How to be a Good Ancestor: Mindfulness for Business People | Sr. Hien Nghiem (Sr. True Dedication)

My first intention this morning is
that I would like to be

fearless in speaking the truth.

I was with our teacher when he
spoke at the World Bank in 2013.

In that giant atrium that many
of you know in Washington, D.C.

Our teacher was so fearless
in speaking the truth.

If I could have one percent
of that this morning,

I would be very happy.

So I will do my best to be
fearless in speaking the truth.

I will also do my best to speak
from a place of love and care.

As Christiana was saying earlier:

I think some of
the issues of our time

bring up an energy
of anger and injustice.

And we're all human.

I think I feel that, too.

And I think ...

Part of the deep work that
each of us need to do

and that's my work this morning
as I speak to you,

is to have my love at least as strong
as my anger and my sense of injustice.

So I hope my siblings will support me.

There's a bell master,
Brother [name].

If I get a little too passionate,

I'm sure he will help me
with a wake-up sound of the bell

to remind me to keep my heart
really open as I share today.

I also want to share with joy

sometimes ...

our spiritual practise can seem
like a really serious endeavour.

But for me, to understand
myself and the world,

to cultivate insight,

to start to see what
Right Action could look like,

what a source of joy!

That is a wonderful thing
to be doing

and a great use
of our time and energy.

So. Even though ethics
is a really tough topic,

I hope to bring joy to it this morning.

And finally, I also deeply aspire
in this talk to kind of ...

get out of the way myself,
to step aside,

and let the dharma speak.

In Buddhism, when we
speak about non-self,

it's really a lived practise.

I don't think that I'm a separate
self saying these things.

Any sense of me and mine
I want to put to the side

so I can just simply share
some of the wisdom

of 2500 years that I
happen to have been learning

and continue to learn in this community.

So this is also not really my talk.

It's a collective talk.

So, with that spirit, we can listen
to three sounds of the bell.

Sometimes we're being a bit efficient.

We're just having one.

But this morning it would be beautiful
to enjoy three sounds of the bell

and listening to the bell truly
as a practise of systems change

can we find our freedom
in the sound of the bell,

can we touch what is most
sacred and precious in life.

[sound of the bell]

[sound of the bell]

[sound of the bell]

Thank you, everybody.

There is actually a bodhisattva
of crying in the Buddhist tradition.

I was wondering where
my tears are coming from.

I realised it was the tears of the earth
and then they flowed even stronger.

Okay.

In our dharma sharing yesterday,

someone gave rise to an intention
to be a good ancestor.

We had asked our group:
What's the most important thing for you?

What is most important in your life?

What do you want to commit
your time and energy to?

Thank you.

For every bodhisattva that cries
there is a bodhisattva with tissues.

[laughter]

What would it mean
to be a good ancestor?

And what would it mean
to be a good descendant

of those who have come before us?

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Those that came before us
in the recent past,

but also those that came before us
a long, long time ago.

The wise ones.
The wiser ones, maybe.

Someone also asked in our group:

What's the Buddhist
understanding of time?

And for us, as we've picked up,

we say that the present moment
contains the past.

And it contains the future.

My tears are the tears of the past
and the tears of the future.

Our actions now ...

already contain all
of the past conditioning in them.

The way we walk
as though we're in a hurry.

They say our sense
of urgency and time

came with the invention of the clock
in the industrial revolution.

Our speed of walking
carries history within it.

And when we can
take a step in freedom now,

we're transforming the rushing
and running and striving

of our ancestors.

And we're making it
a little bit more possible

that future generations will also
be able to walk in peace and freedom.

When we imagine the kind of society
all of us are working to make possible

for the future: A just society,
a more equitable society,

an inclusive society,

whether we're contributing to that
as a monastic

or as someone with the B team

or someone with Global Optimism

or Project Everyone.

All the organisations represented here.

We have in mind a kind of society

and those future generations

that we want to make possible
with our actions today.

We want to believe
such a future is possible.

In Buddhism,

we believe that in the present moment,

we have immense energy and agency,

immense kind of capacity,

to create the preconditions
for that future.

and in a way to create
that future with this present.

What is it that we think that we do

when we're being alive?

What is it we're talking about

when we talk about life
and how we're spending our life?

In some of the settings in which
some of us might find ourselves

most of the time,

life might be about productivity

or profit, or innovation,

or agility.

KPIs? Apparently it's a thing.

In Buddhism, we naturally have
a different sense

of what we're doing
with our time and energy.

[KARMA]

We speak about something called karma.

I know some of you think something
when you see that word.

But actually, it's a technical term
that simply means 'action'.

The energy of action.

All of us are producing karma
in every moment.

And we speak about triple action.

Our way of thinking.

[THINKING]

Our way of speaking.

[SPEAKING]

And our way of acting.

[ACTING]

Our thoughts go out into the world

and kind of ripple out
and continue us.

The reason we say
that thinking is important

is because we are cultivating
those seeds in our mind,

our thinking, all the time.

I think many of you in this room
are the kind of people,

if you have a good idea,
it's a very quick channel

to then say it and implement it.

Our ideas are really important.
Our ideas, our values,

our way of seeing the world.

It gives rise to what we say
and to action.

We really do call thinking
a kind of action.

Our teacher used to like
quoting Jean Paul Sartre.

L'homme est la somme de ses actes.

Man is the sum of his actions.

Each one of us, the imprint
we leave on the world,

is primarily,
exclusively

the legacy of our thinking,
speaking, and acting.

Our way of being.

In our professional life,

we might end up focusing
so much on acting,

and it can be a really interesting
exercise to ask ourselves:

What do I think my professional
legacy is going to be?

And is that what's on our gravestone?

I was contemplating this

when I first became
practising in Plum Village.

At that time, I was working
in the BBC newsroom

in political news, of all things.

And I had heard this line:

I'm definitely going to get sick

I cannot escape sickness,

I'm definitely going to get old,
I cannot escape old age,

I'm definitely gonna die,
I can't escape death.

I'm certainly going to be separated
from all and everyone I love.

And the fifth point: Only my actions

of body, speech and mind
are the ground on which I stand.

My actions.

I was working in the newsroom
and I thought: Gosh.

I thought: If I continue working here,

how will my life be summed up?

Suddenly I realised,

maybe my gravestone would just say
my name and something like: BBC Editor.

It was an interesting realisation.

Because if any of you have
ever worked with the BBC,

"Editor" is a big thing.

It's kind of the holy grail
for everyone working there.

And I wanted my life to be
about much more than that.

I realised that when we think about
our professional achievements,

it can be so disillusioning.

Maybe the realm of our action
is not exactly what we think it is.

We often speak about impact.

I want to have impact.

[name]'s favourite phrase is
"scale & speed". Speed and scale.

Speed. Scale. Impact.

How is that going to be
on your gravestone?

This policy document. This report.
Getting this funding.

In Buddhism we really say
that our continuation

and kind of our impact is so much deeper
than the ends of what we achieve.

It's also the How of How we get there.

The means.

If we could describe
our way of being like a candle,

and our thinking and speaking
and acting is radiating out in the world.

The quality of our ...

Loving action.

How we think, speak and act
is also ...

If you think of a candle radiating light.

That light is also shining
on the candle itself.

When we say something
that is not quite true,

that is affecting our consciousness,
it's affecting our selves.

When we do an action

that doesn't quite have full integrity and
alignment with our own personal values,

that is affecting us.

It is affecting, maybe,
how we can sleep at night.

Whether we have anxiety
or despair.

But when we can act, speak
and think in such a way

that's really in alignment
with our values,

we can kind of be coherent to ourselves.

And here's something interesting.

If we get too preoccupied
by thinking that our main actions

are our professional actions,
we may miss the fact

that perhaps our deepest transmission
is maybe in the way we are as a person.

For example to our children,
to our family members.

How we are with feelings of anger.

How we are with feelings of anxiety.

How we are with craving and habits.

In fact, all the time, we are
imprinting that on the next generation.

Maybe your greatest legacy
is not your professional one,

but the family and people
that we are with at home.

And maybe you spend more time
with your colleagues than with your kids.

And so maybe that patterning
and that transmission

is actually happening in the workplace.

And we are participating in increasing
the energy of impatience.

The energy of not-enough-ness.

I'll come to that in a moment.

And we are not transmitting what
we were learning about on the first day,

which is the power of presence.
A quality of presence.

So we may be looking in the wrong place
for our legacy.

For our transmission,
our continuation.

These are all great Buddhist words.

The way we continue in the world,
what we transmit to people around us.

And one reason why this is important,

it comes back to something
to do with systems change

and something we heard
from Brother Spirit yesterday.

Which is that we can take actions
to mitigate the problems of our time.

We can take actions to adapt
our economic systems and infrastructure.

But ultimately,
that third pillar of transformation,

transforming the system,

are the humans who will be in that system.

In 20 years, 50 years,
100 years, 150 years.

How will those humans be responding
to the challenges of their time?

We can't even anticipate
all the challenges.

But what if we could establish
a way of being that we learn and train in,

and cultivate, and that is
what we are transmitting?

As the ultimate kind of toolkit,
life-kit, life support system

for the generations to come

so that they will know
how to breathe in a crisis.

So they will know how to walk in such
a way that they can enjoy a forest.

We may be so busy protecting forests

that we're not able to transmit
to our children how to enjoy a forest

and walk in freedom through a forest.

In what I'm trying to share,
maybe, actually,

what's more important is to help
the children know how to walk in freedom

and enjoy a forest,
so that they can protect forests

in 50 years or 100 years
or 150 years.

Maybe, maybe, more important
than saving one tiny corner

with one campaign now.

It's something about ...
We hate using computer metaphors.

But like the operating system
of collective consciousness.

That is where we need to insert
our program of transformation.

How we're processing, how we're running,
how we're creating and responding to life.

That's where it's very important
to invest our time and energy.

And that has something to do with ethics.

I'd like to phone a friend
and ask Brother Phap Huu to help me.

Sorry, Who Wants
To Be A Millionaire reference.

It may come out of the blue there.

Brother Phap Huu
will help me draw a little circle.

[laughter]

Thank you, brother, thank you.

We are doing our best
to come back to our selves.

Some of us have had the question:
What does this actually mean?

It means to listen, for example,
what is most important to us.

On that first day we were learning
about listening to our breathing

and our body, and what
our breathing and body are telling us.

SOS. I'm here.

Please take care of me.

You've completely forgotten
about me, your body. I'm here.

Coming back to take care of our body.

Coming back to take care of our feelings,

including the most uncomfortable ones:

Grief, anxiety, despair.

Jealousy, craving.

It's a 101 human life skill.
Can we handle these feelings?

And then, can we generate well-being?

Can we know what is
being most important to us?

And we may, in the last couple of days,
have had some new insights already

about what's important to us.

And then we had the lines coming out.

Brother Phap Huu thinks
I can draw some small circles.

Almost.

We are helping our loved ones.

When we leave this retreat,

we're not going out
to then fix the people we love.

And tell them that they need to eat
in silence for five minutes with us,

or sit in meditation with us
every morning,

or walk with us.

What we would like to do is
to help them listen to themselves.

And with those practises of
deep listening that we've been learning,

simply the way we show up
with our presence,

will help our loved ones,
our colleagues,

listen to themselves.

We are a kind of witness,
a companion, a friend.

We're showing up in such a way ...

It's not showing off. It's simply being
there to allow them to feel at ease.

Calm and able to hear
what's going on for them.

Thay, our teacher, said ...

We can then imagine that our family,

it can also be our friendship network,

it can be those people we live with.

Our teacher described it as our home base.

He called it the base or
the foundation of our operations.

And this could even be your team at work
that you spend quite some time with.

The wellness of this body,

this collection of human beings,

is the base of our operations
to then influence our society.

And you can imagine:
Society is here somewhere.

We've spoken a lot about collaboration.

I know that's essential to all
the organisations represented here.

The quality of collaboration,
we could even say harmony,

will determine the quality
of our impact on the collective.

So here, we have practises
of listening, and loving speech

and conflict resolution.

Also the practise at a collective level
of embracing pain and suffering.

There can be pain and suffering
at the level of a family.

When a family member is not well,
or dying, or passing away.

There can be pain and suffering in a team
when a project falls through.

Or when a project is undermined.

Think of the challenge
of the ESG framework.

That brings up a lot of emotions
in lots of people.

And we need to be able to take care of
these emotions at the level of our teams.

To share our despair, to share our grief,

to help each other
handle the strong emotions

in order to be able to arrive
at collective insight for a new way out.

And, as been shared already, there's
no shortage of intelligence in this room.

In our teams, in our organisations.

And no shortage of good will,
of good intention.

I spoke about what
we would like for the future,

and how we can live it in our own life now
to make it more possible in the future.

We have the example
of being able to walk in freedom

or enjoy a forest,

or see an apple
for the miracle that an apple is.

My deepest wish would be

that people can enjoy
an apple deeply in 100 years' time

and know it for the miracle it is.

And for that I need to eat
an apple in that way now

and share with others
how to eat an apple like that.

When we speak about actions and projects,

that are ethical projects
for more ethical business practises,

that we want to happen
by others or in the future,

in our way of operating as a team,

to get those good social outcomes,

the kind of values that
we're aiming for in our project

need to be there in the way
that we're approaching the project.

Inclusiveness, for example.

Or equity.

Do we have inclusiveness
and equity in our teams?

Transparency,
accountability.

Thay sometimes described this as
transforming our team or our organisation

into a community.

Into a community that is embodying
the values we want to see in the world.

I'm sure you have wonderful
mission statements already.

But as a kind of reality check,

are the values in our organisation
in full alignment

with the impact we're
trying to have in the world?

The values of how we work together,
how we listen to each other,

how we include each others' ideas.

To ensure that as a team,
as an organisation,

we are already embodying
the values we want to bring.

and not falling into the trap
the kind of toxic systems of the world

that we're trying to change.

So how can our way of
working for change already resist

some of the pernicious practises
out in the world?

This relates even to things like ...

Communications.

I say this as someone
who used to be a journalist.

Are we honest in our communications?

Are we telling the whole truth about
the impact of our company on the world?

And if we have that kind of integrity
of speech within our own company,

then we can inspire other organisations
who are struggling much more

to see that we really embody
these values of deep honesty.

I want to speak about something
that Christiana mentioned to me

a few days ago when I was asking:

What is keeping this particular
constellation of people awake at night?

Christiana was silent for a long time.

And one of the threads
that Christiana offered

was perhaps a feeling of deep frustration.

That we are good people here.

And you are doing good work.

And you are even doing your best.

But somehow, it's just
not moving the needle.

It's just not having the kind of change
that we know is possible.

And we can't quite get our head around
all the obstacles

and why this is just so hard.

So one thing that we as Buddhist
practitioners can offer

to this feeling of frustration is:

Be ready for indirect
consequences to your work.

Maybe the success of that project,
campaign, initiative or partnership,

maybe measuring the work
that you're doing on a daily basis

by the outcome of that one project
is not the right place to look

for your impact in the world.

The fact that you are already
bringing a good intention

to the way you live your own life,

the fact that you are already
collaborating in our teams

with generosity, inclusiveness,
presence, listening, values,

that is already action
that is fully radiating into the world

and into the people around you
at home, and at work.

That is already saying:
It is worth trying.

Your daily actions can already
be embodying the message:

What we are doing now is not OK.

And each one of us can do
our part to change it.

That is a patterning, a legacy,
that we're leaving in society.

And I'd like to invite
Brother Phap Huu again.

We're gonna recall our circle
of the first day on seeds.

Thank you so much, brother.

We were understanding there's
this thing called store consciousness.

[STORE C.]

This is a model of our mind
and we have the seeds ...

And all of us have all the seeds
in the depths of our consciousness.

Our actions, every day,
the way we speak,

the way we listen,
the way we walk,

the ideals we give rise to,
the value,

we are watering good seeds
in our consciousness.

And Sister Hero also said,

this is both collective and individual.

In Buddhism we say that we trust --

it's been all about trust this morning --

that all seeds will ripen in time.

In their own time.

Some seeds ripen right away.

Others need longer.

We may now be in the process
of cultivating seeds

that don't just take
one season around the sun to bloom

not just 17 years like some cicadas
that, I think, have a 17-year lifecycle.

Maybe there are some seeds that will
take more than a generation to ripen.

What if now, the fact
that we can be here,

is the ripening of seeds
from one generation ago?

Maybe two generations ago?

My grandfather was the first person in
my family to buy a book on meditation

in the 1970s.

I feel like I'm a ripening
across two generations.

That even I just can be here.

And my grandfather didn't,
in his whole life,

have a chance to go on one retreat.

It still wasn't available in his time.

I think he started getting sick in 1991.

Before the internet.

He didn't know there were places
where he could go to learn meditation.

The wonderful thing
about the ripening of seeds is:

Our life now, our actions and careers
are already the ripening from the past.

And we can trust that we may not see
all the fruits in our own lifetime.

But the good seeds we water now

will continue to ripen over time.

So the question is:

What seeds are we watering?

When we were learning about mind,

and Sister Hero explained

that there's a part of our mind called 'manas'

which is the grasping part of our mind.

Which always wants
to take care of me and mine.

Me and mine,
it's to have, to hold.

To protect.

To appropriate.

To extract.

And we had some characteristics,

which I will just remind us of.

Appropriating,

surviving,

survival instinct,

avoiding pain,

seeking pleasure,

ignoring the danger of seeking pleasure,

ignoring the goodness of suffering,

and ignoring the law of moderation.

This is a couple of thousand years'
worth of Buddhist insight --

one and a half thousand years.
It came from a later phase of Buddhism --

about how our mind works.

And when we saw this on the board
the other day,

I don't know how many of you saw
that this doesn't only apply

only at the individual level.

Is this not quite an accurate description

of how humanity is living as a species

on this Earth?

We're appropriating the Earth.

We're exploiting it.

We think of our survival as being separate

of the survival of other species
and the Earth.

As a species, we like to avoid pain
and we definitely seek pleasure.

And we ignore the danger
of seeking pleasure.

And we ignore the goodness of suffering.

So these ones, number 3 to 7,

is our culture of consumerism.

Right there.

We consume because we can't bear
the feeling of pain inside.

We consume to cover up our suffering.

We think we need more things
because we think that we're not enough.

What we have is not enough.

And there's an economic system
that reminds us, that tells us

that we don't have enough,
all the time.

I was doing my anger check.

I'm going to speak from love.

[sound of the bell]

I'm also going to tell the truth.

In pursuit of profit,

marketing departments all over the world

tell us that we don't have enough.

According to the insights of Buddhism,

we do have enough.

The present moment is enough.

Each one of us is enough.

Our presence,
the presence of our loved ones,

to be able to walk deeply on the Earth,

listen to the birds and trees,
is enough to be happy.

We can live very simply and be happy.

I've heard quite a few
of you say this week:

It's been so powerful to touch
simplicity in these days.

To not be needing
these devices so much.

To not having to buy things online
while we're here.

Our level of consumerism
has gone right down.

And yet, our level of happiness
has gone right up.

We are touching the truth

that we have more
than enough conditions to be happy.

Our teacher once said something,
I find it very deep,

and quite brave.

He said: It's because as a species
we don't know what true happiness is.

That is why we are destroying our planet.

It's quite deep.

We don't know and haven't learned

how to touch true happiness
in our daily life.

We consume to cover up our pain.

We're seeking pleasure
to cover up our pain

because we don't know how
to find happiness in simplicity.

So we consume.

And that culture of consumerism
is destroying our planet.

This means it's really important

to be able to touch
the wonder of the present moment

in order to touch happiness
in a really simple way.

And it's really important
that each one of us

learns how to handle a painful feeling.

So that the first response
to our painful feeling

is not consuming.

Mindfulness can be our first response
to a painful feeling.

Being present. Meeting our self,
this is us, coming back:

The way out is in.

Meeting our self and our painful feelings

with tenderness, with kindness,

with curiosity.

In terms of ethics, it means that

an ethical corporation is one
that is not participating

in enhancing this mechanism.

But is helping people realise
that we have enough.

Helping people nourish true happiness.

Helping people handle painful feelings.

And we might say: Oh,
that's the role of education.

That is the role of society.

The role of ... something else.

But if our corporations
are truly in the service

of something more than profit,

ideally in the service of humanity,

and even bigger,
in the service of the planet,

we would need to be aware of this
ethical dimension to our operations

as an enterprise.

It's also really interesting,

we also have agency
and sovereignty as individuals

to free ourselves from the systems
of our own creation.

According to the insights of Buddhism,
we don't make the system,

or other corporations, or some
culture of consumerism outside of us,

responsible for this.

With the energy of mindfulness,
we expand our zone of free will.

We get to choose what to consume,

how to live.

We can set our self free
from these machines,

systems, mechanisms
of our own creation.

And that is why for us,

mindfulness has to do
with awakening and freedom.

It gives us so much more agency.

When we can transform this for ourselves,

because of this, the impact
we're having with our presence,

we are forming it for our children.

For our friends.

I remember our teacher saying:

One of the greatest skills we can develop
in our time in Plum Village is to learn

how to generate
a moment of happiness.

Because learning to generate
a moment of happiness

has something to do
with handling a painful feeling.

The two kind of go together.

We need a moment of happiness
when we're feeling low or down.

Or when we're feeling neutral.

Numb.
A bit 'meh'.

The skill of generating
a moment of happiness

is one of the best skills
we can learn here.

Because when we know how
to create a moment of happiness,

we can create such a moment
for our family.

We can create such a moment
for the teams we work with.

Or for our organisation as a whole.

It doesn't take much
to create a moment of happiness.

Thay even said we can create
a moment of happiness

whenever we want.

It's a tough one.

But I'm working on it.

It is possible to really
ask myself this question.

If I'm feeling neutral,
if I'm feeling low,

if I'm feeling not happy, not well,

I ask myself:
What can I do in this moment?

On this retreat we've been learning
many ways that we can do that.

Relaxing the body when the discomfort
we find is a physical discomfort.

Anxiety, restlessness, tension.

That's when we can
practise deep relaxation.

And on our app there are lots of
recordings you can use

as you go home from this retreat.

Sharing a meal with friends.
In person.

Not eating alone is a source
of joy and happiness.

But also, learning,
when we're eating alone,

to not feel that we're alone.

But to really see the whole planet
and cosmos and Mother Earth,

the miracle of life, in our sandwich,
in our lunchbox, in our food.

And to say: I will use my eye of insight

that even in this moment,
a part of me feels so alone to eat alone.

But I know that is not the whole truth.

I know that the whole cosmos
is supporting my lunch.

The whole cosmos
is supporting my apple.

And using the eye of insight,
we can flip a moment of loneliness

into a moment of happiness and connection
with the whole planet, the whole cosmos.

So when we speak about
what seeds we've been watering,

the name of these seeds, for those,
who have missed the presentation,

it could be fear. It could be anxiety.

It could be despair.

But it also could be happiness.

Gratitude, mindfulness.

Generosity.

A question for all of us is:

What seeds are we watering
in our daily life?

And what has that got to do
with transforming the system,

transforming our society?

Many of us, on this retreat,

we've had a feeling of fear,
or anger, or panic,

things aren't moving fast enough.

Scale and speed!

These may be seeds in our organisation.

The collective consciousness
of our organisation and teams.

Maybe it can be a really good exercise.

How are we all feeling?

Could you go home with your teams

and have a whiteboard and
name the compost, name the mud?

Maybe everyone has to write it
privately on a post-it note

and then you collect it up.

Maybe you need an equal number
of positive ones to negative ones.

What seeds are we watering?

I'm going to write
'culture of consumerism' here.

[CULTURE OF CONSUMERISM]

Maybe our culture of consumerism
is watering the seed of craving in us.

So one question is:

When we talk about having free will
to live differently on our planet,

how can we guard our mind

from the collective consciousness
watering our seed of craving all the time?

Every time we see an advertisement,
it's watering the seed of craving.

"If you have this product,
you will feel happier."

"If you have this product,
you will be cool and acceptable."

"You will have status."

"Having this product is
a mark of power or influence."

These seeds are being
watered in us all the time.

The power of mindfulness is
that it gives us the freedom

to choose to be different

and to operate outside
of this culture of consumerism.

In Buddhism we speak about fuel.

What is driving us?

Our deepest intention or volition.

We can also speak about that
as a seed in our consciousness.

For example ...
Some of us might have been this:

I'm going to have that kind of car
and my own house by the time I'm 30.

That is a volition and intention
that we set at a certain point

and it drives us.

We may have a volition and intention
to get a certain amount of money,

a certain paygrade,
maybe a certain status.

In Buddhism we have
a practise of deep inquiry

around what our volitions are.

It's kind of a technical term.

Volition.

What is our deepest concern?

Actually, according to
the wise ones in Buddhism,

Money, status, power,
and even, kind of, sensual pleasures,

they don't cut it.

It might be what you crave
or think you crave,

or society tells you you should crave,

but it might not be
what's most important to you.

What you really want.

What you really want to offer.

And I have the feeling
that for many of you,

one of the flavours of your volition
is you want to be of service.

Of service to society,
to support inclusiveness,

non-discrimination,

for your life to help people
fall in love with the Earth,

and protect the planet.

To have a more equitable
economic system.

That is a fantastic volition.

We say that our volition is like a fire
in our, kind of, belly.

And we have to feed it
and keep it alive every day.

And we have to really know
what is most important to us.

And maybe the How of how
we're doing our deepest dreams --

sometimes we also call volition
our deepest desire --

[DEEPEST DESIRE]

The How of realising
is as important as the What.

If we sacrifice our friends
and family and health

in order to take care of the planet,

maybe we haven't taken care of the planet

in the way that future
generations need us to.

Maybe that isn't the way
to be a good ancestor

for the future of the planet,
because we're patterning in

not taking care of our health,
sacrificing friends and family,

we're patterning that in to society.

A really deep insight that Thay had
about volition and desire

is that it is a way to transform manas.

He used a technical term:
We sublimate manas

in the service of our good intention,
our deepest desire.

He had the image that manas
had kind of appropriated --

if you remember
this energy of appropriating --

a part of store consciousness
in saying: "This is me."

"This is me, here."

And he said that we can transform manas

into a lotus.

And that it can be a lotus
of serving society,

serving the world.

And we take our survival instinct,

which Sister Hero described
as the energy of vitality.

We have a life force

that becomes our deepest desire.

That, then, is self-reinforcing.

We take care of our pain.

We take care of generating
moments of happiness.

We understand the goodness
of embracing the compost.

We understand that
we don't want to waste time

on streaming and screens.

We understand the law of moderation

because we have got something
much more important to do

with our waking days and hours.

I would like to read a part of ...

We have an ethical code in Plum Village.

We will now go into the applied ethics
part of everything I've been saying.

We have a particular ethical principle

which we can describe as
having the right kind of fuel.

[RIGHT FUEL]

And this is what it says:

Aware of the suffering
caused by unmindful consumption,

I'm committed to cultivating good health,

both physical and mental,

for myself, my family and my society

by practising mindful eating,
drinking and consuming.

Consuming edible foods,
sensory impressions,

consuming volition -- because
we say it's a kind of food,

it gets us out of bed
in the morning, just like the coffee.

And consuming consciousness.

What's really interesting in Buddhism
is that we say we consume our environment.

The consciousness of our environment.

That's why, if our team is struggling
and having a lot of fear and anxiety,

we will feel fear and anxiety.

If there is a lot of despair
and loneliness in the world,

say after the pandemic,
if we say that it increased,

as some of the research seems to show.

That collective consciousness is going
to affect our individual consciousness.

We're feeling not only our own pain,

but the pain of our society.

It's as though we're eating
collective consciousness.

Here's another line from
this principle of right fuel.

I am determined --
so, aware of the suffering

caused by unmindful consumption --

I am determined not to try
to cover up loneliness,

anxiety, or other suffering,
by losing myself in consumption

I will contemplate interbeing

and consume in a way
that preserves peace,

joy and wellbeing in my body
and consciousness

and in the collective
body and consciousness

of my family, my society, and the Earth.

When we speak
about individual transformation

and systems transformation,

our systems are an expression

of individuals, of humanity.

When we transform
our own way of consuming,

we have the right to ask
of the organisations we're in

as a business: Are we helping people

consume in a way that preserves
peace, joy, and wellbeing?

These ethics start with ourselves,

but apply to our livelihoods, too.

We have another ethical principle.

It's about simplicity.

We could call it Deep Simplicity.

[DEEP SIMPLICITY]

The last few days, we've touched
simplicity in so many ways.

We've done all sorts of normal things.

I hope you noticed everything
we did is quite normal.

We walked. We ate.

We had conversations.

We listened to presentations.

We sat. We laid down.

But we did it in a way
that was restful and healing.

One question coming away
from this retreat is:

How can I have more of this restful
simplicity in my daily life?

If we have the advantage
of working from home,

maybe you, after having lunch,

you can follow a ten or twenty minute
relaxation on the Plum Village app.

That's a great joy
of working from home.

In the newsroom, I had
to use the toilet cubicle

for my body scan relaxations.

Luckily, the toilets were very fancy.

That's where I did my deep relaxation

in moments of crisis.

This is another thing: Relaxation
can be applied in moments of real panic.

I used to work on a live TV show
and we lost our guest at 9 am.

And we broadcast at 2 pm.

My boss just said:
"Find a replacement!"

And I was like ...
(gulps).

I realised I wasn't breathing
and thought: I know what to do.

So I went to sit on the toilet
and do my deep relaxation.

And it's amazing because the mind
that exited that body scan

after 10 or 15 minutes
was so much clearer and calmer.

It had so much more resources
to solve the problem.

So, deep relaxation

a bit of a tip here.

You can use it in moments of crisis.

So: Deep Simplicity.
We've had rest and deep relaxation.

We've also had time in nature.

It's very important to spend time
in the world we want to save.

That's what we want to transmit
to future generations.

A love and an intimacy
with the world we want to protect.

So, coming back home from this retreat,

how will you make sure --

maybe it needs to be
a scheduled item in your calendar

called: Time in nature.

Whether it is one tree
near your office,

this one park,
one corner of garden.

The plants on your window sill.

And you sit and enjoy being
with the plants while having a cup of tea.

How will you spend time,
in silence, with nature,

and enjoy that simple happiness

that feeling of enough-ness.

Another element of this retreat

that has made the simplicity so delicious

has been that we've enjoyed
this retreat in person.

With other people.

We are social beings.

How, as teams, with family, with friends,

can we make an effort,
or organise our life differently,

so that we truly have
in-person quality time together?

I would say that is an ethical principle.

To show up.

In Buddhism,
community is so important.

One of our principles
of being in community

is to gather under one roof.

So we have to gather
in person, in real life,

under one roof,
with those we love.

This life is very short.

Life is very short.

It is truly nourishing and fulfilling
to be with people we care about.

I spoke about enough-ness.

In Buddhism, we say:

this is partly because of something
I said at the beginning

about the present moment
containing the past and the future,

that is why we can say

that this moment is enough.

It is enough.

In this moment,
each one of us is enough.

I am enough.

You are enough.

As Brother Spirit shared,
there was that line:

You already are
what you want to become.

This insight belongs
to the ultimate dimension.

The insight of enough-ness.

In our daily life,
each one of us

needs to find a way
to kind of cycle into

that beautiful ultimate dimension
and spend some time

in a moment of enough-ness.

Maybe five minutes in the morning,
while you enjoy a cup of tea.

It may be the ten minutes of relaxation
after a really difficult work morning.

It might be sitting down
for a meal with family and friends

and just saying silently to yourself:

This is enough.

This IS enough.

We are enough.

And that sense of
living in the present moment

is ultimately the only moment
that is available.

It's a truism, but it's still so true!

That future is not there
and will never be there.

There will only be present moments.

And if we can't enjoy
this present moment,

how will future generations ever know
how to enjoy a present moment?

So we cycle in to
this insight of enough-ness.

This is enough.
I am enough.

And we make it a training
and a practise.

In Buddhism we speak about koans.

Write it on a piece of paper.

Maybe Brother Phap Huu
can do some calligraphies.

Put it somewhere where you might
like to sit and enjoy a cup of tea.

And you breathe and touch
that insight that you are enough.

Because if we spend 24 hours a day

feeling that we're not enough.

We are corroding our humanity

and corroding our access
to the wonders of life.

It's a real training.

There was something
a journalist once asked our teacher.

"Are you an optimist or a pessimist
when it comes to environmental issues?

It was a journalist from
The Independent in the UK.

And I thought:
How will Thay handle this?

Thay was very tired
during the whole interview.

Thay was quiet for a very long time
and suddenly he went:

An optimist!

And I thought:
OK! What is he going to say now?

And he said:

We can be at peace because
we know we've done our best.

We are doing our best
and we know we have done our best.

In his optimism

was also the seed of trust
in the ripening of his seeds.

We do our best and that is
why we can have peace.

And that is why you can guard for yourself

five minutes of saying
"I am enough."

"We are enough."
"My team is enough."

"My organisation is enough."

Because we are doing our best.

And that is why we can have peace.

And at the same time,

we can cycle out of the ultimate

and always challenge ourselves:
"Am I doing my best?"

And our friends can also challenge us.

So we spend time in the ultimate.

It's very nice, every day, a few minutes.

And we come back out
and really keep challenging

in that pragmatic, historical realm

"What else could we do?"

But not with a feeling of scarcity,

but one of possibility.

What else could we do?

And we can ask ourselves:

Are we asking the right questions?

about our culture of consumerism?

Are we asking the right questions
about economic systems?

That is quite a challenge.

And I think in the B Team
as an organisation,

this is something you're concerned with.

I think, with Global Optimism,
this is what you're concerned with.

Are we asking the right questions
of the problem?

Have we defined the problem?

If we want to challenge or transform

our individualistic,
consumerist, capitalist culture,

we can ask questions I heard this morning:
Is there enough love in it?

What is the role of love there?

Is there love in our organisations?
Is there love in our teams?

How can we bring compassion into this?

How can we question things
that we're not yet questioning?

In this principle
of Deep Simplicity, we say:

Aware of the suffering caused
by exploitation, social injustice,

stealing and oppression,

Aware of the suffering caused
by exploitation, social injustice,

stealing and oppression,

i am committed to practising generosity

in my thinking, speaking and acting.

I am determined not to steal

and not to possess anything
that should belong to others.

And I will share my time,

energy and material resources

with those who are in need.

There's a bit more,
and then another line is:

I am committed to practising
Right Livelihood.

so that I can help reduce the suffering
of living beings on Earth

and stop contributing to climate change.

This second ethical principle,
we can practise and embody

as an individual, but we can also
apply it at an organisational level.

I was very happy to discover
that the B Team

has some responsible tax principles.

I don't know if there's anyone here
who's involved in that particular project.

OK! Thank you so much!

So, it's a wonderful way of
applying this ethical principle

to organisations.

How can organisations be transparent
and have transparent tax practises?

That it's not all about
avoiding and obfuscating

and calibrating,
but there's genuine ethical integrity

at the organisational level about the need
to contribute back to society.

This is applying the line
"I'm determined not to steal

and not to possess anything
that should belong to others."

We can say that the principle of taxation
applied by a democratic system

is about equity. It's about inclusion.

We can't say that that profit
belongs only to that company.

Just like the whole cosmos
is in the flower, or the apple,

the whole cosmos is in that profit.

So we share back that profit
with the spirit of reciprocity.

We could also apply
that principle of reciprocity maybe to

I'm just going to throw out some ideas,
they may be controversial,

but I'll be brave,

salary ratios in organisations.

Between the top of the organisation
and the bottom.

Maybe there can be
some ethical principles.

We're taking the work on the tax framework

Can we also have another
ethical framework about salaries?

And with this ethical principle --

I will hand you all out
a copy of this sheet, don't worry.

With this ethical principle, we can say

that fossil fuel subsidies
are not ethically OK.

It is a simple moral truth.

This gives us the language
to describe that.

It is not possible to use shared resources

to subsidise something
that is destroying the planet.

That is ethically not acceptable.

And as Buddhists,

we can feel fearless just to name it.

And we can support others to also
name it in the language of ethics.

I know that being bold and brave

is part of the B Team's mission.

I'm just kind of going there.

There has been some interesting research.

I recently saw a paper
published last year.

about how our economic system
is still globally inequitable.

There was some very powerful research

revealing the drain
from the Global South

through the unequal exchange of resources.

There was a very powerful way

of measuring labour, land,
resources, investment,

that is being done
in the Global South to make it possible

to have the economies of the Global North.

And this paper concluded

that colonialism is still operating

at the economic level

however much we tell ourselves
stories otherwise.

We could apply this ethical principle

to a commentary on that.

With this ethical principle
also about not taking,

not stealing, not taking,
being generous,

we can recognise that
we live on a finite planet.

And that must mean:
Finite growth of a certain kind.

We cannot have infinite growth
on a finite planet.

I also remember a journalist ...
I can't remember if it was you, Jo.

I don't know if Jo
is sitting here somewhere.

I wasn't hearing his loud laughter.
So maybe that's why.

I think it might have been Jo
who asked Thay once

when Thay was teaching at
Nottingham University in the UK,

and he asked him:
"But Thay ...

you do like growth as a principle.

You want to grow your monastery.

You want to grow your reach and impact.

You want lots of people
to hear your dharma.

So you can't be anti-growth."

And Thay, he smiled.
He quite likes people being cheeky.

He smiled and said:

"That is true. But we know
what we want to grow.

We want to grow compassion.
We want to grow wisdom.

We want to grow community spirit,
a sense of community.

And yes, we might need to grow
in terms of resources.

But in the service of that.

We're not seeking growth
for growth's sake or for profit itself."

(whispers) OK, I know.

We have a couple of other principles.

One is reverence for life.

[REVERENCE FOR LIFE]

Reverence for life also involves
the spirit of non-violence

and not killing.

Not extracting. Not exploiting.

Aware of the suffering
caysed by the destruction of life,

I'm committed to cultivating
the insight of interbeing and compassion

and learning ways to protect
the lives of people,

animals, plants and minerals.

I'm determined not to kill,

not to let others kill,

and not to support any
active killing in the world

in my thinking,
or in my way of life.

Seeing that harmful actions

arise from anger,

fear, greed, and intolerance,

which in turn come from dualistic
and discriminative thinking,

I commit to cultivating

openness, non-discrimination,

and non-attachment to views

in order to help transform violence,

fanaticism and dogmatism
in myself and in the world.

This is how we as Buddhists

apply the principle
of Reverence for Life.

So caring for the world can be
an intellectual idea,

or it can be a practise
that we express with our body.

So we invite you
to ask yourself this question.

I care for society,
I care for the Earth,

how are my bodily actions showing that?

As you have realised,
we do believe

that a plant-based diet is one very

possible and yet radical step
that each one of us can go towards.

We're not judging or
being dogmatic about it,

which is also a principle
of this training.

In ethics, we're saying:

That is a direction we can all go in.

And it's an easy way
to practise non-violence

in our daily life.

When we speak about

non-violence here,

sometimes we might think that
this just relates to physical violence.

But we would also say that our thinking
can be violent and extractive.

Our speaking can be violent.

As well as our behaviour.

Here, it could be our way of consuming.

We're also not absolutist.

This is a very interesting principle
about Buddhist ethics.

If I had three hours today,

I could share with you
some more of the criteria

about how we apply our principles
in different situations.

One of them is that we never apply them
in an absolutist, puritanical way.

And I know that in the B Team

and in many corporations
who would like to go good things,

the danger is that you end up
in the center of a circular firing squad.

Others are always pointing the finger

and we may have a fear
of ethical principles

because we don't want them
to become a stick

that we beat other people with.

So in the Buddhist principles of ethics,

they are not a stick.

We like to describe them
as a North Star.

A direction of travel.

The applying of which

has a lot of space in it,
a lot of compassion and patience.

A lot of openness.

And that first of all these principles
are something that we ourselves do

as individuals, as teams,
and as organisations.

So we kind of walk the talk.

The ethical principles are something
we can have a conversation around.

But we don't use them
to blame, to judge, or to punish.

That's something about Buddhist ethics.

Very briefly.

We've learnt a lot about another one

which is about
compassionate communication.

[COMPASSIONATE COMMUNICATION]

I won't say much more about that.

But for us,

our way of communicating
in integrity and honesty

while also being skillful

and patient, and aware
of the impact of our words,

and we've learnt a lot
about that this week.

The final principle is about True Love.

[TRUE LOVE]

What's really interesting
about Buddhist ethics

is that we include
our intimate relationships

in the orbit of our ethical action.

How we are with those we love.

Are we able to respect our partner?

Can we allow them to be different?

Can we embrace their shortcomings?

Can we help them
transform their suffering?

How can we see them
as a wonder of life?

How can we not take them for granted?

When we say what can Buddhists
contribute to a global ethic,

we might say that maybe the B Team

could develop some
kind of compassionate ethics

to bring -- and I will now pass around --

For some of the home team,

You don't need to see them.

I only printed 40 copies to save paper.

Those are the five mindfulness
trainings, the Plum Village vision

of ethics and what we could
call global spirituality.

Wouldn't it be an interesting challenge

to see if there could be a written code
just like the tax principles?

If there could be a written code
to express the kind of ethics

we would like to see
in our corporate world.

So this text that you see,

our teacher has been evolving over time

and he was very passionate
about renewing it in 2009,

and the latest update
was last year.

It's something we're continuing to evolve.

It's a living document.

We should not be afraid
to define our values.

I think sometimes,
because we're here in Europe

oh, I don't want to say that,
what do I want to say?

In the Judeo-Christian north,
is that what I want to say?

We're in a slightly
post-religious era.

And we get very afraid
about defining ethics

and a moral compass.

Our teacher has taught our community
that we don't need to be afraid

about saying what is right
and what is wrong

in the light of suffering.

So as you see each of those principles,

it's framed by awareness of the
suffering caused by certain actions.

Based on our insight into suffering,

we can come up with behaviours

to reduce suffering in ourselves,
our family and the world.

And it's OK to define
harmful behaviours.

Sometimes we can feel
that we don't want to shame others.

Something I've learnt
here in this community

is that we can say:
"That behaviour is not OK"

while still loving the person.

We love the person for who they are

and we recognise that
all humans have shortcomings.

And yet we can still

point out that this or
that action is not correct

and it's not ethical.

And as a society,
we have to have that courage

to have an open conversation.

And to trust in ourselves.

And to trust in the wisdom
of our ancestors.

I want to finish with something
that our teacher said.

It came up in our group the other day.

In the realm of ethics
and spirituality,

we cannot allow "others"

to monopolise God and spirituality.

And to use it
in the service of intolerance,

hatred, discrimination, dogmatism,
even craving and greed.

We cannot allow others to monopolise,
he even used the word "hijack",

to hijack God and spirituality

in the service of those things.

I may be thinking that the others here ...

I don't know if I need to spell it out.

If we think of
the conservative Christian right,

we can ask: Have they hijacked God

in the service of intolerance,
hatred, discrimination, dogmatism

and even craving or greed?

To take care of themselves,
their own survival,

the survival of the few.

The few who have the same beliefs.

The same values.
The same ethnicity.

And our teacher was asked

after John Kerry lost
the election in 2005,

a very narrow margin,

by some counts,

he was asked:

How is it possible?

Why did ... why did the goodness
of the country fail in that moment?

That was 2005.
We've all lived through 2016.

It was traumatic for people in the US
and traumatic for people in the UK.

This is what Thay said:

"I think if the Democratic Party
didn't succeed this time,

it is because they lacked
a spiritual dimension.

They allowed the other side
to monopolise God,

to hijack God,
in the direction of division,

hate, discrimination, non-tolerance.

And they want to suggest
the other side is condoning

all sorts of things that they claim
go against the will of God."

And Thay said:
"This is fundamentalist thinking.

It's dangerous thinking."

And then he said:

"We need a God of compassion.

We need a God of non-discrimination.

A God of tolerance.
We need a God of love.

And if we don't come together
and practise together,

in order to bring the spiritual
dimension into our daily life,

I guess that we will
not be able to succeed

in our future attempts.

To be spiritual is not something
very far from our daily life."

So if you've never heard
our teacher speak,

he used God as a way
to describe the ultimate dimension.

His God is very inclusive.

Of the gods that many of us might
recognise in our upbringing

and that many of us still hold dear.

So, to be spiritual is something
not far from our daily life.

"We are spiritual in the way
we drink our tea," he said.

In the way we walk.

In the way, when people say
something with hatred and anger,

our response can carry
spirituality in it.

That's the compassionate communication.

"That is spirituality.

That is a training.
That is life."

And then he said:
"This is why peace

social justice and equality
should always begin with ourselves.

We have to learn
to deal with ourselves,

to handle ourselves with compassion,

so that we can be
with our families with compassion

and help other families do the same.

And that is the spirit
of community-building.

Even ... "

This is a really amazing line.

"Even if you have a perfect
analysis of the situation.

Even if you have a plan
of action that is perfect.

Without this kind of spiritual
training or practise,

without a spiritual dimension
to your way of being and doing,

I don't think that you can succeed."

And then he said:

(laughs) "Thank you."

[laughter]

I would also like to thank you.

Thank you for your patience.
For listening to me.

I have done my best.
And that is why I can be at peace.

[sound of the bell]

[sound of the bell]

[sound of the bell]

[chime]