By Sister Chan Dieu Nghiem

Lower Hamlet, Plum Village

October 28, 2018

Dear Respected Thay, dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, good morning. Today is Sunday the 28th of October, and we are in the Dharma Nectar Temple of Plum Village, Lower Hamlet. In this retreat, we have been looking into the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing.

The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings

The Order of Interbeing was formed by Thay in the mid-1960s at the time of the Vietnam War, when there was a great need for some understanding and compassion to take care of the hatred and violence that was happening in the country. The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings have to do with how we live our daily lives, how we live in the world, and how we respond to issues in the world by our way of thinking, our attitude, or our view. These Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings help us to see clearly the impact of our thinking, speaking, and actions on our environment, on the world, and on the way we live together. These trainings express our mind of true love and the insight that happiness is not an individual matter. They are the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing that was founded by Thay, but you don't need to be an official member of the Order of Interbeing to practice the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings. 

In fact, the more people who practice them, the better. You may like to study them and see in what way they resonate for you, especially in the light of the state of the world. The more I study these Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, the more my heart rejoices because I see a way out. I see a way that can lead to healing and transformation, not just of myself, but also of the whole of humanity, and that lifts up my spirit and gives me a lot of joy. We are all capable of practicing the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and applying them in our daily life. 

Thinking Is the Foundation

It's good to have a Sangha, a place of refuge, to practice with. Together, we can share our joys and our difficulties, and interacting with others will reveal our habit energies, especially our habit energies of thinking. Thinking is the foundation of everything. Whatever we say and do, we have already thought. Becoming aware of our thinking and the inclination of our thinking is important because that's where the transformation starts. 

The Sangha is what we call a kalyana mitra, a spiritual friend. A spiritual friend is somebody who knows how to skillfully point out to us a habit of speaking or acting that has its roots in our thinking. They will be able to say it in a way that we can receive it, and that will help us recognize the effect of our actions. To have a kalyana mitra is very precious. On the other hand, do we know how to be a kalyana mitra? If you'd like to have a friend like this, it is good to first become our own kalyana mitra and develop these qualities in ourselves, so we can help ourselves. And then we can help others on this path.

The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings help us see clearly the impact of our thinking, speaking, and actions on our environment, the world, and how we live together. They are guidelines for our everyday living. Most of what we call precepts” are prohibitions, and they begin with bodily actions. We used to call the Five and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings “precepts”; now we call them trainings. The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings begin with the mind; the Noble Eightfold Path also begins with the mind. This shows the importance the Buddha gave to the mind and the actions of the mind.

In the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, there are three categories. The first category is the mindfulness trainings one through seven; they primarily concern the mind. The second category is the eighth and the ninth mindfulness trainings; they concern speech. Trainings ten through fourteen are primarily for bodily actions. But our actions of mind, speech, and body have the mind as their foundation. When we practice the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, we are practicing to transcend our greed, our anger, our hatred, and our delusion, and we are practicing to cultivate compassion and wisdom. 

How We Nourish Ourselves

The trainings also help us to look into and understand the nature of interbeing of all that is. This means that nothing can exist by itself. Everything is because of many causes and conditions. We are because of many causes and conditions. We know that without the air, the water, the earth, the fire, the warmth, and the sun, we can't live. So we are because of many causes and conditions; and we are as we are because of many causes and conditions. We are as we are because of the way we have nourished ourselves, our body, and our mind. 

When we wake up in the morning, if our body and mind feel light, it is likely we had a light meal the evening before. If we had a party the evening before, we may wake up not fresh. We may even have something called a hangover. I don't know if anybody here still has this, since we're all practicing very well. But we can be aware of how we nourish ourselves with the food and the drink we take in. What is the effect this has on our body and our mind? It is said, “You are what you eat.” I would say we are what we eat, what we drink, what we think, what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, and what we touch because everything we take in through our sense doors waters seeds in our store consciousness. 

Store consciousness is a function of our consciousness that holds all our potential, and we call our potential “seeds.” We have the capacity to be happy, so we say we have a seed of happiness. We have the capacity to be joyful, so we have a seed of joy. We also have the capacity to be angry, so we have a seed of anger. We have a seed of hatred, a seed of greed, and a seed of discrimination. All of us have the same seeds, the same potential. But in some of us, some seeds are stronger than others because we may have inherited the strength of that seed from our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors, our society, or our nation. Out of ignorance, we have allowed unhelpful seeds in us to be watered. 

Empowered by the Mindfulness Trainings

With the practice of mindfulness, we have a say in what seeds will be watered in our store consciousness, and this is what we'd like to talk about a little bit today. The practice of the mindfulness trainings helps us to become aware of the seeds that are being watered in our store consciousness. For me, the trainings are a sort of empowerment. Being empowered isn’t based on whether I have received the trainings. Being empowered means I have come in contact with trainings, have read, and studied them. Now I'm empowered: now I have a say in which seeds are going to be watered in my store consciousness. 

The foundation of this empowerment is the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness means bringing body and mind together. Often we find that our body is here and our mind is there, wherever “there” may be—perhaps outside, perhaps on the other side of the globe, or even on the moon, but very, very far away. It could be in the past or in the future, or carried away by something in the present. Mindfulness means to bring the mind home to the body. Our body is the first home of our mind. 

Body Scan Exercise

With the sound of the bell, we shall practice just that. As we hear the sound of the bell, we bring our mind home to our body. The sound of the bell is happening in the present moment, just like our body is also happening. Our body is not static; it is a happening. The bell, which is happening, helps us to bring our mind home to our body and to see what is happening in our body. Let us enjoy the sound of the bell, and bring our mind home to our body. Maybe we can scan our body from the top of our head all the way down to the tips of our toes. If in any place in our body we find some tension, acknowledge its presence and gently breathe with it for a moment before we continue scanning our body. Being with it and breathing may soften the tension or whatever it is that you are feeling in your body [Bell].

As I did the body scan, I was relaxing my body. After I finished the body scan, I remained aware of my body and, at the same time, I became aware of what was happening around me and I realized it's raining outside. It sounded so loud because inside it was very quiet, inside in the hall, and also inside of my mind. When we bring our mind home to our body, we become aware of what is happening inside of our body and we can take care of it, and we also become aware of what is happening around us.

Transforming Self and Society

The mindfulness trainings give us an ethical way of life. Every training leads to an ethical action. That's an action that benefits everyone; it is based on nonduality, on the fact that happiness is not an individual matter, and on compassion.

We practice the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings to change ourselves so we can bring about a change in society, so that society can go in the direction of understanding and compassion. Thay says we do this by living a joyful and mindful life. The practice is not only to live mindfully; it also leads us to live joyfully. Living mindfully is not a serious matter! When we look at the trainings, we’ll see that the most important aspect of the trainings is never to abandon anyone. The trainings are very inclusive. They don't leave anyone lying by the side of the road who is in need of help. 

Recognizing and Taking Care of Anger

Today, we would like to look at the Sixth Mindfulness Training and to do so in the light of Right Diligence. The Sixth Mindfulness Training shows us how we can take care of our anger.

Taking care of the energy of anger when it arises is a practice in itself. We may have gotten angry in the past. When somebody told us “you're angry,” we said, “I am not angry” in a way that made it clear that we were angry. We need to recognize it and take care of it from the moment it arises. Sometimes, we need somebody else to point out that we're angry. In the beginning, we may not recognize it. 

How can we recognize anger before it arises? First, we have to know that we have a seed of anger. It may not manifest very often, or only very gently. But we do have that seed, and when causes and conditions are sufficient, it will arise. We have these seeds in our store consciousness, and one of our practices is to avoid watering the seed of anger in us. Thay says we can ask others to help us. If a loved one, a friend, or somebody in the Sangha does or says something that touches and waters our seed of anger, we can ask them, “Please know that when you say something in that way, or when you act in that way, it waters my seed of anger. Would you please support me by not watering my seed of anger? I am happy to hear what you have to tell me, but could you find another way of telling me this?”

If we can think of a way that we will be able to hear what somebody else wants to tell us, we can give them some suggestions. Maybe they can start by saying, “It is my perception that…” instead of saying, “You do (this)…” Maybe we can point out that we have a perception that may be wrong, “but I would like to share that perception with you anyway.” The best way to support others in interacting with us is to interact with them in the way we would like them to interact with us. For me, this is an empowerment. I can be part of this process. I am not a victim of the interactions with others. 

What Part Do I Play in My Anger?

Our seed of anger may be watered by what we hear and what others tell us. We can't always give input into how other people tell us something. So what to do? It’s good to reflect on the question, “Is there any truth in what they say?” This is what I try to practice. Sometimes the answer is, “I don't see any truth.” Sometimes the answer is, “Maybe a little bit.” So I'll just take that little bit; I do not need to take everything. I take that little bit, and I can look and ask, “What is the root of my action that our friend gave some feedback about; where does it come from?”

Maybe our way of responding was also the way our mother or father responded, and we have inherited and are continuing our mother or our father in that way. As we continue to practice, we realize we're not only transforming ourselves. We're also transforming our parents. We are their continuation; whatever we transform, we transform also for our parents and for our ancestors. 

Taking Care of Fear

Maybe our parents had a strong seed of fear, and maybe fear was the root of our action that our friend gave some feedback about. Fear always has to do with the unknown. We don't fear the past; we fear the future. We do not know what is going to happen in the future; it is unknown, and whatever is unknown, we fear. Is it going to be of benefit to me or not? Is it going to be good for me or not?

I find the best way of taking care of fear as it comes up is to remain firmly established in the present moment because in the present moment, I can see what is happening. I do not know what will happen in the next moment. But when the next moment becomes the present moment, I can see what is happening. The image I have is that I am walking through a tunnel. It's dark, and I do not know what's in the tunnel. But I can touch the wall of the tunnel with my hands and the ground with my feet. I touch the wall so I get to know what is happening right now. I'm aware of my feet on the ground, and I know what it is like. Then carefully, I put my foot forward and it touches the ground in front of me; I'm already in the present moment, so I know I can take that step. If I put my foot forward and there's nothing, I won't take the step because the fear is still there. So I take my foot back, and I try to step a little bit to the right or the left. 

As I walk, I always stay in the present moment. I don't think about there being a light at the end of the tunnel. If I were to rush toward the end, I might fall in a hole or stumble over something because I'm not in the present moment. I’m trying to run to the future to know what's at the end of the tunnel. But I have the whole tunnel to go through.

Staying in the present moment, the moments of the future come to us; we don't have to run to the future. So I wait for the next moment to come. Then I'm in that moment; I can see what is happening, and I can respond in an appropriate way. I cannot respond in an appropriate way to the future; I don't know exactly what's going to happen. I can make plans; yes, we have to make plans. But we may need to adjust our plans when that future becomes the present moment. 

Awareness of the Breath

There’s another way I practice when fear is present in me. We have the practice: 

Breathing in, I am aware fear is present in me now. 
Breathing out, I take good care of the fear. I embrace it. 
Or: 
Breathing in, I am aware fear is present in me now. 
Breathing out, I smile to my fear. 

Bringing Mind Home to Body

If this doesn't succeed in calming my fear, I bring my mind home to my body. I know that whatever is in my mind is also manifested somewhere in my body in some way. So I bring my mind home to my body and I do a body scan as we did just now. When I find a strong physical sensation, I think, “That's my fear,” and I breathe with this physical sensation. I bring my mind to that part of my body, and I breathe while I stay with it. At times I feel myself going back to the story, but then I'm no longer with the physical sensation. So I bring my mind back to the physical sensation every time I notice I've been carried away again by the story. 

Slowly by being with it, the sensation becomes softer and feels like it melts away. Then the miracle happens, and the fear is no longer in my mind as a mental formation. 

At that point, it’s important that we don’t start thinking about the story again because that immediately brings the fear back. Leave the story. First, we need to calm ourselves to find stability. Maybe practice walking meditation, coming back to our steps as they touch the earth, “In, in, in; out, out, out,” so that we become firmly established in the present moment. We may water some seeds of joy and happiness as a counterbalance to the fear. This may take a few days or maybe weeks, until we feel that now we have enough stability, calm, peace, joy, and happiness to look at the fear. 

What is it that I am afraid of? The unknown, yes, but what is it about this unknown? We may find we're afraid because we’re planning to go on a long journey to a country we don't know, and we don’t know what we’ll find there. Once we know what we are afraid of, it is much easier to be with that fear, and we will be able to do something about it. If we’re going to travel to another country, we may learn about it by asking other people or by reading what to expect when we go there. At the same time, we continue to strengthen our capacity to dwell in the present moment and not to run ahead of the journey, so that we can respond to every situation we encounter from a place of calm and clarity.

Say Nothing, Do Nothing

We can practice finding the roots of our anger in the same way. But first, the mindfulness training advises us not to do or say anything. This is quite a practice: not to do or to say anything. We return to our breathing and mindful walking, acknowledge that we're angry, and then look deeply. Often, the roots of our anger may be found in ourselves. We may have wrong perceptions. Somebody said something, and we think they said it to hurt us. But maybe they were unskillful; they may not have wanted to hurt us. They may not even have known that what they were going to say would hurt us. They may have said it to somebody else and nothing happened, so why would it hurt us? 

We also may not understand that what they said or did came out of their own suffering. We know that when we suffer, it is not obvious or easy to practice loving speech. It takes some practice to be able to practice loving speech at all times, especially when our suffering concerns the person we are speaking to. Maybe they upset us. We suffer and when we speak to them, there is no loving kindness. The practice of not doing or saying anything, especially when we're angry, can be quite challenging. 

How do we do this? When we live in a community and we get angry with somebody, do we stop speaking to the person completely? Maybe that is not the best way. So how can we keep on interacting but not address the issue that made us angry? For me, this is what is meant by “not to say anything.” Otherwise, we might be a very silent community because we all get angry at times. It's a real practice to keep on communicating mindfully in a civil way, but not to address the issue until we have calmed down, and maybe looked into ourselves and seen what actually happened for us.

Here in Plum Village, when we are in a meeting or sitting in a group together, if something somebody said has upset us or watered our seed of anger, we can join our palms, bow, and say, “Please excuse me. I would like to absent myself for a moment to do some walking meditation or get a cup of tea.” Then we can go out and practice walking meditation and take care of the anger that has arisen in us. 

This practice of having some space is also very important in any kind of relationship, so when we're angry we can withdraw for a moment. If we work in an office, we can say, “Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom” or something like that. We can breathe and take care of the anger, and come back calmer. Not only will we benefit from that, but everybody else will also.

Contemplating Impermanence

By contemplating impermanence, we will be able to look with the eyes of compassion at ourselves and at others, and recognize the preciousness of our relationships. I think it is also good to look at impermanence in general. When I look back at the generation preceding mine, they have all passed away. When my grandfather and my grandmother passed away, I noticed that I had a regret. Maybe it was something I didn't do that I know would have made them happy, or maybe something I did that I realized did not make them happy. This actually has happened with every single person of the previous generation in my life who has passed away. 

There was always something. It took me a while to find peace with that. I asked myself, “Okay, what would they like me to be?” Every time I came to the answer, “Happy,” and then I was able to accept what I had done or not done. I thought, “Okay, I have learned something from this.” When I see that I've learned something from an experience, it's not gone to waste. In the practice, we speak of the goodness of suffering. Suffering becomes good when we learn something from it, when it enriches our life, and when it helps us to go in a direction of healing and transformation. So looking and contemplating impermanence helps us to look with the eyes of compassion at ourselves and also at others. 

Right Diligence

To nourish our capacity of understanding, love, joy, and inclusiveness to transform our anger and help others to do the same, we have the practice of Right Diligence. Right Diligence means taking care of the seeds and the mental formations in us. A mental formation is a seed that manifests as a state of mind. We may find there are certain mental formations that are present more often than others. We call them “habit energies” of thinking, of speaking, and of acting.

Habit Energy Exercise

With the sound of the bell, let us take a moment to go back to ourselves and reflect on some of our habit energies. It may be a habit energy of thinking, or of speaking, or it may be a physical action. It can be a wholesome habit energy, a habit energy that leads us in a direction of transformation and healing. Or it can be an unwholesome habit energy, a habit energy that leads us in a direction of suffering. Let us go back to ourselves and see what habit energy comes up spontaneously. [Bell.] 

We may have found the habit energy that came up in us is one of our habitual ways of responding to life situations.

I would like to draw a diagram of the Four Right Diligences that will help us understand how to put them into practice. [Draws diagram on whiteboard: a square divided into four, with pluses on the left side and minuses on the right side, and the labels “seeds” on the bottom half and “M.F.” for mental formations on the top half.] 

First Right Diligence: Water the Positive Seeds

A seed is a potential. When that potential manifests as a state of mind, we call it a mental formation. We all have a seed of anger, and we would like to avoid that seed of anger manifesting itself as a mental formation because that means the energy of anger is really present in us. That’s not pleasant for us and not pleasant for others as well. So what to do? How to practice in order not to turn that seed of anger into a mental formation called anger? The Buddha says, “Easy.” That's not what the Buddha said, but the Buddha could have said that. Do you have a garden at home? Have you ever sown seeds in your garden, wanting to have a lot of cosmos flowers? If you have sown those seeds of cosmos flowers in the garden, what do you need to do in order to make the garden flourish? You have to water it. If you just sow a seed and never water your garden, unless it rains it's unlikely you'll get a cosmos flower. 

Second Right Diligence: Avoid Watering the Negative Seeds

In the garden there may also be seeds of weeds, and you don't want all those weeds to come up. Well, then don't water them. If we have here [on the bottom half of the square] a seed of anger in our garden, the garden of our mind, we don’t mind it being there. But we’d like keep it in seed form. So if we don't want our seed of anger to flower in the garden of our mind and become a mental formation, we should not water it. Avoid watering the seed of anger. Do not water the seed of anger.

Third Right Diligence: Stop Watering a Negative Seed

But if accidentally we water that seed or we allow it to be watered by others and the mental formation of anger comes up and the flower of anger blooms in our mind, then the most important thing is to stop watering that seed. If you don't water it, it will wilt; it will dry up, shrink, and go back to seed form. So stop watering the seed. Nothing can survive without food, and our anger will not survive if we stop feeding our anger. We can stop feeding our anger by not going back to what brought up our anger.

We need to break the contact with the source that triggered our anger. Don't stay in contact with that incident. Don't keep thinking, “Why did this person say that? What was she trying to do? So mean!” We keep on ruminating this thought over and over. This is how we keep watering the seed of anger. I don't know if you've ever done this kind of rumination, when we turn something over and over in our mind. After five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, or half an hour of doing that, our anger has grown enormously. We've been watering it the whole time. 

It is like shooting the second arrow. We were shot by an arrow when someone said those words that hurt us. But then we keep repeating and reliving that incident; it's like shooting ourselves with another arrow, and maybe another and another and another. The second arrow is not twice as painful; it's a hundred times more painful that the first. So stop watering the seed, break the contact, and turn away. Turn away from the source that brought up your anger. 

One way of doing this is to bring our mind home to our body, and become aware of where anger manifests in our body and breathe with it. Then when it's calmed down, we will feel much better. We can also practice something we call “changing the CD” if we catch it in time. If I’ve been turning something over in my mind for five or ten minutes, it's better for me to go back to my body and take care of the mental formation in that way rather than trying to change the CD; although I may be able to go to another thought that is uplifting and joyful, after a few minutes I'm pulled back again by the emotion. 

So the practice is for each of us to become aware of what is the best way for us to change the CD. Is it to bring up another thought, to think of something pleasant or beautiful? Or is it to go back to the body? Or to go for a walk, which is also going back to the body, nourishing other things and getting different input through different sense organs. “Change the CD.” 

Here a kalyana mitra comes in handy. Actually, the whole Sangha is a kalyana mitra. When we are upset about something and when we're angry, there's always something happening in the Sangha. There are always people who are around doing things. We join them, maybe working in the garden, and their joyful energy helps us to change the CD. Or a good friend may say, “Come on, let's go for a walk,” or “let's have a cup of tea.”

Fourth Right Diligence: Maintaining a Positive Seed

If we have a positive seed we would like to strengthen, we encourage that seed to manifest itself by watering that seed. The practice of mindfulness also helps us to do this. 

We water our seeds of joy by being present in this moment and recognizing all the sources of joy that are present in our life. You may like to sit down, maybe with some others, and make a list of joys. What are your sources of joy in your life? It can be something very small: the smile of another member of the community. 

Missing the Moon

I don't know if any of you have seen the full moon these days. It’s a wonderful source of joy. But the full moon can only be a source of joy if we are truly present. The full moon may be there, but we need to be there to enjoy it. 

I know this from experience. The full moon rises to the east of our hamlet, and there is a path that runs by the bell tower where you can see the rising moon. I often stand there and watch the full moon rise, especially next to the bell tower it looks so beautiful. One evening, I was not really present and was being carried away by some mental formation. As I was walking on that path towards our sisters' building, and I walked right past the bell tower. 

A sister stood there and said, “Sister, the full moon, the full moon, look!” I kept walking, turned my head quickly, and said, “Ah yes,” and I continued to walk. Again she said, “Sister, sister, the full moon. Look at the full moon.” She had seen me standing there many times when I had told her, “Come and look at the full moon,” and now I was walking straight by. She had to call to me a number of times, and then it dawned on me, “The full moon!” Thanks to her, I went back and enjoyed the full moon. She really helped me to change the CD because I was not in such a joyful mood, and she may have understood that. She called me back and encouraged me to water a positive seed, the seed of joy and happiness. That’s truly a spiritual friend. 

A Practice of Transformation

We find ways to water the positive seeds so that they flower and become a mental formation. And once the mental formation of joy has arisen, we're happy. Then what do we do? Everything is impermanent. Our joy and our anger come and go. If we want our joy to stay, we have to nourish it. We become aware of the source that has brought up our joy, and we stay in contact with that source. As long as we stay in contact with the source, our joy will increase. As long as I look at the full moon, I keep watering the seeds of joy, instant after instant. We continue to water our mental formation by staying in contact with the source. 

Nowadays we hear a lot about depression. People say, “I am depressed.” Take this kind of overview [pointing to diagram] and ask yourself, “What kind of seed have I been watering in myself lately?” Or, “What kind of seed have I allowed to be watered in me by others?” That doesn’t just mean other people. Maybe it is the news. How often do we listen to the news? It's okay to listen to, watch, or read the news. But what kind of seed does it water in us? How much can we take before we go toward depression? The way out is to stop watering those seeds and to start watering wholesome seeds, and then to continue to water the wholesome seeds. With the help of a good friend, with the help of kalyana mitra, or with the help of a Sangha, we can do it. 

This is the practice of Right Diligence: unwholesome seed, avoid watering; if accidently they get watered anyway, stop watering them; the wholesome seeds, water them; they manifest, continue to water them. Simple. But it takes some practice. This is a practice of transformation. The unwholesome seeds will not have a chance to grow stronger and may even weaken; the wholesome seeds get a chance to grow stronger. Then the unwholesome seeds will manifest less often, and the wholesome seeds will manifest more often. 

EDITED BY BARBARA CASEY.