Good morning dear Sangha, good morning friends, welcome to the retreat of twenty-one days with the theme The Eye of the Buddha.

Many of us have come from Europe, America and elsewhere, and your coming has modified deeply our Sangha here in Plum Village.  You have brought with you your wisdom, your insight, your solidity, your happiness, your sorrow, your suffering.  The Sangha of Plum Village is no longer the Sangha of Plum Village.  You are now a larger Sangha.  This is a new Sangha for all of us.  The coming together of the Sangha is a great event always.  We are attracted to each other because we share the same concern, the same interest, the same kind of joy.

When scientists have studied about the social behavior of animals and insects, they have spoken of inter-attraction.  Living beings are like bees, termites and ants. They feel wonderful being together. They are social animals; they want to be with each other, they feel more secure, they feel happier being together.  You cannot keep a bee alone or isolated because after a few hours, a few days, it will dry up.  Without the bee hive, a bee cannot be a bee any more.  In Vietnam we used to say that a practitioner who has left his or her Sangha is like a tiger leaving his mountain.  After having left the Sangha, the practitioner who abandoned his or her practice may in just a few months die as a practitioner, like a bee without the community of bees.  When the tiger leaves her mountain to go to the lowland, she will be caught by humans and killed.  A person who is without a Sangha, a practitioner who is without a Sangha, cannot continue his or her practice.  That is something we feel very strongly. Our practice is nourished and grows deeply only in the context of the Sangha, and that is why each of us feels that we should be a Sangha builder. Because it is with the Sangha that we feel more solidity, security, joy and happiness.

So, as practitioners we want to be with each other, something that is the equivalent of interattraction. We are motivated by the same desire to practice for our transformation, for our healing, and for transformation and healing in the world.  We know that a solitary ant cannot do much.  She just goes around.  She does not look as if she has a mind or a thought or any imagination or ideas.  But when we put one hundred ants together, they behave as a new organism and you begin to see them operating as an organism, with intelligence, with thinking, with planning.   A solitary ant has only a few neurons strung together by fibers.  If we look at her we don't see intelligence manifesting, we don't see thinking, we don't see ideas. But when the ants get together, something begins to manifest.  If you observe an anthill with thousands and thousands of ants working together, you can see clearly the intelligence, the ideas, the thinking, the talent also.  

Human beings are a kind of social animal.  When we observe the bees or the ants we have the impression that we can learn something from them.  Scientists have used the word "super organism" to describe the life, the reality of these communities of social insects: "super organism."  Why?  Because each individual bee or ant can live his or her life as individuals, but they always live the life of the community, of the organism.  They live together at the same time as a cell, as a tissue of the same body.  And interestingly enough we observe, when we observe them, that there are no egoistic acts, there is no jealousy, there is no anger, there is no discrimination.  Every individual works naturally for the well-being of the whole community, and the ant and the bee do not dream much of the future.  They do not get caught in the past.  They are there living the present moment and doing whatever they need to do for the well-being of the whole community.

We know an ant hill can last for many, many years, maybe 60 years or more, but the life of the ant is only for one month or so.  In one month also the whole generation of ants vanish; every day they die at the rate of three or four percent, and yet they don't think of the future. They are doing their best. They don't think whether they will be there when the anthill is finished and they don't care whether at some distance another hill is being built.

When we observe the bees, the termites and the ants, we see that they are perfect in the way they lead their daily lives.  They do not have egotistic acts. Everything they do is for the good, the well-being of the whole community. Therefore there is no jealousy, there is no fear, there is no discrimination.  But there is something lacking in the community of bees, of ants, of termites.  That is the awareness that they are there, alive, living for themselves, for the community and for others.  

This is something you can notice when we observe a Sangha.  Members of a Sangha can very well live their individual life, but at the same time they can play the role of a tissue, of a cell of the community.  As Sangha builders, as people who live 24 hours a day with the Sangha, we continue to learn a lot about Sangha as an organism.  When you live in a Sangha you try to be like a cell in a body, you try to be like a bee in the bee hive for the well-being of the community. And because there is well-being in the community, there is well-being in every one of us, and the Sangha can serve as refuge for many, many people who come. That is our practice every day - how to live your individual life at the same time with your life as an organism.  And when you are capable of living like that you are no longer the victim of your jealousy, your anger, your discrimination, your fear because you are the organism.  The Sangha has become your body and therefore besides having the individual body you have the Sangha body, the Sanghakaya.

It is strange that in the teaching of Buddhism we speak a lot about Buddhakaya, the body of the Buddha, and we speak about the body of the Dharma, Dharmakaya, but we have waited until the end of the twentieth century in order to speak about the Sanghakaya, the body of the Sangha.  The Sangha is our body. It is like the beehive is the body of the bee, the anthill is the body of the ant. And when we are able to live in that spirit, considering the Sangha as our body, most of our suffering will vanish. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not an expression of faith, it is a practice.

Taking refuge in the Sangha means learning to live as well in the organism called Sangha.  Living as a tissue - and this is something possible.  We who live in Plum Village twenty four hours a day, we know that if we are able to look at the Sangha as our body most of our suffering will vanish and we will get a lot of joy.  Seeing the Sangha body as your Sangha is a practice, and mindfulness is the kind of energy that helps you to do so.  This is something that we can do.

Bell

It looks like the purpose of the bees is to build a hive, it looks like the purpose of the ants is to build a hill. That is inscribed in their DNA; every cell of the body is there to build communities.  When we observe these insects, we see the intelligence, we see the intelligences; we see the experiences, we see the wisdom that has been transmitted to them by many generations of bees and ants or termites.  When we observe humans doing something together we can see also the wisdom, the intelligence, the experiences handed down to them by many generations of humans that have come before.  The social insects, they too have means of communication.  They don't use language like us but they do communicate.  The bees can dance, they can release pheromone messages in form of chemicals that can communicate very well and sometimes perfectly.  The ants can also dance and make sonorous vibrations to communicate, and they also release pheromone, tiny particles of chemicals that can communicate so well.  We humans, we use language.  We know how to store information, we know how to process and how to retrieve information.  We know how to communicate.  We use language, we use fax, we use email, we use telegrams and telephone and so on, but sometimes communication is difficult.

In a practicing Sangha we communicate with each other also, but the base of our communication is silence.  We have Dharma discussion sessions, but Dharma discussions are not the only way in which we communicate with each other.  We communicate in several ways, and mostly in silence.  When we come together and sit we don't say anything, but we communicate and the message is very clear: "My dear brothers, my dear sisters, I am here for you.  I feel so glad to be surrounded by you members of my Sangha. I feel secure, I feel safe, I feel happy, I feel solid when I find myself surrounded by my Sangha."  That is the kind of communication that we make during sitting meditation and that is only the basic one.  Because in sitting meditation we learn how to really be there, with our full presence.  We learn how to establish ourselves in the here and the now. We know that life is available only in the here and the now. That is why sitting for us is to be in a position where we can touch life deeply and all the wonders of life are available to us from inside and from outside at the same time. This is a very powerful communication.  Dear Sangha, it is wonderful that we are there as a body, the Sangha body.  I don't have to strive any more, to fight any more, to run any more.  I feel at home with my Sangha.  With the Sangha body I feel a lot of energy.  I will not dry up like a bee when kept alone for half a day or two days before my body is here, my Sangha body is here with me all the time.

Sitting in a Sangha - even if you don't do anything - makes you alive, makes you solid, makes you happy, but only if you know how to allow yourself to be your Sangha.  Only if you know how to allow yourself to be penetrated by the Sangha so that communication becomes possible.  Communication yes. In the modern world,  we have very sophisticated instruments and means for communications, but very often we feel stuck.Sangha communication is based on freedom -  freedom from discrimination, freedom from a notion of self because we know how to allow ourselves to be the Sangha.  We know how to allow our bodies to become part of the Sangha body and the Sangha body to be our body.  The bees are always doing something: building the hive.  The ants are always trying to do something: building the hill.  We humans, we members of the Sangha, maybe our spiritual vocation, our biological structure tells us that we are there also to build some kind of hill, some kind of hive, but we don't do it by our work alone.  We don't do it by action alone, we do it by non action, namely, being  Because doing is not the only thing we can do as humans and as members of a Sangha.  Being is the basic action.  It can be called non action, but that is the foundation of all meaningful actions.  So when you observe the organism of a Sangha, you see there is action but you see there is non action. That means being, and being is an art.  When we come together and sit like this, we are not doing anything, but our being together, our confidence in the Path, in the practice, in the Sangha is a tremendous source of energy that is able to heal us, to transform us and to bring us a lot of solidity, freedom and joy.  So, non action, being, is the foundation of all kinds of actions.

When we practice walking together we don't do anything, we just enjoy every step we make.  When you see the centipede walking with so many feet, we are like that, we are just one body with so many feet walking at the same time.  And where do we go?  We go nowhere because our destination is the here and the now where life is available right now. And therefore every step brings us to the here and the now, to life and all its wonders that are available in that moment.  

So when we do walking meditation we don't do anything. We don't fight, we don't strive for anything, we just learn to be.  Touching the earth at our feet deeply and realizing that we are alive as an organism, as a Sangha, that is wonderful enough.   That is good enough for our transformation and healing.  The healing elements can be found not only in the action but mostly in the non action, our being.  And the quality of being is what we learn from the Dharma.  The moment when you arrive in Plum Village you become a cell of an organism.  There are monks, nuns and other people who live in Plum Village permanently; each of them is also a cell of the organism.  The monks, the nuns and the lay men and women in Plum Village they do not consider themselves to be the host and you to be the guest.  No, they look upon you as members of the Sangha.  They do not hesitate to invite you to share the full life of the Sangha.  A nun is a cell of the Sangha body, each of you are also a cell of the Sangha body.  Learn to be, learn to practice so that you can really be an organism called Sangha.     And thanks to the Dharma, thanks to the practice, our body, our Sangha body, our organism can be something like a super organism, if you wish, a holy organism, because it is, essentially, holy.

What makes the Sangha a holy entity is the energy of mindfulness, the energy of concentration and insight.  Mindfulness is the kind of energy we generate every day, every hour, every minute, every second by the practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful sitting, mindful looking, mindful listening.  Holy life is something possible, something that you can observe, that you can witness to.  In our daily lives we often live more or less in forgetfulness.  We are caught in our regret and sorrow concerning the past, we are caught in our anxiety and fear concerning the future. We are caught by our craving, our despair in the present moment. But with the energy of mindfulness we can establish ourselves in the here and the now.  We can be free from our regret concerning the past, our fear concerning the future or the craving or the despair that can come up in us in the present moment.  With the energy of mindfulness, we can touch the wonders of life within us and around us.  With the energy of mindfulness we can recognize and embrace our fear, our anger, our craving so that we can bring relief and the joy of life into ourselves, into our Sangha. This is something that is happening all the time during our daily life of practice and this is the element called holy in the holy Sangha, the holy Sangha.  A Sangha that is inhabited by the energy of mindfulness is a true Sangha, and we know that if mindfulness is there, concentration is there, and insight is there, also. When you are inhabited by the energies of mindfulness, concentration and insight the Buddha is there; the Buddha can be touched through the Sangha and of course the Dharma.  And of course the Dharma can be touched through the Sangha.  The Sangha carries within herself the presence of the Buddha and the Dharma, and that it is why it is so important that we take refuge in the Sangha.  Maybe if you don't like to use the word super organism we can use the word holy organism because the Sangha is a jewel.

The Sangha is not just a group of people - the Sangha is something much more than a group of people.  Members of a Sangha have the same kind of affinity, the same kind of aspiration, the same kind of need, the same kind of practice, the same kind of concern. They are aware that suffering is there and there is a need to understand deeply the nature of suffering.  Members of the Sangha are aware that the cessation of suffering, that transformation and healing are all possible.  They are aware of the fact that there are ways to transform and to heal.  Members of the Sangha have confidence in the way of the Eightfold Path (called Marga in Sanskrit), which leads to the cessation of suffering, to transformation and healing. This way can be seen in the daily practice.  When a member of the Sangha walks, she walks in such a way that makes life possible right in that moment.  With her foot she touches the earth, she touches so deeply that you can see the energy of concentration, of mindfulness in her, emanating from herself.  She really invests herself into the act of making a step and when she does that she communicates.  She does not need to release any pheromone, she does not need to talk, she does not need to telephone, to send a fax.  She just walks like this, and with each step she makes, she cultivates more freedom, more solidity and more joy. And she can do this every time she needs to move from one place to another place.  We humans, we need to move from one place to another place many times during the day, and therefore we have plenty of opportunities to practice so that every step can bring more solidity, more joy and  especially more freedom. Because every step you make like that helps you to reclaim the freedom that you have lost in the hectic kind of life out there in society.

The permanent residents of Plum Village are instructed to walk like that every time they need to move from one place to another place - whether they are monks or nuns or lay people, they are instructed to do that.  When they do that, they do it for themselves, they do it for the whole Sangha and they do it for the greater Sangha that is there, that is out there everywhere.  We build a hill not only for the sake of the hill itself, we build a hill for the sake of the whole world because the Sangha is a holy refuge.  People suffer so much they do not know where to turn to, and Sangha building is the most noble task.  The twentieth century was characterized by individualism, a lot of destruction, a lot of sorrow, of fear, of alienation.  The twenty-first century should be different, we learn to live like bees in a beehive. Here at Plum Village, we learn to live like cells in the same body, our practice is Sangha building.  Taking refuge in the Sangha.  "Sangham saranam gacchami." That is our practice.

So you have arrived. You have become a cell of the body. You can do Sangha building by your walking, by your breathing, by your sitting and bring yourself a lot of joy, a lot of relief, of peace, of freedom. You can offer the Sangha a lot of joy, a lot of peace, a lot of liberty also. And you don't have to strive. You allow the Sangha to transport you, to protect you like the bees.  They really take refuge in the beehive, as the ants take refuge in the anthill.  Even if you have come with a lot of pain, sorrow and fear within yourselves, allow yourself to be embraced by the Sangha.  "Dear Sangha, I have come with a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow, a lot of fear. Please embrace me, please embrace my fear, my sorrow, my pain. I surrender to the Sangha."   If you are capable of practicing like that, transformation may be obtained in just a few hours.

If you continue to suffer because you are still caught in your notion of self, you think that is your suffering, that is your pain, that is your sorrow. Now if you are capable of seeing yourself as a cell in the body of the Sangha, if you trust the Sangha, if you surrender yourself to the Sangha together with your intelligence, your talent, your sorrow, your fear then the energy of the Sangha will be able to take you in, to embrace you, to transform you. And you will get relief right away, right away. And your relief will be the relief of the Sangha.  

I said in the beginning that your coming has modified very deeply the Sangha at Plum Village because you have brought your wisdom, your insight, your happiness and your sorrow and fear. Everyone of us - whether we are permanent residents of Plum Village or whether we have just come - all of us become a cell in a new body, a Sangha body. And if you know how to trust, how to authorize  yourself to be home, to be held by the Sangha, to surrender to the Sangha, if you know how to be just a cell of the Sangha body, I promise that that kind of relief and transformation can take place in just a few hours.

When we come together and enjoy breakfast, this is also a practice.  You don't need breakfast for yourself alone, you eat for the Sangha.  When you chew the food, chew it for the Sangha please - it is possible to do so.  I remember one day we had a picnic in the mountains not far from Montreal, we were on a retreat there. I took a walk, and I saw a member of the Montreal Sangha.  He was eating his bread, sitting at the foot of a tree and when he saw me I asked him, "What are you doing?" and he said, "Well, I am feeding you, Thay, I am feeding the Sangha." That was a good answer.  Your well being is the well being of the Sangha.  Everything you do is for the Sangha; you do it for every one of us and for yourself.  That is the behavior of the bees; that is the behavior of the ants.  

If you can get out of the notion of self, suffering will vanish very soon, very soon.  And a twenty-one-day retreat is something very rare.  You cannot afford to have a twenty-one-day retreat several times a year, and therefore we should treasure this opportunity.  Noble silence is a wonderful means in order for us to enjoy deeply our twenty-one-day retreat, to acknowledge that twenty-one-day retreats always bring transformation and healing to many, many people.

If you had been there in St. Michael College two years ago, you would have noticed that the suffering was at first immense. But after twenty-one-days practice, so many people felt release from the suffering thanks to the power of the Sangha.  It is the Sangha that heals you, that allows you the opportunity to transform.  And who is the Sangha?  The Sangha is you.  Therefore, during the twenty-one-day retreat here please do not think of  the monks, the nuns and other lay people in Plum Village as your host and you are only the guest.  No.  We are looking on you as members of our Sangha, and your joy, your happiness will be our joy and our happiness.  We can learn something from the bees.  We can learn something from the termites.  Then we are no longer subject to our individual sorrow and fear and discrimination and pain. We give up, we become a cell in the body of the Sangha, and suddenly we feel much, much better. We can release all these negative energies. It is much easier than you have thought.

Bell

If during breakfast you get caught in your worries, your fear, eat for the Sangha and release that fear, that sorrow. Eating for the Sangha I have to enjoy my breakfast for the Sangha expects me to do so because eating breakfast while swallowing my fear and sorrow is not healthy for the Sangha.  The Sangha is there to support you, to remind you that eating breakfast is a way to nourish the Sangha with stability and freedom.  That is the way we should eat our breakfast - which is something you are going to do very soon now (laughter). Enjoy every morsel of your breakfast like that.  You know you are feeding the Sangha and you know what the Sangha needs - not sorrow, not fear but stability, joy and liberty.  So, eating breakfast is a deep practice, and if you allow yourself to be touched by the Sangha, if you know that the Sangha is there surrounding you, embracing you, you will eat your breakfast with a lot of joy. This is not difficult at all.  Eating breakfast is a deep practice.  After that we enjoy walking together.  Eating breakfast cannot be described as work, just as walking meditation cannot be described as work. Both practices can be very pleasant, very nourishing and healing.  So, walking, not as individuals, we walk as an organism.  Your feet are my feet and your feet are my feet. I walk in the best way I can, I enjoy every step I make, not only for myself, but for you. And if you are released from your suffering and your fear, and if you can touch the earth with joy, then you nourish me, you nourish the whole Sangha.

I have arrived.  That is my insight when I breathe in and make two steps.  I have arrived, I have arrived.  Peacefully, gently, but very determined.  We have been running for all our life, it is now time to stop.  If you are not capable of stopping, how can you enjoy touching the earth with your feet?  The miracle is not to walk on water or on fire, the miracle is to walk on earth, and any one of us can perform this miracle.  The miracle is to walk on earth, that is a statement made by the Zen master Lin Chi, or Rinzai.  If you can establish yourself in the here and the now, and make a step and touch the wonders of life in the here and the now, you are performing the miracle.  "Le miracle c'est de marcher sur terre." (The miracle is to walk on water.) That is the title in French of Thay’s book, The Miracle of Mindfulness. Walking on earth, you walk in such a way that the Kingdom of God is available to you right here and right now.  This is possible.  With the support of the Sangha, this is possible - to walk in the Kingdom of God, to walk in the Pure Land.  There is not a day that I do not walk in the Kingdom of God. There is not a single day when I do not walk in the Pure Land of the Buddha.  You need some freedom, you need to release your sorrow and your fear in order to do so and it is exactly with the Sangha that you can perform that miracle.  The Sangha has a tremendous source of energy if you know how to take refuge, to surrender to the Sangha, to allow the Sangha to take care of everything.  You just enjoy being a cell of the Sangha; that is enough.  And please don't say that you cannot do that.  

When you signed up for the retreat you expressed the intention to be here.  Taking refuge in the Sangha and enjoying every step you make, nourishing the Sangha, healing the Sangha with your steps, you are a Sangha builder now.  Later on, wherever you find yourself you will continue to be a Sangha builder because our world, our society, desperately needs the presence of Sangha builders to offer refuge for so many living beings who are getting lost every day!   I have arrived because the destination I want to arrive in is life, and life is available only in the here and the now.  When I take one breath, breathing in I bring my body and my mind together. And in that state of being I am available to life and life is available to me.  The oneness of body and mind realized by just one in-breath can make you available to life and its wonder, and make life and its wonder available to you.  Just one in-breath, and during that in breath you make two steps, "I have arrived, I have arrived." That is enlightenment, that is awareness already, and suddenly you are capable of stopping, of being there in the here and the now. That is the fruit of the practice. You don't need to practice several days or several years in order to have that.  Just one in-breath and suddenly you are there, fully present, body and mind. You need to take just one step in order to enter the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is ready, is available.  Only sometimes in our state of forgetfulness we are not ready and therefore mindful breathing brings us back to the here and the now, body and mind united. We only need one step to enter the Kingdom of God: "I have arrived, I have arrived," Arrived where?  At the Kingdom of God, at the Pure Land of the Buddha in the here and the now. Life available in the here and the now, and when you breathe out you say, "I am home."

Many of us have been searching for our home, for our true home, and we have not found it.  The Buddha told us our home is in the here and the now.  If you want to get in touch with your ancestors, if you want to get in touch with the Buddha, with the Kingdom of God, then go back to the here and the now, and mindfully enough, concentrated enough, you will be able to touch everything you look for in the here and the now.  To me, the Kingdom of God is now or never. The Pure Land is now or never. The practice is clear.  When you practice, "I have arrived, I am home," you stop running.  Our ancestors have been running and in our turn we continue to run. The Dharma says, "Stop! Be alive! Be in the here and the now."  

Not only in sitting, but in walking you realize that. And later on, while you wash your dishes, you realize that also.  It is wonderful washing dishes and arriving in the here and the now.  It is very nice washing the dishes in the Kingdom of God.  There are those of us who wash dishes in hell. (laughter) it is much nicer, much more pleasant to wash dishes in the Kingdom of God.   "I have arrived, I am home, in the here in the now," because the here and the now is the real address of your true home - the address of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the address of the Kingdom of God.  here-now@ com.fr

If you want, you can go home very easily because your home is the here and the now. And as a Sangha it is not difficult to go home because the Sangha energy is powerful.  I know that.  No matter how talented you are if you are only a solitary being, you dry up.  With the Sangha you have an opportunity to express all your talent and nourish the Sangha, heal the Sangha with your talent and get the nourishment and the healing from other members of the Sangha.  In the here and the now, I am solid, I am free.  If you know how to stop, to arrive, to enjoy each step you make, the element of solidity and the element of freedom become a reality; this is not auto suggestion.  You have made a few steps in mindfulness and concentration if you are able to arrive in the here and the now.  There, solidity and freedom will become a reality, and that will make your joy, your happiness grow.  Solidity and freedom are the two characteristic of Nirvana.  The Buddha said, "You can touch Nirvana in the here and the now even with your body." The body can touch Nirvana by touching solidity and freedom.  Every step you make helps to cultivate your solidity and your freedom because no happiness can be possible without some solidity and freedom. All of us know that.

In the ultimate I dwell.  There are two dimensions to reality.  The historical dimension and ultimate dimension.  We have historical concerns -  we are concerned with our health, with our success and the well being of our family, our society, yes.  That is called historical concern, but deep in us there is an ultimate concern.  We want to touch the absolute, we want to realize our true home, and in the teaching of the Buddha the two dimensions are not separate from each other.  If you know how to touch the historical dimension deeply, with mindfulness and concentration, you can touch at the same time the ultimate dimension. Therefore with solidity and freedom you can very well touch the ultimate - your nature of no birth and no death, the nature of suchness. That is something you will develop later in the retreat.  So let us memorize these words because they can let us enjoy sitting meditation and walking meditation.  You can use this while doing things like dish washing, bathroom cleaning, also. Everything we do or we do not do in our daily life is for the practice of nourishing the Sangha, nourishing ourselves  and the Sangha. We know that is the refuge of the world. And as good practitioners each of us has to take the vow to build Sangha. That is the most noble task of our century.   Shall we sing together?