A Cloud Never Dies (2022) - full transcript

foodval.com - stop by if you're interested in the nutritional composition of food
---
He is a global spiritual leader

a scholar,

a peacemaker,

a writer and a poet.

Revered worldwide for
his teachings on mindfulness,

he remains a humble
Buddhist monk

most at home in the
stillness of nature,

surrounded by his community.

Thich Nhat Hanh has written
over a hundred books,

read by millions worldwide.

Martin Luther King
publicly nominated him



for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But how did this unassuming seeker
from central Vietnam

confront the horrors of war and
emerge as a spiritual pioneer,

bringing the Buddha’s
teachings to the West,

to become a force for change
in the world?

A Cloud Never Dies

Thich Nhat Hanh was born in
central Vietnam in 1926,

under French colonial rule.

Even as a child,

he was aware of the
political instability

and turmoil in his country.

At the age of nine,

he saw a picture of the Buddha
on a magazine cover,

and experienced a deep desire
to be as calm and peaceful



as that Buddha.

When he was sixteen,

he became a novice monk
at Từ Hiếu Temple

in the imperial city of Huế.

There he began Zen
training in meditation,

while also tending buffaloes
and working in the rice paddies.

He soon mastered classical
Chinese and French,

and devoted himself to the
study of ancient Buddhist texts.

He lived through the
Japanese occupation

and the Great Famine
that followed.

Whilst many of his peers turned
to foreign ideologies and violence,

he was determined to find

another way to liberate
his people from suffering.

- Buddhism was very old
when I grew up,

and yet I had the belief that
if we can renew Buddhism,

we can help many people.

That is because I had
learned in history

that there were
periods of time

that Buddhism was able
to help restore peace.

It’s my conviction that if
Buddhism could do that in the past,

it can do that in the present moment,
if we know how to renew Buddhism,

to make it a living tradition again.

As a young monk he took the name
‘Nhất Hạnh’ meaning ‘One Action.’

Determined to renew Buddhism,

he became one of the first
monks of his generation

to study science,

literature,

economics,

and English.

He soon realised

that monastics must offer society
more than just chants and prayers,

and developed a vision
for "Engaged Buddhism"

- Suppose you are meditating

in the meditation hall,

and if you hear

the bombs

falling

around

the meditation hall has
not been hit by a bomb yet,

you are safe,

but since you are meditating

you are aware that
the bombs are falling

and destroying

houses and people
around the meditation hall

and you know that

you cannot just continue

to sit in the meditation hall,

so you get out of
the meditation hall

in order to help people.

And that is called
"meditation in action".

In 1954,

as the communist North and
anti-communist South vied for dominance,

Vietnam was divided,
and violence raged.

He meditated intensively through
this time of grief and despair.

Only when he discovered the
practice of mindful breathing

in an ancient text, did he find
the key to heal his suffering.

He expanded the practice to develop
a new way of walking meditation,

combining the awareness of
breathing with each step.

These practical methods for
handling painful feelings

became central to his life’s teaching,

and have today been taken up
by people all over the world.

He and his friends established
a mountain refuge

where they could
restore their spirits.

They called it Phương Bối:

Fragrant Palm Leaves.

They realised that only by coming
together as a community,

close to nature,

could they resist the oppressive
atmosphere of anger and despair,

and sustain their efforts
to renew Buddhism.

It was during this time

that Thich Nhat Hanh met
a young biology student

pioneering a new approach to
social work in the slums of Saigon.

Inspired by his teachings,

she went on to become
his lifelong collaborator,

later receiving the name
Sister Chan Khong.

After just four years, deadly
fighting reached Phương Bối.

Thich Nhat Hanh
and his friends

were forced to abandon
their sacred refuge,

and their dream
evaporated like a cloud.

In 1961,

as the war continued,

Thich Nhat Hanh travelled
to study and teach

at Princeton and Columbia
universities in the United States.

It was a time of respite and
healing from the horrors of war.

His meditation deepened

and he touched the
possibility of true peace,

freedom

from hatred,

fear

and sorrow,

in the heart of the
present moment.

He later described his insights there

as “the first blossoms of awakening”

When South Vietnam’s oppressive
Diệm regime was overthrown,

Thich Nhat Hanh was called home

to help guide the Buddhist
peace movement.

Soon, he became a leading light
in this nonviolent

“third force”

that refused to take
sides in the conflict.

He and his colleagues
founded a publishing house,

a university,

and a leading Buddhist journal,

which printed fifty thousand
copies every week.

The journal reported on the protests

and published his peace poems.

They were taken up by well-known
singers of the day

and were sung in the streets.

- This is a poem I wrote

during the Vietnam War,

Tonight the moon and the stars
bear witness.

Let my homeland,

let Earth pray

for Vietnam, her deaths

and fires,

grief and blood

that Vietnam will rise
from her suffering

and become that soft,

new cradle

for the Buddha-to-come.

Let Earth,

my country,

pray that once more
the flower blooms.

The radio of Saigon,

the radio of Hanoi,

the radio of Beijing,

began to attack the poems

because they are calling for peace.

No one wants peace.

They want to fight to the end.

I have suffered a lot.

I have known what is

the war.

I have seen brothers and sisters dying.

And I myself

escaped

death

in a very narrow

way.

In 1965

Thich Nhat Hanh and his
colleagues established

the School of Youth
for Social Service,

a non-partisan “peace corps”

training thousands of young people

to go into the war-torn countryside

to rebuild shattered villages.

But it was dangerous work

and several students

were targeted

and killed.

- We followed

a program

of rural

development.

We created community
schools in villages.

We worked with orphans,

war victims,

and I can say that we learned

from many teachers,

and among these teachers,
our own suffering,

our own difficult situations.

In February 1966,

Thich Nhat Hanh created
a new Buddhist order.

Today the order has over
three thousand members worldwide.

- The Order of Interbeing
was born as

a spiritual resistance movement.

And it is based completely
on the teaching of the Buddha,

and if you read the
First Mindfulness Training

you know that this is

the practice of non-attachment
to views

freedom from all ideologies.

This is a direct answer to the war.

The First Mindfulness Training:

“Aware of the suffering created
by fanaticism and intolerance,

we are determined not
to be idolatrous about

or bound to any doctrine,

theory, or ideology,

even Buddhist ones…

This is the lion’s roar.

In 1966, determined
to change the situation,

Thich Nhat Hanh once again
left for the US

to raise his voice for peace.

He was supported by many
influential, spiritual

and political leaders of the day

including

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He knew that if he could persuade
Dr. King to come out against the war,

the tide of public opinion

would change.

- Somehow this madness must cease.

We must stop now.

This is the message of the
great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam.

Recently one of them
wrote these words, and I quote:

"Each day the war goes on,
the hatred increases

in the hearts of the Vietnamese,

and in the hearts of those
of humanitarian instinct.

The Americans are forcing even
their friends into becoming their enemies."

In 1967,

Dr. King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh
for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying

"His ideas for peace,

if applied,

would build a monument to ecumenism,

to world brotherhood,

to humanity."

- In Paris, on Avenue Clébert,

politicians have been talking
for four years about ending a war.

Once a week, on Thursdays,

diplomatic cars arrive
at the conference center,

bringing delegates to talk
about a war

in which nearly a million
men have died:

the Vietnam war.

But Thich Nhat Hanh paid a high price
for daring to call for peace.

He was prevented from going home,

beginning an exile that was to last

thirty-nine years.

He said:

“I’m not inclined to be a politician.

My vocation is as a monk.

But as a monk

you have to have the
courage to speak out

against social injustice,

the violation of human rights.”

- I am talking about the people

in Vietnam whom I know.

Those people who are dying every day,

suffering every day, I am talking….

for their sake,

and if you want to ask me the
question as what they want the most,

is that you stop bombing them,

you stop the killing, stop the killing.

In 1974,

he wrote a meditation manual to
guide his young social workers

back in Vietnam,

and help them resist burnout

in the chaos and tragedy of war.

It was the first book to awaken
the West to mindfulness,

becoming a spiritual classic
translated into over 30 languages.

By 1978,

the plight of Vietnamese refugees
fleeing the Communist regime

had become a major humanitarian crisis.

In Singapore,

Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Chan Khong

rented two ships

and rescued hundreds from the high seas.

They began looking for a place
where they could help Vietnamese refugees

heal from the ordeals
of war and exile.

They found land in the south
of France which they named

Plum Village,

after planting over a thousand
plum trees in the fertile ground.

Word spread that Plum Village
was a place to deepen meditation practice

and receive the Zen Master’s
direct guidance.

Intellectuals, artists,

social workers and activists

traveled there from around the world.

He led retreats in
America and Europe

and nurtured many of today’s
leading mindfulness teachers,

pioneering a new way of
communicating Buddhist teachings.

- You walk,

you do it as if you
are the most

the happiest person

in the world.

And if you can do that you
succeed in walking meditation.

Because we do not set
ourselves a goal

for a particular destination,

so we don’t have to hurry,

because there is nothing
there for us to get.

Therefore

walking is not

a means,

but an end

by itself.

But he soon came to realise

that only life-long committed practice

and the trust
of a student-teacher relationship

would lead to lasting transformation.

And so he founded a new monastic order,

which would go on to become

the largest Buddhist monastic
community in the West,

and a touchstone for the
mindfulness movement

that would soon sweep the world.

Responding to the growing demand
for his teaching and practice,

by the early 2000s

the Zen Master had
established monasteries

in Southern California
and New York state.

These were followed by
centers in Vietnam,

Mississippi,

Paris and Germany.

And later

in Hong Kong,

Thailand

and Australia.

He saw that in order to transform
violence and fanaticism

around the world,

we would need to come together as
brothers and sisters

in the human family

and learn the art

of cultivating peace.

He understood the potential for
collective meditation practice

to help transform

the alienation and loneliness
of the modern world.

His retreats grew from
groups of tens of people,

to international
gatherings of thousands.

- We have offered so many retreats
of mindfulness

everywhere.

And the miracle
of reconciliation always

takes place in our retreats.

We learn how to listen to our own suffering,

we learn how to look at the
suffering of the other person,

we suffer less after
four days of practice.

After 39 years of exile

Thich Nhat Hanh was
finally given permission

to return to his homeland.

Over the course of three visits

he led thousands of
people in mindfulness retreats,

and ceremonies of healing

to transform the suffering

of the millions who died

on both sides of the war.

He established Bát Nhã Monastery,

where his teaching became
a beacon for a whole generation.

But the growth of his
popularity sparked fear.

After four years,

the government closed the monastery

and forcibly disbanded

the four hundred young monastics.

His students found refuge in Thailand,

and Thich Nhat Hanh’s influence
in Asia continued to grow.

He was invited to address
crowds of over ten thousand

in Hong Kong,

Korea

and Taiwan.

Despite making no
effort to seek renown,

and declining media interviews,

the Zen Master’s reputation
grew rapidly.

- We learned a lesson taught by

the Venerable

Thich Nhat Hanh,

who said:

“In true dialogue,
both sides are willing to change

in this way the very war
that had divided us

became a source
for healing.”

He was invited to teach
at global parliaments,

the Vatican,

the World Bank headquarters,

Google

and to groups of
international CEOs.

His model for mindfulness in education

is now being practiced
all over the world.

The United Nations chose
his code of global ethics,

the Five Mindfulness Trainings,

as the foundation for a non-sectarian
ethical path for humanity.

- The way out is in

- to go back to oneself

and take care

of oneself

learning how to generate
a feeling of joy,

learning how to generate
a feeling of happiness

learning how to handle
a painful feeling,

a painful emotion

listening to the suffering,

allows

understanding and compassion
to be born and we suffer less.

In his 89th year,

Thich Nhat Hanh
suffered a major stroke.

Undaunted,

his spirit undiminished
by physical adversity,

he did not give up on life

or his vision for the future.

He chose to use the
last chapter of his life

to return

to Tu Hieu Temple in Vietnam

and connect his global following

with their roots.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s legacy

can be seen in the hearts of the
millions of people he has touched

through his retreats,

his books

and his talks,

people who have learned
to transform their anger,

fear

and despair.

- It’s my conviction that we
cannot change the world

if we are not capable of changing
our way of thinking,

our consciousness.

That is why awakening,
collective awakening,

collective change in our way of thinking,

our way of seeing things
is very crucial.

And all of us can help promote that.

our task is to come together
and produce...

try to produce that kind of
collective awakening

He has shown that by forming
“communities of resistance”

we can live more simply
and happily,

counteracting consumerism
and individualism.

And that it is possible

to make the 21st Century

a century of community

and solidarity,

of brotherhood

and sisterhood.

- And there are many ways in order to
bring about that kind of

collective awakening and change.

And that is why to learn

to change our way of daily life,

so that there is more mindfulness,
more peace, more love is a

very urgent thing.

And we can do that beginning

now, today.

- When you

wake up

and you see that

the earth is not

just the environment,

the earth is in you,
you are the Earth,

you touch the nature of interbeing.

At that moment you can have
real communication with the Earth.

We know that many civilisations
in the past have vanished,

and this civilization of ours can vanish also.

We need a real awakening,

a real enlightenment.

We have to change our way of thinking

and seeing things

and this is possible.

And

our century should be a
century of

spirituality,

whether we can survive or not,

depends on it