August 29, 2013. 117-minute dharma talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh from Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York during the 2013 Nourishing Great Togetherness teaching tour. This is a session of questions and answers during the 6-day retreat with the theme Transformation and Healing – The Art of Suffering.
Children
- Why do people get so angry sometimes and their hearts filled with anger?
- Why do people have to suffer?
- What do you have to do to have a calm mind?
Teens
- If you could live your life again, would you choose the same path?
- My sister (a monastic aspirant) has been staying with the monastics and it’s been hard for me. How do I practice non-attachment?
- What made you decide to become a monk?
- What is the hardest thing that you practice?
- How have you detached from your strongest attachments in life?
- Can we be fast and mindful, especially with sports?
Adults
- A father who has suffered greatly from violence – his son died at Sandy Hook Elementary. What could have happened differently? What could we have done differently?
- Another parent shares about the teen child who died from leukemia. Her question is whether or not she can ever truly be happy again.
- If you were Obama’s spiritual advisor, what would you tell him? Referring to Syria.
- UN disarmament negotiator. How can we approach young men who are recruited by groups like Al Qaeda that can offer so much?
- How to practice joyfully with physical limitations?
- How do I forgive myself because of trusting someone who sexually abused him as a child?
- A question on depression and anxiety.