By Thich Nhat Hanh 

… come together in one place and allow yourself to be embraced by the Sangha. Go as a river, and you’ll feel that handling your block of suffering will not be difficult anymore. 

Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall

Deer Park Monastery 

February 1, 2004 

I would like to renew the teaching and the practice of Catholicism the way I have done with Buddhism—even if I risk excommunication! [Laughter] In the process of renewing Buddhism, many people did not agree with me, but they could not excommunicate me because in Buddhism we are too free to do such a thing. 

When I study the Bible, I see plenty of teachings that can serve as the basis for renewal. The teaching of living deeply in the present moment and not worrying about the future is very clear in the Gospel. It is taught in the Gospel of Matthew that if you take care of today, then tomorrow will take care of itself. 

The teaching concerning how to live deeply every moment of our daily life is so important in Buddhism, but even in Buddhist circles not many people understand that teaching and put it into practice. Living happily in the present moment: Drishta dharma sukha viharin. Sukha means happy. Sukha viharin means dwelling happily, living happily. Drishta dharma means now, what is happening in the here and the now. 

Our basic practice in this retreat is also living happily in the here and the now. If you observe, you see that there are those of us who are capable of dwelling deeply, firmly in the present moment, and getting in touch with the wonders of life, within and around us. 

When we live like that, the Pure Land of the Buddha becomes available; the Kingdom of God is available. If the Buddha is there, then his Pure Land must be there. If God is there, his Kingdom is also there. The Kingdom is available to us, but we might not be available to the Kingdom. The practice is to make ourselves available to the Pure Land, to the Kingdom. 

Children have the capacity of being in the here and the now more than adults. They don’t think too much about the future; they don’t create a lot of projects like we do, and they are not caught by the past. So learning to be more like children is a good practice. Mindfulness helps us to be established in the here and the now, and that is the basic condition for us to touch life, touch the Kingdom of God, and touch the Pure Land of the Buddha. 

Last year we went to the Christian Day, the National Assembly of Catholics and Protestants, in Germany. It was the first time Catholics and Protestants came together in a national assembly, and there were one hundred thousand people attending. The Dalai Lama and I were invited to speak. During that meeting, I proposed that theologians and Christian teachers should offer the teaching and the practice that can help us touch the Kingdom of God in the here and the now. This was a request, but it was also a challenge. It’s crucial, because if we are able to touch the Kingdom of God we will no longer run after fame, wealth, power, and sex. Because we already have happiness, we no longer want to run in that direction. Many of us have been running after these kinds of craving and have suffered so much. 

But I insisted that the teaching and the practice should be embodied by the teacher. If the teacher can live in the here and the now and live in the Kingdom of God, then he or she will be authentic. People will look at him or her and know that this is something they can also do. 

My message to Buddhists is the same. Our teachers should be able to offer us the teaching and the practice that can help us to live in the here and the now, the Kingdom of God, the Pure Land of the Buddha. This is possible. Many of us have experienced this; we have succeeded in walking in the Kingdom of God every day. When we come together for a retreat, we just practice that. If you are a Dharma teacher, you know what I mean. You have to embody the teaching of living happily in the present moment if you want other people to stop suffering and begin to live happily. 

In the morning, when you brush your teeth, brush them in such a way that happiness is possible during the whole time of brushing, which may last only one or two minutes. That is something I do every morning and after each meal. I brush my teeth in such a way that happiness is real during the time of brushing. I don’t say, “Let us brush quickly in order to do this and that.” Brushing your teeth is a practice. You can be in the Pure Land during the time of tooth brushing. 

When you urinate, you do the same thing. Urinating can be very pleasant! You can do it in the Kingdom of God, in the Pure Land of the Buddha. Remember the time you had a urinary infection, and it was difficult to urinate. Remember the time you needed to go to the bathroom, but there was no bathroom around, and you suffered. Now you are in the bathroom, and you are so grateful. Do everything in your daily life in that spirit, and the Kingdom of God becomes available to you right away. 

Every dish you wash is as sacred as if you are giving the newborn Buddha a bath. If mindfulness and concentration are there, everything becomes sacred, holy. 

During the time of walking from your tent to the meditation hall, you can walk in such a way that the meditation hall is already under your feet. You can enjoy every step. You can stop your thinking. You just focus your attention on your in-breath and your out-breath. There are brothers and sisters who are doing that around you. The mountains are there; the new moon is there; the trees are there, practicing with you. Every moment of your daily life can be seen as a miracle, and you continue to live miracles of life at each moment. If you can practice like that, you no longer complain. You complain because you are unhappy. 

There are those of us who are experienced in the practice. We know that happiness depends on us, and not on the other person. The way we act, the way we react, can change the world. When someone speaks to us in anger, we might get angry back, or we might breathe and smile, and help that person. We are protected by our practice, and our practice helps the other person to feel better. 

If you are a beginner, you need to know there are brothers and sisters who have been in the practice longer and they are able to walk, to sit, to breathe, to smile in such a way that the Pure Land of the Buddha becomes available to them and to us. Then we can say, “If they can do it, I can do it, too.” 

Mindfulness and concentration bring about happiness, solidity, understanding, and compassion. That compassion and happiness will nourish us, and we’ll be able to nourish the people around us. When you have compassion and happiness in you, you are helping other people around you, your brothers and sisters in the Dharma. 

Suppose there is someone who has received the Ten Novice Precepts and is talking during the time of serving food. You know that is not correct, because our practice is that while standing in line and serving food we dwell mindfully with our breathing and smiling, not talking. You are doing very well, but the novice is not doing well. Although he has the robe of a monk, he does not practice as well as those who have not received ordination. When someone wears the robe of a monk, that does not mean that his practice is better than the practice of those who are laypeople, because there are those of us who are upasaka, but our practice is very solid. We have a lot of happiness. We don’t complain. 

So with that happiness and compassion in you, you can help others. Because he is your brother, you can touch him gently. And when he turns around, you smile. He will thank you, because in that moment you replace his teacher. His teacher is not there, but you are a Dharma brother to him. Our practice includes Sangha building, so helping our brother and sister do well is part of our practice. That novice will say, “I am an ordained person. I am a monk, and yet my practice is weaker than this lay friend. I have to make an effort.” That’s good for him and good for us. 

And sometimes the practice of those who have received the Five Mindfulness Trainings is not as good as those who have not received the Five Trainings. Their way of talking, their way of living, may be very close to the teaching of the Buddha, concerning the Five Mindfulness Trainings. And we who have received from Thay the Five Trainings may not be doing as well as that person. You have to look at them as a teacher and feel thankful for their presence in the Sangha, because their presence is a blessing, is a positive factor. It makes the Sangha more beautiful, it makes the Sangha a better refuge. 

So those who have received the Five Mindfulness Trainings formally are not more important than those who haven’t. And if they see that we do not practice well enough, they can come bow to us, and we have to feel grateful to them, because they are replacing the teacher. They are the teacher. The teacher can be in his brown robe, but the teacher can be in the white robe of the layperson at the same time. You have to see your teacher a little bit everywhere. Because you have learned about signlessness, you are not caught by the form. 

If you are an Order of Interbeing member and you wear a brown jacket, you have to be aware that those who do not have a brown jacket may be better practitioners, and they can be your teacher also. It’s more difficult to wear the jacket, because you have to be more careful and you have to embody the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings. In the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, there are four trainings about how to speak in a way that brings happiness to people and inspires people. 

When we are a member of the Order of Interbeing, the real value is the practice of the trainings. If you don’t practice the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, you are not a real member of the Order. The way we think, the way we speak, and the way we act should reflect the spirit of the Fourteen Trainings. To do that, we have to be solid in our daily practice. We have to rely on other people to help us. We take refuge in the Sangha. In the Sangha, there are those who are better than us in the practice of the Fourteen Trainings. We have to look to them as our big brothers and sisters. 

Sangha Building 

Those of us who have received the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings have the duty of setting up a Sangha. We have to do the work of Sangha building. We have to contact people who have received the Five Trainings in our area and ask them to come together and set up a Sangha, to create a refuge. The value of the Sangha is the energy of mindfulness, the energy of compassion, and the energy of harmony and brotherhood. If you are a good Sangha builder, you embody that spirit. You know how to speak with loving kindness and how to listen with compassion. Otherwise, you cannot build a Sangha.

Building a Sangha requires a lot of patience, understanding, love, and openness. The Buddha was an excellent Sangha builder. With a Sangha, you have a refuge. In the Sangha, you can realize your dream. The last time the King of Kosala met the Buddha he said, “Lord Buddha, every time I see your Sangha, I have more faith in your holiness,” because the Sangha moved around very mindfully with harmony, peace, and happiness. The Sangha is a masterpiece of the Buddha. Without the Sangha, the Buddha could not do much. It’s like a musician without a musical instrument.

That is why an Order of Interbeing member has to be a Sangha builder. To succeed in building a Sangha, they have to deepen their practice every day. If they cannot reconcile with members of their family, how can they build a Sangha? They have to make peace with themselves first, to be able to smile and practice self-forgiveness. Then they have to make peace with their family members. When the practitioner’s family is happy, harmonious, and joyful, they can start building a Sangha.

Building the Sangha can bring you a lot of happiness. The Sangha will be your refuge and a refuge for many people. The Buddha took refuge in his Sangha; Thay also takes refuge in his Sangha. The Sangha is our home, protecting us, supporting us, and shining light on us.

That is why if you are a practitioner, whether you have received the Five Trainings or not, whether you have received the Fourteen Trainings or not, whether you have received the Ten Novice Precepts or not, whether you have received the 250 trainings of a fully ordained monk or not, you need the Sangha. You can participate in the work of Sangha building: this is a noble, sacred task. Nowadays people feel cut off and cannot relate to anything that is beautiful, good, and true. Building a good Sangha provides people with a refuge.

Daily Practice Notebook

For your happiness, we have made the kungfu notebook, a practice record for one week. Everyone should get a copy of this, either in Vietnamese or in English. In Vietnamese we say kungfu. It means “Daily Practice;” it’s not martial art. [Laughter]

There are seven columns, one for each day of the week. In the evening before you go to sleep, you evaluate your practice and note it in your book. 

When you wake up, you know that you are waking up on the mountain, in a retreat. You smile, because this is a great opportunity. If this morning you were not aware that you woke up in a retreat on the mountain with the Sangha, you put a zero in today’s column. [Laughter] You are welcome to rate your practice from one to ninety, but we reserve from ninety to one hundred for the fully enlightened ones. [Laughter] Sometimes we feel that we are very close to one hundred percent, but we still practice humility. Waking up, you are able to smile and to remember that you have twenty-four brand new hours to live. What a gift! If you wake up without that kind of awareness, that is a waste. So this morning, if you did not practice that, if your waking up did not have any value, put a zero. 

Wearing your shoes mindfully can bring you a lot of happiness. Wearing your shoes is not only for walking; wearing your shoes is like washing dishes. Washing dishes is not only to have clean dishes; the process of washing dishes can be joyful. You can bow in the here and the now, in the Kingdom of God, during the time of dishwashing. Every dish you wash is as sacred as if you are giving the newborn Buddha a bath. If mindfulness and concentration are there, everything becomes sacred, holy. Because the energy of mindfulness, the energy of concentration, is the energy of holiness. Your holiness has to wash your bowl mindfully; otherwise you are not holy. Mindfulness and concentration are the substance of holiness.

When I first became a novice at sixteen years old, my teacher gave me a book of about fifty verses to memorize and help practice mindfulness. There was one for wearing your shoes. In my case, not leather shoes, but wood. Sitting on your bed, as you use your feet to find your shoes, you breathe in and out, and you recite silently the words of the gatha: “From morning until late evening, every living being has to take care of himself or herself. If by chance I step on one of you and squash you under my feet, I’m sorry. I wish that you will be reborn right away into the Pure Land of the Buddha.” I was so moved. That is the practice of compassion and mindfulness. 

You know that while walking, you cannot avoid killing little creatures. When you first find your shoe with your foot, you are aware of that. You want to protect the life of living beings. That verse helps you develop the energy of mindfulness and also cultivate compassion. While wearing your shoes, please enjoy your practice. Make sure that you are happy and solid and joyful during the time of wearing your shoes. Practice is not only in the meditation hall. 

If you do well, then you can write down a number, like sixty, or eighty, or ninety. Otherwise, you’ll be a zero. No one will look at your kungfu notebook. You and the Buddha within you, both of you take care of that. This is not an exam. You and the Buddha in you are enough. The Dharma teacher may have the right to ask, “Do you practice?” And you say, “Yes!” That is good enough. He doesn’t have to look into it, but he has to make sure that you do it.

Closing the Door

Folding your blanket, opening the door, closing the door. Do you know my story of closing the door? One day, my teacher told me to go and do something for him. I loved him so much that I was very eager to do it for him, so I closed the door after me not mindfully. He called me back.

“My child.”

“Yes?”

“Go out again, and close the door mindfully this time.”

I understood. He never had to teach me again. I knew how to close the door mindfully from that moment on.

When I met Thomas Merton in 1966 in his Kentucky monastery, I told him that story. He remembered it well, and he spoke about it in his Christian Dharma talk. And it happened that a Catholic lady living in Germany had listened to that talk by Thomas Merton, and she was very curious. So she went to Plum Village to see how Thay closed the door. [Laughter] She did not tell us why she came. She just signed up for one week, and her purpose was to observe. But after one week, she stayed for another two weeks. She loved it. On the day she departed, we asked her to share her feelings. She told us why she had come, that she was curious to see how Thay closed the door. She had been observant of all of us for three weeks. [Laughter]

So closing the door and opening the door is a practice. You have to do it in the Kingdom of God, in the Pure Land of the Buddha. If you are inhabited by the energy of mindfulness and concentration, you can be very happy closing the door—not because you don’t want to make noise for other people, but to be always in the Pure Land of the Buddha. Going to the toilet, defecating, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, washing your face, and looking in the mirror: smile with compassion. Based on how you practice these things, you can evaluate your daily practice in your kungfu notebook.

Turning on the light: you need only one second to turn on the light to read. In many areas on earth you have to get a lamp, you have to strike a match. It takes more time, and sometimes there’s no match.

Taking a shower: the water flows, and you become aware that the water has come from far away, deep in the earth, or from very high in the mountains. The water running on your fingers is a miracle. From time to time I take some water and wash my eyes, and I value each drop of water like a pearl, like a jewel. It’s wonderful, the water.

Happiness is made of these moments of mindfulness and concentration. When you are happy, when you have enough energy of mindfulness and concentration, you feel good within yourself, you feel that you are in the Kingdom of God, and then you can help other living beings. You no longer complain of anything, because you have enough compassion to embrace and to help other living beings. So please get a kungfu booklet to use for the week. 

If you are a gardener you know that … Flowers will become garbage, but you don’t mind, because you know that garbage can be transformed back into flowers.

Awareness of Breathing 

During this retreat, we have been learning how to take care of our body and our feelings. We have studied the first six exercises on mindful breathing proposed by the Buddha. We are learning how to handle our feelings and our emotions. There is a river of feelings flowing day and night in us, and every feeling is a drop of water. We should go home to ourselves and recognize the feelings in us, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant or neutral, and take care of them. 

We have learned how to produce the feeling of joy and the feeling of happiness. During the last Dharma talk, we learned that the practice of mindfulness, concentration, and letting go can bring about many feelings of joy, happiness, and liberation. We don’t need to consume anything, like alcohol, cigarettes, or wine, to have a lot of pleasant, wonderful, joyful feelings nourishing us. Mindfulness helps us to get in touch with the joy inside, with the wonders of life that are all around us. The Buddha advises us to nourish ourselves with healthy, joyful, pleasant feelings, because if we are happy enough, we will be able to handle the negative, unpleasant feelings. There is a lot of pain, sorrow, fear, and anger in us. When they manifest, we should be able to recognize them, embrace them, and take care of them. If we don’t practice being happy and joyful, we will be too weak to do the work of handling the suffering in us. 

In Buddhist teaching, we learn that there are fifty-one categories of mental formations, citta samskara. There are positive mental formations—like confidence, compassion, loving kindness, diligence, lightness, joy. There are negative mental formations— like anger, despair, hate, jealousy, and so on. Mindfulness is one of them. The opposite of mindfulness is forgetfulness. We have both within our consciousness. If we live in forgetfulness, we are not able to touch the wonders of life in the here and the now. The Kingdom of God, the Pure Land of the Buddha, is not available. Sometimes forgetfulness takes hold of us, but by practicing mindfulness, we don’t allow forgetfulness to take over. 

There are moments when many mental formations want to manifest at the same time. Your jealousy wants to speak; your fear wants to speak; your anger wants to speak, and your mindfulness wants to speak also. It’s like a group of people all wanting to talk at the same time. Many feelings and many mental formations try to manifest at the same time, but you don’t know to whom to give the priority. You are not peaceful. You are advised in that moment when you are not peaceful to play music. You say, “Listen, everyone, you will have a chance to express yourself, but now let’s listen to some music.” And you play the music of mindful breathing: “Breathing in, breathing out, I have arrived, I’m home in the here and the now.” You have the instrument; you play the music, and everyone will calm down after just a few minutes.

When you practice mindful breathing, it’s like playing the violin. The music can be very soft and soothing, and everyone will be happy. When every mental formation has calmed down, it’s easy to begin to look into it. You have to make use of your instrument. You have many beautiful gathas, like, “I have arrived, I am home,” “This is the Pure Land, the Pure Land is here,” “In, out, deep, slow, calm, ease, smile, release,” and “Present moment, wonderful moment.” All these gathas are your music. The moment you sit on your cushion, you have to take your violin and play it right away. Don’t wait for other people. Why do you have to wait for the bell in order to begin meditation?

For me, I don’t need to sit down to take out the violin. It is always playing; it’s continuous. The music of mindful breathing can bring about harmony, even between conflicting elements in your consciousness. There’s compassion and there’s anger; but when you play that music, compassion is holding the hand of anger and dances. It’s wonderful if you know how. If you try, you’ll see that. Because all mental formations are in us, they are of an organic nature. Although they look different, they’re all organic: this can become that. Hate and anger can become compassion. If you are an organic gardener, you know that you can transform garbage into compost and then into flowers again. Flowers can become garbage and compost. Everything is organic.

So the fifty-one mental formations are organic. If you don’t know how to take care of a flower, it soon becomes a piece of garbage. If you know how to handle the piece of garbage, sometime later it becomes lettuce. Based on the fact that every mental formation is organic, we know it is possible to transform anger into compassion, and hate into love again. The music is very important: “Don’t worry, I will take care of you.” Mindfulness is the musician. All of us have mindfulness and concentration.

During the retreat, we have plenty of opportunities to practice like this, whether you are in the bathroom or in the kitchen. Don’t think of sitting meditation as the only practice. The practice should be enjoyable. If you suffer during practice, that’s not a practice we offer in Plum Village or in Deer Park.

In walking meditation, every step should be placed in the Pure Land. It is the energy of mindfulness and concentration that keep us in the Pure Land; if you get out of the Pure Land, in just one second you lose your happiness.

Mastering the Art of Transformation

Many people think that the Kingdom of God is a place where there is only happiness and where there is no suffering. If you are a gardener you know that in your garden, if there are flowers, there must be garbage. Flowers will become garbage, but you don’t mind, because you know that garbage can be transformed back into flowers. Without garbage, there is no flower. Without suffering, there can be no happiness. Can you imagine a place where there is only happiness? Can you imagine a garden where there are only flowers, and flowers never become garbage?

In the Kingdom of God, in the Pure Land of the Buddha, there is compassion, understanding, love, and forgiveness. But let us ask: “With what substance do we fabricate compassion and joy and forgiveness?”

The qualities of a Buddha, of a great being, are understanding and compassion. Understanding and compassion are the two most precious flowers. How can we cultivate understanding and compassion? It is by getting in touch with suffering that you bring about understanding and compassion, because the flowers of understanding and compassion are made with the garbage of suffering. It is by getting in touch with suffering that we have a chance to understand the nature of suffering, and then we can develop understanding and compassion. 

Suffering is crucial for us to contemplate understanding and compassion. Do you want to send your children to a place where there is no suffering? In that place, they will never have the chance to learn how to be understanding and compassionate, because understanding and compassion are born from the ground of suffering.

That is why my definition of the Kingdom of God is not a place where there is no suffering. I would not go to a place where there is no suffering because I would have no chance to cultivate my understanding and compassion. I refuse to go to such a place. Such a place could never exist. It’s like a garden that has only flowers, and the flowers never turn back into garbage. This is absurd; this is impossible.

My understanding of the Kingdom of God is that it is a place where people know how to transform suffering into understanding and compassion. In the Pure Land also, there are bodhisattvas who master the art of transformation. You can bring your suffering there, and they will help you to transform. It is with the element of suffering that you can cultivate compassion and understanding.

Thinking of the Kingdom of God, the Pure Land of the Buddha, as a place where there is no suffering is a naïve idea. It’s better to define the Kingdom of God as a place where there are plenty of chances to learn to understand suffering so that we can cultivate our understanding and compassion. There are Buddhas, bodhisattvas, angels who know how to do it, and who teach us how to do it. And we are no longer afraid of suffering, because we have mastered the art of transforming suffering into understanding and compassion.

In the teaching of the Buddha, it is by looking deeply into the nature of suffering—the First Noble Truth—that you have a chance to see the path of transformation and healing, which is the Fourth Noble Truth: magga, the path. The Fourth Noble Truth is the path of transformation. If you try to run away from the First Noble Truth, there’s no chance for you to see the Fourth Noble Truth. The First Noble Truth and the Fourth Noble Truth inter-are: without one, the other can’t be. That is the teaching of interbeing. That is why we practitioners should not be afraid of suffering. We should be able to face suffering, to embrace it, and to look deeply into its nature. Understanding suffering brings about the path of transformation and healing. If you try to run away from suffering, you have no chance.

The Sangha Boat

In a retreat like this, we have to know how to profit from the collective energy of the Sangha. If you practice alone, it’s much more difficult. When you throw a rock into a river, no matter how small it is, it will sink to the bottom of the river. But if you have a boat, you can keep many pounds of rocks floating.

It’s the same thing with the Sangha, because the Sangha is a boat. Alone, the amount of suffering in you can make you sink into the river of suffering. But if you bring your suffering to the Sangha and allow the Sangha to embrace it with you, you will not sink, because the collective energy of mindfulness of the Sangha is powerful. If you surrender to the Sangha, if you allow the Sangha to embrace you and your suffering, you will float.

That is why when you come to a retreat, you should learn how to trust the Sangha and allow the Sangha to transport you. Don’t practice as individuals. When you do walking meditation, you do it with the Sangha, and you profit from the collective energy of the Sangha. Your step will be more firmly in the Kingdom of God, in the Pure Land of the Buddha.

When you eat meals, you should sit with other people and profit from the collective energy of the Sangha. You see the presence of monks, nuns, and lay friends eating mindfully in the Kingdom of God, smiling, and enjoying every moment of eating. During mealtime we don’t think of other things; we just touch deeply the food; we just allow ourselves to be embraced by the Sangha. 

We know that brothers and sisters in the Sangha are around us, and we allow ourselves to be embraced by the energy of the Sangha. I advise that during meals, you come together in one place and allow yourself to be embraced by the Sangha. We learn to do walking meditation, sitting meditation, and working meditation as a Sangha. Go as a river, and you’ll feel that handling your block of suffering will not be difficult anymore.

You have to know how to make use of the Sangha boat. If you know how to allow the boat to transport you, you will not sink. Open yourself, open your heart, and allow the Sangha to carry you and transport you. You can go to a brother or to a sister and say, “I have a lot of pain. Please help me to embrace it.” We are here for you. That is why when you take refuge in the Sangha, the practice will be much easier, much more pleasant. 

TRANSCRIBED BY GREG SEVER. EDITED BY BARBARA CASEY.