This is an excerpt from the third talk of the "Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness" series given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh on February 19, 1998, New Hamlet, Plum Village France, in the Winter Retreat 1997-1998.

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🔔 Video transcript

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"Being fully aware of the whole body and calming the whole body—or being fully aware of the whole physical formation and calming the whole physical formation—are of great importance.

"In the Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing, as we already know, regarding the body, there are 4 breathing exercises.

"(1) Identifying in/out.

"(2) Identifying long/short.

"(3) Being aware of the whole body.

"And (4) calming the whole body.

"The term 'the whole body,' in the original Sanskrit text, is 'Sarvakāya.' Sarvakāya means 'all of the body.' It also means, 'all the organs and elements of the body.'

"So, 'being fully aware of the whole body' has two meanings. The first meaning is, one is fully aware of one's body as an integrated whole. And the second meaning is, one is fully aware of one's body with all the different parts and elements of that body."

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✩ Full talk's original title: "Bốn Lĩnh Vực Quán Niệm 03 [CPNĐSNC 24] | TS Thích Nhất Hạnh(19-02-1998, Xóm Mới, Làng Mai)"

✩ Full talk originally posted by Làng Mai (Plum Village's Vietnamese YouTube Channel), on Jun 23, 2023

✩ Full talk given: on February 19, 1998, New Hamlet, Plum Village France, in the Winter Retreat 1997-1998

✩ Excerpt's length: 19 minutes 19 seconds

✩ Watch the full talk with English subtitles and transcript here

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE From 00:00:48 – 00:00:55 in the video, the correct Sanskrit term for “all of the body” is “Sarvakāya“, not “Svakāya”. Only the burnt-in subtitles of the video has this mistake, not the transcript. The translator apologizes for this inconvenience.

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INTERESTING LEARNING MATERIAL "Ten Ox Herding Pictures" accompanied with practice verses by Seattle Insight Meditation Society

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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk): Please kindly visit the video transcript link to see the full list.

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