This is an excerpt of the Dharma talk given on January 5, 2014 in Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France.

🔔 Video transcript

-------

"In our daily life, we're being tied up by this kind of fetter. 'You’re wrong, I’m right!' 'You have caused me countless pains and sufferings. And you have to be held accountable for all of that. Me? I’m just a victim.'

"But the moment we've sat down in meditation, we have to let all of them go. No more thoughts of right and wrong. No more thoughts of who’s right and who’s wrong. No more thoughts of who’s good and who’s bad. So, once we've entered the meditation hall and sat down on our cushions, in the first few breaths, make sure we can do this. Sit stably and solidly. Begin to allow the body, speech, and mind to be at ease and relaxed, and to deliberately end all the thoughts of who's right and who's wrong."

-------

Original Vietnamese title: “Ngồi Thiền Làm Lắng Ba Nghiệp [Thực Tập Căn Bản Làng Mai] TS Nhất Hạnh (05-01- 2014)”

Originally posted by: Làng Mai (Plum Village's Vietnamese YouTube channel)

Talk given: January 05, 2014, Dharma Cloud Temple (Chùa Pháp Vân), Upper Hamlet, Plum Village France

Length: 8 minutes 48 seconds

To watch the subtitled talk or read the transcript, please visit this page.

-------

REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk)

1. Plum Village App, 2020, "Morning Chant in English"

2. Plum Village, n.d. "The Evening Chant audio" retrieved from Plum Village website

3. Texas A&M University, 2018, "How Do Synapses Work?"

4. StudySmarter, n.d., "Transmission Across a Synapse"

5. Kendra Cherry & Diana Apetauerova, MD, 2022, "What Is a Synapse?"

6. Buddhist Association of the United States, n.d., "Evening Liturgy"

-------

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