WEBVTT

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(Half bell)

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(Bell)

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(French) Why do I suffer?

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(Translator) Why do I suffer?

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Tell us a little bit more
about your suffering.

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(French) Can you tell us more
about your suffering?

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What do you suffer from?

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What is the cause
of your suffering?

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The heat? Hunger?
What do you suffer from?

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(French) My question is,

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why sometimes

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I suffer, I feel sad,

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I am lonely,

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and I suffer.

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(Translator) Sometimes I feel sad,
I feel lonely...

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(French) And I am not joyful.

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(Tr.) ...and I'm not joyful.

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To suffer,

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that is normal.

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But, there are many ways to suffer.

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In Plum Village, we learn to suffer.

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Suffering is part of life.

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In Plum Village, we learn how to suffer.

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If we know how to suffer,
we suffer much less.

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We can make good use of the suffering

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in order to create happiness.

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In Plum Village there is mud.

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And because you know
how to make good use of the mud,

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you can grow lotus flowers.

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So people who do not know how to suffer,

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they suffer a lot.

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They are overwhelmed by their suffering.

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But those of us who know how to suffer
we suffer much, much less.

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Then, we can make
good use of the suffering

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in order to make the lotus of happiness.

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Everyone suffers, including the Buddha.

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Even Thay.

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But those of us who practice meditation,

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we know how to suffer.

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That is why we don't complain.

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We suffer much less.

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And we can...

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Suffering helps us to understand.

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Because suffering is very useful.

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It's like the mud.

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The mud is not useless.

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It is useful, because we can make
lotus flowers out of it.

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So, when you experience suffering,
you may ask:

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What is the use of this suffering?

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There is loneliness in me.

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Loneliness is not pleasant.

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But there is a reason why I feel lonely.

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Usually, I think that I am alone because
of the fact that everyone is so busy.

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Mother is so busy. Father is so busy.

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Everyone is so busy,
no one is taking care of me.

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Nobody understands me.

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Nobody understands what I need.

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Nobody understands the suffering in me.

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So you feel lonely.

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Many of us feel that kind of loneliness.

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But, those of us who know meditation,

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we look deeply into that loneliness.

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And we understand.

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We understand that the father is so busy.

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He has a lot of worries in him.

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Mother also has her own problems.

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And maybe they are not capable
of sorting out these things.

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That's why they do not have enough time
to take care of us

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and to see our loneliness, our suffering.

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Sometimes, they say something
that makes the loneliness increase.

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That kind of understanding brings relief

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and makes us suffer less.

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So, the practice is to bring in
more understanding and compassion.

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If understanding and compassion are there,
we suffer much less!

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We can help the other people around us
to suffer much less.

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If we know how to be fresh,

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how to be tender, how to be compassionate,

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how to be pleasant,

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if we know how to smile,

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to be joyful in difficult situations,

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then we can help even adults.

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And that is something we can learn.

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So, suffering is part of life.

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We learn that
if we know how to suffer.

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It means practicing
mindfulness and concentration,

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we look deeply and understand,

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we don't suffer as much as other people.

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Like I just told the other young person,

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that when you look
in that little boy or little girl

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who just did something unkind to you,

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and you see the suffering
in him or in her,

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you feel pity,

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feel compassionate to him or her.

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So you do not suffer from anger any more.

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You want to do or say something

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to help that little boy
or little girl to suffer less.

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That is how we learn to suffer less,

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and to make good use of suffering.

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Understanding suffering
brings about compassion and love.

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And compassion and love make us fresh,

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pleasant.

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Understanding and compassion
transform the anger,

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the loneliness, the worries in us.

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Don't wish that suffering
disappears altogether.

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If suffering disappears altogether,

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there will be no happiness.

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It's like the mud.

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If you ban all the mud out of the world,

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there will never be lotus flowers.

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So don't try to make the mud
disappear altogether.

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If the mud disappears altogether,
there will be no lotus flowers.

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Your suffering is the same.

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Suffering is needed, somehow.

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That is why
we have come to learn together,

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how to handle suffering,

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how to suffer less,

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and how to make good use of suffering
to create the flower of happiness.

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It's very wonderful.

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We can speak about
the usefulness of suffering,

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the goodness of suffering.

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(French) The goodness of suffering.

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(Half bell)

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(Bell)