What is the Fourth Mindfulness Training?

Summary

The talk centers on a Dharma teaching delivered at Plum Village during an autumn retreat, beginning with chanting, mindful breathing, and blessings for the Sangha, the Triple Gems, and all living beings. The speaker frames the practice as a way for the community to function as one body, emphasizing collective mindfulness, unity, and protection. The setting is identified as the Full Moon Meditation Hall in the New Hamlet of Plum Village on Sunday, October 14, 2012, during the second week of the retreat. A major theme is the first eight exercises of mindful breathing. The first four are described as methods for returning to the body, releasing tension, and making the body lighter and more comfortable. The next four are presented as tools for working with painful feelings and emotions while also cultivating joy and happiness. Mindful breathing, sitting, and walking are presented as practical ways to generate mindfulness, which in turn allows practitioners to come home to themselves without fear. The talk strongly develops the Buddhist view of Mother Earth. Rather than treating her as mere environment or matter, the speaker describes Mother Earth as a living being, a great bodhisattva, and even the mother of Buddhas, Jesus Christ, saints, and all human beings. Mother Earth is portrayed as both outside and inside each person, making human life part of an infinite cycle of manifestation and return. This understanding is used to challenge fear of death and to support a non-discriminatory view of life, mind, and matter. The speaker repeatedly explains interbeing and non-discrimination. Mind and matter are not separate, just as the left and right sides of a sheet of paper cannot be separated. Likewise, suffering and happiness are not enemies but inter-are, like lotus and mud. Suffering is presented as necessary and useful because, when understood deeply, it gives rise to compassion, insight, and transformation. The talk compares this to subatomic physics, where a particle can also be a wave, illustrating that rigid categories distort reality. A substantial portion of the talk focuses on the practice of looking deeply into one’s own suffering. The speaker explains that many people avoid pain by staying busy, consuming entertainment, or distracting themselves. Buddhist meditation is offered as the alternative: to generate mindfulness strong enough to face suffering directly. When one understands one’s own suffering, one begins to understand the suffering of parents, ancestors, partners, and children. This insight reduces blame and anger and makes compassion possible. The talk then turns to loving speech and deep listening, identified as the fourth mindfulness training. The speaker describes these as bodhisattva practices that can restore communication and reconcile relationships. A person who listens with compassion does so with one purpose only: to help the other person empty their heart and suffer less. The listener must not interrupt, debate, or correct the other person in the moment, even if the speech is full of bitterness, blame, or wrong perceptions. Instead, the listener remains protected by compassion and can later offer clarification if needed. The speaker emphasizes that this practice can be learned quickly, sometimes in only a few days. Several stories illustrate the effectiveness of the practice. Retreatants in Europe, North America, Hong Kong, Macau, and elsewhere reportedly used telephones to reconcile with parents, spouses, and children after practicing deep listening and loving speech. One story recounts four German men in Oldenburg who reconciled with their fathers. Another tells of a Catholic woman in Washington, D.C., who was on the verge of suicide but was helped by a Buddhist friend and a recorded Dharma talk. After attending a retreat, she recognized her own role in her suffering, saw her husband’s suffering more clearly, and reconciled with him through kind speech and mindful presence. The talk concludes that reconciliation is possible and that divorce or separation is not the only solution to relationship difficulties. Salvation is described in Buddhist terms as understanding, especially understanding suffering. With understanding and compassion, people can repair damage, restore communication, and bring back happiness. The speaker stresses that support from friends and community is crucial, and that even non-Buddhists can successfully practice mindfulness and reconciliation when given the right teaching and conditions.