Thich Nhat Hanh Dharma Talks

August 14, 2012. 100-minute dharma talk given in English, with consecutive translation into Dutch (though the Dutch is muted in this recording), with Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the third Dharma talk offered by Thay in the Dutch Retreat on the theme Body and Mind Are One at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany. Freshness and beauty are in you. If you know how to breath and how to walk then freshness and beauty can come out. we can also help others do the same because we all have it, but we don't always know how to help it manifest. We all have a Buddha inside. That teaches what it means to bow to someone in a greeting. It's not just a ritual, it is a practice. How to use a mantra in your practice? The first is "Darling, I am here for you." This one is to offer the other person your presence. The second mantra is to recognize the other person is something important to you. "Darling, I know you are there and I am very happy." Reconciliation. Mindfulness of compassion. Listening. Thay

August 13, 2012. 122-minute dharma talk given in English, with consecutive translation into Dutch (though the Dutch is muted in this recording), with Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the second Dharma talk offered by Thay in the Dutch Retreat on the theme Body and Mind Are One at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany. Teaching on the seed of corn and teaches the children about being a seed in the womb of your mother. We can use pebble meditation to learn how to breath again. To be fresh and beautiful. The children are excused about 42-minutes into the recording. Thay begins with a story of a French journalist who wanted to write an article on the practice in Plum Village. Her article was titled "In the Country of the Present Moment." She started with  walking meditation. I have arrived. How can we arrive 100% in each step? How do we train? Right Diligence (Effort). In Buddhist psychology we talk about store consciousness and seeds (bija). Seeds for the soil of the mind. Seeds manifest as

August 12, 2012. 90-minute dharma talk given in English, with consecutive translation into Dutch, with Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the first Dharma talk offered by Thay in the Dutch Retreat on the theme Body and Mind Are One at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany. Can the body be without the mind? Can you take the body out of the mind? And the mind out of the body? If we meditate on the question, we can discover the answer. The same inquiry can be applied to father and son, mother and daughter. Are they the same? Again, with meditation we can also see continuation. Interbeing. This was a very clear and gentle teaching for the children on a very deep topic. The country of the present moment. Those who are in the present moment have body and mind together. Mindfulness helps this to happen. We can release the past, release our projects, and discover freedom. It only takes a few seconds. The conditions for happiness are present right here. Can we see the conditions for happiness? The f

August 2, 2012. 92-minute recording given at New Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the twentieth dharma talk of the Summer Opening. The talk was originally given in French and this is an English translation. We begin with a  meditation on the birth of the flame. Does "nothing" exist?  What is the existence of nothing? What is our nature? Are we caught in the notions of birth, death, being, and non-being? These are the foundation of our fear and anxiety. In Buddhism, Right Thinking is being free of these notions.  There is only continuation and manifestation. Thinking is already an action. We continue with a teaching on Right View, Right Speech. This concludes the 2012 Summer Opening. 

August 1, 2012. 87-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the nineteenth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and this is a session of questions and answers. Editor's note, we have skipped the talks from July 29 & 31 here on this site; it may appear later. Children Why is my brother always so nasty to me? Why does Thay do hand symbols (mudra) during chanting? Why do Buddhist shave their head? What should we do if we begin to hate someone we love? Adults Is it correct to tell a lie if the truth would hurt the person you love? How can I be stable? How can I live with a person who doesn't believe in spirituality? Why is it that monastics sisters have more precepts than monastic brothers? If it is because they have special problems, shouldn't the brothers at least have the same number of precepts? How can you help a child recognize their father of they've never had te opportunity to know him? For example, artificial insemination. What was the biggest notion in y

July 28, 2012. 93-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the sixteenth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and we are beginning the fourth and final week of the retreat. Please note, we have skipped the talk from July 26 here on this site; it may appear later. Understanding of suffering. Compassionate listening. Embracing suffering brings relief. What are the monastics doing when they are chanting the name Avalokiteshvara? Chanting begins at 18-m into recording. The main talk begins at 39-minutes. Listening to the bell. Deep listening. Let peace and mindfulness penetrate into you. How do you feed your happiness? Where is your true home? The Buddha proposed sixteen exercises of mindful breathing. What are the first four exercises? How can we use this for walking mindfully? This is applied Buddhism in our daily lives.

July 24, 2012. 80-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the fourteenth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and this is a session of questions and answers. Children How can you make new friends after moving to a new school? If there is no such thing as death, then why is it wrong to kill? I suffer a lot from my father. I don't want to see him anymore. Can I stop trying to change him? Why did you become a monk? Adults I am the last child in my family linage and there is lots of suffering to transform. How do I help my parents generation? Secondly, why is there still discrimination against women in Buddhism? Is there life after death?

July 22, 2012. 97-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the twelfth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and the talk was originally given in French. This is an English translation. We start with a 22-minute talk for the children. How we can share meditation with our friends when we go back home from Plum Village? What does it mean to love? Freshness of a flower. We can offer this and using pebble meditation to teach us about freshness. We also have mantras such as "I am here for you." Solidity. Space. What is the deep connection between suffering and happiness? In Buddhism, we speak of Interbeing. What is meant by Interbeing? Being and non-being also uses this principle of Interbeing. What is Right Thinking? Free of notions. Applying the teaching to birth and death. The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold path.

July 21, 2012. 98-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the eleventh dharma talk of the Summer Opening and this is the first day of the third week. Listening to the chant. We suffer and we often turn to consumption to relieve our suffering. The teaching of the Buddha, using mindfulness and concentration, can help use embrace our sorrow with tenderness. We can have relieve. Listen to the chanting and allow the sound to penetrate into our body. To stop our thinking. Avalokiteshvara chant. The silence we produce can be very healing. We feel alive. The joy of being alive. Instruction for walking meditation. The practices of "I have arrived. I am home," mindfulness, concentration, insight. Also, the Buddha body. Who is the real Buddha? What is the real Sangha? What is the Dharma?

July 19, 2012. 119-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the tenth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and the talk was originally given in French. This is an English translation. We begin with chanting and a short guided meditation getting in touch with our parents. The teaching on "nothing is born and nothing dies" for the children. How do we live with happiness? At 34-minutes, Sister Chan Khong introduces Alexandra from L'Express magazine who is preparing  a special issue on happiness. She will interview Thay  because he is a master of happiness. How can zen Buddhism help us westerns who are in a crisis in our society ? Can we reach our children to be happy? What is your definition of happiness? We can use the exercises on mindful breathing starting with the first eight exercises. Mental formations are explored in the ninth exercise. The three concentrations taught in all Buddhist traditions: emptiness, signlessness, aimlessness.

July 18, 2012. 88-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the ninth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and this is a session of questions and answers. Children How does it feel when you are dead? Sometimes I feel nobody loves us and I'm all alone. A game the children are playing has something about killing. Is this okay? Help me understand. Teens and Adults People seem afraid of silence. Is it because they are afraid of being with themselves? I experience extreme energies and sometimes feel as a victim with the energy. Husband is in a deep depression and then one of our daughters was seriously injured. He feels it's unjust and he is suffering. How can I help him transform suffering he doesn't see in himself? Difficulties with meditation. What happens during meditation and how can I improve?

July 16, 2012. 91-minute recording given at New Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the eighth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and we begin with seven minutes of chanting. Last week the children also learned pepple meditation. When you practice this, you become more stable, fresh, and calm. Story of the rich businessman who doesn't have enough time to spend with his family.  All the little boy wanted was his father to be truly present. Also told the story of the German businessman who thought he was indispensable to his business. The first mantra is, "Darling, I am here for you." We can learn this mantra by using pepple meditation. Thay wants you to learn both. Then, we have the second mantra. "Darling, I know you are there and it makes me happy." Product of our action. Our karma. It I out environment. Retribution. We have been living in such a way that we've destroyed our environment. We are our environment. Thought, speech, and action are energies that cannot be destroyed. We are talking

July 15, 2012. 121-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the seventh dharma talk of the Summer Opening and the talk was originally given in French. This is an English translation. We begin with a talk for the children. What is the Buddha? How can we make use of suffering? What can we do with anger? What is loving speech? The story of the corn plant. The method of meditation called Signlessness. Uses the birth of a child to illustrate. Following the talk for children, the main talk begins at 53-minutes into the recording. In classical science things are all outside of each other. In modern science, quantum physics, we see that things are inside each other. In Buddhism, we try to look this way. There is no separate self. Coexistence. This is, because that is. Interbeing. A teaching in the Four Noble Truths. Why do we have suffering? Hiw do we get understanding and love? How can we see the all in the one? The noble eightfold path beginning with Right View (the f

July 14, 2012. 111-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the sixth dharma talk of the Summer Opening and the beginning of the second week. We begin with instructions on listening to the chant, followed by listening to the name Avaloketeshvara. The main talk begins about 40-minutes into the recording. The third exercise of mindful breathing is about our body. Getting in touch with your body. True life is only possible with concentration and mindfulness. We learn to stop thinking so we can feel. The secret of meditation is to bring the mind in touch with the body. In the here and the now. Mindfulness is the first energy. This bring concentration. Followed by insight. Three kinds of energies. They are within. Breathing in, I get the insight that I am alive. There are many insights like this. When we each practice like this, we develop a collective energy and we can change the world. Just these three kinds of energy. The second exercise is to follow your in breath al

July 12, 2012. 84-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the fifth dharma talk of the Summer Opening. We begin with chanting and the talk was originally given in French. This is an English translation. With many questions about anger in yesterday's questions and answers session, Thay offers a lovely 25-minute lesson for the children (and everyone of course!) on helping our friends who may have anger. What can we tell our friends about meditation? Meditation is looking deeply with our eyes, mind, and your heart. Meditation is looking. We can see things other people can't hear. Meditation is listening. Concentration. A person who meditates can see the cloud in the flower. There is much more there in the flower. To see the flower deeply you have to recognize the non-flower elements. The same can be said about people. We all have non-human elements such as anger. We all have the seed of anger. What can we do to help those who suffer from anger and violence? If we pract

July 11, 2012. 115-minute recording given at Upper Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the fourth dharma talk of the Summer Opening. We begin with chanting and this is a session of Questions and Answers. Children's Questions How are you? Why is everyone against him? Why do I sometimes cry for no reason? How can we let go of anger? (question from Oprah magazine) What do you do when your teacher makes fun of you and everyone laughs? Why do I sometimes feel a heavy ball on my heart? Teens and Adults Can you say some words about Interbeing of Catholic and Buddhist? Have you ever been able to calm down a person in rage and angry at you? I feel a lot of anger sometimes and I don't want to let it come out, try to control, but sometimes I just explode and hurt the other person. How do I listen and respect myself versus letting me do whatever I want? Freedom versus discipline. Question about bi-polar disorder. How can we respond in a more loving and supportive methods than drugs? How can I

July 9, 2012. 94-minute recording given at New Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the third dharma talk of the Summer Opening. We begin with chanting and the talk begins at 15-minutes into the recording. Bowing. Buddhahood. A lotus for you, a Buddha to be. The seed of Buddhahood. Stories of being in Paris during the war. Supporting peace and practicing being together. Teaching on kingdom of God and the pure land. It is now or never.  This is the teaching of Plum Village. We can do everything  in the kingdom of God. Suffering and the noble truths. The buddhadharma can help you. We can love and understand our suffering.

July 8, 2012. 68-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the second dharma talk of the Summer Opening and it was originally given in French. This is an English translation. Peace. Freshness. Solidity. We all have these elements in the form of seeds. We can learn how to water these seeds. We all have a Buddha-nature in us. With meditation, we can offer this to ourselves and others. We can use pebble meditation and inviting the bell. Discovering conditions of happiness. Being the mind back to the body. Established in the present moment.  Mindfulness, the first energy, is the heart of meditation. The second energy is concentration. And the third energy is insight. The practice of walking and sitting should bring pleasure. These three energies allow you to identify the conditions of happiness. Meditation is possible all day long. I have arrived, I am home.

July 7, 2012. 87-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the first dharma talk of the Summer Opening. The sangha is celebrating the 30th Summer Opening. The talk begins with instruction on how to listen to the chant followed by Avalokiteshvara chant. The main talk begins at 40-minutes into the recording. We hear stories from the Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Garland Sutra). The mother of the Buddha and how the friends came to see Siddhartta while still in the womb. She had a lot of space inside for everyone. We can cultivate this kind of space too. Story of Sidhartta making at least seven steps at his birth. What does this mean? Walking like a Buddha on planet earth. Freedom, joy, and happiness is available with every step. This portion of the talk is about 45-minutes and a beautiful segment to listen to with others in the Sangha

July 1, 2012. 50-minute recording given at Lower Hamlet, Plum Village by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is a Day of Mindfulness. We begin with chanting. When you set up a practice center, you have to think of the sangha. A sangha is a group of people who practice together and the environment is good, nourishing, and healthy. When people arrive at a practice center, she should feel the energy right away. We practice mindfulness as manifested from the Five Mindfulness Trainings. These generate a healthy environment. This is what the Buddha did right away and we too can create such a practice center. Suffering is part of life and with mindfulness we can make good use of our suffering. We can produce joy, happiness, and compassion. The law of Interbeing is suffering and happiness. The mud and the lotus. The holy is made of non-holy elements. We can generate holiness if we understand suffering and allow compassion to arise in us and we don't suffer anymore. The Five Mindfulness Trainings can help cultivate this holines