Bodhicitta: The Mind of Love & Enlightenment | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

In the Buddhist tradition, we speak of a kind of mind.

It's called "beginner's mind."

The beginner's mind is a very beautiful mind,

a source of energy,

the willingness to practice,

to gain freedom, release, and enlightenment,

and to serve others.

That is a tremendous source of energy that makes us very alive, very dynamic.

And with that source of energy, called beginner's mind,

we're not afraid of obstacles.

We are ready to surmount,

to overcome all kinds of obstacles

in order to realize our dream,

our intention,

our aspiration.

That is the willingness to get enlightened,

to get free in order to serve other living beings.

Siddhartha Gautama, when he left home at the age of 29,

had a very strong aspiration to practice.

At the age of 35, he got enlightened.

And he was able to begin serving humanity and other living beings.

And we, who are friends of the Buddha, who are his disciples,

we want to have that kind of aspiration, too.

We want to have that kind of willingness, too.

We want to have that kind of energy, too, so that we are strong enough to continue

with our practice to free ourselves and to serve other people.

And that is why our retreat has the title "Cultivating the Mind of Love."

The mind of love is the beginner's mind.

It's very beautiful, very strong.

And as a practitioner, we have to nourish that mind

so that it will last for a long time.

Because when we can keep that mind alive, we'll always be full of energy

in order to go on with the practice,

no matter how difficult the situation is.

So during this retreat, many of us have allowed the mind of love,

the mind of enlightenment,

to arise in our heart.

And if we know how to feed, how to maintain that mind of love,

the mind of enlightenment, "bodhicitta," alive,

then we will have enough energy to continue with our practice to serve other people.

We know that there's a lot of suffering in the world.

And sometimes we feel helpless.

But with bodhicitta, the mind of love, the mind of enlightenment,

we are not discouraged.

We'll be able to continue

so that we can relieve the suffering in us

and help relieve the suffering in society and in the world.

Today's Dharma talk will be a little bit difficult for those who come for the first time,

but if you have attended the first, second, third, or fourth day of this retreat,

it will be an easy Dharma talk.

It's only a continuation of the other talks.

Maybe if you have the CD of the other talks,

they will help us to understand deeply the talk today,

which is very much the cream of the teaching of the Buddha,

made into a short presentation.

In Buddhism, we speak of two kinds of truths:

the conventional truth and the ultimate truth.

And both kinds of truths are useful.

And in science also,

there are two kinds of truths.

There's a classical science represented by Newton.

It's equivalent to the conventional truth in Buddhism.

And there is modern physics with quantum physics,

quantum mechanics.

It has a very different way of looking at reality, of understanding reality.

And it also helps us understand the true nature of reality.

And in order to go to the second truth,

you have to be able to release what you have learned from the conventional truth.

What you have learned from Newton,

you have to release in order to truly understand

quantum mechanics and so on.

This is the same with the Buddhist teaching.

There is the conventional truth, where we speak of birth and death,

Buddha and living beings, enlightenment and delusion,

suffering and happiness.

But when we come to the ultimate truth, all these ideas about birth and death,

beginning and ending, inside/outside,

suffering and happiness, we have to overcome

in order to leave them behind before we can understand the absolute, ultimate truth.

And that kind of insight is the highest.

When you are able to touch the ultimate reality, you might call it God.

But in Buddhism, we do not use the word "God"; we use the word "suchness," the ultimate reality.

When we touch the ultimate reality, we are free from all notions,

including the notion of being and non-being, inside/outside,

subject and object.

In neuroscience, people still

struggle a little bit about

consciousness and the world of reality.

According to them, consciousness is something subjective "in here,"

and reality is something "outside."

So how can the consciousness inside

reach out in order to understand the reality outside?

And science has begun to discover the truth,

that you cannot be an observer standing outside of the object you observe.

In order to understand, you should stop being an observer from the outside.

You should try to become a participant.

And scientists have already begun to speak about that.

So in order for true understanding to be possible,

you have to remove the frontier

between the observer and the object being observed,

whether that is an electron, or an atom,

or anything.

But if you think that you are an observer completely outside the object you observe,

there's no hope that you can truly understand the object of your observation.

You should try to be a participant, and not merely an observer from outside.

Modern science has begun to see that.

The insight that the Buddha got at the foot of the Bodhi Tree

is the kind of insight that helped him to be liberated from all fear, anger, and despair.

And that insight you have to get directly, and not through explanation.

Because when you explain, you offer notions and concepts.

But notions and concepts can never be the reality.

Suppose there is someone who has never eaten a fruit called kiwi,

and you try to tell him what the taste of the kiwi fruit is.

No matter how many notions and concepts you have,

it's impossible for him to get the true taste of the kiwi.

So true insight is like that.

Prajna, insight, is like that.

We can speak about insight,

but we are using notions and concepts.

We can make good use of notions and concepts in order to practice deep looking.

Deep looking is meditation, and we can get the insight by ourselves.

Insight cannot be given to us by another person.

If you don't eat the kiwi, you cannot understand, you cannot experience

the true taste of kiwi. You only have a notion.

That kind of insight, from time to time, is called Right View in Buddhism.

And Right View is one of the eight elements of the Noble Path,

presented by the Buddha.

There's a path leading to liberation and true happiness.

It's called the Noble Eightfold Path.

And we have learned about Right Mindfulness, which is one element,

Right Concentration, which is another element of the path.

And when we speak of Right View,

that is another element of the path. After that, we have Right Thinking,

Right Speech, Right Action, Right Diligence, we have learned.

And Right Livelihood.

And the Five Mindfulness Trainings that many of us received today, this morning,

is a very concrete expression of that path.

The path of Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action,

Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, Right Mindfulness, and Concentration.