Dharma Talks

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh passed away on January 22nd, 2022. As we grieve our dear teacher, we also want to celebrate his enduring legacy with the podcast’s first special edition.

Therefore, we are sharing an edited recording of Thich Nhat Hanh interviewed by Krista Tippett during a USA tour in 2003, at a lakeside Christian conference center in rural Wisconsin.  

The episode starts with an introduction by Brother Phap Huu – Thich Nhat Hanh’s former attendant, and the current Abbott of Upper Hamlet, Plum Village. The brother recites one of Thay’s best known poems and pays tribute to his beloved teacher.

In the interview, Thich Nhat Hanh offers gentle wisdom for living in a world of anger and violence, through concepts such as engaged Buddhism, ‘being peace’, and mindfulness.

He shares the story behind his classic book The Miracle of Mindfulness, and discusses the Vietnamese connotations of the word ‘mindfulness’; transforming suffering; and building a community of practice and teaching mindfulness to different groups – from members of the US Congress to Hollywood filmmakers and law enforcement officers.

One segment of the interview focuses on dealing with war and ‘enemies’; the repetitive patterns of war, with a focus on the Vietnam and Iraq wars and the ‘war on terror’ taking place at the time. He further delves into: the root causes of war, anger, forgiveness, and peacekeeping; collective awakening; and viewing the world through the eyes of compassion. 

What is compassion in the wake of a terrorist attack? And why is it so hard for human beings and global politics to take the root causes of war seriously? Does the practice of mindfulness cause forgiveness to become instinctual? And what were Thay’s pressing questions in 2003?

Thay also recites poems in both English and Vietnamese and comments on their meanings and shifting contexts, such as the relevance of his 40-year-old poem ‘Illusion Transformed’ to the realities of 2003. 

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🔔 The interview is reproduced with kind permission of Krista Tippett and her podcast and radio show On Being. 🙏

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🎙️ Peabody Award-winning broadcaster Krista Tippett is a National Humanities Medalist and a New York Times bestselling author. She attended Brown University, then worked as a journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin. Subsequently, she lived in Spain and England before receiving a Master of Divinity at Yale University in the mid 1990s.

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The podcast is co-produced by the Plum Village App:
https://plumvillage.app/
And Global Optimism:
https://globaloptimism.com/
With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation: 
https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/ 

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Resources:

🎙️ Thich Nhat Hanh ➛ https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/
🎙️ Krista Tippett ➛ https://onbeing.org/our-story/krista-tippett/ 
🎙️ Brother Phap Huu ➛ https://plumvillage.org/people/dharma-teachers/br-phap-huu/

On Being with Krista Tippett ➛ https://onbeing.org/series/podcast/ 
‘Recommendation’ ➛ https://plumvillage.org/articles/recommendation/
‘Alone Again’ ➛ https://plumvillage.org/library/songs/alone-again-promise-me/
The Miracle of Mindfulness ➛ https://plumvillage.org/books/the-miracle-of-mindfulness/
‘Illusion Transformed’ ➛ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq5HHRJ9pIk 
Drops of Emptiness ➛ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/424577.Drops_of_Emptiness 
‘For Warmth’ ➛ https://plumvillage.org/articles/for-warmth-thays-poem-in-my-two-hands-betsy-roses-song/ 
Fragrant Palm Leaves ➛ https://plumvillage.org/books/fragrant-palm-leaves/
Thich Nhat Hanh address to the US Congress, September 10, 2003 ➛ https://plumvillage.org/it/about/thich-nhat-hanh/letters/thich-nhat-hanh-address-to-us-congress-september-10-2003/0/
‘Mindfulness, Suffering and Engaged Buddhism’ (interviews with Thich Nhat Hanh, Cheri Maples, and Larry Ward) ➛ https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/interviews-with-thich-nhat-hanh/thich-nhat-hanh-on-mindfulness-suffering-and-engaged-buddhism/

The Miracle of Mindfulness: Thich Nhat Hanh in Conversation with Krista Tippett | TWOII | Ep. #19

A collection of Dharma talks from Jack Kornfield

The Bodhisattva Way - Jack Kornfield

Listening to the song of the present moment, Jack uncovers how to dance with life’s dynamic rhythms along the harmonizing path to inner-freedom.

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

“The rhythm of your breath is no different than the rhythm of the stars.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

- The art of listening to the song of life, birth and death
- Why it can be so tough to actually “Be Here Now” like Ram Dass
- How love connects to the present moment
- Alan Watts, music, dance, and harmonizing to the universe
- Feeling the rhythms of your breath and body
- Learning to dance to life’s dynamic music
- Staying open and avoiding spiritual bypass
- Looking at our body and life clearly and directly
- The power of attention, noting, and spaciousness for diffusing our judgements and emotions
- Buddha’s discovery of the Middle Way, and why he stopped fighting himself
- Dealing with the unfinished business of grief, loss, loneliness, wounds
- How to handle worries or fantasies that keep looping over and over
- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the tenderness and fearlessness of an Awakened Heart
- Why Buddha focused on humans as ‘five processes,’ rather than personalities
- Letting go of our rigid sense of self and diving into the fluidity of life
- Non-grasping and how even enlightenment is a problem
- Discovering the true path to liberation
- Death, dying, and a reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead

“To listen is to be awake in the present without moving away from or running away from what’s actually here.” – Jack Kornfield

“The only place to actually love another person, or a tree, or a living creature, or the earth itself, is when we’re here in the present.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma talk originally recorded in 1991 was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Discover your great joy and love in Jack’s life-changing new online journey – The Awakened Heart: Discovering Great Joy and Love – dive in at bit.ly/TheAwakenedHeart

Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. Register for free today for The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET: www.dharmamoon.com/beherenow

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 255 – Listening To The Song Of The Present Moment

- How do we move beyond our desire to perpetuate experiences into a place where we can be free to enjoy the present moment?
​- How do we recognize moments of awakening and move into a place of identifying with the soul?
- How do we learn to embrace simplicity and spaciousness and move into harmony in a way that benefits those around us?
How do we learn to honor our incarnations while remaining free of attachment?

From tragedy to elation, moments of awakening come in many forms. When we recognize that we were born in order to work through attachments in ourselves that keep us bonded to our separateness, the meaning our of lives change. We see the potential for our souls to awaken to their true nature. From then on, everything in our life becomes a vehicle for awakening and we are free to open ourselves to all forms of the universe...

From Separation To Source

In Joseph's first podcast for the Be Here Now Network he clearly brings to light the sometimes very difficult convoluted notion of emptiness.  As the high Lama Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says,"When you recognize the empty selfless nature of phenomena the energy to bring about the good of others dawns uncontrived and effortless."

Joseph Goldstein - Insight Hour - Ep. 1 - Zero Centre Of Emptiness

Plum Village is a new, free mindfulness app with Buddhist insights and guided meditations offered by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community: https://plumvillage.app/

The Miracle of Mindfulness: Thich Nhat Hanh in Conversation with Krista Tippett | TWOII | Ep. #19

Plum Village App : guided meditations & talks