in order to create peace and healing,

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we need a Sangha to support us to do so.

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So practicing alone,
self transformation is already difficult,

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let alone the transformation of others.

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That is why...

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we have to know, we have to see
that we should try to build a Sangha,

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to be with a Sangha,
to contribute to the building of a Sangha.

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Without Sangha, you cannot do much
work of transformation and healing.

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Even the Buddha could not
do much without a Sangha.

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And that is why, after Enlightenment,
the first thing he thought of,

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was to go and identify
elements of his Sangha.

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You have to do the same.

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And Thây is very aware of that.

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Thây knew that if he went home alone,
he would not be able to do anything.

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So he put forth a condition:

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"I will go back only if you allow me
to go with my Sangha."

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So with the Sangha we will have
a collective energy powerful enough...

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to take care of our suffering,
transform our suffering.

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Good luck!

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(Bell)