This is a 14-minute excerpt from the Dharma talk "Transforming the Fears Inside" given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh on February 04, 1993, in the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France.

🔔 Video transcript

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"In the being of us humans, there’s depth and there’s surface. Let us train ourselves to live the depth of our being also. Instead of living the surface only. Going about our daily life, perhaps we’re dealing with people or with things, or getting our work done using only the surface of our being. And sometimes we think we’re only that surface. Fact is, we’re much deeper than that.

"Studying and training ourselves in mindfulness means practicing living the depth of our being. The surface of ours has been pushed around by the depth of our being. We easily react. Constantly on the verge of tears and laughter. We do this, we do that. We talk about this, we talk about that.[...]

"So, sometimes we've done things in a certain way but we don't know why we've done it that way. We've thought in a certain way but we don't know why we've thought that way. We've spoken in a certain way but we don't know why we've spoken that way.[...] For that reason, our life is not deep. Because we’ve only lived half of it — or even less than half.

"[P]racticing means to connect these two halves of ourselves together. Whenever we speak, think, or do something, we should be aware of in which parts in the depth of our being do all these speaking, thinking, and doing have their roots."

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To watch the full Dharma talk with English subtitles and transcript, please visit this page.

Original Vietnamese title: “Cái sợ quanh ta - Pháp thoại Sư Ông Làng Mai 4/2/1993”

Full Dharma talk originally posted by: TCT Phuong Tran

You can also find this original Vietnamese talk, which is the 20th episode of the 1992-1993 Manifestation-Only Psychology Teachings series, on the Thich Nhat Hanh's Library website (available only in Vietnamese), or this viewable Google Drive link.

Talk given: February 04, 1993, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France

Length: 14 minutes 23 seconds

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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk)

1. Thich Nhat Hanh, 2004, Touching the Earth: Guided Meditations for Mindfulness Practice, California, USA: Parallax Press.

2. Wikipedia, Upajjhatthana Sutta

3. Lang Mai, Y báo và chánh báo, n.d.

4. Sr Thuận Nghiêm, 2018, "Dharma talk: Five Remembrances"

5. Lang Mai, n.d., "Tháo gỡ kết sử" (in English, "Undoing Internal Knots")

6. Dhamma Wiki, n.d., "Samyojana"

7. Wisdom Library, n.d., "Samyojana"

8. Thich Nhat Hanh and the Monks and Nuns of Plum Village, 2006, "The Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness", Chanting From The Heart, page 297

9. Wikipedia, n.d., "Czechoslovakia"

10. Wikipedia, n.d., Pham Duy

11. Thich Nhat Hanh and the Monks and Nuns of Plum Village, 2006, "The Five Remembrances", Chanting From The Heart, page 53.

12. Wikipedia, n.d., "Léopoldine Hugo"

13. Wikipedia, n.d., "Victor Hugo"

14. YouCanTrustHim, 2019, "Inconsolable: 'A Villequier' by Victor Hugo"

15. AllPoetry, n.d., "In Villequier"

16. Lion's Roar Staff, 2019, "What Is the Threefold Training?"

17. Amitabha Pure Land, n.d., "Three Learnings"

18. Plum Village App, n.d., "Guarding the Six Senses"

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Republished on the Plum Village App with kind permission of Thich Nhat Hanh's Talks channel 🙏