Br. Phap Huu: Good morning, dear respected Thay,
dear brothers, dear sisters, dear friends.
I hope you had a relaxing and lazy morning.
You could sleep in and feel more rested
and enjoy the wonderful space provided for us
to be in touch with our breath, with the trees, with the space.
We have an opportunity for questions & answers.
This is a great opportunity to put into words something
we may have been chewing on for a long time.
But with regards to the practice of mindfulness and meditation.
the teachings of Plum Village, and looking back
at our way of life, our happiness, our suffering
and how to apply the practice in our daily lives.
This is an opportunity to ask questions. We call it "Asking from the heart."
We tend to come more towards the intellect,
but here in Plum Village we always encourage to ask:
How do we bring these teachings into our daily life?
This is more important to us than philosophy.
And we have children with us. I'm surprised they are here.
I thought you would enjoy more laziness.
It is a wonderful tradition to have space for the children to ask questions.
We would like to offer space to the kids to ask three to four questions.
A good question can benefit many of us. It doesn't have to be long.
It can be clear and simple.
We have our brother filming the session.
Please raise your hand if you prefer not to be on camera
and our brother will know. He will focus the camera on the monastics.
So you can be at ease if you would like to ask a question, but not be filmed.
Before we listen to a question, we will listen to a sound of the bell
to come back to our breathing, and then we ask the question.
So, we would like to invite the children first.
If there is a child with a question, you are welcome to come up
and sit on this chair and breathe with us. And then you can ask your question.
Do any of you have a question?
We do.
[sound of the bell]
Dear community, this is the first question. Our friend will ask in Italian.
Giacomo: [Italian] If there is something that we like to do,
and we see someone else do something that we might not like,
but so many people are doing it, why do we end up doing that, too?
Voice offscreen: I will try to translate it and Giacomo can help me
if it's not correct, because you speak English quite well?
I think the idea is: We know what we want, what we like to do.
But then we see others do something that we don't approve of.
We don't like what they're doing.
How come we end up what they're doing even though we don't like it?
Br. Phap Huu: Do you need translation?
Br. Phap Linh: Thank you. That's a great question.
We could all ask ourselves that question at the level of the whole planet.
Why, when there are things that we know we don't want to do, or we don't like,
but we see that society is going that way, and we end up doing it as well.
That can happen with a group of friends, or in a choice of career that we make,
or how much money we think we need, where we should live,
what lifestyle we think we should have. It's all a similar problem.
We get pulled into things that at some level we don't want to do,
but we find ourselves doing anyway.
So ... I think the first question that I would ask.
You started by saying that we know what it is that we like to do.
We know what we want. I'm not sure that that's true.
We kind of know. But do we really know?
Do we know with the power, with the strength,
that would be enough to stop us from getting pulled into things
that we don't want to do?
So we know a little bit.
But could we make that more clear?
What is it that we want to do and what is it we do not want to do?
That takes contemplation. In a way, that's what meditation can be for.
Our teacher used to ask us to go and quietly sit in the forest
and ask ourselves: What is my deepest desire?
What is the thing that I want most of all?
Because when we know that really clearly, it makes it much easier to say No
when other people are trying to pull us into something.
That's the first thing. Do we really know what it is we do and don't want to do?
And the second thing is that there's a competition in us,
because we like two things:
We like to do the thing we want to do, but we also like to be with our friends.
We like to feel connected to others.
We like to not stick out, so that we're not left out of the group.
If there's a group going one way, a strong part of us wants to be part of the group.
Even if they're doing something we don't really want to do.
There are two different pulls. One is: I need to be part of the group.
I am in danger if I'm not part of the group.
There's a very old feeling in our bodies. For a long time, maybe millions of years,
if we didn't belong to the group, we wouldn't be able to survive.
We would die. So there's a strong need to be part of the group.
And when that need is in conflict with this other part of us that says:
"I don't want to do what they're doing", it's difficult.
It depends which one is stronger. But it helps just to know that.
You're here, we're all here. We've heard about the energy of mindfulness.
The energy that allows us to be aware what's going on inside and around us.
That is the capacity to recognise: "I want to be part of the group."
When you can see and recognise it, you also have a bit more freedom.
"I know, I hear you. I hear the part of me that wants to jump in,
but I can also say No thank you."
Sometimes in a group, when there's one person that says:
" No. Actually, I don't want to do that."
Then maybe there's two or three or four other people in the group
who also feel uncomfortable. Once that one person has said no,
they can also say: "Actually, I also don't want to do that."
And suddenly, the whole group can change direction
because one person had the freedom and the courage to say No.
It's like you are watching what's happening around you,
but a part of you is watching what is happening inside of you.
It's like you have an eye tracking: "I want to jump in,
but I also don't feel comfortable with what we're doing."
And then you get to choose.
Because otherwise you jump in before you even know.
It just happens, and then later, maybe a day, maybe a week later,
you realize you didn't want to do that. But with the energy of mindfulness,
you have more time, you have more freedom to choose.
And then maybe many other people in the group will thank you later
because they also didn't want to do that.
And thanks to you, they had the choice to say No.
Maybe as a society we're a bit like that.
We rely on a few people with the strength and awareness to say no to the current
that is taking us in the direction of destroying the planet
and causing suffering to each other.
Maybe if a few of us can see us and say: "We don't want to go that way",
then others can get to also say No and go a different way.
Thank you for your question.
[sound of the bell]
Girl: (French) Do plants have a nervous system?
For example if you snap a twig, are you hurting the tree?
Br. Phap Linh: Do the plants have a nervous system?
For example if you break a branch, does it hurt the plant?
Br. Phap Huu: The quickest answer is "Oui" - yes.
Br. Phap Linh: I can add a little bit.
I would say the answer is yes and no.
Because they don't exactly have a nervous system like ours.
There's no central brain where all the nerve impulses arrive.
It's been a question in science for a long time.
And most scientists have said: "No, plants don't feel anything."
But it's changing. So in recent years, there are a few scientists
finding evidence to say that plants do feel and we still don't know how.
But we know that there are electrical signals passed through the plant cells -
all cells are electrical in nature, just like nerve cells.
They're not exactly like brain cells,
but they are similar enough that there is a Spanish scientist
who really believes, and has good evidence to show, that plants can feel.
One of the ways they can test this is by using anaesthesia.
If you have to go to a hospital to have surgery,
they give you an injection or a gas that makes you fall asleep,
so you don't feel any pain.
For a long time, everybody thought that only works on humans and animals.
But plants respond to anaesthesia in very much the same way,
to being put to sleep.
This is all very new research. You ask a very good question.
You could make a whole career as a scientist
out of trying to answer that question.
But that's answering at the level of the head.
There's also an answer at the level of the heart.
It's the answer that Thay Phap Huu gave
and it's the answer you already know.
We don't feel comfortable to break a plant for no reason.
We feel like maybe we should respect them a little bit more.
We should care for them a little bit better.
Maybe we should not be so sure that it is only us who can feel things.
If we're very sure, we can cause a lot of harm
we can be very careless.
But if we're not sure, if there's a part of us wondering:
"Will the tree feel it if I break the branch?"
that little space of openness, of "I don't know, maybe the tree can feel it"
can make us more careful.
Not only as individuals, but collectively as a species.
There's an awakening happening in the whole of society.
There are more and more people waking up to the suffering
that we are maybe causing to not just the animals that we kill to eat,
but also to the trees that we cut to build houses, like this meditation hall,
the paper that we use in the toilet, or to write on.
Maybe it is impossible to live completely without hurting anything.
It's actually really hard.
But maybe there's a way to live where we cause as little harm as possible.
We try to do less damage. Maybe we can't do no damage.
But I'm sure we can do less damage.
Thank you for your question.
Br. Phap Huu: One more question from the children sangha.
If there are no more questions from the children sangha,
you are welcome to stay or you are welcome to go out and play.
I was told there's no children program, but there's a lot of space.
So feel free.
And now we'd like to offer space for the bigger children.
if you have questions from the heart, you are welcome to come up
just like the children to ask your questions to all of us adults.
[sound of the bell]