1997 Retreat
Teachings on Buddhist Psychology
Eight dharma talks from a retreat Thầy led in Key West, Florida, in November 1997, on the psychology the Fifty Verses set out. It is the earliest of his three passes over this material and the plainest: he reads the verses in order, from the mind as a field to the roots of the text. Plum Village holds the recordings in its library; the same talks are on Vimeo, titled by date.
The recordings are Plum Village’s and stay on their sites; this page links to them. The transcripts were made by this project from the recordings and are offered here for study, so that Thầy’s teaching on these verses can be read as well as heard. The descriptions and the minute-marks are ours; a wrong minute is our mistake, not theirs. Times are where a passage begins; give it a few seconds.
See also the 2013–14 Winter Retreat, his fullest pass, and the lineage the verses come from.
2 November 1997 Enjoy Each Mindful Breath
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Opening night. Thầy teaches how to enjoy breathing, sitting and walking, and asks for four days of silence with a notebook. The images the verses will use are already here: a dharma talk as rain on the soil of consciousness, and a habit energy that goes back down a little weaker once it has been recognised.
3 November 1997 Interbeing and Store Consciousness
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The simplest maps of a person: name-and-form, the five aggregates as a tangerine, then just two parts, the fifty-one mental formations and consciousness. Thầy names store consciousness and its seeds and shows a touched seed rising into mind consciousness. The recording cuts off as he introduces manas.
4 November 1997 The Field of Suchness
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Verses 1 to 8 read and explained: the mind as a field and its gardener, the kinds of seeds, what manifestation means, and the store as receiver and keeper. The middle is Verse 5, nothing purely individual or purely collective, with a bus, an optic nerve and two candles. The end is Verse 8's three fields of perception.
5 November 1997 Self and Non-Self: The Evolving Consciousness
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The Three Dharma Seals, then the three natures and Verses 39 to 41 on deluded and true mind. Thầy then goes back to Verses 16 to 25: manas born from the store and grasping part of it as a self, mind consciousness with its three modes and three fields, the five universals and five particulars, and the gardener whose actions lead to maturation.
6 November 1997 Selective Watering and Total Relaxation
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The first hour is for the therapists in the room: rest, knowing your limits, and why a sangha needs two-thirds solid people. Then Verses 9 to 12: the individual and collective marks, maturation as ripening, the retreat itself as a collective manifestation under the law of affinity, the six destinations we carry within, the nine stages, and why pounding a pillow waters the seed of anger.
- 1:18:53 Verse 9 read; maturation means ripening at 1:24:07
- 1:25:47 this retreat as a collective manifestation
- 1:27:34 the law of affinity named; the six destinations at 1:27:57
- 1:28:51 all six realms are within us
- 1:35:58 maturation runs by affinity; nine stages at 1:37:12
- 1:43:54 Verse 12: seeds produce seeds, formations produce formations
7 November 1997 Handling Strong Emotions
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How to handle anger and the other strong emotions with mindfulness: recognise the energy as it rises from its seed in store consciousness, embrace it rather than fight it, look into it, and then restore communication through loving speech and listening. In the second half, why blocking painful seeds from surfacing makes them grow, mindful consumption as the remedy, and Verses 13 to 15 on seeds and formations inter-being and the store becoming the Great Mirror Wisdom. Not in the Vimeo showcase; the audio was supplied separately.
- 0:00:30 when the seed of anger manifests: breathe, recognise, take care
- 0:07:28 the peace note, and looking for the wrong perception
- 0:44:09 the basement and the living room: the blockade
- 0:49:44 consumption waters seeds; internal formations grow
- 1:14:51 greeting a seed weakens it as it returns; the five remembrances
- 1:22:29 Verse 13: seeds and formations inter-are
- 1:30:25 Verses 14 and 15: the store becomes the Great Mirror Wisdom
8 November 1997 Reconciliation
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Practice stories first, including seeing yourself and your father as five-year-olds. Then Verses 16 to 32: the eight consciousnesses numbered, manas with its four self-afflictions, the bodhisattva stage where the store is released from manas, mind consciousness alone or with the senses, the sense consciousnesses as waves on water, and the snail with its two antennae.
9 November 1997 Non Fear
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Verses 31 to 50 at a walk: subject and object as one consciousness, the store ripening in every moment, the four conditions for anything to manifest, transformation at the base, no coming and no going. Then where the verses come from, from the Abhidharma to Xuanzang, and two deathbeds to close.
Credits
The talks are Thích Nhất Hạnh’s, given in English at Key West, Florida, in November 1997. The recordings are held by Plum Village, and the teaching and the recordings remain the property of the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism. The transcripts, descriptions and minute-marks are this project’s, shared without charge for study.