What is meditation? (EN subtitles)
This is an 11-minute excerpt from the Dharma talk given by Thay on November 24, 1994 in the Winter Rains Retreat 1994-1995, and as part of "The Basics of Plum Village Practice" playlist on Plum Village's Vietnamese YouTube channel, Lang Mai.
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🔔 Video transcript
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"According to the ancestral teachers’ explanation, “meditation,” first of all, means the contemplation of a given object. This is the first definition. It means we will use something as an object of our meditation, then contemplate it, and look deeply into it. The contemplation of a given object.
"And the second definition is kind of the same. It’s to come very close to a given object, be very closely in touch with it, and observe it very closely. And that object can be something belonging to the phenomenal world. From that phenomenal world, we can go deeper and deeper into the ultimate world. Let’s take a wave as an example. When we contemplate that wave very closely and be very closely in touch with it, we can discover the true nature of the wave, i.e. water. [...]
"The third definition is to abandon, or to eliminate. In the meditation practice, we have the intention of eliminating the substances and the elements that cause us to suffer, darken our life, obscure us, or make us unpeaceful, restless, and insecure. [...]
"And in meditation, if we have a strong energy of concentration, we can shine this energy of concentration into our states of forgetfulness and unconsciousness, and our states of afflictions, these moments of unconsciousness and afflictions will be burned up. That’s another definition of 'meditation' given by the ancestral teachers."
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✩ Original Vietnamese title: “Thiền là gì? [Thực Tập Căn Bản Làng Mai] TS Nhất Hạnh (24-11-1994)”
✩ Originally posted by Làng Mai (Plum Village's Vietnamese YouTube channel) on Jun 2, 2020
✩ Talk given: November 24, 1994, place unnoted
✩ Length: 10 minutes 36 seconds
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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk):
1. Thich Nhat Hanh, 2012, Short teaching: Non-self is the Crème of Buddhism, retrieved from the Thich Nhat Hanh's Talks website
2. Plum Village, n.d., Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing
3. Wikipedia, n.d., "Chan Buddhism"
4. Wikipedia, n.d., "Buddhist meditation"
5. Wikipedia, n.d., "Cao Ly"
6. Wikipedia, n.d., "Dhyāna in Buddhism"
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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk): Please kindly refer to 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 🙏