SOURCE in the
public domain HERE
Here is the
last part of the transcription of Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk at Google
Headquarters in September 2011. 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 project.
Dealing with pain and suffering / Generating happiness and joy, here and now
Practice (i.e., Buddhist practices) helps us to touch the conditions of happiness in the here and the now so that we can generate a feeling of joy at any moment we want. And that is not too difficult. If you go back to your body, if you bring your mind home to your body, and establish yourself in the here and the now, you will realize that conditions for your happiness are more than enough. And happiness is possible right in the here and the now. So, to generate a moment of joy is possible, to generate a moment of happiness is also possible for a practitioner no matter where and when. And the practice of mindfulness also helps us to recognize a painful feeling [or] a painful emotion when they manifest. [With regard to] a painful feeling, we have a tendency to try to run away from it. We want to cover it up by consumption.
If we listen to music, if we read magazines, if we eat—maybe it’s not because these things bring us a lot of happiness but because we don’t want to get in touch with the suffering; we want to cover it up with consumption. Obesity is an outcome of that. You have a feeling of loneliness, despair, anger, worries in you and you don’t know how to handle those … and that’s why you want to forget; [you want] to run away, and one of the ways is to just consume—some music, magazines, food … [These things] are there in order to help you to cover up your suffering. You do not solve your problem [though]. But the practice consists in going home and taking good care of that pain. Breathing in, I am aware of the painful feeling in me. There is the energy of pain of course, but, as a practitioner, you generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration. And with the second energy you recognize the first energy. [You can say:] Hello there my little pain! I know you are there. I will take good care of you. So, like a mother holding her baby when the baby suffers, the practitioner generates the energy of mindfulness and concentration and go[es] home and take[s] care of the painful feeling, of the painful emotion in him or in her and get[s] that relief. (1:16:44).
On Weathering Strong Emotions
[There are] so many young people who are not capable of handling a strong emotion, and they believe that the only way to stop suffering is to go kill themselves. That is why so many young people commit suicide everywhere. But we know very well that an emotion whether it is strong [or] however strong it is, is only an emotion. … and we are much more than an emotion. An emotion is something that comes and stay[s] for some time and finally goes [away]. Why do we have to die because of just one emotion? That is what you can remind yourself when an emotion manifests in you.
And if you know the practice of mindful breathing/mindful walking, generating the energy of mindfulness, you can very well recognize and embrace that emotion and you are safe. An emotion is like a storm coming and there are ways in order to stand and not to allow the storm to blow you away. The practice of deep breathing in a position of sitting or lying down focuses your attention on the rise and fall of your abdomen, and just that. Stop all your thinking, because the more you think the stronger the emotion can become. Stop the thinking! Bring your mind down to the level of your navel, breathe in deeply, and become aware of the rise and fall of your abdomen. Stay in that position and continue. [If you do those exercises,] your emotion cannot, will not be able to do anything to you. And after five minutes, ten minutes, or even half an hour, the emotion will go [away] and you will survive it. The next time it comes, you will [do] just that. It’s easy enough. You should train yourselves only a few times. And everyday if you know how to do it, try a few minutes. And then after a few weeks it will become a habit. And when that emotion manifests you will remember to practice and you are no longer afraid of an emotion (1:19:44).
So when the baby suffers, the mother should be there in order to pick up the baby and hold the baby tenderly. The mother does not know what is the cause of the suffering of the baby, but the fact that she’s holding the baby tenderly can already make the baby suffer less. Because the energy of tenderness begins to penetrate into the baby, that brings relief. And after having held the child for a few minutes the mother might find out what is wrong with the baby and she can change the situation easily. The same is true with the practitioner. In the beginning, she does not know what is the root of that pain, that emotion. But the fact that she is able to hold it tenderly without attempting to run away can already bring her (and the pain) relief. And with a little more concentration and mindfulness, we can discover the nature, the root, of our emotion and that will help transform the emotion and the pain. And if adults—fathers, mothers, schoolteachers—know how to do that, they could teach young people how to do it—it’s easy enough to learn. And therefore, a practitioner of mindfulness is capable of releasing the tension in her body: reduc[ing] the pain in his body, generate[ing] a feeling of joy whenever he wants, generate[ing] a feeling of happiness whenever she wants, recognize[ing] and embrace[ing] a painful feeling, recognize[ing] and embrace[ing] a painful emotion. All these things can be learned. We hope that in the future, this kind of practice can be taught in schools [at] every level. We are trying to do that. We have met with schoolteachers in many countries and they all agree that this is something they must learn and bring into the classroom to help young people. (1:22:36).
[the bell/gong is rung and there is silence until 1:23:14].
On not becoming a victim of success
The miracle of transformation and healing always happens in our retreats. During this North American Tour, we have offered a retreat in Vancouver for 800 people. After that another retreat for more than 900 in Colorado. And we just finished one in Southern California, Escondido for 700 people. And the miracle of transformation and healing always happened. And using the practice of compassionate listening and gentle speech many people are able, are capable of restoring communication and reconcile[ing]. And there are those of us who can use our mobile phone to practice listening with compassion and using loving speech in order to reconcile with those who are at home who are not at the retreat. And we have been offering so many retreats like that in the world and seeing the effect, the result, the fruit of the practice.
We are encouraged in this practice. That is why, as monks, and nuns, and lay practitioners, we want to continue—because that brings us a lot of happiness. We want to share the practice and to help many people to suffer less. And that is why, we want also success. But our success, our willingness to succeed, does not remove us from the present moment. Our practice is to be grounded always in the present moment. We know that the future is made only of one element, that is the present moment. And if we take care of the present moment the best way we can, it means that we have done everything we can do for the future, and that is our practice—to be there in the here and the now and do our best with that and not let the worries, the projects, carry us away. (1:26:23).
I think many are successful in their career but many have become victims of their own success—they are not happy. [At times?] Happiness is not . . . the aim of when we do something we want to succeed. But, is it worthwhile to continue if that success does not bring happiness? And many have become victims of their own success. And although they succeed in their enterprise, happiness is not there. They have no time to love, to live their life. They have no time for themselves, they have no time for their beloved one. I know a successful businessman in Germany; his name is Frederik. He is only 40. He is a very successful businessman. But his wife Laura suffers very deeply because of loneliness—because Frederik did not have the time, even for himself, and for her and for their son. She tried to suffer less by doing humanitarian work. She tried to forget her loneliness by going to school and get[ting] another degree, but that did not help and she cried during the night. And he said, ‘Darling, no one can replace me now; I have to wait three, four years before I can find someone to replace [me] and then we will have more time for ourselves and for our son. For the moment, no one can replace me’. And that promise has never been fulfilled because six months [later] he got killed in an accident, a car accident. He was so busy that when his wife was hospitalized he could not have the time to go to the hospital. And even when his son Phillip was hospitalized, he could not go to the hospital because his time, his energy is sucked by the will to succeed. And you know what happened? Only three days after his death they found someone to replace him. And, Frederik is still alive. There are many Frederik’s among us and many Laura’s among us. We have to wake up from that. We have to learn how to change our way of life in order to be truly alive.
On four elements of true love that mindfulness can help generate
And the practice of mindfulness helps us bring real love, real happiness to our lives. There are four elements of true love that mindfulness can help generate. The first element of true love is lovingkindness. That is the capacity to make another person happy. And we have already learned that if we cannot make ourselves peaceful, fresh, and happy we cannot make another person happy. The practice of mindfulness helps restore solidity, freedom, peace, and freshness to us so that we can, we have the capacity to make the other person happy. (1:32:01).
The second element of true love is compassion (karuna)The capacity of understanding the suffering and help remove it. If you love someone you should understand the suffering in him or in her and you should be able to help transform that and remove that. And that you can do only after you have done it for yourself. You have fear, anger, despair in you and if you don’t know how to transform it, how can you help your beloved one to do the same? So, understanding the suffering inside and bringing relief and transformation is very crucial for love and then you’ll be able to help your beloved one transform the suffering. So that is the second element of true love—the capacity to help someone suffer less
And the third element of true love is joy because true love always generates joy for you and for the other person. If both of us cry during the process of loving, that’s not true love. True love should bring joy every moment of our daily life and mindfulness can help do that.
And the fourth element of true love is inclusiveness. In true love there’s no longer any frontier between you and your beloved one. Your suffering is his suffering; his happiness is your happiness and there is a perfect, mutual understanding between [the] two of you and together you can serve and help many people. True love is the kind of love that always grows; it has no frontier. And practicing true love you, begin to embrace everyone, the whole planet and bring a lot of joy to yourself.
And that is why we have to know where we go. If love is our destination and then we have to sacrifice other things that is [are] not love, like fame, wealth, sensual pleasure, power—because there are those who have plenty of these things and who suffer very deeply. When I was ordained as a monk at the age of 16 my teacher gave me the name “Nhat Hanh” which means “one action”—you do only one thing; you don’t do many things at the same time. Monotasking. And I tried to live according to this teaching. I want to transform myself. I want to help people [be] happy because I know that if people are happy, I can be happy also.
And that is why Buddhist meditation is made of two elements. The first element is concentration. You focus your attention just on one thing, otherwise your concentration is not powerful enough to get a breakthrough and to get insight. And concentration can be practiced, not by thinking, but by brushing your teeth in mindfulness, washing your dishes in mindfulness, watering the vegetables in mindfulness. Enjoying every step that you take make with concentration more and more powerful and your store consciousness can bring you all of the insight that you need. And that is why the first element of Buddhist mediation is samadhi concentration and the second is vipassana looking deeply. You concentrate on just one thing and you only look deeply into that one thing and that is the technique, that is the secret of bringing up insight. (1:37:54).
I think concerning
information, we know that we have the feeling that we are overwhelmed by
information. We don’t need that much informations, we just need a few. And
there are basic informations that we should make in our life because there are
many things we know but we never put into practice. So your happiness does not
depend on how much information you have, but what kind of information you have
and how you put into practice -- that kind of information. And basic
information is that we are alive. Breathing in, I know I am alive and breathing
out I can touch all wonders of life in me and around me in this moment. And
that can cultivate my happiness, that can make me an instrument of love and I
can help, I can love. Let us have the rest of our time for a few questions,
thank you. (1:39:23).
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