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(Half bell)

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(Bell)

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[What is a mindful student?]

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Dear Thay, dear Sangha,

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In many of your writings,
you refer to a mindful teacher.

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A man learned
the practice of mindfulness

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and one student says
he wrote no longer,

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"What are you thinking?
Very bad grade!"

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Instead he wrote,

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"You do not understand
and it is my fault."

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And this is a very empowering
view for students.

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But I wondered, what does it mean
to be a more mindful student?

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What are the responsibilities
of the student towards the teacher

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and towards their own work?

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Mindfulness helps to deal
with difficulties and problems,

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of course,

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but mindfulness can bring
a lot of joy and happiness.

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And this part is very important.

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You learn mindfulness not only
to deal with daily problems, difficulties.

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First of all you learn mindfulness

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in order to nourish yourself,
to heal yourself.

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And this can be done right away.

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When you breathe in mindfully,

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mindfulness of breathing.

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If you do it skillfully,

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if you know how to do it,

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you'll find that breathing in
is very pleasant.

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If you suffer during the in-breath

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this is not really mindfulness.

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Mindfulness is the energy that helps you
to know what is going on.

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And what is going on now
is you are breathing in.

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It can be very pleasant to breathe in.

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And mindfulness tells you
that it is wonderful to breathe in,

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because you are breathing in,
therefore you are alive.

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You are still there.

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And to be alive is a miracle.

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To get in touch with the wonders of life

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that are available in the here
and the now is wonderful.

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One in-breath can bring you
a lot of joy and healing.

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And that in-breath should be pleasant
in order for you to enjoy.

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You nourish yourself, you heal yourself
by breathing in like that, breathing out.

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When you practice walking meditation,

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you stop all the thinking

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and making a step with your left foot

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you touch Mother Earth.

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It can bring you enlightenment.

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To be alive and to be walking
on this beautiful planet

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is a wonder.

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And you are alive.

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You are making one step
on this beautiful planet,

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touching Mother Earth.

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That can bring you happiness right away.

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You don't have to run into the future

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in order to get happiness.

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And while sitting, and eating,

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washing the dishes or making breakfast,
you practice mindfulness

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and you enjoy every moment.

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That is why we say that mindfulness
is a source of joy and happiness.

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You don't need to run into the future

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to look for happiness.

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Mindfulness tells you
that the Kingdom of God,

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the Pure Land of the Buddha is available
in the here and the now.

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So you can taste every moment
that is given you to live.

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So if students and teachers
practice mindfulness,

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they should enjoy their time together.

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You can teach mindfully

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and enjoy your teaching.

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If you suffer while teaching,

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that is not good practice.

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So as schoolteachers,

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you learn how to teach in such a way

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that there is pleasure in teaching.

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And as students,
you also practice like that.

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Learning is not to get a Diploma

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in order to have a job later on.

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But the fact of learning,
the act of learning

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should bring happiness.

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So teachers and students
can sit together

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and discuss a strategy

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as how to be happy
during the class, for both.

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You know that in Plum Village
we have developed

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the program of Wake up, Global Ethics.

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We have been training
many school teachers

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so that they can go
and teach in that way in school.

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They can help the students
to enjoy learning

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and teaching and learning

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will not be hard labor
anymore for both sides.

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So inquire about that,

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specially the monastic brothers
in Plum Village.

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Thay Phap Dung an so on,
they are working on this.

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They have given many courses of training

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for school teachers in India, in Bhutan,
in Thailand, in America, in England.

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And there are many school teachers who
have trained to do that,

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making the class into a family,

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where is that joy and
brotherhood and sisterhood

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so the students
will have a chance to learn

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and practice with the teacher

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in order to make the work
of learning and teaching

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agreeable, pleasant.

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[connect,
be inspired, be nourished]

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(Bell)