Dear friends,
please enjoy your breathing one more time as we listen to the sound of the bell
With the inbreath, just feel refreshed, breathing in fresh oxygen
breathing out, letting go
[three sounds of the bell]
With all respect to our beloved teacher Thay and to our other brothers
and sisters who are with us, and with the sangha and our friends here
This is a happy moment
we are surrounded by all my brothers and sisters here
my sister Dieu Nghiem next to me and the sangha is gathered
and on behalf of our teacher, who is in San Francisco
we thank you for coming to support the sangha
and being here with us this evening
Our teacher's deepest wish has always been to build a community
a beloved community
as he shared his conversation with Martin Luther King
that's our teacher's deepest wish, is to form a family, a spiritual family
and so, tonight, sitting here among my brothers and sisters,
I think this is one of the few times where we manifest like this
to, in a way, continue our teacher as he is not physically here
So we thank you for coming together
This is something our teacher always gets nourished by, and so do we
Tonight we, my sister Dieu Nghiem, she's my oldest sister
she's asked me to share first so I will, I tried to get her to share for us
this is the first time we're doing this,
She was supposed to represent the Dharma
and I was supposed to represent the humor, I guess
just to let you know that that's, I guess, the intention
tonight, just being together already, I think we know how powerful it is
when people gather with the same intention
To learn, to open up, to really touch something deeper
than what we normally do outside
I think that's the truth that I'm feeling
This e vening, the talk we're supposed to share,
the theme, “Stop waiting and start living” is quite American
When I found out that's what it was,
I was quite “wow, this is like a subtitle somewhere” but it is
and I reflected on the theme of waiting
this morning we had a walk in the park over here
and we sat in front of, I think, George Washington, the statue,
and there were people protesting, voicing support for the Syrian people, refugees
We sat there, I don't know how long but it was very peaceful,
to be sitting there and supporting that effort and acknowledging and being there
and contributing our peace, and then sharing lunch
I had the chance to touch deeply
and be reminded that I was a refugee myself, our family,
In 1979, our family escaped Vietnam on a boat with maybe 200, 300 people,
and I was maybe six, seven years old
I touched that, sitting there in the park,
'cause we heard some of the voice and some of the speech
we also know that this country is built on that,
refugee, we all come from somewhere,
but not from this land, this continent, most of us at least
so I feel grateful to be here and
reflected on our time where we were in the refugee camp, my family,
and we were waiting for some country to sponsor us
I find out later, as a kid I was just playing around in the refugee camp,
throwing rocks and things,
we were on an island off of Hong Kong, and, reflecting,
there was this huge warehouse, maybe the size of this auditorium
and we were all, each family had little spots, mats on the floor
and that was our waiting spot until someone, some country or some place
sponsor us
and we were sponsored by a Christian family in Oregon
for us to come over
and I think this is, there was a lot of movement back then
between the Buddhist community and the Christian community, to help
so many churches rose to the occasion to gather and sponsor one family
and I remember another family that sponsored us, the church actually,
is not just one family but I remember it was many families from that church
and they each contributed something,
they bought a hous e for our family, it was a two story house
they bought it and they filled it up with furniture and food and everything
and I remember opening the cabinet full of food and canned food and all kinds of food
and I couldn't believe how much food was in that house
as well as toys, there was a room full of toys
I think they collected from other church members
and I remember opening the door and seeing toys
and didn't know how to play some of them I remember, 'cause it was so new
and the top floor was maybe 4 or 6 rooms, there was many rooms and they wanted,
my mom and dad, there was four of us, so they gave us each a room
I had a room, my sister had a room, my brother had a room
even though they were little, they each had a room
but we ended up staying in one room my parents' room
in fact, I think my two brothers, and I think I did too
we slept on this huge bed
you know, that's what we were used to at the refugee camp
So that's, you know, sitting there in the park today,
these memories of, of you know, of having a place to come back to
and feeling grateful,
my mom kept in touch with our, they call them sponsors
I never actually learned their names, because around the house
they were just mentioned as sponsors
and this is a beautiful image of people coming together
to help those in need
and this is what I remember around the house growing up
my mom once in a while would take a trip up to Oregon
and meet with our sponsor and many other families
this is,
so the theme of waiting came up,
of waiting for a place to come, to take refuge in
this is an important theme for me
'cause it's been a theme for my whole family, my parents
as well as my grandparents, they had to escape China after the revolution
and then my parents escaping (to) America and then I guess my turn is, I kind of,
my turn is to escape America I guess
in terms of actually growing up in Los Angeles, in the city,
confronting a lot of suffering as well as a young person
in a way, becoming a monk, now I see,
another way of looking at it is taking refuge or how shall I, a full-time refugee
I'm a full-time refugee now and I'm always taking refuge
and this is a wonderful way to remind myself, as I was sitting there in the park
What am I taking refuge in? What am I waiting for?
Am I waiting for another sponsor, another country?
And as I follow my breath, I realize that what my teacher has taught me is
I take refuge in my breath
and taking refuge in the island within myself
and the breath that saved me
once, when I learned from my teacher what the power of the breath is
when you simply take an inbreath,
conscious inbreath, we become aware of the inbreath coming in
when we breathe out, we let go
we let that outbreath penetrate
let it come from every cell of your body
feel the lightness as you breathe out
and I remember training like that, sitting still
in the forest in France in our monastery or in the bamboo grove
and I remember taking refuge in my breath
as I feel the breath into my body
every time we take a conscious breath and we bring our mind to the breath
is a break from all of the thinking, all the worries,
all the anxiety that we have,
that we're used to, we're so used to be thinking and using our mind
and being constantly occupied
is always talking, a lot of stimulation in our minds
and we don't know what it feels like to actually just let it go
and just come back to the breath
When we come back to the breath
our minds come back to our body return to our body
sometimes we are present, with our body but our mind is somewhere else
and you can see that phenomenon happening more and more
My brother and I, we walked the street from Greenwich,
and sometime we come up and I see all these shops, cafés, places
and place where people come to eat or drink and I like to peek in there
and I've been finding that there is a couple sitting there at the table
and it looks nice but they're both you know, not present
I mean, they're present to their gadget
I think you're starting to see that phenomenon
and so, this is our situation
This is the state that the coach of our society is moving towards
This is something we need to look at,
there are wars and conflicts between groups and nations
But we also need to look at where we're at in the place we live, in our family
we have to look deeply and see: Are we present? Are we present to ourselves?
Are we present to our loved ones?”
This is something I'm realizing more and more
so when we come back to the breath, it's a wonderful place for refuge
when we have a strong emotion
when we have something that's coming up for us, difficult
we always have the breath to return to
take an inbreath
take an outbreath
take a break from that emotion, take a break from that thought
(sound of the gong)
in
out
(sound of the gong)
In the monastery, when we hear the sound of the bell,
we train to come back to our breath
I tell you now, and it sounds easy,
maybe you do it for a few minutes here
but I'm pretty sure, after this event, you go outside,
and you go back to your habits and tendencies to start thinking again
so the stopping, to come back to the present moment
to be in touch with our body as it moves, as it sits, requires training
So in the monastery, I remember in our dining hall, we have a clock that chimes
I remember first being in Plum Village, our monastery in France,
that it was difficult every time that the clock chimed,
and I'm in the middle of a conversation, like after lunch or something,
it was really annoying and I always wonder, I always question
how did our teacher come up with this?
It's really a good hoop but it was pretty radical
because, you know, the chime is right there in the dining hall
and it was every fifteen minutes
And I remember trying to figure out how to make it so it's a little longer
but I think, the brothers, I asked permission and they didn't allow that
It was like an old one, it didn't have options back then
but it was all fifteen minutes
but I remember, you're in the middle of a conversation and it chimes,
and at first you're like “OK, you have to do it” you know,
so you don't really enjoy it
and this is just from habit of not yet used to a kind of clear thoughtless mind
you're used to always engage and be in conversation
or always thinking of something, you know, it's..
it requires training and I remember I struggled with that in the beginning
so it's pretty typical for us to have difficulty
but throughout the training, as the years pass,
I begin to see more the value of coming back to the breath
especially in meetings or, we have gatherings
and a strong emotion will come up
and slowly I began to see the benefits of taking a break
the delaying of continual thought, having a pause
I began to see the benefit of that so this is one of the refuges that I found
that slowly become more and more deeper for me,
finding different ways that it helps me
So just take a break, train yourself
I sometimes share with the young adults during Wake Up school
that a restful mind, a clear mind, a thoughtless mind,
it sounds weird, thoughtless, you don't want to be thoughtless
but more and more I think we will gonna want to,
to use terms like that, because we're so always thinking
that we don't know what it feels like and I tell the young people,
“do you know what it feels like when you have a bad breath?”
You know? After a six hour, ten hours plane ride you get off and you're like oh,
You know? You don't want to talk to anybody, right?
And we were not born to brush our teeth, you learn that,
and you learn what it feels like, to kind of ...
it's something you learn, you don't want to be near or talk to someone like that
so our mind is like that, our mind is restless, is angry, it is full of tension
and we think that's the norm
So, I say this, because it's a little graphic and visual
'cause it tells you, we're so used to this being full of, you know, stuff
but the equivalent is restless, angry, full of emotion
you don't want to be, what happens
I use it as an example, because young people find it very easy to understand
so, training our mind to feel when it's fresh, like a fresh breath
it requires some training, it needs some effort
so sitting down, finding time, once a day and so on,
to really find that refuge of a fresh mind
you know the word 'brainwash'?
I like to reuse that word, you know
people hate to be brainwashed, it's like kind of like cultish and all that,
but actually, it's a nice term
think about it, brainwash
it means like your brain is full of stuff, it needs a washing
You grew up in your family, I think you know what I mean
(laughter) - sorry
she's going to save me after
(whispering) sister, can I use your clock?
Sure, but it's a little bit fast
(normal voice) This is a training, to be up here,
for us to share with you, and it's also a training for us
so, the topic of waiting,
I grew up in, educated in California as an architect
and studied, and wanted to be good and, you know, make a name for myself and so on
to have a house and two garages, you know, the American dream
my mother and my father sacrificed a lot
for the children, my two brothers and my sister,
they escaped with nothing they had to leave everything
I remember giving away my toys and I said why am I giving away my toys?
And I remember my dad giving away his Honda
and slowly, our furniture, we had to
but we had to do it secretively so the neighborhoods don't know
we're going to escape one night on a boat
and we left everything to come here
I remember there was a lot of push from my mom especially,
to be successful and to make, you know,
and that's a dream for all mothers and fathers
and I see as I grew up I saw there was a lot of promotion and a lot of effort
to reach the diploma to become this and that,
you know, all the awards and so on,
these stickers you get, I forget what they're called, certificates
you get trained to be like always be somebody
and then you become an architect, you work in, and you look
you see whose office is closer to whose and who's got the better project
that's the system I grew up in and I was stuck in that
and also, growing up, I had difficulties with my father
he struggled a lot coming over here, losing everything
so for me, I had a lot of anger issues with my father
I think this is something that the practise helped me with
to learn to come back and look at ourselves
and to really confront the suffering that I was having as a young man
and it helped me become a little happier,
once the practise helped me look at my father
and look at my relationship with him to begin to understand him more
and to begin to understand my own suffering
and this is what was the benefit of sitting,
of silencing the mind a little
calming and having time to look deeply at my emotions,
where I'm at, and the goals I'm setting for myself
this helped me to understand more of what true happiness was
once I was able to touch a little bit of the root of my suffering
I was also able to touch, so the things that I'm passing by
because of some future promise,
to become this, to become that, always wanting more
and I think it's a kind of suffering always thinking that you're lacking
and this is something that's kind of underneath our culture a little bit
and with the practise, I think it can help all of us to really,
to recognize, “wow, I'm still alive”
there's my eyes,
my body is in good condition, I'm healthy enough
my tooth-ache
my teacher shared with us about the tooth-ache, it's very..
sorry, back to hygiene, but you know,
this moment is a Non-Toothache moment
it's kind of silly, 'what does that mean?' but all you need to do is just reflect and
remember that tooth in the back,
remember when it was aching and the gum was inflamed?
Just touching that,
even though it's not a great suffering, it was suffering
and it reminds us like, oh, how wonderful!
I don't have a tooth-ache now
And this is a practise, just like stopping, to recognize the breath,
recognizing a thoughtless, a mind that's clear
it's a training to actually be present to this moment
to this present moment
and to recognize that wow, the conditions are so many
I remember our teacher gave us homework, to write down all the wonderful conditions
the happy moments in your life now, and it's a wonderful exercise
and your loved one, your brothers, your sisters
this is also something, we're there with our loved ones, but we're not present
my brother made us some tea before coming here
we were hanging out at somebody's place
and he brought his tea-set and he made one of my brothers, three of us, tea
and I recognized like 'wow'! we haven't had tea for a while
and we sat there and drank tea together
so, to recognize that, my younger brother is so sweet
he brought his tea material and we'd just woken up from a nap
and the first thing he does is make us tea
I was reading a book or something and I closed it and we looked at each other
and we're drinking tea, I mean, that sounds like really,
what does that have to do with my happiness, my career?
but that moment actually is the building block for the rest of ...
that's your living
so sometimes we put a lot of goals and a lot of things that we want
but actually when we get there, we want more
I give you an example, you have a tea cup, you drink your tea
and you want to do the next thing, and when you get to the next thing
you want to do, and so on, and this is the way we've been trained
and this is where we're at as a coach and we need to look
so when I say, I will become refugee
I mean, in my lifetime we'll see that we will need, we will all become refugees
and it's a kind of different thing, it's not about one nation and another
but we will all need a place where we can escape a little bit of all that
online, and wifi, and you know, all this stuff, it's everywhere now
and we have no time to be with ourselves and to be present for our body
be present with the moment to enjoy life as it is in the now
to be present with our loved one and to be present with nature
this is where we're heading at
besides the climate change and all this
there's something happening to our culture
we're traveling around the world, we see escalating faster and faster
and so, I hope you continue to train,
to find a refuge within
a refugee-camp within we all will need that
and when you have a strong emotion or when you need a break
you feel out of touch with what you need to do
come back, everything you need, everything you have is there
it's only from that place that we can help change
where we're at as a society as a human on this planet
we keep struggling, fighting that, but we don't have this refuge,
then it will be difficult
my sister, Dieu Nghiem will continue on this theme for us
please take a breath,
come back to that refugee-camp inside
we all need a refugee-camp once in a while
(sounds of the gong)
There are times where I wonder
why can I not go back to my refugee-camp
or this place me that I like to call home
why can I not go back home?
What is preventing me from going back home to myself
when my mind and body are in the same place, I feel at home
I've been fortunate enough to always have had a roof over my head
to have a home, but I've not always been home
I'm not always home
I was reminded of this as I walked to come here
and I see so many posters saying “bring him home” the Martian
and I thought, when they bring him home, will he be really and truly home?
Will he find his true home?
So I've reflected on that
my true home as my brother said, brother Phap Dung, brother Embrace,
really truly home with ourselves
many years ago, there was a lady from Austria that came to Plum Village
and at the end of her stay, at the end of the retreat
we asked some friends to give some input, how it had been for them
and this lady said she came to Plum Village because
she had read somewhere Thomas Morton's words that said
you can see Thich Nhat Hanh is a monk by the way he closes a door
so she had come to watch us closing doors
we didn't know maybe just as well
however, she must have been impressed, because
she was scheduled to stay one week and she stayed two
so, closing a door, for me that became like a practise
how do I close doors?
I think we all have doors somewhere that we can close
either where this is a swing door so, open if you act
but closing a door or opening a door by taking the knob,
turning it, or the handle,
and pushing it down and pushing open the door
so it's very interesting to observe how do we open a door?
And how do we close a door? It's just a door
but it is a wonderful way to bring us back to our home
to put our hand on the knob
to feel the knob in our hand, already brings our mind back to our body
so I turn the knob or I push the handle down
and I'm aware of how much force I use to open the door
and to close the door
so if you don't have time to sit, and breathe
maybe, since you're going through the door anyway,
you can make that your practise of going home
but coming home also is something else,
like coming home to that place where it's quiet
I've noticed, here in New York it's quite noisy, outside
and as I was walking, I came here on foot
I thought, yes, it's very noisy, but let me see
if I just let the noise be, then, is it then quiet?
And I realized, I'm thinking
and sometimes I find, even if there's no noise around me,
it's quite noisy inside
maybe the most noise is inside, the outer noise not so much
and when I listen to this noise, I see most is just unuseful thinking
not helpful at all
and then I think, ok, can I close a door?
Why am I thinking so much?
I've just come out of a meeting and I carry things out of the meeting with me
I've already closed the door, right? Physically, but in my head, no
why did she say this in that way?
Why didn't she flow along, etcetera
the meeting was closed, but not everywhere
I continued the meeting in my head
so, close the door, the meeting is over close the door
and then, as I closed the door, it's the same as opening a door
it means: new possibilities, new challenges
and can I be there for the possibilities or for the challenges
maybe we can close the door for a moment with the sound of a bell?
Just close the door
and enjoy an in- and an outbreath
and just let the world be for one moment
(sound of the gong)
closing the door as we hear a sound of the bell
or as we stop for a traffic light
closing the door when we leave the office
one retreatant came, she would like to have a consultation
and she said, my problem is,
I feel I'm married to my husband's business
she said, when he comes home, he brings the whole business with him
and of course, when we come home,
there may be something that happened in the office, we want to share,
but it was not just that, like something shared, and 'this is how I feel about it',
it was all about the problems and about the things, business, business, business
she said, I think I'm married to a business
so when we closed the door of the office and we go home
and then we open the door of our apartment or house,
and we close the door behind us and truly close the door,
then we can be truly present for our loved ones
for our children, our partner we can be there
we can share with them from our heart and we can listen with our heart
and we can enrich each other's lives
I am of Irish and Dutch decent, of an Irish mother and ad Dutch father
and it took me a while when I started to
we lived in Ireland and then in the Netherlands
it took me a while to find out where I belonged
I was kind of a little bit up-rooted am I Dutch? Am I Irish?
Inside the house, it's Irish, outside the house it's Dutch
where are my roots?
And, if we want to live, we need to have roots
trees have roots
if you cut the tree from its root, it won't continue to live
rivers have a source if we cut the river from the source,
the river will stop living
so if we want to start living
we also need to nourish our roots, our ancestors
so I would say, stop waiting and start living
also in a way of, start celebrating life celebrating our ancestors
our blood ancestors our adopted ancestors
our spiritual ancestors our land ancestors
to bring them, to reconnect with them to be nourished by them
we cannot take our ancestors out of us
our youngest ancestors, our parents they are our ancestors
we cannot say, I have nothing to do with you
no, we have all and everything to do with them
we are their continuation all our ancestors are within us
connecting with them inside of ourselves
to recognize all their strength they have transmitted to us
and also all the weaknesses
and to nourish their strength and to take care of their pain and suffering
of the wounded child that was in them as well
and that is now also in us
it's not just our child, our wounded child
when we say 'our', we mean all our ancestors
so, to connect with our ancestors
in Plum Village we have Ancestors Festival
where we honor our ancestors
and where we express gratitude to our ancestors
recognizing that we are their continuation they are our roots
we all may like to look into our ancestors and find ways to celebrate our ancestors
to celebrate our roots
in order to find stability in order to find freedom
in order to be able to be truly there and truly alive
for ourselves and for our loved ones
I know that in New York, you celebrate St Patrick's Day much much bigger
than in Ireland I've ever seen
I think there are many Irish people, here also
maybe also refugees
but staying connected to their roots in this way, our roots are tradition
a tradition can be renewed, refreshed
but a tradition is also our refuge and our root
so, celebrate
in Plum Village, we celebrate also the Earth
we celebrate Spring, the Daffodil Festival
we celebrate Plum Blossom Festival
we have Full Moon Festival the Solstice
they're roots we share all of us, and we can celebrate together
let's celebrate a moment together
by just getting in touch with our roots
you can just close your eyes and see our roots as the Earth,
we're part of the Earth and everything that's in and on it
although we don't have roots like a tree, we are rooted in the Earth
we have come from the Earth
the Earth is also our roots with all and everything that's on the Earth
so, just for a moment,
connect with our roots of the Earth with our land ancestors
our spiritual ancestors our adopted ancestors
and our blood ancestors
(sound of the bell)
we, the monastics, we're rooted in the Plum Village tradition
we celebrate every breath we celebrate every step
whenever we walk, where we walk
we walk on the Earth with love and with compassion
we walk as if we're kissing the Earth with our feet, even here in New York
as I was walking, I was kissing the Earth with my feet,
saying “dear Earth, we love you
I know we have covered you with stone, with asphalt, with tarmac
with a lot of things
we love you we're here for you
we want to be here for you
because you're here for us always
and this walking gave me stability and gave me freedom
as I was aware of my steps I felt the contact
between my feet and the Earth I created some space
some space inside
I created some silence inside
space to be there when our heart is small,
Thay says, sometimes it's like a peanut
I think, sometimes my heart is like a mung bean
there's no space, neither for myself nor for anybody else
but walking like this, my heart opened and there's space
there's space for everything I meet, for everybody I meet in the street
and I can smile
so you walk like this, it's our root
in the early years, in the early 1990s
friends of Plum Village, practitioners, they went to Vietnam
and they visited Thay's root temple
and as they were walking there, they practised walking meditation
and a young monastic, a young novice came up to them and said
“you must be from Plum Village”
and they said “yes, how do you know?”
and he said, I can see it by your walking
it's our roots, our spiritual roots
it's our walking, our breathing our listening and our speaking
we listen to ourselves with compassion to others
we speak lovingly we learn how to truly love
how to truly love, how to offer compassion how to be loving and kind
how to share our joy
and how to embrace each other with equanimity
that is true love and we learn how to be truly happy
as my brother already said, not running after things
but to see that we have more than enough conditions to be happy already
we do not need that other ice-cream not the coffee,
although we had coffee before we came here
we can have coffee,
but it's not because we don't have enough conditions to be happy
it's to enjoy the conditions for happiness we have
so, celebrate our spiritual roots, whatever our spiritual roots may be
discover the beauties
everything that contributes to our own well-being,
to the well-being of the others and the well-being of the world
and the Earth
celebrate, connect
and we can do this altogether
I think my brother wanted to add something to this
I'm his souffleur
she's giving another chance to share something
yes, please
so I'll take this opportunity I'll stop being nice
our teacher, you know, he was a radical monk
he grew up in a time of war
he saw the French come and the Americans come
this is what produced this practise, this tradition
you know, the classic images of a monk
is not sitting in there, praying and doing the gong
hoping that there will be a better world that we can be reborn into
but he stood up and he gathered the monastics
as well as his elder monks and venerables
and they went into the villages to help, they actively
so this is what has moved our teacher
and now he's come to the West
and he's seeing that some of the roots of why those wars happen,
and I just want to throw that out there, just so
as we been around our teacher he sees like, you know, what people ask
why are you guys speaking against war and going out there?
like going to the warring countries and doing what your teacher did
and there is a real teaching to it, to ask and to keep that awareness
like, why is Thay teaching us to breathe and smile, what is that?
Some people say that's like Buddhism, right?
Like, what is that, you know?
There is a real challenge for our community
as we struggle between engagement
and also taking, not losing ourselves
'cause the war starts when we're actually we've lost our roots, lost our refuge
we are not happy with just being alive on this planet
you're going to die,
the world will go on, you're going to die, you know,
so our teacher teaches to really come from a deeper,
of course you do the social change
you do these activities
but don't lose these deep moments for yourself
and to do it together
and this is our teacher's challenge to our next century
I think maybe some of you heard,
our teacher sharing about the last century as a century of individualism
you know, everyone, me and my nation and my people and so on
and it's caused a lot of stuff happen
so the teacher is really emphasizing on the collective
and it's tough to be in the collective, part of this community
you know, it's not easy
you have to conform and you have to be like the rest
and kind of like, lose your identity I just tell you some of the truth about it
it challenges every L.A. seed in me!
I want to go out there and change L.A. you know,
and the brothers say, no,
you're going to go breathe and walk in the woods
sorry my sisters and brothers
it's a challenge to be part of a community
it is, because it goes against everything we know,
you know, I have rights,
especially when you're right you have to just..
and this is the root of war “I'm right”
and to live in a collective, to live in a community
to live in a family, you know that, that's a small little community there
in the family, around the kitchen around the dining table
I was witness to that
because we're not able to let go and see the 'come on, it's just'
so this is the training for us
to learn to let go of our own ideas or notions
of what is right, what is wrong, what is just
sometimes,
even fighting for a just cause, we cause a lot of suffering
so we have to be careful as we come together and help
and remind ourselves to check in with each other
to see that 'hey, is this where we want to go?”
so this is a challenge our teacher has for our community, for our next
you know, he's famous for having said our teacher has a saying that's pretty,
I haven't heard it anywhere
“the next Buddha will be your community”
that's very beautiful, you know can you imagine that,
you don't look for somebody leading and charging, and
oh well the Buddha will probably do something
but the community that actually deals with challenges, suffering
but it checks itself, it helps each other
there's a sense of love and understanding, of septance
cause this is all the energy,
all the difficulties that we're facing as a family as a group of people
as a work place right, where you look, and your company
what are the most challenging things at your work place
it's all about that,
people don't know how to work together you have to let go
so the collective for us is a challenge,
how to learn these practises so we don't lose our center,
our harmony within and then working ways,
finding ways to build community
because to resist this other energy, we need to do it as a community
and we need everyone to have this kind of training so that you feel
I don't need another sweater, just because it's a new season
or they change color on me again
sorry, I remember, it's brown season, it's yellow season
you know, you got to change your whole wardrobe just because they say so
so they know, I don't want to say 'they'
maybe some of us are in advertising media now
but they know how the mind works and if you don't know how your mind works
and if we don't come together we're just, you think you're free
I'm sorry to kind of lay it out there 'cause this is our last chance
but this is what I've learned from my teacher and I just wanted to share with you
we need to come together and really resist all these temptations
these kind of temporary pleasures these moments, right
more consuming, more stimulation, entertaining yourself
this is what is happening
we need to find ways to come together, to resist
so, have a refugee-camp but do it together
that's the addition I think my sister was inviting me to add
so not just you alone on the island in a refugee-camp
but bring friends, make friends come together and make that island, expand
and if we can do this together here a little bit
and a little bit around the planet
I think, I'm pretty hopeful
and we need to keep that, don't let it drag you down
we were at the Huffington Post
and we learned that they have a department for Good News
yeah, that is pretty cool
and I asked them, so what do you guys do, make stories up?
'cause I don't see any good news in the news and they say, yeah, we shared,
they have a small team and actually they look at stories out there, and
they try to find something positive and they go do more research
and that's beautiful and I was really moved,
there was like four or five in that department, and that's their work
we need to do that, we need to do that in our family, within ourselves
look, there's something happening that's good for today
and accentuate it, do it in the family, do it at your work,
please, do it in your work
it's tough to work at a hard place, but do it there
and then create your work, become a community
and then begin to come together build a sangha
a sangha is just a group of people coming together
to remind each other with the practise
so this is our teacher's deepest wish
to have a little bit around every place for us
to remind ourselves and remind others
thank you
I believe there's something
oh yes, we now open the mike for any questions or any comment or
I think there's a microphone around,
I think there's some brothers and sisters
who'll come up here to join us to add a different perspective
is there a mike around?
Yes, you can come up here if you'd like to share or make a comment
oh, they have a mike right there
I just wanted to thank you
gratitude for sharing your love and your light with us here,
and bringing your stories, your honesty, your experience, your humor
really grateful for that, it's really refreshing to embrace the reflection
we all know that we have within us and to see a collective
as you say, this community that does exist and I just wanted to say thank you,
I'm really grateful
and congratulations
sister Jang Nghiem and Phap Hai have joined us
and they will take personal questions too, so if you
yes, questions from the heart
hi, welcome, I'm actually new to the city, I'm from Philadelphia
so I drove up this morning, three hours, I took the back roads
and I go to Weltran Unitarian church and every Sunday I'm blessed to have a quote,
like there is up on the screen, by Thich Nhat Hanh
that leads us into meditation for five minutes
all you need to enter heaven on earth is one conscious step,
one conscious breath
and I really appreciate this opportunity to be here with you
and my question, it takes me a long time to get to my question, is
as you talk about refuge inside and refuge in community,
I'm blessed to have a small community that really is building on mindfulness,
it's probably the most rapidly growing Unitarian church in the country which is
tremendous, because it's very open, spiritually and we embraced
a lot of things, including Thich Nhat Hanh's mindfulness
How can we, I'm sure everyone in this room is from a different place,
in our society, in our jobs that are not sitting mindfully all day long,
how can we bridge this experience into the world of wifi and phones,
thinking of myself last night when I was on my phone with my boyfriend
at the restaurant, how do we actually try to do that more?
So, dear family, life's full of surprises,
I stood up to walk off the stage to stretch my legs
and I was invited, is the kind way to put it,
to be part of the question- and-answer panel
so I'm very happy to be sitting here and as I received that invitation
to be part of the Q&A-panel I realized that as a practitioner,
the most central practise for me, is to learn how to say 'yes'
not only to say yes with my mouth,
but to say yes to the experience that I'm invited to have in this moment
to look at the places that I close down
or the ways that I try to manufacture this moment into something
that I believe it should be
in our tradition, in the Plum Village tradition, we practise
what we call 'Engaged Buddhism' and we've all heard the stories about
going out to bombed out villages, building schools,
doing flood-work relief work, we've done all of those things
and we do all of those things
and yet, at its core, Engaged Buddhism means,
choosing to engage in this moment, whatever this moment is
as a moment of practise
we're coming into the Jewish New Year
and I'm thinking of somebody called Victor Franco,
who wrote in 'Men's search for meaning'
something that we also find to be true in Buddhism as well
we can't always, or very often, choose our circumstances
but as human beings
the one choice we truly have, is the choice of how we respond
so when we say that we can't sit all day mindfully, why not?
What does mindfully mean?
Does it mean we need to go to a mountainside or go to a cave or a hut,
a nice retreat-hut somewhere
that was my view of what monastic life is or life in the practise
and it's only ever happened once, in twenty years
how do I use this moment as a moment that I can be fully present in my body
with the experience that I'm having with the person who's in front of me
Can I choose, when the phone rings, to take an in-breath and an out-breath
bring myself back to my body and pick up the phone
can I choose to, rather than just run from here to the coffee-maker,
can I choose to take a few steps with each breath, to arrive with each step
these are ways that it is possible for us
to bring the practise of mindfulness to our daily lives
so our spiritual life is not something compart mentalized to one side
that we do inbetween things
but it is actually our life itself
that's the invitation of Engaged Buddhism
to see what we can do, where we're planted in this very moment
this is something that's possible for us
there are some of us, there are maybe a few hundred of us in this room
we're all sharing the same space together
and yet, there are some of us in this room who are thinking
oh, this talk was so interesting tonight,
it was so wonderful to hear from a half- Irish, half-Dutch senior disciple of Thay
and our brother Phap Dung
there are so many interesting spirits
and then there's others who are thinking
I can't wait until this is over why did I come here tonight?
This kind of thing
some of us are in heaven, some of us are in hell,
who's right, who's wrong?
Now, I mean, some of you might think it's a cheap shot,
but it really does depend on you, doesn't it
it really does depend on our mind and the way we interpret things
so I invite you to look at that
I invite you to engage with that practise and see if it's possible for you
to make just a small change
not ten small changes, but a small change in your daily life
good luck
(sound of the bell)
I want to thank you for being here
and I'm really grateful for your presence here
and your presence in the world and I think about if there was
a beloved community of more people, like in this room
how much empathy and how much compassion
could really be present in the world
and you've in a way answered what my question was but
someone like me, I feel overwhelmed when I read the news
really overwhelmed by for example
what's happening to our brothers and sisters in Syria
how do you balance being internal and having compassion internally
and balancing that with being engaged in the world
and something as small as keeping up with the news
I could easily feel overwhelmed and I know we have really beautiful
examples with Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King
so we can reflect on their example but how do you find that balance
when it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the suffering and the violence
and the pain that we know that a lot of people are dealing with
thank you so much
yes, that's a very important question
in terms of the amount of information that we should expose ourselves to
the important thing is, maintaining compassion in our heart
but more practically, I think our human mind is not meant to
actually be constantly bombarded with so much suffering
you hear it in your car or your subway, you're driving here
you hear it in the morning, you hear it while you take a break
in the afternoon you hear it, I mean when I was driving in L.A.
an hour and a half to work in the morning I listened to NPR
cause people said I should be informed I have friends from Berkeley you know
so every time they come back they always ask me to go to,
these picket things, they were good
it was my way of my getting out of my anger, now that I remember back
so, we put so high on a pedestal 'being informed'
you got to be 'up to date' but how much more do you want?
I mean, you hear it in the morning and then in the afternoon when driving back
it's the same news, but I keep hearing it
before I even get to work, I'm already angry
I haven't seen that secretary yet
it's a good question, you have to know how to take care of yourself
and question the 'being informed',
how much should you keep inflicting, it's a scar you keep picking
ok, this is a balance you need to find, each one of us
in our workplace as well as in society
we had a session, two days ago, with news people,
it was at the Columbia University for journalists at the Dart Center
where they take care of journalists who have to go to,
conflicting sites or tragedy, and then have to report
and then come back and they can't handle it,
so this Dart center was formed to take care of and bring more awareness
to the suffering that journalists face as they come back
it's kind of like veterans and I learned a lot from that
and the Dart Center is trying to bring more mindfulness and wellness
to take care of the journalists 'cause after you see these images and
you've been in places like that you see, the mind needs healing
it's kind of like, getting inflicted
and you know, that's journalists
but we ourselves as readers we have take care of that as well
so be informed, be intelligent,
but know what you're doing to yourself and what that is causing
because that can actually spill out to your loved ones who had nothing to do with it
but because you keep watering the seeds,
in our practise we call, we each all have a seed,
a seed of anger, a seed of discrimination, a seed of blame and so on
and if these keep being watered, you become immobile
you can't really be an activist if you are not, like, solid
so this is something for us all as we want to change
and help effect the world in a better way
we also need to take care and nourish our happiness, our joy
so it's how you say, pay attention to the mud,
but don't forget to also pay attention to the flower, to the lotus
that's also there
so we keep reading books on negativity,
and it makes you really, you can't move and your mind becomes tight
and you start actually causing others suffering
in a way that's toxic
so, nothing is lost, everything you read, everything you come in through the sens,
the eyes, the things you hear, the conversations I used to have with my friends
they didn't make me happier, they actually made me more angry
and sometimes anger is useful
but as my brother or my sister shared one time, maybe 5%
but I'm still trying to figure how much of that energy
you know, I know, there's a, sometimes it's useful to speak out
but how can we do it in a way that has a little bit more understanding,
more compassion
more of that sense of embracing the other person rather than
so this is what happens when we get informed
and it's over our limit
we actually start to cause more trouble than helpful
and this is each one of us through the practise of taking care of ourselves,
nourishing ourselves with good news, nourishing ourselves with moments
of actually recognizing taking a walk in the park
recognizing, hugging a tree
watching, you know, sitting there in front of a flower and feeling,
recognizing that flower
so these are things that I found helpful in my practise in terms of engaging the
world as we travel and we hear people suffering
you know, I have to take a walk in nature after a consultation or something,
I can't do consultations six right away 'cause my mind is no longer present
for the third person
I mean, it looks like I'm there but it's too much for me
so I'd only do one, and then I go take a nap or I go walk in nature
and this is just the truth of our mind
we're not meant to actually know everything that's happening
around the world I mean, the internet now, you think, oh,
we have access, but, look what it's doing to you
you have access but you're like, you're afraid, and you're suspicious,
you're fearful
and this, you cannot help the world in that state of mind
so please take a look at your, at the balance, we need balance in terms of information
we have one last question
may we listen to one sound of the bell
(sound of the bell)
breathing in everything we need is here and now
breathing out we let go
this moment, without expectation
(sound of the bell)
Hi there
you know, it's kind of intimidating talking to you guys
but what I love in the nature of how you spoke today
was that you're still embracing that whole studentness about you
'cause sometimes when people that don't live in the kind of environment
that you live in
I guess I'm speaking for myself but I have talked to a few other people
there's a way that we can feel not as spiritual or not as worthy
and what I love what you brought here was that you're still learning
and that you're still figuring it out and that you're still on your journey
and that's really inspiring to hear
because some of us are a little bit further back in the road on the journey
one of the things I do is I go into companies, into the dark, deep scary
territory of corporate America and I try to bring
a tiny bit of mindfulness with me
but what you've inspired me to do today is, to take it further
you know, some of the little teachings or some of the things you said
like, and I love what you said about how being right is the root of war
and how we can bring a little bit of non-violence to how we talk
to each other every day by not trying to be so right
and trying to be more compassionate
trying to be more vulnerable, which you guys exhibited today,
the vulnerability of showing that you don't know it all
you're still a student, you're still on your journey
so I want to thank you for that and to let you know
there are warriors out here, working for the same cause,
we might not look the same way that outfit would definitely make me look
a lot chubbier and that would really annoy me
but, you know, we're out here warriors on the front line,
with you and supporting you and loving you from our place,
so thank you
Hi, thank you for being here tonight
I've been exploring the value of mindfulness in organizations and I was wondering if you
could speak a little bit more about the benefits that you see
to bringing mindfulness into workplaces and I'm particularly interested in
how it might help to build trust
For me, being a monastic is something I always wanted to do
but in another way this,
I agree with my brother, there's challenges
so when I entered the community you know, I love to do art,
to sing songs and write poetry but I've always been asked to do things
that is out of the ordinary you know, is not my field, is not my,
I feel like it's not even my capacity
but recently, the sangha invited me to join the finance team and
to work with all these figures, and it's not what I imagined I would do
so I think the practise of mindfulness just helps me to just be present
and to take things as they are and not to have expectation or
to have to struggle with it
at first I struggled a lot, but I feel like
when I can just come back to my breathing just to be what it is, I can just let it go
and whatever comes, I learn from it and I build my experience on it
so I think that in the workplace, we can apply mindfulness
for instance, when I am working on something that is very challenging
for my brainwork
then I just take a deep breath and come back and smile,
and take a break and we have the time-out on a screen
or a bell of mindfulness that we install into the PC or the computer
and we just take a break, you know you close your eyes and breathe
and then smile
and I find that also working in a team or in a group is very helpful
because I see that I have my brothers and sisters who have experience in finance
and they have all kinds of experiences
and when we come together, we really make things work
without, you know, one having to think too hard
so I think that try to learn from the experience of the others
and be mindful, be open
and, you know, things can become easier that way
rather than taking on everything on ourselves
and also create a space for nurturing brotherhood and sisterhood
in our monastery, at Blue Cliff, when we have finance meeting,
I'm always the team-master I make sure, I prepare tea and bring some
snacks and cookies or some healthy snacks and then we start the meeting that way
we don't just start by saying 'ok, what's the agenda'
of course somebody will say that, but I always do the tea part first
and it's so light and nourishing and then people feel like, oh, there's a connection
you are here for being together, it's not just about trying to work something out
or trying to go forward with the result,
so I think that teamwork and nourishing brotherhood, sisterhood
and to build the energy of mindfulness,
to share that together is very helpful
thank you