2013–14 Winter Retreat
Thầy teaching the Thirty Verses
Twenty-four dharma talks from the Plum Village Winter Retreat of 2013–14, in which Thầy taught Vasubandhu’s Thirty Verses, the root text that his Fifty Verses extend. It is the most refined of his three passes over this material, and the one this site leans on most. Each talk below has a link to the recording and the minutes worth going to.
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 1997 retreat, his earliest pass, and the lineage the verses come from.
17 November 2013 Rebuilding Our Health
Listen at Plum Village → · Read the transcript →
Thầy opens the retreat with the mind as a river of drops, the seeds below and the mental formations above, and hell and paradise both inside store consciousness. Mindfulness is not a means to healing; it is the healing.
- 0:12:01 mindfulness is the healing itself
- 0:22:46 the five universals and five particulars, named
- 0:30:25 hell and paradise are inside store consciousness
- 0:48:25 ease and restlessness, a matched pair
- 0:59:50 the rabbit and its holes: refuge in work, television, the internet
- 1:19:13 no creation, only manifestation
21 November 2013 Individual and Collective Manifestation
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
The talk behind Verse 9's first line. Every manifestation is both individual and collective, and Thầy shows it with two candles, the city of Paris, and the eighty people breathing together in the hall.
- 0:31:53 unmanifested does not mean nonexistent
- 0:34:40 why it should be manifestation-only, not consciousness-only
- 0:48:36 the purpose of the bell
- 1:08:53 sitting in the hall, I am sitting for you
- 1:25:14 within the individual there is the collective
24 November 2013 Discovering Non-Discriminative Wisdom
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Happiness is the way, not the end of it. Thầy walks through contact and the subtle organs, store consciousness as an ocean the body rises from like a cloud, and the wisdom hidden inside manas.
- 0:30:10 there is no way to happiness; happiness is the way
- 0:49:17 contact and the subtle organs; the coma patient
- 1:04:23 the ocean and the cloud
- 1:40:58 manas's four afflictions, by name
- 1:54:39 non-discriminative wisdom, the wisdom of equality
28 November 2013 A Sense of Contact
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Verse 9's second line, ripening, in Thầy's own words: at different times, in different varieties, and with change. Samsara is happening every moment, and store consciousness is a museum that is also what it stores.
- 1:34:11 the store is the museum and the things in it
- 1:50:10 samsara every moment; we do not have to die to be in it
- 2:02:22 I think, therefore I am, comes from manas
- 2:09:05 no birth, no death: nothing lost, nothing new
1 December 2013 What is Buddha Nature
Listen at tnhaudio.org → (listed there as “What has Buddha-Nature?”) · Read the transcript →
Without sentient beings there are no Buddhas, and without mud no lotus. Thầy reads the third verse of the Thirty on what store consciousness appropriates and where it locates itself, and teaches the practice of inviting the Buddha to breathe.
- 0:15:01 no sentient beings, no Buddhas
- 0:40:52 invite the Buddha to breathe, four stages
- 1:18:28 the environment as collective karma: Plum Village
- 1:30:34 the third verse: appropriation and location
5 December 2013 What is the Purpose of This Human Life
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
The quality of a life is how aware it is of how precious life is. Thầy gives the six classical characteristics of a seed and the ones Plum Village adds, and settles whether seeds are innate or newly sown.
- 0:19:28 the quality of our life
- 0:27:07 spirituality is not religion
- 0:57:28 looking for our parents in ourselves
- 1:48:37 innate seeds and newly planted seeds
8 December 2013 Mother Earth Has All the Seeds
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Mother Earth as store consciousness, holding the seeds of Māra and of Buddha alike. The plowing Brahmin's field is the mind, and a practitioner's future is the future of the sangha.
- 0:24:20 our future is the future of the sangha
- 1:18:54 the plowing Brahmin: the mind is the field
- 1:22:06 Mother Earth is store consciousness
- 1:36:54 Mother Earth is the seed, we are the formation
12 December 2013 Is Our Nature Goodness?
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Is store consciousness good, bad, or neither? Thầy answers indeterminate, like tea that can be scented with lotus or jasmine, and reworks the seed's fourth characteristic: it is organic, so love can become hate and back.
- 0:28:59 collective energy as synchronisation: the laser
- 0:36:44 the four upside-down views
- 0:49:41 only what is neutral can be perfumed
- 1:10:31 the seed is organic
- 1:41:29 store consciousness is indeterminate
15 December 2013 The Foundation for All Phenomena Is Store Consciousness
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
The core of Verse 9 in one talk: the six paths and nirvana both manifest from store consciousness, karma ripens as a body and as an environment, and because the store is indeterminate we can choose what it becomes.
- 0:41:58 karma's two retributions: the body and the environment
- 0:53:06 seeds of heaven, human, asura, hell, hungry ghost and animal
- 1:31:19 the wave and the water
19 December 2013 Volition and the Functions of Store Consciousness
Listen at tnhaudio.org → (listed there as “Volition and Functions of Alaya Consciousness”) · Read the transcript →
Volition is a food; without it we die. Thầy sets out the nine functions of store consciousness and reads the Thirty Verses' line on maturation, which the Fifty Verses turn into ripening at every instant.
- 0:03:41 volition is a food
- 0:09:20 the Buddha's own volition
- 1:06:01 Vasubandhu's verse on maturation, read aloud
22 December 2013 The Art of Mindful Living
Listen at tnhaudio.org → (listed there as “Being #1 and/or Being Happy”) · Read the transcript →
An English public talk. Mindfulness in the corporate world, what makes a practice true mindfulness, and time as life rather than money.
- 0:44:32 time is not money; time is life
- 0:59:21 mindfulness is a practice, not a theory
24 December 2013 Have I Got a True Home?
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
An English public talk on the true home in the here and now, the body as its first room, the mindful-breathing exercises, and the collective energy of a sangha.
- 0:05:20 I have arrived, I am home
- 0:36:42 the sangha's collective energy, like a mother holding a child
- 0:51:51 darling, what is your dream?
29 December 2013 Where is the Year 2014 Right Now?
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Where is the coming year before it arrives? Thầy uses the birth of a year to teach no-birth and no-death, Touching the Earth, and the four elements of a true home.
- 0:13:36 2014 is already here, like the butterflies waiting for April
- 0:22:48 it is impossible for something to become nothing
- 0:42:51 the body is the first element of true home
- 1:11:38 without a sangha you cannot do much
31 December 2013 The Practice of Mindfulness Is the Practice of Happiness
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
New Year's Eve. Compassion is made of suffering, the second arrow is the one we can decline, and a year is not time but action.
- 0:12:12 compassion is made of suffering
- 0:54:16 the new year is action, karma
- 1:14:19 the second arrow
- 1:28:52 there is no way home; home is the way
5 January 2014 The Value of Being Together
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Freedom is untying the ropes. Thầy teaches eating together as practice, the sangha as a river rather than drops, and then the modes of mind consciousness and the background consciousness that keeps going when it stops.
- 0:30:24 liberation is to untie
- 0:53:33 we go together as a river, not as drops
- 1:10:40 the two retributions: body and environment
- 1:23:25 the background consciousness
- 1:34:37 mind consciousness is the gardener, the store is the soil
9 January 2014 The Dharma Body
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
The three meanings of the dharma body, from the Buddha's words to the dying Vakkali to the wonders of the universe. Letting go is the first source of joy, and the cows parable says why.
- 0:15:06 you already have my dharma body
- 0:47:30 the cows
- 0:54:35 letting go is the first practice for joy
- 1:02:04 mindfulness is recollection
12 January 2014 The Body and the Environment
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
It takes three or four seconds to be a free person. Then the store consciousness in depth: its direct perception, its indeterminate nature, the vitality that keeps a body alive, and manas set beside Freud's id.
- 0:39:08 three or four seconds to be a free person
- 0:51:22 the store contains the dharma body
- 1:00:13 the store is indeterminate, neither being nor non-being
- 1:11:47 the store is not lost at arhatship
- 1:17:12 the store works with more than the five universals
- 1:25:47 manas grasps a small part and calls it a self
16 January 2014 What is Emptiness
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Emptiness has no opposite. Thầy reads form-is-emptiness through matter and energy, explains why the school's name is manifestation-only, and lays out the three objects of consciousness.
- 0:03:42 emptiness has no opposite
- 0:13:09 matter is energy
- 0:22:28 vijñapti: only manifestation
- 0:32:13 no lotus without mud
19 January 2014 Perception and Reality
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
We cannot be observers, only participants. Store consciousness perceives directly and manas by representation, mind consciousness touches things-in-themselves for a millisecond, and the gardener keeps the mud moderate.
- 0:54:58 observer or participant: the grain of salt
- 1:12:57 the first millisecond, then discrimination
- 1:24:32 the garden and the gardener
- 1:39:24 memory is not a bag
23 January 2014 Stars, Moon and Consciousness
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Why the Buddha kept practising, the Buddha and Māra as partners, the Tết pole and the earth-and-sky cakes. Then the stars and moon as objects of store consciousness, and ripening at every millisecond.
- 0:12:32 why the Buddha kept practising
- 1:03:37 the stars and moon are objects of store consciousness
- 1:33:49 impermanent every instant, not dying every instant
- 1:51:21 we are our karma; it has already ripened
- 1:52:35 the Fifty Verses adjust Vasubandhu's Verse 19
26 January 2014 What is the Fabric of Reality
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Communication begins with ourselves. Store consciousness maintains the seeds, the body and the environment, and its twelve characteristics end with the one Verse 9 names: neither individual nor collective.
- 0:54:37 the store maintains seeds, body and environment
- 1:35:14 store consciousness is already perfect
30 January 2014 Tale of Kiều
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Roots and ancestors, and Nguyễn Du's Tale of Kiều read as dharma: nobody entangles us, and the present moment is too beautiful to seem real.
- 0:01:28 trees have roots, rivers have sources, people have ancestors
- 0:44:25 nobody entangles us
- 1:00:18 the present moment is too beautiful to seem real
6 February 2014 The Joy of the Dharma
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
Vitality, even in a grain of corn. Dharma joy as the food of meditation, and the Thirty Verses' lines on manas: the second manifester, obstructed and indeterminate, which becomes the wisdom of non-discrimination.
- 0:12:40 vitality, in the womb and after
- 0:37:46 dharma joy, the food of meditation
- 1:11:00 manifestation is not creation
- 1:46:32 we do not want to get rid of the mud
9 February 2014 The Embodied Mind
Listen at tnhaudio.org → · Read the transcript →
The last talk. Body and mind together are life, the sixteen exercises of mindful breathing in depth, the art of happiness and the art of suffering, and manas set beside Freud one more time.
- 0:15:42 this body is not me
- 0:19:12 when body and mind are together, we have life
- 0:42:12 the art of suffering
- 1:22:59 manas and Freud's id
Credits
The talks are Thích Nhất Hạnh’s, given at Plum Village between November 2013 and February 2014. Most were given in Vietnamese with a live English translation, and each transcript names its interpreter; the public talks around Christmas and New Year were given in English. 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.