Unanswered Questions

Summary

The talk is a Dharma teaching delivered during the Plum Village winter retreat on January 13, 2013, in the meditation hall at Still Water. It focuses on the practical training of mindfulness in daily life, especially walking meditation and eating meditation, and repeatedly emphasizes that the core discipline is to stop talking, stop thinking, and return fully to the present moment. The speaker explains that walking meditation is not merely physical movement but a concentrated, relaxed awareness of each step and breath. When practitioners walk mindfully, they can experience ordinary details such as grass, flowers, and dew as profound miracles. This practice is presented as healing, because it helps people disconnect from anxiety, worry, and mental dispersion, and it can be carried back into ordinary life in cities, offices, and homes. A major portion of the talk is devoted to eating meditation and the Five Contemplations. The speaker critiques the way people often eat while mentally consumed by a “TV in the head,” meaning nonstop thinking, distraction, and internal commentary. He explains that the Five Contemplations should not be treated as a ritual recitation alone, but as a living practice throughout the meal. He revises and clarifies the contemplations so they are more understandable and more directly connected to modern concerns. The food is to be seen as a gift from Mother Earth and Father Sun, as the result of loving labor, and as something to be received mindfully and gratefully. The practitioner should eat in a way that reduces greed, nourishes the body as medicine, and supports the well-being of the Sangha, brotherhood, sisterhood, and the larger world. He also links mindful eating to ecological responsibility, saying that one should eat in ways that reduce the suffering of living beings, preserve the planet, and help reverse global warming. The talk then broadens into a teaching on the four nutriments: edible food, sense impressions, volition, and collective consciousness. The speaker explains that food is not only what enters through the mouth, but also what enters through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Television, books, internet content, speech, and other sensory inputs are all forms of nourishment that can either heal or poison. Volition is described as the deep will or aspiration that drives a person’s life, and it can be wholesome, such as the bodhicitta of compassion and service, or unwholesome, such as the desire to steal or dominate. Collective consciousness is presented as the environment and social atmosphere that shape a person’s mind; living among anger and violence can water negative seeds, while living in a healthy Sangha can nourish peace and insight. The speaker uses examples from Chinese history, including Mencius’s mother, to show how environment influences moral development. Another important theme is the nature of consciousness and the “store consciousness,” where seeds of suffering and happiness are held. The speaker warns that repeatedly thinking about trauma, abuse, resentment, or fear is like eating bad food over and over again; it strengthens painful seeds and can lead to depression, nightmares, and destructive behavior. He encourages practitioners to cultivate “right attention” and “appropriate attention” by turning toward what is wholesome, beautiful, and healing. The sound of the bell is described as a mindfulness practice that interrupts negative mental habits and brings the practitioner back to breathing, body, and peace. The latter part of the talk turns to Buddhist philosophy, especially non-self, impermanence, and the Middle Way. The speaker discusses the Buddha’s refusal to answer the “unanswered questions” about the eternity or finitude of the world, the nature of the self, and the status of the Tathagata after death. He explains that these questions are often framed in rigid boxes of yes or no, existence or non-existence, permanence or annihilation, but the Buddha’s teaching transcends such extremes. Using examples such as the poisoned arrow, the simile of the simsapa leaves, and the dialogue with King Milinda, he argues that the Buddha’s teaching is practical and aimed at relieving suffering rather than satisfying metaphysical speculation. He also addresses scholarly confusion, citing Louis de La Vallée Poussin and the issue of karma, rebirth, and selfhood. The speaker concludes that reality is not captured by fixed categories; instead, practitioners should learn to see impermanence, non-self, and interdependence directly, and thereby live with greater freedom, compassion, and clarity.