May 18, 2011. 86-minute dharma talk given in English, with consecutive translation into German, with Thich Nhat Hanh. This is the second Dharma talk offered by Thay in the German Retreat at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany.
The Buddha considered the earth his Buddha land. He was a child of the earth. How we wall and listen can create our own Budda land. This is not philosophy. This is something you can experience. We can touch the Kingdom, the Pure land.
Enjoy walking in the ultimate dimension.
My hand is in his hand.
Many thousand years ago and many years to come, every one of us will go to the same direction.
In Buddhism we call this nirvana. In Christianity we call this the Kingdom of God. This is different than the historical dimension. We live in the historical dimension but we can get in touch with the ultimate dimension. In the historical we see birth and death, being and non-being. In the ultimate, these do not exist. Nirvana is the ground if everything. And yet the historical and the ultimate are not two realities.
We can take the hand of the Buddha or the hand of Jesus anytime in the here and the now. No reservations required. It is simple. Not complicated.
Bitter melon. Why do we call suffering a noble truth? What is so good about suffering? If we look deeply at dukkha, the first noble truth, we can also see all the other noble truths. The Four Noble Truths are not separate entities. There is a cloud in the flower. What are the elements of the flower?
The path leading to the end of suffering is called the Noble Eightfold Path. It begins with element called Right View. From there we have Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.
We continue with a discussion of being and non-being. When we touch the ultimate, we are free from this idea of being and non-being, birth and death.
The talk was given in English and German at the same time and is available below for listening or download. You may also view the video.