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Sister Dao Nghiem,
are you comfortable?
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- Very comfortable, Thây.
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And you, sister Jina?
- Me too, Thây.
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Can we start?
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Very good.
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Welcome dear friends,
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welcome dear colleagues
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welcome to this Francophone retreat
for teachers and educators.
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Me too, I am a teacher.
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And I love my job!
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And I know very well that
you love your job too.
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You want to form
young men and women...
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to be healthy, happy,
capable of being happy
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and capable of making
those around them happy.
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Our mission is not just
to transmit knowledge,
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but to form men, to construct
a worthy, beautiful,
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human race,
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in order to take care
of our precious planet.
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I am very fortunate
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because the people
- especially the young people -
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who have come here,
have the same ideal.
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They want to learn
in order to transform themselves,
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in order to live happily and
help others live happily too.
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So every time I walk into
my classroom, there is happiness.
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Every time!
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There is some sort of mutual understanding
between teacher and student.
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There is also...
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a sort of brotherhood.
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which makes the work of teaching
and studying much easier.
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I always inform myself about...
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the life of my students.
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I tell them my difficulties,
my hopes and things like that.
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So communication
is always possible.
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We know that the children,
the students of today
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have a lot of suffering in them.
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This is because their parents suffer.
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Their parents cannot
communicate with each other.
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And it is not easy to communicate
between parents and child.
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So there is some sort of
loneliness, a kind of vacuum,
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a kind of emptiness in the child.
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And the child tries to fill up
this emptiness in him with videogames
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and things like that.
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You know this all too well.
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So there is an enormous amount
of suffering in young people.
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That makes the work of teaching
a lot more difficult.
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And then we ourselves,
we have difficulties too.
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We try our very best
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but the environment, our family
and the colleagues we work with
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have a lot of difficulties in them.
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So, it is hard.
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And if teachers, colleagues
are not happy
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how can we make the children happy?
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This is a major issue!
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And we do not have enough
patience, enough understanding,
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enough freshness and compassion
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to be able to confront all of that.
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So there is...
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a certain spiritual dimension we need
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to help us to transform
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and to begin to help people
around us to transform,
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beginning with our
family members and our partner.
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And then...
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if we succeed in this practice,
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we become more pleasant,
more smiling and compassionate.
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So we will be able to help
our colleagues to do the same.
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And we will bring
this practice into our class.
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So the first step is to
come back,
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to come back to yourself.
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The way out!
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We are looking for a way out.
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But the way out begins with the way in.
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Can you draw something,
brother Pháp Linh?
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There it is!
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It is the coming back
to yourself
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in order to be able to
take care of yourself,
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in order to be able to handle
the difficulties you have.
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And here we have
the practice methods.
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And we can practice together joyfully.
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Through mindful breathing, we can
bring our mind back to our body
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and take care of our body first.
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There is tension,
there is pain in our body.
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And with this practice
you can come back to your body
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and recognize the tension and
suffering which is present in the body
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and breathe in such a way
that we can let go of this suffering.
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And one hour of practice
can already change a lot.
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An exercise proposed by the Buddha:
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"Breathing in, I am aware of my body."
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I have come back to my body
and my body is a wonder,
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but it does not have
enough peace right now.
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And if there is no peace in the body
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it will be more difficult
to obtain peace in the mind
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Body and mind are always together.
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So we have to begin with the body.
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In the sitting position, walking
standing or lying down,
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we can very well practice
to relax the body.
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That is the main thing.
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Sitting on the bus,
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or in the car,
you can do it too.
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While preparing breakfast,
you can do it too.
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While washing the dishes,
you can do it too.
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So we have a lot of time to do this.
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Relaxing the body is very important.
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And there are exercises
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that help us recognize
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the wonders of life,
the beauty of nature
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that are available
in the present moment.
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It is easy.
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When you breathe in
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and if you bring your attention
completely to your in breath
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then you can already stop all thinking.
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We think a lot, but our thoughts
are not productive.
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We get more and more
confused while thinking.
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I think, therefore
I am not really there.
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I think, therefore
I am lost in my thinking.
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So...
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if you bring your attention
only to your in breath
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- even if the in breath lasts
only two or three seconds -
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you stop thinking,
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and you are free from the past,
the future and free from your projects.
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And your in breath can be pleasant.
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For a practitioner an in breath
can be very pleasant.
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You are alive.
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You are taking an in breath.
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It is a miracle!
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He or she who is already dead
cannot take an in breath.
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I breathe in,
therefore I am alive.
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And being alive is a wonder,
the greatest wonder of the world!
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So it gives you pleasure
when you take an in breath.
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And...
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when you are taking this in breath
you bring your mind back to your body,
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because in every day life
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the body is often there
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while the mind is elsewhere,
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caught in the past, in the future
in your projects or in your anger.
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So body and mind are not together.
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And when the situation presents itself
like that, you are not really alive.
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The mind has to be with the body
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in order for you to be there
and to live this moment deeply,
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every moment of your life.
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And when body and mind are together
you are completely alive and present
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and you will recognize all
the wonders of life that are there:
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the sun, the trees, the birds.
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The Kingdom of God is available
right here and right now.
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It is the mere and simple recognition
of the beauty of the wonders of life.
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And you can also become aware that
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you are very fortunate,
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more than others.
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You have the chance to live
happily in the here and now.
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If you have the time you can...
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write down on a piece of paper, all
the conditions of happiness that
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you already have and not have
to look for in the future.
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I can assure you: one page
will not be enough.
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Two pages will not be enough.
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Nor three or four pages!
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You are so fortunate. You have
so many conditions of happiness.
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And happiness is possible here and now.
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And that is the teaching of the Buddha.
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The French have a song about this:
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"What are we waiting for to be happy?"
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So there is an exercise that
helps us recognize this,
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the wonders of life,
the Kingdom of God,
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the conditions of happiness
that are available.
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And you can generate a feeling of joy,
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a feeling of happiness,
no matter where, no matter when.
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A real practitioner of mindfulness
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is able to...
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generate a feeling of joy
and happiness no matter when.
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It is the art of happiness.
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It is simple.
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It is easy.
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Anyone can do it.
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And then there are two exercises.
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When a painful feeling begins to rise up,
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when a painful emotion begins to rise up,
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you can breathe in such a way that
you can generate the energy of mindfulness
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in order to recognize
this feeling, this emotion.
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and embrace it tenderly.
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And you bring relief
after a couple of minutes of practice.
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It is very important.
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We have to listen to...
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our own suffering...
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in our body, in our feelings and emotions.
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The other person also has this.
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He has suffering in him.
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So he talks, he acts
in such a way that makes us suffer,
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He does not do it because
he has the intention to make us suffer,
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but because he cannot
handle this suffering in him.
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And us, practitioners, we know
how to handle suffering.
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Handling suffering is an art!
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We can talk about the art of happiness
and we can talk about the art of suffering.
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We have to learn how to suffer.
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He who knows how to suffer,
suffers much less than the other people.
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Believe me.
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The person who knows how to suffer
suffers much less than other people.
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It is a fact.
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And if you are capable of
seeing this suffering in him
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you no longer suffer.
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Poor guy, poor friend, poor colleague!
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He has so much suffering in him.
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He does not know how
to handle this suffering.
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He does that and suffers
and makes other people suffer.
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So when you react like that,
there is compassion in your eyes.
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And when you look
at people with compassion
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you do not suffer.
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Compassion is an antidote to anger.
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And it is very easy to generate
the energy of compassion,
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very easy to recognize
the enormous suffering in him or her.
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And you have compassion
with him, with her.
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And you can always smile
gently and compassionately.
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She will be surprised:
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"How do you do that?
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Other people would react
with anger in a situation like that.
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But you, you are relaxed,
you smile, you have compassion."
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And like this we can help other people.
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So...
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making a comeback is the first step.
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And after that, you can continue to help
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your partner and
the members of your family.
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Because the other person has witnessed
this transformation in you
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and because he believes you
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he can succeed just like you
if he acts the same
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and the reconciliation, the restoration
of communication will be possible,
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because loving speech and
compassionate listening always help
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to restore communication
and bring about reconciliation.
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"Dear friend, I know you have
suffered a lot in the years passed.
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I have not been able to help you.
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I reacted in such a way that I made
the situation more complicated.
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Dear friend, it is not my intention
to make you suffer.
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I did it because I did not see and
understand the huge suffering in you.
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You have to help me, my friend.
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You have to tell me
everything that is in your heart:
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your difficulties, your suffering.
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I am convinced that I will not react
the way I did in the past anymore
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if I only knew your suffering.
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And you have to help me, my friend,
you have to tell me what is on your heart."
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That is loving speech!
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And that is the key the can open
the door to someone's heart.
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It is very effective!
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Even after five years of difficulties
he will tell you what is on his heart.
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And now you can practice
like Avalokiteshvara:
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listening with compassion,
just listening.
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Compassionate listening...
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serves one single purpose:
helping the other person empty his heart
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so he will suffer less.
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So, even if he says
things that are incorrect,
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you can not interrupt him.
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You have to let him talk,
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talk and talk.
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Maybe later you will have the time
to offer some information
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that helps him to correct his perception.
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But not now!
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Very effective!
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Restoring communication and
bringing about reconciliation.
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And...
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with the collaboration between
teacher, his partner and his family
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we can make another...step:
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We can do something about
our work environment
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including our colleagues and our students.
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We know that the majority
of our colleaugues
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has suffering in him.
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If we have understanding
and compassion inside
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we already suffer much less
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when those things,
when those people explode.
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So we have to dream about
building a Sangha, a community
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among your colleagues,
among the personnel of the institution.
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There have to be
two, three or four people
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with whom you can
communicate better, right?
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So you have to talk with them first
about the state of things.
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And those people have seen
your transformation and healing.
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And you are fresh,
compassionate and smiling.
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So you can talk with them.
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You have to build a Sangha.
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You have to get together more often
to be able to continue the practice,
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not only on your own or as a family
but as a community.
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Building a Sangha is something...
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absolutely necessary!
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You can very well do
walking meditation together.
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You can drink tea together.
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You can do a session of
total relaxation together.
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And you can create a small community
consisting of happy teachers.
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Happy teachers will change the world!
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And with this little Sangha
you will be able change
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the whole community
of the institution.
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You can write a letter, saying:
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"We are a group of people.
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We have done this and that
and accomplished a lot of change
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in our lives, in our work
and in our class.
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We think that if you could join us,
that would be wonderful
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And your other colleagues
will start to taste
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this sort of peace,
brotherhood and relaxation.
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We cannot go on like this.
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If teachers are unhappy,
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if they do not have harmony
and peace among each other,
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how will we help young people
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to suffer less and
to succeed in their work?"
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So building a Sangha is
something absolutely necessary.
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And every teacher
has to be a Sangha builder.
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Did you know that the first thing
the Buddha thought after his enlightenment
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was building a Sangha?
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He knew very well that without a Sangha
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he could not succeed
in the career of a Buddha.
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The teacher also has a noble,
beautiful and respectable job.
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So without a Sangha
we cannot do much.
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Therefore building a Sangha
is something absolutely necessary.
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So dear friends, we are having a retreat,
which is a wonderful thing.
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And we have the time and the opportunity
to practice all of that together
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I wish you a good and happy retreat!
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Thank you.