This full, 1-hour-6-minute Dharma talk on the Discourse on Happiness (Pali version) was given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh on November 22, 1998 in Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France. It is Part 54 of the “Daily training gets the thousand-petalled lotus to burst open” Winter Rains Retreat 1998-1999 talk series.
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🔔 Video transcript
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“To live in the world
with your heart undisturbed by the world,
with all sorrows ended, dwelling in peace—
this is the greatest happiness.
"Those who accomplish this,
will remain unvanquished wherever they go,
always they will be safe and happy—
Happiness is found within oneself."
— excerpted from "Discourse on Happiness" (Mahāmaṅgala Sutta, Sutta Nipāta 2.4)
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Dear Sisters, Brothers, and friends,
With 12 stanzas, the Discourse on Happiness shows us a person's greatest blessings. What makes this sutra unique is it does not simply list out the greatest blessings a person can have, but it shows the kind of good blessings that they can take the proactive role in generating for themself. Instead of waiting for something good to come, we have an active role in changing our life for the better and we can make positive the effects our manifestation has on the world.
Thay said, "Lord Buddha said we should not rely on what's going on now, to predict future happenings. Rather, we should rely on our own actions.
"Our actions are our karma, i.e. our actions of mind (perceptions and thinking), speech (words), and body (bodily actions and gestures).
"If these 3 things in a person are guided by the Dharma, by the Buddha's teachings, we know that this person is making their own blessings and auspicious signs, and that their happiness is one that lasts for many generations to come.
"Someone like that—no matter what life situation they're being thrown into, can always find inner peace and contentment. They 'will remain unvanquished wherever they go' because this sense of safety and unvanquishedness is the secure protection of the Dharma.
'"Always they will be safe and happy'. This safety and happiness come from the keeping of the mindfulness trainings and the Dharma practice. So, feeling safe and happy is a distinct tendency of those who practice the Dharma in the right spirit.
"And 'happiness is found within oneself' means, all great blessings don't come in from without, but they come out from within. So they are quite certain and infallible. 'Happiness is found within oneself' means these great blessings are what we generate for ourselves. They don't fall down to us from the sky."
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✩ Original Vietnamese title: "Kinh Phước Đức [CPNĐSNC 54] | TS Thích Nhất Hạnh(22-11-1998, Xóm Thượng, Làng Mai)"
✩ Originally posted by Làng Mai (Plum Village's Vietnamese YouTube Channel) on Nov 23, 2023
✩ Talk given: on November 22, 1998, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France
✩ Length: 1 hour 5 minutes 37 seconds
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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
🌿 This video uses the latest English translation of the Pali version of this sutra, called "Discourse on Happiness", from the book Chanting From The Heart - Volume 1: Buddhist Sutras and Chants for Recitation (published in 2023 by Parallax Press), pp. 17-19; and the English translation of its Chinese version, called "Dhammapada: Chapter on Auspicious Signs (Kinh Pháp Cú, Phẩm Cát Tường)", from "Chanting AA" of the old version of Chanting From the Heart (Book 3, English-Vietnamese bilingual, distributed online by Deer Park and Blue Cliff Monasteries during the global COVID-19 lockdown times), pp 54-57.
🌿 Please also note that the texts for this sutra in original Pali and in Vietnamese, Chinese and French languages can be found at the end of the transcript.
🌿 Although the translator tries to make the best of the available time for displaying captions, at times when times are too short and the captions (which can include multiple languages at a time) are relatively too long, the translator is left with no choice but to leave these captions in acutely short times. The translator wants to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused because of this.
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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk): Please kindly refer to the video transcript link for the full list.
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Republished on the Plum Village App with kind permission of Thich Nhat Hanh's Talks channel 🙏