You are a continuation of your father
 © Thich Nhat Hanh 

Dear friends, please enjoy breathing in and breathing out while reading the teachings below :)
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A lotus for you
A Buddha to be

Good morning, dear Sangha.  Today is November 12th in the year 2006, and we are in the Upper Hamlet during our Winter Retreat. 

They tell you that you are the continuation of your father, and they even say that you look exactly like your father; your way of smiling, of reacting is very much like your father’s way. And you know that scientifically you are the continuation of your father, because your father has transmitted himself to you through his genes and so on, so it’s true.  Intellectually, you accept that your father is in you, you are the continuation of your father, but sometimes you feel that it looks like you are not your father.  Your father is somehow different, and you are different.

Even if members of your family, other people, friends, tell you that you behave and have many habit energies [like your father]: your way of reacting, your way of doing things is very much the way of your father, and yet you don’t feel that you are your father – you are different.  This is because you have an image of your father outside of you, and that image is not deep enough.  You have not discovered your father deeply enough.  You have only an image of your father, a notion of your father that does not represent the totality of your father.  That is why you feel that your father in you is quite different from your father outside. 

The first reason why you don’t feel that your father outside you and your father inside you are the same is that you have got an image of your father outside that is not deep enough.  You have not really seen him in depth, and since you know that your father is also in you, you have a chance to get to know him in a deeper way, so by getting in touch with your father in yourself, you have a chance to understand your father outside yourself better.  It’s a very interesting process if you have enough curiosity and determination.  It will bring you a lot of energy and joy.  Then, the father inside more intimately connects with your mother than the father outside does.  Physically and mentally also, your father and mother are not as deeply connected outside of you as they are inside. 

These connections are both physical and psychological – that is why you don’t recognise him in you.  And then your father inside of you sounds and looks quite different from your father outside because you have had a different kind of environment; you have lived in a different kind of environment.  You have received input that your father has not, and if you are a practitioner, then you have transformed your father in you a lot.  Your father in you may be more beautiful than your father outside.  He’s more calm, more serene.  He knows how to do walking meditation, he knows how to breathe in and out and enjoy his in-breath and out-breath, and your father outside does not know how to do this.  So your father inside may be more beautiful, more relaxed, more happy than your father outside, because of you, because you are a practitioner – so everything you do is your father’s profit.  Every negative thing you do, your father in you has to inherit, and every good thing you do, your father will profit also.  And in Plum Village we always say, it’s kind of you to practise for your father, to walk for your father, to sit for your father, to breathe and to smile for your father, and things are impermanent.  Maybe your father outside of you is changing, but because he’s not a practitioner, that is why your father in you is changing more quickly, and you are very kind to allow your father to change quickly like that.  And your father in you may be more beautiful, more compassionate than your father outside. 

In Asia, people have the notion of filial piety.  It’s a good virtue.  And if you feel happy, if you make your father in you happy, that is the best thing concerning filial piety.  It’s not by working a lot and bringing home to your father a lot of money that you can express the best of your love, but by living a wholesome life, by transforming yourself, by allowing your father in you to evolve spiritually.  That is the best thing you can offer to your father, and that is the Buddhist notion of gratitude, of filial piety. 

With your practice, your father in you is transformed much more quickly, and with that transformation you can help your father outside to transform, because your father inside of you is not the same as your father outside – he has undergone a lot of transformation thanks to your practice.  And there should be a way to tell your father outside that your father inside is getting along very well with you, he’s happy with you, and that you are happy with him inside of you.  And tell him, tell your father outside that you carry him to the future, and that he has a good future, and you are very glad for it.  And that will help him to get along with you and to go on the same path. 

The first thing we should do is to be aware that the notion you have of your father outside is not exactly your father.  Your father may have changed, and your father has a part that is hidden to you; you have not been able to see it, so by recognising your father within you, by having direct contact with him inside of you, you will get to know him more deeply, and after that, when you look at your father outside, you’ll see him in a deeper way.  And you will tell him, “Daddy, I had a notion of you, but you are much more than that notion that I had of you.  I have been looking for you, I have been trying to discover you by my practice.  I am very interested in you because I am your continuation.” So a kind of dialogue should be going on inside, as well as outside, between you and your father.. 

When Thay’s father was still alive, he tried some meditation, some practice, but he did not succeed very well.  He was too busy.  So early one morning, when I sat in meditation, I felt that I was so light!  I did not have any desire that would make me heavy, make me lose the present moment, so suddenly I told my father, “You have succeeded!  Daddy, you have succeeded!”  And this is part of the conversation that I have been having with my father. 

[Bell]

And now as my father outside is no longer there in the body in which I used to see him, I continue to have a conversation with him, because we know that nothing is lost.  Rien ne se cree, rien ne se perd.  [Nothing is created, nothing is lost.] Your father is always there, so the conversation is possible.  And it would be very kind of you to help your father in you to evolve, become more free, relaxed, and more happy.  And you can compare your father now and your father 20 years ago, or 30 years ago.  Your father now has much more time to enjoy being around.  He has the time to just sit and do nothing, he has time to contemplate the moon, the full moon, and the trees outside.  He has time to enjoy the morning sunshine, and the stars.  Your father is not running after anything now.  He is able to relax, able to establish himself in the present moment and it’s a good thing to see him like that.  It brings you a lot of joy.  Every time you enjoy your in-breath, your father also enjoys his in-breath.   Every time you make a peaceful step, touching the beauties of the Earth, your father is doing the same.  That’s a wonderful thing.  And you can afford to do that, to offer that to your father. 

The same thing is true with your mother.  It’s true that your mother was too busy, your mother was working very hard to support your father and you.  And you can begin a conversation with your mother in you.  “Mother, we should relax a little bit more.”  And your practice allows her in you to relax, enjoy more, to be in the present moment, and you allow your mother to evolve in you, to be more peaceful, more happy.  And if your mother is still alive outside, you can also talk to her.  “Mummy, my mother in me inside is evolving.  My mother in me gets along very well with me, because we practise
together and I would like my mother outside of me to do the same, because I know that you can do it.  I’m your continuation and I’m able to do it.  And I do it together with my mother inside.”  That kind of conversation can be very helpful. “And do you know something?  You are in me and I am bringing you into the future, as now you are more relaxed, more happy, more free, so I’m sure that in the future you’ll be freer, happier, and more relaxed.”  So the practice has to do with our father, our mother, and our ancestors.

Your teacher, who has transmitted things to you, you have him inside, and you might think that your teacher is only outside, but that is not true, because he is already in every cell of your body, and you are transporting him into the future, and he is counting on that very much.  And your teacher in you may look different, sound different, may feel different from your teacher outside.  I have been engaging in a conversation with my own teacher, your Grandpa teacher, and I know that everything I do, is for him also, because I carry him into the future, and I transmit him to you so that you will carry him in the future also.  And of course my teacher in me does not look exactly like my teacher outside.  My teacher in me is more aware of what is going on in this modern society, and my teacher in me is more capable of devising new practices in order to help the world, and it’s very kind of you to help your teacher inside to evolve.  Teachers always want their disciples to do better than they.  That’s true – and we should not have any complex about it.

 My teacher has done his best, your teacher has done his best, but there are things that they have not done, and you do it for them.  Of course now you may handle your computer better than your teacher, and with your computer, you practise so that your computer always remains an instrument, and not something that can carry you away, and with your computer you can promote peace, understanding, compassion, and you are the master of your computer, and not the opposite.  And you are now a better organiser than your teacher.  You can organise a trip, you can organise a retreat better than your teacher, and that is what your teacher expected you to do, and your teacher in you should evolve.  Your teacher outside of you wants very much to create the kind of dharma doors, the kind of practices that can help the people in modern society to transform themselves.  Your teacher in you always addresses new kinds of suffering that modern society has to encounter, has to transform, and your teacher in you should continue that, and should achieve what your teacher outside of you has not been able to.  And so he has a lot of expectations, and if you allow your teacher in you to meet these expectations, you are very kind to your teacher.  Your teacher does not want you to be exactly like him, because if things are like that, there’s no evolution, there’s no progress, so your teacher in you should be better that your teacher outside of you, and you should be better than your teacher.  That is his expectation. 

So there is no reason why we have to see that our father in us should be exactly the same as the father we used to conceive and to see.  Everything is changing - even the Buddha.  The Buddha should also evolve, and thanks to your practice of looking deeply, you realise that the suffering of our time is different from the suffering of the time of Siddhartha, and if the suffering is different, the methods of practice should also be different, and that is why the Buddha in you should evolve also. In many ways, we have to make the Buddha more relevant to our time. 

The Buddha of our time has the capacity of using a telephone, even a portable telephone, but he is free from this portable telephone.  The Buddha of our time knows how to help with globalisation, so that it will not destroy the beauty of the planet, it will not make us lose all our time in competing with each other.   The Buddha of our time would like to offer the world a global ethic, so that everyone can have a path to follow, to restore harmony, to cultivate brotherhood and sisterhood, to protect the beauties of the planet, to prevent deforestation, to reduce the emission of CO2.  The Buddha of our time should be able to help so that globalisation will not have a negative effect on our society, and you as the continuation of the Buddha should help him and should offer the world a path that can prevent the destruction of the ecosystem, that can reduce the amount of violence and despair, and it would be very kind of you to help the Buddha to realise, to continue to realise what he began 2,600 years ago.

[Bell]

When you contemplate an orange, you see that everything in the orange participates in the making of the orange.  Not only does the segment of the orange belong to the orange, but the skin of the orange is also the orange, and the seeds in the orange are a part of the orange.  Everything in the orange is participating in making the orange.  This is what we call the universal aspect of the orange.  Everything that in the orange is an orange, but the skin remains the skin, the seed remains the seed, the segment of the orange remains the segment of the orange. So, globalisation is like that.  Although it is becoming a world community, the French people continue to be the French, the Japanese people remain the Japanese, the Buddhists remain the Buddhists, the Christians remain the Christians.  They don’t have to be different, so the skin of orange can continue to be the skin, the segments of the orange can continue to be the segments of the orange – they don’t have to be transformed into the skin, and then there can still be harmony.  And that harmony would be impossible if we don’t have what we call a global ethic.

The Buddha has devised a global ethic for globalisation, and that is the Five Mindfulness Trainings.  The Five Mindfulness Trainings are the path that we should pick up during the time of globalisation, because that is the practice of sisterhood, the practice of brotherhood, the practice of understanding and love, the practice of protecting ourselves, protecting the planet.  And if you study the Five Mindfulness Trainings, you see that the Five Mindfulness Trainings are presented in a non-sectarian way.  They do not bear the mark of a sect, a religion, a particular race, a particular ideology.  Their nature is universal.  And you don’t have to be a Buddhist in order to live according to the five Trainings.  You can adopt the Five Trainings as a Christian, as a Jew, as a Communist, as a French person, as a Japanese, as a Chinese, as an American.  You remain yourself, but if you practise the Five Mindfulness Trainings, you can help create harmony and safeguard peace.  You cultivate brotherhood, sisterhood.  You can also safeguard the beauties of your own culture and other cultures as well, and you help protect the planet, the environment. 

Twelve years ago when Mr Gorbachov convened the meeting in San Francisco [known as] the State of the World Forum, Thay was invited to address the political leaders and the economic leaders of the world. People like Margaret Thatcher, President Bush and others were there. It was the Dutch Foreign Minister who introduced Thay before he gave his talk, and the topic of his talk was the Five Mindfulness Trainings.  And Thay has presented the Five Mindfulness Trainings as the way out of this difficult situation in the world, so with the Five Mindfulness Trainings in your heart, you can already set off on the path of transformation and healing.  You become a bodhisattva, to help protect the beauties of different kinds of culture, the beauties of the Earth, and you may inspire other traditions to go back to their roots and discover the equivalent of the Five Mindfulness Trainings that are always inherent in their tradition, including the Muslim tradition, the Islamic tradition, the Jewish tradition, and so on.  Even in Marxism you can discover these values inherent in the thinking of Marx. 

In a letter addressed to the government of Vietnam about two years ago, Thay spoke about that, and Thay said that Marx was afraid that his idea would be misunderstood, and people would create a kind of pure Communism that would be intolerant, inhuman, and would destroy a lot of trust, brotherhood and sisterhood.  I urged the Marxists in Vietnam to go back to the thinking of Marx and rediscover the best things within that thinking.  And also in the month of April, when I met the Prime Minister of Vietnam, I proposed six points, to help the Communist Party to open itself to the nation, to the people of Vietnam and to the world – very concrete proposals.  One of the six points was for the Marxists, the Communists in Vietnam to recognise that Buddhism is a source of wisdom and compassion that should be made use of in order to rebuild the country, to restore and protect the legacy of the Vietnamese culture and so on.  So if you are inspired to be a bodhisattva of our time, protecting, safeguarding the beauty, preventing globalisation from becoming negative, then with the practice of the Five Mindfulness Trainings in your heart, you have enough energy and insight in order to be a bodhisattva on the path of action. 

In the tradition of Plum Village, we have to recite the Five Trainings every fortnight.  We have to do dharma discussion in order to understand more deeply the practice of the Five Trainings, because the Five Mindfulness Trainings are a very concrete realisation of mindfulness, and we always say that people don’t have to call themselves a Buddhist in order to practise the Five Mindfulness Trainings. 

Going back to our father, our mother, our ancestors, our teacher, we know that all of them expect us to live our life in such a way that will make globalisation a success.  We have to allow our ancestors, our teachers, allow the Buddha in us to act, and we should have a constant conversation with our ancestors, spiritual and genetic, so that we always renew our insight, our determination, on the path of serving, loving and protecting.  Our time, our life, is for that, to fulfil our ancestors’, our teacher’s expectations.  We should not allow our time to pass without realising that, because we know how much our ancestors, genetic and spiritual, expect of us.  And that way of life, that practice, that action, will bring us a lot of joy.  And by living our life like that, we shall transmit the best things we have received from our ancestors to our children and grandchildren.  

So when you practise sitting meditation, sit for the Buddha.  The Buddha in you is sitting upright, the Buddha in you is enjoying every in-breath and out- breath, the Buddha in you is contemplating the world with mindfulness and getting in touch with the beauties of nature.

The Sutra “[Chinese name]” in the Agama collection, (Digha Agama – “[Chinese name]” means “Journey”), describes the life of the Buddha during the last year of his life - where he went, what people he met, what kind of teaching he gave, and there is a sentence that drew Thay’s attention very much.  He spent the Rain Retreat in the city of Vaishali, north of the Ganges River, and after that, he decided to go north.  He wanted to go back to his own country, Kapilavastu, and he knew that this would be the last time that he would see the city of Vaishali, which is a very beautiful city.  He did not wave his hand, and say goodbye like the way we do, but in the Sutra, you find this sentence:  “The Buddha turned around on his way, and with the eyes of an elephant queen he surveyed the city of Vaishali for the last time, and he said, ‘Ananda, don’t you think that Vaishali is beautiful?’  And after having surveyed the city of Vaishali with the eyes of an elephant queen, he turned back to the north and began to walk.”  So the Buddha, when he looked, always made use of the eyes of an elephant queen, in order to look deeply, in order to recognise what is there, and of course, we have those kind of eyes also.  We have the Buddha eyes, we have the eyes of the elephant queen, and when we look with those eyes, and we see deeply the beauty of nature around us, we are looking with the eyes of the Buddha.  It’s very kind of you to look for the Buddha, to contemplate the world for the Buddha, because you are a continuation of him.  And if you know how to contemplate the beauty of the world with the eyes of the Buddha, you won’t say that your life has no meaning.  No, you can listen with the ear of the Buddha, you can contemplate the world with the eyes of the Buddha, and thanks to that, your children and their children will evolve to do like the Buddha does as well, so you are very important.  You have to transmit the Buddha to your children, you have to transmit the Buddha to the children of your children, by your way of walking, your way of sitting, your way of looking, your way of listening, and this is something that you can do now, and not tomorrow, whether you are a monastic or a lay practitioner, that is what you can do today to be a real, true continuation of the Buddha, our spiritual ancestor.  And if you can live your life like that, you will help prevent globalisation from becoming a danger for the planet. 

[Bell]

So, during this Retreat, every minute is an opportunity for us to walk like a Buddha, to sit peacefully and happily, relaxing like a Buddha, to look and enjoy deeply the beauties of the world like a Buddha, to listen with compassion like a Buddha, and by doing so, we are helping our father in us, our mother in us, our ancestors in us, our children in us to evolve, helping our teacher to fulfil his or her vow or aspirations, and our life will become a concrete message of love. 

[Bell x3]

Dear Friends,

These dharma talk transcriptions are Teachings given by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village or during various retreats around the world. These Teachings cover all areas of concern for practitioners, everything from dealing with difficult emotions, to realizing the interbeing nature of all and everything, and many more.

This project operates from 'Dana', generosity, so these talks are available for everyone. You may forward and redistribute them via email, and you may also print them and distribute them to members of your Sangha. The purpose is to make Thay's teachings available to as many people as possible.
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