Calligraphy: The Mindful Art of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (short film)

Calligraphy: The Mindful Art of
Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh

Doing calligraphy for Thầy
is a practice of meditation

Each session of calligraphy
begins with the tea

I never write calligraphy without
having a cup of tea first

I always mix ……

tea with ink

Therefore when you look deeply
into the ink

You see the tea inside

And when I hold the brush

I begin to breath in

and for making the circle I begin here

and I breath in mindfully

So you can see my in breath

in this circle

There is a calm, there is a concentration

there is mindfulness and there is love

Brother Phap Huu:
When we practise calligraphy

our teacher would explain
it is an expression of mindfulness

We are in the Sitting Still Hut
(Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France)

This is where Thầy, our teacher,
Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh

would do a lot of his calligraphies

or we can call it
the wisdom of our teacher’s practice

as well as
the wisdom of our teacher’s insight

So calligraphy is
one of the ways of expressing art

and it is also a very beautiful
mindful practice

For example, when our teacher writes

“I have arrived. I am home”

So in the time of writing

we are also practising that Dharma

“I have arrived. I am at home”
in every brushstroke

Calligraphy is an art

and one thing that
Thầy has told me is that

whenever he practises,
he likes to practise no self, non-self

Sometimes when Thầy would do a circle

he would invite his teacher
to do the circle with him

or he would invite the Buddha
to do the circle with him

So in that way, in that practice

our teacher is comtemplating continuation

“I am the continuation of my teacher.”

“I am the continuation of the Buddha.”

And if they do the practice of calligraphy

then the circle, the calligraphy
would be done much more beautiful

Thích Nhất Hạnh: the “me”
is made of “non-me” elements

and that is why
when you practice calligraphy

you can touch the insight of no self

of inter-being

because you cannot be by yourself alone

You have to inter-be with the whole cosmos

and that is why
calligraphy can be a deep practice

and while you do calligraphy
you get concentration

you get mindfulness

you get the insight

and the insight of inter-being,
the insight on no-self

has the power to liberate us

from fear, anger, suffering, separation

and discrimination

“Vượt thời gian” - Beyond time

Thích Nhất Hạnh:
Do you understand this verse?

Listening to the Dharma in
the ultimate dimension

I see the autumn leaves fall

occupying the whole sky

I see the autumn moon

on every path, old path

but the Dharma is neither full nor empty