(Half bell)
(Bell)
(French) Why do I suffer?
(Translator) Why do I suffer?
Tell us a little bit more about your suffering.
(French) Can you tell us more about your suffering?
What do you suffer from?
What is the cause of your suffering?
The heat? Hunger? What do you suffer from?
(French) My question is,
why sometimes
I suffer, I feel sad,
I am lonely,
and I suffer.
(Translator) Sometimes I feel sad, I feel lonely...
(French) And I am not joyful.
(Tr.) ...and I'm not joyful.
To suffer,
that is normal.
But, there are many ways to suffer.
In Plum Village, we learn to suffer.
Suffering is part of life.
In Plum Village, we learn how to suffer.
If we know how to suffer, we suffer much less.
We can make good use of the suffering
in order to create happiness.
In Plum Village there is mud.
And because you know how to make good use of the mud,
you can grow lotus flowers.
So people who do not know how to suffer,
they suffer a lot.
They are overwhelmed by their suffering.
But those of us who know how to suffer we suffer much, much less.
Then, we can make good use of the suffering
in order to make the lotus of happiness.
Everyone suffers, including the Buddha.
Even Thay.
But those of us who practice meditation,
we know how to suffer.
That is why we don't complain.
We suffer much less.
And we can...
Suffering helps us to understand.
Because suffering is very useful.
It's like the mud.
The mud is not useless.
It is useful, because we can make lotus flowers out of it.
So, when you experience suffering, you may ask:
What is the use of this suffering?
There is loneliness in me.
Loneliness is not pleasant.
But there is a reason why I feel lonely.
Usually, I think that I am alone because of the fact that everyone is so busy.
Mother is so busy. Father is so busy.
Everyone is so busy, no one is taking care of me.
Nobody understands me.
Nobody understands what I need.
Nobody understands the suffering in me.
So you feel lonely.
Many of us feel that kind of loneliness.
But, those of us who know meditation,
we look deeply into that loneliness.
And we understand.
We understand that the father is so busy.
He has a lot of worries in him.
Mother also has her own problems.
And maybe they are not capable of sorting out these things.
That's why they do not have enough time to take care of us
and to see our loneliness, our suffering.
Sometimes, they say something that makes the loneliness increase.
That kind of understanding brings relief
and makes us suffer less.
So, the practice is to bring in more understanding and compassion.
If understanding and compassion are there, we suffer much less!
We can help the other people around us to suffer much less.
If we know how to be fresh,
how to be tender, how to be compassionate,
how to be pleasant,
if we know how to smile,
to be joyful in difficult situations,
then we can help even adults.
And that is something we can learn.
So, suffering is part of life.
We learn that if we know how to suffer.
It means practicing mindfulness and concentration,
we look deeply and understand,
we don't suffer as much as other people.
Like I just told the other young person,
that when you look in that little boy or little girl
who just did something unkind to you,
and you see the suffering in him or in her,
you feel pity,
feel compassionate to him or her.
So you do not suffer from anger any more.
You want to do or say something
to help that little boy or little girl to suffer less.
That is how we learn to suffer less,
and to make good use of suffering.
Understanding suffering brings about compassion and love.
And compassion and love make us fresh,
pleasant.
Understanding and compassion transform the anger,
the loneliness, the worries in us.
Don't wish that suffering disappears altogether.
If suffering disappears altogether,
there will be no happiness.
It's like the mud.
If you ban all the mud out of the world,
there will never be lotus flowers.
So don't try to make the mud disappear altogether.
If the mud disappears altogether, there will be no lotus flowers.
Your suffering is the same.
Suffering is needed, somehow.
That is why we have come to learn together,
how to handle suffering,
how to suffer less,
and how to make good use of suffering to create the flower of happiness.
It's very wonderful.
We can speak about the usefulness of suffering,
the goodness of suffering.
(French) The goodness of suffering.
(Half bell)
(Bell)