The Practice of Sangha - Thich Nhat Hanh

The Practice of Sangha
02.23.24

“Sangha.” What is it? Essentially, it’s a Buddhist term for community — from a specific community of Buddhist monastics to a meditation buddy you meet with every day, or anything in between.

Whatever your definition, sangha is invaluable; it’s one of Buddhism’s famed three jewels, along with the Buddha (teacher) and the dharma (the teachings). So this Weekend Reader is all about sangha: what it is, why it matters, and what it means to be part of one (or not). May the wisdom here help you feel more at home.  —Rod Meade Sperry, editor, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide

What Is Sangha?  Thich Nhat Hanh explains that sangha is more than a community, it’s a deep spiritual practice.

A sangha is a community of friends practicing the dharma together in order to bring
about and to maintain awareness. The essence of a sangha is awareness,
understanding, acceptance, harmony and love. When you do not see these in a
community, it is not a true sangha, and you should have the courage to say so. But
when you find these elements are present in a community, you know that you have
the happiness and fortune of being in a real sangha.

In Matthew 5:13 in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, we find this statement:
“Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden
underfoot of men.” In this passage, Jesus describes his followers as salt. Food needs
salt in order to be tasty. Life needs understanding, compassion, and harmony in order
to be livable. This is the most important contribution to life that the followers of Jesus
can bring to the world. It means that the Kingdom of Heaven has to be realized here,
not somewhere else, and that Christians need to practice in a way that they are the
salt of life and a true community of Christians.

Salt is also an important image in the Buddhist canon, and this Christian teaching is
equivalent to the Buddha’s teaching about sangha. The Buddha said that the water
in the four oceans has only one taste, the taste of salt, just as his teaching has only
one taste, the taste of liberation. Therefore, the elements of sangha are the taste of
life, the taste of liberation, and we have to practice in order to become the salt. When
we say, “I take refuge in the sangha,” it is not a statement, it is a practice.

The trees, water, air, birds, and so on can all be members of our sangha.
A beautiful walking path may be part of our sangha. A good cushion can be also.

In the Buddhist scriptures it is said that there are four communities: monks, nuns,
laymen and laywomen. But I also include elements that are not human in the sangha.
The trees, water, air, birds, and so on can all be members of our sangha. A beautiful
walking path may be part of our sangha. A good cushion can be also. We can make
many things into supportive elements of our sangha. This idea is not entirely new; it
can be found throughout the sutras and in the Abhidharma, too. A pebble, a leaf and
a dahlia are mentioned in the Saddharmapundarika Sutra in this respect. It is said in
the Pure Land Sutra that if you are mindful, then when the wind blows through the
trees, you will hear the teaching of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness, the
Eightfold Path, and so on. The whole cosmos is preaching the buddhadharma and
practicing the buddhadharma. If you are attentive, you will get in touch with that
sangha.

Sangha as our roots

I don’t think the Buddha wanted us to abandon our society, our culture or our roots in
order to practice. The practice of Buddhism should help people go back to their
families. It should help people re-enter society in order to rediscover and accept the
good things that are there in their culture and to rebuild those that are not.
Our modern society creates so many young people without roots. They are uprooted
from their families and their society; they wander around, not quite human beings,
because they do not have roots. Quite a number of them come from broken families
and feel rejected by society. They live on the margins, looking for a home, for
something to belong to. They are like trees without roots. For these people, it’s very
difficult to practice. A tree without roots cannot absorb anything; it cannot survive.
Even if they practice intensively for ten years, it’s very hard for them to be transformed
if they remain an island, if they cannot establish a link with other people.

The practice of Buddhism should help people re-enter society in order to rediscover
and accept the good things that are there in their culture
and to rebuild those that are not.

A community of practice, a sangha, can provide a second chance to a young person
who comes from a broken family or is alienated from his or her society. If the
community of practice is organized as a family with a friendly, warm atmosphere,
young people can succeed in their practice.

Suffering (dukkha) is one of the biggest problems of our times. First we have to
recognize this suffering and acknowledge it. Then we need to look deeply into its
nature in order to find a way out. If we look into the present situation in ourselves
and our society, we can see much suffering. We need to call it by its true names—
loneliness, the feeling of being cut off, alienation, division, the disintegration of the
family, the disintegration of society.

Our civilization, our culture, has been characterized by individualism. The individual
wants to be free from the society, from the family. The individual does not think he
or she needs to take refuge in the family or in the society and thinks that he or she
can be happy without a sangha. That is why we do not have solidity, we do not have
harmony, we do not have the communication that we so need.

The practice is, therefore, to grow some roots. The sangha is not a place to hide in
order to avoid your responsibilities. The sangha is a place to practice for the
transformation and the healing of self and society. When you are strong, you can be
there in order to help society. If your society is in trouble, if your family is broken, if
your church is no longer capable of providing you with spiritual life, then you work to
take refuge in the sangha so that you can restore your strength, your understanding,
your compassion, your confidence. And then in turn you can use that strength,
understanding and compassion to rebuild your family and society, to renew your
church, to restore communication and harmony. This can only be done as a
community—not as an individual, but as a sangha.

In order for us to develop some roots, we need the kind of environment that can
help us become rooted. A sangha is not a community of practice in which each
person is an island, unable to communicate with each other—this is not a true
sangha. No healing or transformation will result from such a sangha. A true sangha
should be like a family in which there is a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood.
If we see a group of people living mindfully, capable of smiling,
of loving, we gain confidence in our future.

There is a lot of suffering, yes, and we have to embrace all this suffering. But to get
strong, we also need to touch the positive elements, and when we are strong, we can
embrace the suffering in us and all around us. If we see a group of people living
mindfully, capable of smiling, of loving, we gain confidence in our future. When we
practice mindful breathing, smiling, resting, walking and working, then we become a
positive element in society, and we will inspire confidence all around us. This is the
way to avoid letting despair overwhelm us. It is also the way to help the younger
generation so they do not lose hope. It is very important that we live our daily life in
such a way that demonstrates that a future is possible.

We need a sangha

In my tradition we learn that as individuals we cannot do much. That is why taking
refuge in the sangha, taking refuge in the community, is a very strong and important
practice. When I say, “I take refuge in the sangha,” it does not mean that I want to
express my devotion. No. It’s not a question of devotion; it’s a question of practice.
Without being in a sangha, without being supported by a group of friends who are
motivated by the same ideal and practice, we cannot go far.

If we do not have a supportive sangha, we may not be getting the kind of support we
need for our practice, that we need to nourish our bodhichitta (the strong desire to
cultivate love and understanding in ourselves). Sometimes we call it “beginner’s
mind.” The mind of a beginner is always very beautiful, very strong. In a good and
healthy sangha, there is encouragement for our beginner’s mind, for our bodhichitta.
So the sangha is the soil and we are the seed. No matter how beautiful, how vigorous
our seed is, if the soil does not provide us with vitality, our seed will die.

One of the brothers from Plum Village, Brother Phap Dung, went to Vietnam some
years ago with a few members of the sangha. It was a very important experience for
him. He had been in the West since he was a small child. Then when he went to
northern Vietnam, he got in touch with some of the most ancient elements in
Vietnamese culture and with the mountains and the rivers of northern Vietnam. He
wrote to me and said, “Our land of Vietnam is so beautiful, it is as beautiful as a
dream. I don’t dare take heavy steps on this earth of Vietnam.” By this he meant that
he had right mindfulness when he walked. His right mindfulness was due to the
practice and support he had in the sangha before he went to Vietnam. That is
beginner’s mind, the mind you have in the beginning when you undertake the practice.
It’s very beautiful and very precious, but that beginner’s mind can be broken, can be
destroyed, can be lost if it is not nourished or supported by a sangha.
To practice right mindfulness, we need the right environment,
and that environment is our sangha.

Although he had his little sangha near him in Vietnam, the environment was very
distracting, and he saw that if he stayed too long without the larger sangha, he would
be swept away by that environment, by his forgetfulness—not only his own
forgetfulness, but the forgetfulness of everybody around him. This is because right
mindfulness for someone who has only just started the practice is still weak, and the
forgetfulness of the people around us is very great and capable of dragging us away
in the direction of the five cravings.

To practice right mindfulness, we need the right environment, and that environment
is our sangha. Without a sangha we are very weak. In a society where everyone is
rushing, everyone is being carried away by their habit energies, practice is very
difficult. That is why the sangha is our salvation. The sangha where everyone is
practicing mindful walking, mindful speaking, mindful eating seems to be the only
chance for us to succeed in ending the vicious cycle.

And what is the sangha? The sangha is a community of people who agree with each
other that if we do not practice right mindfulness, we will lose all the beautiful things
in our soul and all around us. People in the sangha standing near us, practicing with
us, support us so that we are not pulled away from the present moment. Whenever
we find ourselves in a difficult situation, two or three friends in the sangha who are
there for us, understanding and helping us, will get us through it. Even in our silent
practice we help each other.

In my tradition they say that when a tiger leaves the mountain and goes to the lowland,
it will be caught by humans and killed. When practitioners leave their sangha, they
will abandon their practice after a few months. In order to continue our practice of
transformation and healing, we need a sangha. With a sangha it’s much easier to
practice, and that is why I always take refuge in my sangha.

How a sangha helps us

The presence of a sangha is a wonderful opportunity to allow the collective energy of
the sangha to penetrate into our body and consciousness. We profit a lot from that
collective energy. We can entrust ourselves to the sangha because the sangha is
practicing, and the collective energy of mindfulness is strong. Although we can rely
on the energy of mindfulness that is generated by our personal practice, sometimes
it is not enough. But if you know how to use that energy of mindfulness in order to
receive the collective energy of the sangha, you will have a powerful source of energy
for your transformation and healing.

Your body, your consciousness, and your environment are like a garden. There may
be a few trees and bushes that are dying, and you may feel overwhelmed by anguish
and suffering at the sight of that. You may be unaware that there are still many trees
in your garden that are solid, vigorous and beautiful. When members of your sangha
come into your garden, they can help you see that you still have a lot of beautiful
trees and that you can enjoy the things that have not gone wrong within your
landscape. That is the role that the sangha can play. Many people in the sangha are
capable of enjoying a beautiful sunset or a cup of tea. They dwell firmly in the present
moment, not allowing worries or regrets to spoil the present moment. Sitting close to
these people, walking close to these people, you can profit from their energy and
restore your balance. When their energy of mindfulness is combined with yours, you
will be able to touch beauty and happiness.

Nothing is more important than your peace and happiness in the here and now. One
day you will lie like a dead body and no longer be able to touch the beauty of a flower.
Make good use of your time; practice touching the positive aspects of life in you and
around you.

Don’t lock yourself behind your door and fight alone. If you think that by yourself you
cannot go back to embrace strong feelings, you can ask one, two or three friends to
sit next to you and to help you with their support. They can give you mindfulness
energy so that you can go back home with strength. They can say, “My brother, I
know that the pain in you is very deep, and I am here for you.”

Taking refuge in the sangha is a very important practice. Abandoned, alone, you get
lost, you get carried away. So, taking refuge in the sangha is a very deep practice,
especially for those of us who feel vulnerable, shaky, agitated, and unstable. That is
why you come to a practice center, to take refuge in the sangha. You allow the sangha
to transport you like a boat so that you can cross the ocean of sorrow.

When you allow yourself to be in a sangha the way a drop of water allows itself to
be in a river, the energy of the sangha can penetrate into you, and transformation
and healing will become possible.

When we throw a rock into a river the rock will sink. But if we have a boat, the boat
can carry hundreds of pounds of rocks and it will not sink. The same thing is true with
our sorrow and pain. If we have a boat, we can carry our pain and sorrow, and we will
not sink into the river of suffering. And what is that boat? That boat is, first of all, the
energy of mindfulness that you generate by your practice. That boat is also the
sangha—the community of practice consisting of brothers and sisters in the dharma.
We don’t have to bring just joy when we come to the sangha; we can also bring our
suffering with us. But we have to walk on the path of joy with our suffering, we have
to share joy with our brothers and sisters. Then we will be in touch with the seeds of
happiness in ourselves, and the suffering will grow weaker and be transformed. Allow
yourself to be supported, to be held by the sangha. When you allow yourself to be in
a sangha the way a drop of water allows itself to be in a river, the energy of the sangha
can penetrate into you, and transformation and healing will become possible.

Practice is easier with a sangha

The only way to support the Buddha, to support our sangha, to support the earth, to
support our children and future generations, is to really be here for them. “Darling, I
am here for you” is a statement of love. You need to be here. If you are not here, how
can you love? That is why the practice of meditation is the practice of being here for
the ones we love.

To be present sounds like an easy thing to do. For many of us, it is easy because we
have made it a habit. We are in the habit of dwelling in the present moment, of
touching the morning sunshine deeply, of drinking our morning tea deeply, of sitting
and being present with the person we love. But for some of us it may not be so easy,
because we have not cultivated the habit of being in the here and the now. We are
always running, and it is hard for us to stop and be here in the present moment, to
encounter life. For those of us who have not learned to be present, we need to be
supported in that kind of learning. It’s not difficult when you are supported by the
sangha. With sangha you will be able to learn the art of stopping.

The sangha is a wonderful home. Every time you go back to the sangha, you feel that
you can breathe more easily, you can walk more mindfully, you can better enjoy the
blue sky, the white clouds and the cypress tree in your yard. Why? Because the
sangha members practice going home many times a day—through walking,
breathing, cooking and doing their daily activities mindfully. Everyone in the sangha
is practicing in the same way, walking mindfully, sitting mindfully, eating mindfully,
smiling, enjoying each moment of life.

We are always running, and it is hard for us to stop and be here in the present
moment, to encounter life. With sangha you will be able to learn the art of stopping.
When I practice walking, I make mindful and beautiful steps. I do that not only for
myself but also for all of my friends who are here; because everyone who sees me
taking a step like that has confidence and is reminded to do the same. And when they
make a step in the present moment, smiling and making peace with themselves, they
inspire all of us. You breathe for me, I walk for you, we do things together, and this is
practicing as a sangha. You don’t need to make much effort; your practice is easy,
because you feel that you are supported by the sangha.

When we sit together as a sangha, we enjoy the collective energy of mindfulness,
and each of us allows the mindful energy of the sangha to penetrate us. Even if you
don’t do anything, if you just stop thinking and allow yourself to absorb the collective
energy of the sangha, it’s very healing. Don’t struggle, don’t try to do something, just
allow yourself to be with the sangha. Allow yourself to rest, and the energy of the
sangha will help you, will carry and support you. The sangha is there to make the
training easy. When we are surrounded by brothers and sisters doing exactly the
same thing, it is easy to flow in the stream of the sangha.

As individuals we have problems, and we also have problems in our families, our
societies and our nations. Meditation in the twenty-first century should become a
collective practice; without a sangha we cannot achieve much. When we begin to
focus our attention on the suffering on a larger scale, we begin to connect with and
to relate to other people, who are also ourselves, and the little problems that we have
within our individual circle will vanish. In this way our loneliness or our feeling of being
cut off will no longer be there, and we will be able to do things together.

If we work on our problems alone, it becomes more difficult. When you have a strong
emotion come up, you may feel that you cannot stand it. You may have a breakdown
or want to die. But if you have someone, a good friend sitting with you, you feel much
better. You feel supported and you have more strength in order to deal with your
strong emotion. If you are taking something into your body that is toxic, even realizing
that it will make you sick, you may not be able to change your habit. But if you are
surrounded by people who do not have the same problem, it becomes easier to
change. That is why it is very important to practice in the context of a sangha.
Because you feel supported there, the sangha is the most appropriate setting and
environment for the practice of looking deeply. If you have a sangha of two, three,
maybe even fifty people who are practicing correctly—getting joy, peace, and
happiness from the practice—then you are the luckiest person on earth.

We don’t have to force ourselves to practice. We can give up all the struggle and
allow ourselves to be, to rest. For this, however, we need a little bit of training, and
the sangha is there to make the training easy.

So, practicing in the setting of the sangha is much easier. We don’t have to practice
so intensely. Our practice becomes the practice of “non-practice.” That means a lot.
We don’t have to force ourselves to practice. We can give up all the struggle and
allow ourselves to be, to rest. For this, however, we need a little bit of training, and
the sangha is there to make the training easy. Being aware that we are in a sangha
where people are happy with being mindful, where people are living deeply the
moments of their days, that is enough. I always feel happy in the presence of a happy
sangha. If you put yourself in such an environment, then transformation will happen
without much effort. This is my experience.

Practicing in the sangha

The sangha isn’t perfect

If you are a beginner in the practice, you should not worry about what is the correct
thing to do. When surrounded by many people, we might be caught by the idea, “I
don’t know what the right thing is to do.” That idea may make us very uncomfortable.
We may think, “I feel embarrassed that I’m not doing the right thing. There are people
who are bowing, and I am not bowing. People are walking slowly, and I am walking a
little bit too fast.” So, the idea that we may not be doing the right thing can embarrass
us.

I would like to tell you what really is the right thing. The right thing is to do whatever
you are doing in mindfulness. Mindfulness is keeping one’s consciousness alive to
the present reality. To bow may not be the right thing to do if you don’t bow in
mindfulness. If you don’t bow but are mindful, not bowing is the right thing. Even if
people are walking slowly and you run, you are doing the right thing if you run
mindfully. The wrong thing is whatever you do without mindfulness. If we understand
this, we will not be embarrassed anymore. Everything we do is right provided we do
it in mindfulness. To bow or not to bow, that is not the question. The question is
whether to bow in mindfulness or not, or not to bow in mindfulness or not.
If you take a step and you feel peaceful and happy, you know that is the correct
practice. You are the only one who knows whether you are doing it correctly or not.
No one else can judge. When you practice breathing in and out, if you feel peaceful,
if you enjoy your in-breath and out-breath, you know you are doing it correctly. You
are the best one to know. Have confidence in yourself. Wherever you find yourself, if
you feel you are at ease and peaceful, that you are not under pressure, then you
know you are doing it right.

The function of the bell in a sangha is to bring us back to ourselves. When we hear
the bell, we come back to ourselves and breathe, and at that point we improve the
quality of the sangha energy. We know that our brother and our sister, wherever they
are, will be stopping, breathing, and coming back to themselves. They will be
generating the energy of right mindfulness, the sangha energy. When we look at each
other, we feel confident, because everyone is practicing together in the same way
and contributing to the quality of the sangha. So we are friends on the path of practice.

You don’t sit for yourself alone, you sit for the whole sangha—not only the sangha,
but also for the people in your city, because when one person in the city is less angry,
is smiling more, the whole city profits.

The sangha is made out of the work of individuals, so we have the duty to help create
the energy of the sangha. Our presence, when it is a mindful presence, contributes
to that energy. When we are absent during the activities of the sangha, we are not
contributing to sangha energy. If we don’t go to a sitting meditation, we are not feeding
our sangha. We are also letting ourselves go hungry, because we are not benefiting
from the sangha.

We don’t profit from the sangha, and the sangha doesn’t profit from us. Don’t think
that we sit for ourselves. You don’t sit for yourself alone, you sit for the whole
sangha—not only the sangha, but also for the people in your city, because when one
person in the city is less angry, is smiling more, the whole city profits. If we practice
looking deeply, our understanding of interbeing will grow, and we will see that every
smile, every step, every breath is for everybody. It is for our country, for the future,
for our ancestors.

The best thing we can do is to transform ourselves into a positive element of the
sangha. If members of the sangha see us practicing well, they will have confidence
and do better. If there are two, three, four, five, six, seven of you like that in the
sangha, I’m sure the sangha will be a happy sangha and will be the refuge of many
people in the world.

Our transformation and healing depend on the quality of the sangha. If there are
enough people smiling and happy in the sangha, the sangha has more power to heal
and transform. So you have to invest in your sangha. Every member of the sangha
has his or her weaknesses and strengths, and you have to recognize them in order
to make good use of the positive elements for the sake of the whole sangha. You also
have to recognize the negative elements so that you and the whole sangha can help
embrace them. You don’t leave that negative element to the person alone, because
he may not be able to hold and transform it by himself.

You don’t need a perfect sangha—a family or a community doesn’t have to be perfect
in order to be helpful. In fact, the sangha at the time of the Buddha was not perfect.
But it was enough for people to take refuge in, because in the sangha there were
people who had enough compassion, solidity and insight to embrace others who did
not have as much compassion, solidity and insight. I also have some difficulties with
my sangha, but I’m very happy because everyone tries to practice in my sangha.
If we lived in a sangha where everyone was perfect, everyone was a bodhisattva or
a buddha, that would be very difficult for us. Weakness in the other person is very
important, and weakness within yourself is also very important. Anger is in us,
jealousy is in us, arrogance is in us. These kinds of things are very human. It is thanks
to the presence of weakness in you and weakness in a brother or a sister that you
learn how to practice. To practice is to have an opportunity to transform. So it is
through our shortcomings that we learn to practice.

There are some people who think of leaving the sangha when they encounter
difficulties with other sangha members. They cannot bear little injustices inflicted on
them because their hearts are small. To help your heart grow bigger and bigger,
understanding and love are necessary. Your heart can grow as big as the cosmos;
the growth of your heart is infinite. If your heart is like a big river, you can receive any
amount of dirt. It will not affect you, and you can transform the dirt very easily.
The Buddha used this image. If you put a little dirt in a pitcher of water, then that
water has to be thrown away. People cannot drink it. But if you put the same amount
of dirt into a huge river, people can continue to drink from the river, because the river
is so immense. Overnight that dirt will be transformed within the heart of the river. So
if your heart is as big as a river, you can receive any amount of injustice and still live
with happiness. You can transform overnight the injustices inflicted on you. If you still
suffer, your heart is still not large enough. That is the teaching of forbearance and
inclusiveness in Buddhism. You don’t practice to suppress your suffering; you practice
in order for your heart to expand as big as a river.

One time the Buddha said to his disciples: “There are people among us who do not
have the same capacity as we do. They do not have the capacity to act rightly or to
speak rightly. But if we look deeply, we see in their hearts that there are good seeds,
and therefore we have to treat those people in such a way that those good seeds will
not be lost.”[1] Among us there are people who we may think do not have the capacity
to practice as well as we do. But we should know that those people also have good
seeds, and we have to cultivate those good seeds in such a way that these good
seeds have a chance to be watered and to sprout. We don’t need to be perfect. 
I myself am not perfect, and you don’t need to be perfect either.

The Buddha saw all his disciples as his children, and I think of mine in the same way.
Any disciple of mine is my child that I have given birth to. In my heart I feel at ease, I
feel light and happy, even though that child may still have a problem. You can use
that method, too. If there is a person in the sangha who troubles you, don’t give up
hope. Remember, “My teacher has given birth to that child. How can I practice in
order to see that person as my sister? Then my heart will feel more at ease and I will
be able to accept her. That person is still my sister, whether I want her to be or not.”
That feeling and those words can help dissolve the irritation that you are having with
that person.

If we have harmony in the sangha, we can give confidence to many people. We don’t
need to be perfect. I myself am not perfect, and you don’t need to be perfect either.
But if in your own way you can express your harmony in the sangha, this is your gift.

In the sangha there must be difficult people. These difficult people are a good thing
for you—they will test your capacity of sangha-building and practicing. One day when
that person says something that is not very nice to you, you’ll be able to smile, and it
won’t make you suffer at all. Your compassion will have been born and you will be
capable of embracing him or her within your compassion and your understanding.
Then you will know that your practice has grown. You should be delighted that such
an act does not make you angry or sad anymore, that you have enough compassion
and understanding to embrace it. That is why you should not be tempted to eliminate
the elements that you think are difficult in your sangha.

I am speaking to you out of my experience. I now have a lot more patience and
compassion, and because I have more patience and compassion, my happiness has
grown much greater. You suffer because your understanding and compassion are not
yet large enough to embrace difficult people, but with the practice you will grow, your
heart will grow, your understanding and compassion will grow, and you won’t suffer
anymore. And thanks to the sangha practicing together, thanks to your model of
practice, those people will transform. That is a great success, much greater than in
the case of people who are easy to get along with.

I take refuge in the sangha

The reason we take refuge in anything is because we need protection. But very often
we take refuge in people or things that are not at all solid. We may feel that we are
not strong enough to be on our own, so we are tempted to look for someone to take
refuge in. We are inclined to think that if we have someone who is strong and can be
our refuge, then our life will be easier. We need to be very careful, because if we take
refuge in a person who has no stability at all, then the little bit of solidity we have
ourselves will be entirely lost. Many people have done that, and they have lost the
little solidity and freedom they once had.

When a situation is dangerous, you need to escape, you need to take refuge in a
place of safety. The sangha is that.

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) was a renowned Zen teacher and poet, the founder of the
Engaged Buddhist movement, and the founder of nine monastic communities,
including Plum Village Monastery in France. He was also the author of At Home in the
World, The Other Shore, and more than a hundred other books that have sold millions of
copies worldwide.

Hugh Byrne on Managing stress - 'Bringing Mindfulness to Habits of Stress or Anxiety

'Bringing Mindfulness to Habits of Stress or Anxiety 

Transcript

This is a meditation for transforming habits of stress and anxiety through mindfulness.

Stress is a natural and essential part of life and not inherently negative or problematical.

We experience stress when we run a race,

Give a public talk,

Sit an exam or have a job interview.

Whether a stressful event or situation,

Known as a stressor,

Becomes a problem or a source of suffering depends on how we respond to the stressor.

If we can experience the challenging event or situation,

Or an internal experience,

And then come down from it and back into equilibrium,

Then stress will not be a problem.

But when we stay aroused by the challenge,

Particularly by revisiting the thoughts in our minds in an anxious or fearful way,

Then we perpetuate the stress.

If we keep thinking about all the work we have to do and how we're never going to be able to get it all done,

We feed the stress reaction.

We're like the monk in a Zen story who painted a tiger on the wall of his cave and was terrified every time he looked at the painting of the tiger.

This is what we can do with our thoughts.

We paint a scary picture in our minds and then we get more and more afraid or anxious when we think about the picture that we ourselves have painted.

When we respond in an unhealthy way to challenges,

We can get locked in a fight or flight response.

Chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline are released,

Blood flows to our muscles as though we're defending ourselves in a life-threatening situation,

And we can get locked in an unhealthy stress response with potentially damaging effects on our physical,

Emotional,

And mental health.

These responses serve us well when we really are in a dangerous or a life-threatening situation,

But not when we're fueling these responses through our thoughts and our fears.

Mindfulness is a key antidote for reducing and alleviating stress because it allows us to experience the bodily feelings associated with the stress without resisting them.

We can experience them as impermanent energies that come and go when met with awareness and kindness.

When we're caught up in stress,

We're locked in habitual responses,

Our habits of identifying with our thoughts and not opening fully to our bodily feelings and emotions.

Mindfulness helps us break the unhealthy stress response.

So for this meditation,

Sit in a comfortable and relaxed way.

You can take some full breaths,

Releasing and relaxing on the out-breath.

You might scan your body and invite a relaxing and softening of each area in turn.

Your face,

Eyes,

Mouth,

Jaw,

Chin.

Down the shoulders and the upper back.

The belly and chest.

The lower body.

You might invite a smile to the corners of your eyes and your mouth,

Allowing the smile to send a message of calm and wellbeing to your brain and nervous system.

You can put your hand on your heart and send a wish to yourself,

May I live with ease,

May I be happy.

Now bring to mind something that feels stressful in your life.

It might be a family situation or work,

Finances,

Health.

Something that generates some feeling of stress.

Let yourself take in this challenging situation and feel it fully.

Allow yourself to feel whatever bodily sensations are present.

Perhaps tightness or contraction in the chest or belly.

Or a tightening of the muscles.

Or dryness in the mouth.

And open fully to these feelings with kindness,

Acceptance and interest.

Let these feelings come and go and be held in awareness with kindness.

Open too to any emotions that are present.

Fear,

Worry,

Anxiety,

Sadness.

And let yourself experience these emotions.

Saying yes to whatever is present and meeting it with kindness and acceptance.

It may help to revisit the smile or put your hand on your heart and wish yourself well.

May I be happy,

May I live with ease.

Bring awareness to whatever thoughts or narratives come up.

Like,

This will only get worse or I'll never be able to get all this done.

Whatever comes up.

And meet these thoughts with friendliness without believing them or identifying with them.

Let them come and go.

The thoughts might trigger tightness,

Fear or some other emotion or sensation.

And if they do,

Bring awareness with kindness to these feelings.

Letting the thoughts or the stories go.

Continue to open to your experience in this way.

Opening fully to the bodily sensations and emotions that are present.

Saying yes to them and observing the thoughts and beliefs that come up without identifying with them.

In this way you can untangle yourself from what can be a confused ball of stress.

Thoughts triggering bodily sensations and emotions.

Bodily feelings triggering more thoughts.

We can get caught up in a syndrome of stress.

Take a few minutes to sit quietly with all that's present for you right now.

And you can practice working in this way with thoughts,

Emotions and bodily feelings as they arise in daily life.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Investigate

 Feb. 13, 2025

 

In the beginning, you start by
  just being mindful. Then, once you
    are skilled at bringing awareness to
 the present moment, you can start
to observe, and to investigate
what you are aware of.

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Showing up - Phap Huu

LET THAT NEGATIVE ENERGY BE YOUR BELL OF MINDFULNESS

Phap Huu, Aug 8, 2024

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY1rtPBPA5g&t=2095s

00:22:47

being because children they are like a sponge that
soak up what is present for them they learn not only by the
words but they learn by the presence of each and every one of
us and each and every one of us our actions become a
transmission our contribution to teaching already begins by action - just by showing up.

so in the orientation I am sure we
have been invited to slow down give ourselves this permission
while we're in Plum Village to slow down we have um the the habit of being
in gear five all the time in society and coming into a
retreat we have an aspiration to live deeply each moment to be mindful of our
actions

but to help us to intentionally help us do this we have to intentionally also
slow ourself down in order to feel what is there in the present
moment yesterday I had a talk with some friends and they shared brother I just
arrived and I'm so tired is this normal why do I want to sleep all the time
I said it is absolutely normal it's because you've finally given

Not everything that is faced can be .... and 'shiny things'

 Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
~ James Baldwin

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/10/09/faced/

...makes me think of the benefit of a practice of mindful awareness because it expresses the choice we can make when we are attracted by the next 'shiny' thing.

Inability to Sitting quietly alone in a room

All of our suffering, and mankind's suffering stems from our (man's) inability to sit quietly alone in a room. 

~ Blaise Pascal

suggesting that we sit to be with our experience: '~ being with our experience...saying 'yes' to what is. ~' Eckhardt Tolle

'to uproot the landmines of the earth we must first uproot the landmines in our heart.' ...out of our own experiences, and especially the ones we don't sit with, we create the larger, the grander suffering in our hearts...

'we need to open to our experience. What am I aware of right now?.  can I make space for it.  Dorothy Hunt...Peace is this moment in the heart space without judgement. 

This is all just pointing to the importance of our meditative practice.

'All wisdom is plagiarism...all ignorance is original.' -  Gil Fronsdal  

When we meet our experience without awareness, things get bad and worse.

Taking refuge in what is true...rather than being in denial. fears, joys can come and go...they are impermanent...Blake's: he who binds to hiimself  a joy does the winged life destroy, but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise....that's freedom of the heart. 

with wisdom we be present ..being with our experience...s/ clinging...E Tolle: you can always cope with the present moment, but you can't cope with a mind projection about the future.  

Thisi s the root of equanimity: welcome the guests...let them come and go.  with steadiness, we can then touch a fearlessness...being w/ our own experience wholeheartedly. 

'Create a clearing....wait in the dense forest of your life...until your song...'...then back to the world so worthy of rescue...Martha Postlthewaite's poem.

The first wing of the bird for flying: the wing of awareness (insight, clarity)  --the second wing is the wing of compassion (The Buddhist Heaart practices) (this is our relationship with others, our caring for others...responding to the cries of the world). We cultivate an attitudinal commitment of kindness towards the world, to others, to ourselves, committing to kindness...   

20th century Indian teacher: wisdom tells me I'm nothing, Love tells me I'm everything... and between the two, my life flows.  (With that is the image of the body of the bird...afloat in the airy space).

Mindfulness gathas – The Community of Mindfulness in Israel

Mindfulness gathas – The Community of Mindfulness in Israel

Hugh Byrne - Path of Awakening

 

Hugh Byrne

ADMIN

·

2 days ago

Live Session Summary, Sunday, January 29, 2023: It was good to be with you today for our Live session. Here is a summary of today’s theme, which continued the exploration of ‘The Paths of Wellness and Awakening.’ I began by recapping the distinction between, on the one hand, the path of wellness or well-being, which, in the main, emphasizes the importance of limiting or mitigating negative and afflictive mind states—anxiety, depression, addictive behaviors, negative mind states—and the path of awakening, which, while also concerned with abandoning painful and distressing states, gives major emphasis to the potential for the deepest peace and happiness and of ending suffering in our lives, which the path of awakening promises. I discussed how awakening points to the potential for the deepest freedom that goes far beyond the goals of everyday well-being—and involves a fundamental transformation of how a person experiences being alive and engaging in the world. This is exemplified in the story of the Buddha following his awakening: “It is said that soon after his enlightenment, the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by the extraordinary radiance and peacefulness of his presence. The man stopped and asked, “My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a God?” “No,” said the Buddha. “Well, then, are you some sort of magician or wizard?” Again the Buddha answered, “No.” “Are you a man?” “No.” “Well my friend, what are you then?” “I am awake.” (From Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom) With the Buddha’s awakening, all of the kilesas, the afflictive states that kept him tied to the world of suffering, were uprooted. He was henceforth known by the term ‘Buddha,’ or ‘one who has awakened.’ He described his transformation poetically:

‘Seeking but not finding the house builder, I traveled through the round of countless births: Oh painful is birth ever and again. House builder, you have now been seen; You shall not build the house again. Your rafters have been broken down; Your ridge pole is demolished too.’

(Nanamoli, Life of the Buddha) The Buddha taught that awakening is available to all, irrespective of race, class, gender, or other characteristics—and I shared the story of the murderer Angulimala, who, in confronting the Buddha, renounced his harmful ways and became a monk and, ultimately, an arahant, or awakened one. Our capacity to awaken to the deepest freedom, however, depends on training our heart and mind. The Buddha said, nothing can do you more harm than an untrained mind, not even your worst enemy; and nothing can do you more good than a trained mind. I shared the story of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and Zen practitioner, standing at the corner of 4th Street and Walnut in Louisville, Kentucky, showing the way experiences of awakening open us to the wonder of life and the beauty of all beings. He said, ‘Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed . . . I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.’ I shared the poem, ‘There was a time I would reject those…’ by Muhyiddin Ibn Al-’Arabi; Martha Postlethwaite’s ‘Clearing’, and Rumi’s ‘The Guest House’; and included in the meditation a practice on the ‘four elements.’ (You can find a version of this in my meditations on Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/hughbyrne/guided-meditations/four-elements-meditation ) We’ll continue the discussion of the path of awakening, including how mindfulness leads to awakening through insight or clear seeing in our next Live session at 9am Eastern on Sunday, February 12. Till then, be safe and well—and may all be safe, free from harm, and awaken to our true nature. Warmly, Hugh 🌻 💜 🙏🏻

Meditation Is a Political Act - Lion's Roar

Meditation Is a Political Act - Lion's Roar

A thousand directions or right here

The mind can go in a thousand directions

But on this path I walk in peace

With each step a gentle wind low

With each step a flow blooms

                Thich Nhat Hanh

Byrne - April 17, 2022

 Live Session Summary, April 17, 2022: Good to see everyone today for the Live session. The theme was ‘The transforming power of mindfulness in freeing our heart’. Here are the main themes, poems and quotes:

I briefly reviewed last week’s session on how mindfulness can help us untangle ourselves from suffering using the Buddha’s four noble truths as a framework for investigating suffering in our experience and how to find release from suffering. 

I went on to discuss key elements of wise or skillful mindfulness (Samma Sati, in Pali, or highest mindfulness,) that need to be present if mindfulness is to help us realize freedom from suffering: 

• The first is wise understanding—our awareness needs to be directed to freeing ourselves from suffering, rather than towards gaining wealth or fame or worldly pleasure. Mindfulness directed to these worldly goals is not wise or skillful mindfulness. 

• Similarly, mindfulness needs to be supported by wise intention—the intention of loving-kindness, compassion, and letting go of clinging rather than the intention of harming, cruelty or gaining some material advantage. 

• Mindfulness also needs to be supported by wise or appropriate effort—the use of energy and effort to free ourselves from suffering rather than for gain or fame or another worldly goal. Our effort needs also to be balanced, not too tight or clinging, or too loose and lethargic, if it is to support mindfulness and insight.

• Mindfulness needs to be imbued with attitudes that support us being present and opening to our experience—attitudes of kindness, acceptance, curiosity, patience, non-judging rather than attitudes of clinging, resisting, or judging our experience.

When mindfulness is supported by these qualities, we can shine the spotlight of attention on any aspect of our experience and move from a state of suffering and entanglement to awareness and freedom. This shift from being swept up in, or identified with, our experience—for example, with our fear, worry, craving, blame, or anger—to being aware of our experience is a key to freeing ourselves from suffering. 

I shared the story of the horse and rider and the person shouting ‘where are you going?’ and the rider replying, ‘don’t ask me, ask the horse!’ to illustrate the way that we are often habitually swept along by our thoughts, emotions, and mental narratives rather than choosing the direction of our thoughts and actions. I also shared the quote from Viktor Frankl: ‘Between stimulus and response is a space. In that space lies our ability to choose our response. In our ability to choose lies our growth and our freedom.’ 

The poems I shared today included lines from Mary Oliver’s ‘The Summer Day’; Martha Postlethwaite’s ‘Clearing’; Rumi’s ‘The Guest House’; and Lynn Ungar’s ‘The Way It Is.’ Good wishes for the week ahead and see you next Sunday at 9am eastern. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏻 🌻

Hugh Byrne - Feb 13, 2022 - Being conscious

Summary of Live session, February 13, 2022: For our 75th Live session we had participants from at least 21 countries, spanning 21 time zones (from NZ to CA). The theme of this week’s Live session was ‘The Heart of Mindfulness Practice.’ 

I spoke of mindfulness as a radical practice in that it shifts us into a different way of being in the world and relating to ourselves and others. Rather than being swept up in our unconscious habits, reactions, impulses, and mental narratives, and caught up or identified with our worries, fears, cravings and dislikes, we bring awareness to them. 

We’re moving from unconsciousness to being conscious and aware—the shift from being caught up in a behavior, emotion, or mind state to being aware of it is at the heart of our practice. It’s here where freedom comes—it’s what Viktor Frankl spoke about as the space between stimulus and response, which provides us the ability to choose our response, which in turn leads—when we choose wisely—to growth and freedom.

When we step out of unconscious behaviors into awareness, we’re taking refuge in the truth—in the Dharma. We’re taking our stand on what is, rather than on our wishes or beliefs about how things should be or could be. Rather than defaulting to our escape mechanisms, to what is comfortable and familiar, we open honestly to our experience as it is, meeting it with acceptance and without judgment. 

Mindfulness is also radical and transformative in its goal and outcome: bringing mindfulness to our experience in a skillful way—whatever we are paying attention to—leads to the end of suffering. 

It leads directly to freedom by way of the insights (or seeing clearly—Vipassana, in Pali) we gain into reality: By bringing mindfulness to our own experience, we can see what our subjective experience has in common with all experience—specifically, the impermanence of all phenomena (anicca, in Pali); that nothing can be held onto (dukkha), and that there is no separate or permanent self (anatta), who owns these experiences or to whom they are happening. 

These are known in Buddhism as the three fundamental characteristics of existence. Gaining insight into the impersonal, impermanent, and ungraspable—and hence unsatisfactory—nature of all phenomena helps us see reality clearly and leads to letting go, dispassion, disenchantment (no longer being caught up illusion) and freedom from suffering. 

This letting go allows us to enjoy the deepest peace, joy, and freedom that is not dependent on changing conditions. William Blake’s poem ‘Eternity’ captures this freedom and joy in the midst of impermanence: ‘He who binds to himself a joy // Does the winged life destroy; // But he who kisses the joy as it flies // Lives in eternity’s sunrise.’ 

The poems I shared included ‘Walker’ by Antonio Machado and ‘Mind Wanting More’ by Holly Hughes. 

Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and peaceful week—please pray and meditate for a peaceful outcome to the conflict threatening the people of Ukraine. See you next Sunday at 9am eastern time. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏻 🌎 ☮️ 💜

The painting in the cave & other - Hugh Byrne - Jan 30, 2022

January 30, 2022: Live Summary: The theme for the Live session was the ‘miracle’ of mindfulness. This was the title of an early book by Thich Nhat Hanh. Mindfulness is not a miracle in a supernatural sense or something we need to have special powers to develop, but rather it is wonderful in the way that our moment-to-moment awareness can take us all the way to the deepest freedom possible in this human life.

I shared the fundamental truth that life can only be lived in the present. Past and present are only memories and possibilities. The ‘past’ was the present when it was taking place and the ‘future’ will consist of present moments. It’s only by being present—alive, awake, aware—that we can experience joy, love, connection, peace, wonder. Only this moment is life. 

When we are present, we come into alignment with life itself—we ‘keep our appointment with life,’ in Thich Nhat Hanh’s words. We see that we are as inextricably part of the web of life as are the flower in the field, the deer grazing, the tree and mountain, but much of the time we are separate from ourselves and from life. (James Joyce in Dubliners said ‘Mr Duffy lived a short distance from his body.’) Mindfulness brings us back to ourselves; it brings us back to life. 

I spoke of two primary ways in which being present here and now leads to freedom of the heart. The first way is by helping us see where we are tangled in habits of mind and behavior that keep us disconnected from ourselves and our true nature—when we are caught up, for example, in fear, anger, blame, wanting, escaping, repressing, stress, worry, and other painful mind states and behaviors.

When we see our confusion with kind, non-judging awareness, we can let go of these habits of mind and action—we see that they are causing us suffering, not leading to well-being, and we can stop fueling them. We don’t have to get rid of them as something bad, but simply see them and let them go… 

We can see the way our minds create suffering—for example, by worrying about the future and fueling anxious thinking, so that we believe the stories that our mind is telling us. Like the Zen monk in a cave, who painted a picture of a fierce tiger on the cave wall and was terrified each time he looked at it. We paint the pictures in our mind and then through fueling the fear by repetition, we stay locked in fear and suffering. 

This is the path of abandoning, letting go of unskillful mind states and behaviors. The other path—we need both—is the path of cultivation of mind states and actions that lead to happiness, well-being, and freedom. When we cultivate presence—awareness of our experience here and now—beautiful states of mind naturally arise. We see more clearly the gifts that we’ve received from life and our oneness with all of life. Compassion, gratitude, loving-kindness, joy, arise in the heart and mind. 

Other qualities that arise naturally—and that we can consciously cultivate—lead to the deepest freedom of awakening or enlightenment. The Buddha emphasized seven qualities that flow towards freedom in the way that a river flows towards the sea. These are: 1) Mindfulness; 2) Investigation; 3) Energy; 4) Joy; 5) Tranquility; 6) Concentration; and 7) Equanimity. By cultivating these ‘seven factors of awakening’ and abandoning unskillful states, mindfulness leads us to freedom of the heart. 

I shared Mary Oliver’s poem ‘Wild Geese’ and a short poem by Thich Nhat Hanh: 

‘If we are peaceful, if we are happy

We can blossom like a flower,

And everyone in our family, 

Our entire society

Will benefit from our peace.’

Warm wishes to all for the week ahead. See you next Sunday at 9am eastern. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏻 💜