Keeping the Essential Teaching of Buddhism

Summary

This talk, delivered on February 3, 2013 at the Meditation Hall Stillwater in Upper Hamlet during the final Dhamma talk of the 2012–2013 winter retreat, centers on a major theme of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching: whether practitioners are truly “soul mates of the Buddha,” meaning whether they understand the Buddha’s message deeply enough to avoid misperception and dualistic thinking. The speaker begins by reflecting on how painful it feels when one is misunderstood, then turns that question toward the Buddha himself. The core point is that the Buddha was misunderstood for centuries, yet there is no reason to imagine that he was sad or offended. Instead, the proper response to misunderstanding is patience, clearer explanation, and compassion. If others do not understand, the practitioner should not blame them alone; one should also recognize one’s own responsibility to communicate more skillfully. This becomes an ethical and spiritual lesson in non-duality: misunderstanding is not simply “their fault,” but part of a shared relational field in which both sides participate. A major portion of the talk contrasts two broad tendencies in Buddhism. One is devotion-based Buddhism, in which practitioners rely on an object of reverence, trust the Buddha, and find relief in worship and symbolic presence. The other is insight-based Buddhism, in which practitioners cultivate concentration, mindfulness, and deep looking in order to realize the Buddha’s teachings for themselves. The speaker does not reject devotion; rather, he argues that devotion can be helpful and even necessary for many people, especially when they need a concrete symbol of trust. Examples include relics, the Bodhi tree, and devotional practices centered on the Buddha’s body. However, he warns against overreliance on external forms if they obscure the essential teaching. The talk then develops the distinction between the Buddha’s physical body and his Dharma body, or dharmakaya. The physical body of Siddhartha Gautama was historical, born and subject to death, but the Dharma body continues through his teachings, through mindfulness, concentration, insight, compassion, and the living practice of the Sangha. The Buddha is therefore not absent after his physical passing; he remains present in the Dharma, in awakened conduct, and in the living transmission of understanding. This idea is extended through images of the cloud in the tea, the wind, the birds, the sunshine, and the rain: all of these can be seen as expressions of the Buddha’s ongoing teaching when one practices signlessness and deep looking. The speaker also discusses the historical development of Buddhist schools, especially the Mahasanghika and the Sthavira traditions, and how some later interpretations introduced dualistic distinctions between the sacred Buddha and ordinary human beings. He argues that the Buddha’s original teaching is non-dual: Buddha and human beings are not separate categories, because all beings possess Buddha nature and can awaken. He criticizes rigid divisions between elite and ordinary practitioners, between pure and impure worlds, and between Buddhism as a religion of worship and Buddhism as a path of direct realization. He emphasizes that Buddhism should be universal and accessible, not reserved for intellectual elites or specialized monastics. Another major theme is the teaching of no-self. The speaker explains that some Buddhist schools and later interpretations use language that appears to affirm a self, such as store consciousness, personhood, or subtle continuity across lives. He reviews various doctrinal positions, including references to the skandhas, alaya-vijnana, bhavanga, and related ideas, but insists that the essential teaching remains impermanence and non-self. At the same time, he presents a middle way: there is continuity without a fixed, separate, immortal self. A person at age five, ten, twenty, or seventy is both the same and not the same. This continuity allows for responsibility, love, and ethical transformation without reifying an eternal soul. The talk broadens into a vision of interbeing and universal Buddhahood. The Earth is described as a great bodhisattva, the sun as a bodhisattva, and ordinary people as potential Buddhas and bodhisattvas in daily life. The speaker encourages practitioners in Plum Village to see the Buddha in their surroundings, in their companions, and in the natural world. He also refers to bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Kshitigarbha, using them as symbols of compassion, wisdom, and transformative action. Manjushri in particular represents deep understanding that can embrace suffering and help transform it. Finally, the talk returns to the practical challenge of preserving the essence of the teaching while making it accessible. The speaker compares this to dilution in medicine: one can adapt the teaching to different people, but if the essence is lost, the result is no longer the Dharma. The goal is not doctrinal victory or success, but genuine healing and liberation. The talk closes by connecting Buddhist practice to Vietnamese cultural traditions, including the Kitchen God and the New Year pole ritual, reinterpreting them as symbolic acts of reclaiming the land of compassion and understanding from Mara, the forces of confusion and violence. The overall message is that the Buddha is alive wherever non-duality, mindfulness, compassion, and awakened practice are present.