Beginning of Fourth Week of Summer Opening

Summary

The talk is a Dharma teaching delivered at Plum Village’s Still Water Meditation Hall during the 2012 summer opening, in the context of the retreat’s fourth week and the 30th anniversary of Plum Village. The speaker addresses the Sangha and frames the session around chanting, listening, and the cultivation of mindfulness and compassion. The central theme is that deep listening is not merely auditory attention but a transformative practice that allows practitioners to contact suffering in themselves, in others, and in the wider world. By recognizing suffering directly, understanding arises; from understanding, compassion naturally follows. Compassion, in turn, reduces suffering immediately and supports healing and transformation. A major emphasis is placed on compassionate listening as embodied by Avalokiteshvara, also referred to as Kuan Yin or Avalokita. The speaker presents this bodhisattva as the model of deep listening and explains that chanting the bodhisattva’s name is a practice of returning to oneself. On the first recitation, practitioners are invited to touch their own suffering; on the second, they are encouraged to recognize the suffering of those around them; on the third, they extend awareness to the suffering of the world, including war, discrimination, hunger, oppression, fear, and violence. This progression shows that compassion is not abstract but grows from direct contact with suffering. The speaker also links personal suffering to ancestral suffering, suggesting that pain carries the transmission of many generations and reflects the suffering of society and the nation as well. The talk strongly critiques habitual escape through consumption and distraction. Television, the internet, music, phone calls, and eating are described as ways people avoid facing their inner pain. This avoidance prevents understanding and transformation. In contrast, the Buddha’s advice is to return to oneself without fear through mindful breathing and mindful walking. These practices generate mindfulness and concentration, which create a safe and stable energy for embracing suffering tenderly, like a mother holding a crying baby. The speaker repeatedly stresses that mindfulness can hold pain for a few minutes and bring relief, showing that suffering and mindfulness are distinct energies and that mindfulness can embrace pain without being overwhelmed. The second half of the talk turns to the practical foundations of Plum Village practice, especially mindfulness of breathing and walking meditation. The speaker explains that when a bell sounds, practitioners should stop thinking, bring the mind home to the body, and become fully present. The present moment is described as the only time where life is available; the past and future are portrayed as prisons when the mind is trapped in regret or fear. Mindfulness is defined as the energy that helps one know what is happening in the body, feelings, mind, and the world. The speaker also explains the Sanskrit term smrti and the Chinese understanding of mindfulness as the mind returning to the present moment. The talk outlines the first four exercises of the Anapanasati Sutra: awareness of in-breath and out-breath, following the breath all the way through, awareness of the whole body, and calming or releasing tension in the body. These exercises are presented as simple but powerful methods for healing, nourishment, and freedom. The speaker encourages practitioners to enjoy breathing rather than force it, and to use bells or other reminders throughout the day to reconnect with the body. The body is described as a wonder and as part of the sacred reality of the kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha. Walking meditation receives especially detailed instruction. Each step can be a step into the present moment, into the Pure Land, or into the kingdom of God. Phrases such as “I have arrived” and “I am home” are used not as ideas but as realizations grounded in actual mindful steps. The speaker explains that walking meditation cultivates solidity and freedom by freeing practitioners from the pull of the past and future. The ultimate aim is to touch the reality of no birth and no death, called Nirvana in Buddhism and compared to God in other traditions. The talk concludes by encouraging the Sangha to practice together, to support one another through their walking, breathing, and silence, and to contribute to the collective energy that makes healing and transformation possible for everyone.