Third Week of Summer Opening

Summary

This talk presents a detailed teaching on mindfulness practice in the Plum Village tradition, given during the summer opening retreat at the Still Water Meditation Hall in the Upper Hamlet on 22 July 2013. The speaker explains mindfulness as an energy that allows a practitioner to know what is happening in the body, feelings, emotions, perceptions, and surroundings. He illustrates this through ordinary activities such as breathing, drinking tea, walking, washing dishes, and brushing teeth, emphasizing that mindfulness is always mindfulness of something. He describes mindfulness as a holy energy, linked to the energy of the Buddha, and explains that when mindfulness is present, concentration and insight naturally arise as well. A major theme is the relationship between mindfulness and suffering. The speaker encourages practitioners not to run away from suffering through distraction, consumption, or busyness, but instead to come home to themselves and recognize suffering directly. He notes that many people use television, reading, travel, or phone calls to avoid facing inner pain. The recommended practice is to use mindful breathing to embrace suffering tenderly, like a mother holding a baby. This process is not meant to suppress pain, but to recognize, hold, and transform it. For beginners, the speaker stresses the importance of the Sangha, or community of practice, whose collective energy can support individual healing. He uses the image of a drop of water being carried by a river to describe taking refuge in the Sangha. The talk also focuses on chanting the name of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, as a practice of deep listening and compassionate understanding. The speaker explains that by listening to one’s own suffering, one becomes able to understand the suffering of others. Chanting is described in three stages: first, recognizing one’s own suffering; second, recognizing the suffering of people nearby; and third, recognizing suffering in the wider world, including violence, death, injustice, hunger, suppression, and social inequality. From this recognition, compassion naturally arises. Compassion is presented as an energy that heals and transforms both oneself and others. The speaker also connects personal suffering to ancestral suffering, explaining that untransformed pain is often transmitted from parents and ancestors to children. Another central section concerns listening to the bell and returning to the present moment. The speaker teaches a gatha, “I listen, I listen / This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home,” and explains that true home is not a place in space or time but the present moment, the here and now. He says that peace, happiness, the pure land of the Buddha, and the kingdom of God are all available only in the present moment. He encourages practitioners to stop running toward the future or dwelling in the past, and instead to train themselves to dwell deeply in the present. He expands this teaching by inviting practitioners to include all the cells in the body, as well as genetic and spiritual ancestors, in the act of listening. Walking meditation is presented as a powerful method for embodying these teachings. The speaker teaches practitioners to say, “I have arrived, I am home,” while walking slowly and mindfully. He explains that each step can be a step into the kingdom of God, the pure land, or the here and now. He emphasizes that walking meditation is not about reaching a future goal but about enjoying freedom, solidity, and healing in the present. He also describes practical details such as matching steps to the breath, focusing attention on the sole of the foot, and adjusting the rhythm when walking uphill or in a group. He notes that in Plum Village, walking meditation is used not only in formal practice but also when moving between daily activities. The talk extends mindfulness into eating. The speaker describes mindful eating as a way to see a carrot, a piece of bread, or any food as containing the whole cosmos: sunshine, rain, earth, and all conditions of life. He compares this to the Christian Eucharist, where bread represents the body of Jesus, and says that in this tradition bread can be seen as the body of the cosmos. He encourages chewing slowly, counting chews, and stopping thinking while eating so that food becomes a source of nourishment, healing, and insight. He concludes by inviting the community to practice walking meditation together, reinforcing the idea that collective mindfulness can transform the environment into a place of peace, healing, and spiritual presence.