This 30-minute teaching discussing Stanza 29 of The Net of Sensual Love Sutra is given by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in Nectar of Compassion Temple, Lower Hamlet, Plum Village on May 23, 2010.

The Sutra on the Net of Sensual Love's topic is sensual love, which is like a net that can imprison us, and has historically been a sutra for the monastic community.

However, Thay believes that lay people (non-monastic) can benefit from it too though it is easier for monastic because they are in a safe environment. The main intention of the sutra is to help monastic keep celibacy.

🔔 Video transcript

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"Deep down in each of us, there's an enlightened person. No matter what our gender, no matter how old we are, inside us, there's an enlightened person aspiring to be trained to be good. That's the Buddha nature in us. Everyone wants to train themselves to be benevolent. But people don't do that because there are no favorable causes and conditions. It's not because they don't want to be good.

"And in each one of us, there's also an artistic person. Because deep down, we also want to enjoy and savor what's beautiful and good. When there's a glorious sunrise, we feel like sitting down and watching it. That's the inner artist in action.

"And in us, there is a warrior, a hero, who wants to prevail, who wants victory. But it's not the victory against someone or over something outside of us. It's the victory over our own shortcomings and weaknesses. It's the victory over our own sufferings and pains."

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✩ Full talks' original titles: "Chiếc Lưới Ái Ân - Bài 7 — Ngày 23 tháng 05 năm 2010" / "2010-05-23_TNH_VNM_Chiếc Lưới Ái Ân-07.mp4"

✩ Full talks originally posted: Vietnamese transcripts by Làng Mai, date posted unknown; Vietnamese videos by Thich Nhat Hanh Library Archive Team, date posted unknown

✩ Full talk given: the 7th talk given on May 23, 2010, in the Nectar of Compassion Temple, Lower Hamlet, Plum Village France

✩ Excerpt's length: 30 minutes 22 seconds

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

In this Dharma talk, the words "chiến sĩ," "dũng sĩ," and "anh hùng" are used interchangeably by Thay to mean the same thing.

The Vietnamese term "chiến sĩ" literally means "warrior." And according to Wikipedia, the Vietnamese term "dũng sĩ" (meaning "a brave person") is usually translated by English speakers as "hero", which means "anh hùng" and is not exact English equivalent for "dũng sĩ". "Braveheart" (which literally means "a brave person") will rather be a better translation for "dũng sĩ". However, respecting Thay's original word choice, the translator keeps "hero" throughout the talk for every "dũng sĩ" that Thay uses.

So in this talk, every "chiến sĩ" is translated as "warrior"; and every "dũng sĩ" or "anh hùng" is translated as "hero".

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SPECIAL THANKS

The translation of this Dharma talk will never be possible without the help of Dharma Teacher Chân Cơ (Maple Village Sangha, Canada) for French words that Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh used throughout this talk.

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✩ For resources used to translate this Dharma talk, please kindly visit the video transcript link for the full list

✩ You may also like episode #22 (The Way Out Is In podcast): The Meditator, the Artist, and the Warrior (2022)

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