You are Both Depression and Mindfulness

Summary

The talk presents a detailed teaching on Buddhist psychology, meditation, and socially engaged practice, delivered in Hanoi at the Kim Lien Hotel during a retreat on Engaged Buddhism in the 21st Century. The speaker begins with the Buddhist notion of formation, or samskara, explaining that all phenomena are composite and impermanent. A flower, the body, and mental states are all described as formations arising from many conditions. This framework is extended to the body as a biological formation and to emotions and perceptions as mental formations. The speaker emphasizes that all formations are impermanent and that mindfulness allows practitioners to recognize what is manifesting in the present moment. A major portion of the talk focuses on the 51 categories of mental formations in the speaker’s tradition. These are grouped into wholesome formations such as compassion, loving-kindness, joy, forgiveness, mindfulness, concentration, and insight; unwholesome formations such as craving, anger, hate, violence, and jealousy; and formations that may be either wholesome or unwholesome, such as thinking. The speaker explains that these formations first exist as seeds, or bijas, in store consciousness. When conditions touch them, they manifest in mind consciousness as active mental states. The practice is to nourish wholesome seeds and avoid watering unwholesome ones. Mindfulness is presented as the energy that recognizes these states and prevents practitioners from being overwhelmed by anger, depression, or other painful emotions. The talk repeatedly uses the image of a mother holding a crying child to illustrate the Buddhist approach to suffering. Mindfulness does not fight anger or depression; instead, it embraces them tenderly, with non-duality and non-violence. The practitioner recognizes that both mindfulness and anger are part of oneself, so there is no need for internal conflict. This compassionate holding is said to bring relief and to create the conditions for healing. The speaker also links mindfulness to concentration and insight: mindfulness sustains concentration, concentration enables deep looking, and insight brings liberation. These three energies are described as the heart of Buddhist meditation and as practices that can be cultivated in ordinary activities such as breathing, walking, driving, washing, and cooking. The speaker then turns to the meaning of Engaged Buddhism. Rather than defining it primarily as activism or protest, the talk frames it as a Buddhism that is alive in every moment of daily life and responsive to what is happening in body, mind, and environment. The speaker recounts the historical development of the term in Vietnam, beginning with a series of articles written in 1954 in response to political confusion, war, and ideological conflict. These writings, later published as books, helped shape the concept of engaged Buddhism as Buddhism entering into life and responding to social realities. The talk references institutions and figures such as the Anh Quang Temple, Van Hanh University, Thich Quang Duc, Thomas Merton, and various Vietnamese Buddhist colleagues and editors. The historical narrative situates the teaching in the context of French colonial conflict, the division of Vietnam, the rise of ideological polarization, and the struggle for human rights. The second half of the talk connects engaged Buddhism to the Four Noble Truths. The first truth, dukkha or ill-being, is expanded beyond classical examples to include tension, anxiety, fear, broken families, suicide, war, terrorism, and ecological destruction. The speaker argues that the natural tendency is to run away from suffering, but the Buddha’s teaching is to confront it directly and look deeply into its nature. By understanding suffering, one discovers its causes, which include craving, hate, ignorance, wrong perception, lack of communication, and an overly hectic lifestyle. The talk emphasizes that many forms of suffering arise from the inability to live deeply in the present moment and from social systems that encourage competition, consumption, and disconnection. The fourth Noble Truth, the path leading to the cessation of suffering, is presented through the Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Eightfold Path. The Five Trainings are described as concrete expressions of love: protecting life, practicing generosity, protecting children and families from sexual misconduct, restoring communication through compassionate listening and loving speech, and consuming mindfully. The speaker also highlights interbeing as the basis of right view: father and son, humans and the natural world, and all living systems are mutually dependent. This insight supports ecological responsibility, including reducing meat consumption and protecting animals, plants, and minerals. Right thinking, right speech, and right action are described as practical ways to heal oneself and society. The talk concludes by identifying engaged Buddhism as responding to suffering with the noble path and with the compassionate activity of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of listening and helping living beings in countless ways.