SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3QFc5IX5qo&list=WL&index=12&t=1982s
I think that transcribing important talks and lectures of great teachers is very important for us to be able to return to them as texts and get a better overall grasp of the lecture’s structure as well as the most important points the teacher emphasized. Here, I offer the transcription of Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk at Google Headquarters of September 2011. One can imagine that this is what the great Zen teacher wanted most to convey to folks working at one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative tech companies. We can say, therefore, that it is Thich Nhat Hanh’s heartfelt message to us who live in a busy, hectic, and constantly changing world driven by the ubiquitous advanced technology that plays a crucial role in everything today. Special thanks to my research assistant Christine Atchison for helping me out in this. [jkk – I’ve added some summary points after each section called “Note Well”]
[1] On the
power of the bell and the energy of mindfulness [00:00 – 01:59]
Dear friends, in Plum Village France (Thay’s monastery) where we live and practice, every time we hear the sound of the bell we stop our thinking; we stop our talking, and we go to our in-breath and breathe mindfully. And, at least three times … in … out, and that practice is called listening [to] the bell, the sound, mindfulness. When you hear the bell, you naturally stop your thinking . . . it has become a habit. You naturally stop your thinking and you focus your attention on [your] in-breath and you enjoy breathing in. And when you breath in mindfully like that you bring your mind home to your body and you become fully alive in the here and the now.
It takes only three seconds in order to
bring the mind home to the body and establish ourselves in the here and the
now. And when you are well-established in the here and the now you can [get] in
touch with life: first of all, with your body, your feelings, your perceptions,
your mental formations, your consciousness. And you get in touch with the
oneness of life around you. The energy of mindfulness has the power to heal, to
transform.
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[2] On love, meditation, and mindfulness: How to be present in the here and the now for your beloved one
Mindfulness and
Love [02:00 – 04:10]
When you love someone, you have the tendency to offer him or her something; you want to make him or her happy. And, you are inhabited by the energy of love and that is why you have the desire to make him or her happy. As I have said, love has the power to heal, to nourish, to bring happiness, and to transform suffering. And the practice of mindfulness can produce love. The elements of true love can be produced by the practice of mindfulness and when you have that love in you, you are alive; you are peaceful; you are happy; and you can make the other person happy.
The True Gift
of Love is One’s Presence [04:11~07:25]
Usually, when we want to make the other [another] person happy we want to give him or her something. We might write a poem for him or her, or we might cook something good and give it to him or to her or you might go to the market and buy something. But the most precious thing you can give him or her is not something you can buy from the market. It’s not something that you can buy with money: it’s your true presence.
You have to be there, for him and for her, if you truly love him or her. And in order to be there you need the practice of mindfulness. And what you want [to] offer your beloved one is your true presence. How can you love if you are not there? To love means to be there for him or for her and to be there is a practice.
In the Buddhist tradition, when you begin to breathe in mindfully you bring your mind home to your body and when mind and body are together you are truly there. In our daily life, very often our body is there but our mind is not there. We are not truly there. It’s impossible to love if you are not there. So, practice mindful breathing, bring your mind home to your body—it can help you to be there. Our in-breath, our out-breath is something like a bridge linking mind and body and the moment we pay attention to our in-breath and breath in mindfully we bring our mind home to our body and we are there in just two or three seconds. And, you can look, you can go to your beloved one looking in his eyes, her eyes, and you can say ‘darling, I’m here for you’. Your presence is the most precious give that you can make to your beloved one. (7:25).
There is an eleven-year-old boy who is unhappy because his father is not there for him. His father is a very rich businessman; successful business man too. But he does not have time for himself, for his wife and his son. One day he said ‘my son, tomorrow will be your birthday right? Do you want anything? I will buy it for you’. The young man did not know how to answer; he did not need anything. His father can afford to buy anything he wants, but he did not need anything. He needed one thing—the presence of his father. From time to time, his father is there at home but his mind is not with his body. So, the young man has the impression that he does not really have a father. So, after some reflection he said ‘Daddy, it’s you that I want’.
And if the father knows the practice of mindful breathing he will begin to breath in mindfully and it takes only three seconds for him to be there, body and mind together, and look into the eyes of his son and say, ‘Darling, I’m here for you’. It’s very easy, everyone can do that. To me, to love means to be there for your beloved one. And to be there, for me, is not an intention, a desire—that is a practice. In order to be there, you need to breathe in mindfully and bring your mind home to your body. Or you might like walking meditation—mindful walk. While breathing in you make one step, out two steps, and you become aware of the step you make: You are touching life in the present moment with your foot. One step alone can bring you home to the here and the now and be fully present in the here and the now. There are many ways of practice that can help bring our mind home to our body so that we can be established in the here and the now. (10:34).
NOTE WELL
- “Being there” is not an intention or a desire. It is a practice!
- Concretely, in order to “be there” (to be present in the here and now), do mindful breathing; bring your mind home to your body.
· [3] On Practicing Mindfulness and Touching the Kingdom of God [10:34-15:23]
When you breathe in mindfully and look at the flower, like this one, you have an opportunity to get in touch with this flower deeply. You are mindful that the flower is there. Mindfulness is the kind of energy that allows us to know what is there—what is happening in the here and the now. When you practice mindful breathing the object of your mindfulness is your in-breath. Your in-breath is something that is happening in the here and the now and you might enjoy your in-breath. Also, when you breath-in and—using the image of mindfulness generated from your in-breath—you can recognize that flower as existing and you get in touch with that flower. And if your mindfulness is strong enough, powerful enough, you get concentrated on the flower and you get insight that that flower is a wonder—a wonder. And, you may see that the flower belongs to the Kingdom of God [or] of the Pure Land of the Buddha. And when you get in touch with the flower you get in touch with the Kingdom of God and you get in touch with God because God is always with his Kingdom. And you may get insight that the Kingdom of God is available in the here and the now—you don’t have to go and look for it in the future or somewhere else. You don’t need to die in order to go to the Kingdom. In fact, you have to be very alive in order to do so and to be alive, to be fully present in the here and the now, you need only to breathe in mindfully. It takes only two-to-three seconds.
So now the Kingdom of God is available to you because you have the power, the capacity of being mindful. And the insight you get is the Kingdom is available in the here and the now and you would like to make yourself available to the Kingdom. And to make yourself available to the Kingdom, that can be done very quickly, just breath in mindfully or make a step mindfully. And then when you practice breathing in, “I am aware of my body”. This is the third exercise recommended by the Buddha in the sutra on mindful breathing—breathing in ‘I’m aware of my body’. Mindfulness of the body, you know that your body is there and while breathing in like that you bring your mind home to your body and there you are, alive, present, and you might discover that your body also belongs to the Kingdom of God. Your body, like that flower, is a wonder and you can touch the Kingdom of God also in your body. You don’t have to go far and in the future in order to get in touch with the Kingdom of God.
NOTE WELL
- You can direct your mindfulness (through the practice of mindful breathing) to particular objects, like a flower or your body
- When you do so, you realize more deeply that these objects are wonders
- Moreover, you realize that each and every thing belongs in the realm of the Sacred. Thus, by the simple practice of mindfulness through breathing, you can touch the realm of the Sacred (“the Kingdom of God”, or “the Pure Land”)
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