The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching

By Thich Nhat Hanh

 

 

Part One: The Four Noble Truths

 

01. Entering the Heart of the Buddha

• Buddha was not a god.
• Suffering helps one grow.
• Suffering = Holy Truth

 

02. The First Dharma Talk

Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhamma Cakka Pavattana Sutta – Samyutta Nikaya V, 420)

Three points:

• The Middle Way (madhyama pratipad)
• The Four Noble Truths (chatvari arya satyani)
• Engagement in the world

 

03. The Four Noble Truths

• Suffering (dukkha)
• Origin of suffering (samudaya)
• Cessation of creating suffering (nirodha)
• Path to freedom from suffering (marga)

Figure 1: The Four Noble Truths

 

04. Understanding the Buddha’s Teachings

• Having an open mind and open heart for the dharma

Brief history of Buddhism

• Mahasanghika (majority)
• Sthaviravada (school of elders)
• Sarvastivada (school that proclaims everything is) -> Sarvastivada texts / Northern transmissions
• Vibhajyavada (school that discriminates)
• Tamrashatiya (wearers of copper-colored robes) -> Theravada Pali Canon / Southern transmissions

Schools of Buddhism

• Source Buddhism
• Many-Schools Buddhism
• Mahayana Buddhism

Understanding Buddhist teachings

• All teachings are one, like a “necklace of precious jewels.”
• Teachings are only a guide, like a “finger pointing to the moon.”

 

05. Is Everything Suffering?

Three Kinds of Suffering (NOT a teaching of the Buddha)

• The suffering of suffering (dukkha dukkhata)
• The suffering of composite things (samskara dukkhata)
• The suffering of things associated with change (viparinama dukkhata)

List of afflictions (kleshas)

• Craving (raga)
• Anger (pratigha)
• Ignorance (avidya)
• Suspicion (vichikitsa)
• Arrogance (mana)
• Wrong views (drishti)

Dwelling happily in things as they are (drishta dharma sukha viharin)

 

06. Stopping, Calming, Resting, Healing

• Stopping (shamatha)
• Looking deeply (vipashyana)

Stopping (shamatha)

• Mindfulness vs. Forgetfulness
• Habit energies (vashana) are obstacles

Calming – five stages:

• Recognition
• Acceptance
• Embracing
• Looking deeply
• Insight

Resting -> Healing

 

07. Touching Our Suffering

Figure 2: The Twelve Turnings of the Wheel

Four Nutriments

• Edible food
• Sense impressions
• contact (sparsha) with sense objects (ayatanas)
• Intention
• Consciousness

First and Second Holy Truths

 

08. Realizing Well-Being

Third and Fourth Holy Truths

Interconnectedness of the Four Holy Truths

• Understanding things as they are (yatha bhuta jnana)
• Four Noble Truths are one

Renumbering:

• Well-Being (#3)
• Noble Eightfold Path that Leads to Well-Being (#4)
• Suffering (#1)
• Ignoble Eightfold Path that Leads to Suffering (#2)

 

 

Part Two: The Noble Eightfold Path

Arya ashtangika marga (a noble path of eight limbs)

• Right View (samyag drishti)
• Right Thinking (samyak samkalpa)
• Right Mindfulness (samyak smriti)
• Right Speech (samyag vac)
• Right Action (samyak karmanta)
• Right Diligence (samyak pradhana)
• Right Concentration (samyak samadhi)
• Right Livelihood (samyag ajiva)

 

09. Right View

• Right View (samyag drishti)
• Right view - ability to distinguish:
• Wholesome roots (kushala mula)
• Unwholesome roots (akushala mula)
• Base of our views - perceptions (samjna)
• Chinese = xiang3
• Object of our perception = our consciousness
• Non-conception  - go beyond ideas
• Chinese = wu2 nian4
• All views are wrong views
• Mother of All Buddhas (prajna paramita)
• Practice of Right Mindfulness (seeing the seed of Buddhahood everywhere)
• Figure 3: The Interbeing of the Eight Elements of the Path

 

10. Right Thinking

• Right Thinking (samyak samkalpa)
• Wrong thinking -> upside-down way (viparyasa)

Two parts of thinking:

• Initial thought (vitarka)
• Developing thought (vichara)

Four practices:

• “Are you sure?”
• “”What am I doing?”
• “Hello, habit energy (vashana).”
• “Bodhichitta” – mind of love

Other phrases:

• “Changing the peg”
• “Think non-thinking”

 

11. Right Mindfulness

• Right Mindfulness (samyak smriti)
• Chinese = nian4
• Buddhist psychology = super dharma (abhidharma)
• Trait attention (manaskara) is universal
• May be appropriate (yoniso) or inappropriate (ayoniso)

Seven Miracles of Mindfulness

• Be present
• Make others be present also
• Nourish the object of your attention
• Relieve the other’s suffering
• Looking deeply
• Understanding
• Transformation

Four Establishments of Mindfulness (smriti upasthana)

• Mindfulness of the body (kaya) in the body
• Note the body’s positions and movements
• Recognize all body parts
• See the four great elements (mahabhuta) of the body (earth, water, fire, air)
• Air - mindful breathing: in/out; counting
• Mindfulness of the feelings (vedana) in the feelings
• Mindfulness of mind (chitta) in the mind
• Mindfulness of phenomena (dharma) in phenomena
• Counting the breath
• Observing interdependent arising
• Observing impurity
• Observing with love and compassion
• Observing the different realms
• Six elements: earth, water, fire, air, space, consciousness
• Six realms: happiness (sukha), suffering (dukkha), joy (mudita), anxiety (domanassa), letting go (upeksha), ignorance (avidya)
• Six realms: craving (kama), freedom from craving (nekkhama), anger (vyapada), absence of anger (avyapada), harming (vihimsa), non-harming (avihimsa, ahimsa)
• Three realms: desire realm (karma dhatu), form realm (rupa dhatu), formless realm (arupa dhatu)
• Realm of the conditioned (samskrita)
• Realm of the unconditioned (asamskrita)

 

12. Right Speech

• Right Speech (samyag vac)

Explanation of right speech:

• Speaking truthfully
• Not speaking with a forked tongue
• Not speaking cruelly
• Not exaggerating or embellishing

Sources of right speech:

• Right thinking
• Right listening

 

13. Right Action

• Right Action (samyak karmanta)

Five Mindfulness Trainings (pancha shila)

• Reverence for life
• Generosity
• Sexual responsibility
• Right speech
• Responsible eating, drinking, consuming

 

14. Right Diligence

• Right Diligence (samyak pradhana)

Fourfold Right Diligence

• Preventing unwholesome store consciousness seeds from rising
• Helping sprouted unwholesome seeds to return to store consciousness
• Finding ways to water wholesome seeds in store consciousness
• Nourishing the sprouted wholesome seeds

 

15. Right Concentration

• Right Concentration (samyak samadhi)

Two forms of concentration:

• Active
• Selective

Nine levels of meditation (dhyana):

• Four Dhyanas – form realm
• 1. First dhyana (prathama dhyana)
• 2. Second dhyana (dvitiya dhyana)
• 3. Third dhyana (trtiya dhyana)
• 4. Fourth dhyana (caturtha dhyana)
• Four Dhyanas – formless realm
• 5. Limitless space
• 6. Limitless consciousness (manovijnana)
• 7. Nothingness (manas = mind)
• 8. Neither perception nor non-perception (alaya = store)
• 9. Cessation

Practicing samadhi (concentration / absorption):

• Realm of desires (karma dhatu) -> realm of forms (rupa dhatu) -> formless realm (arupa dhatu)

 

16. Right Livelihood

• Right Livelihood (samyag ajiva)
• Not needing to transgress the Five Mindfulness Trainings
• Practicing the Noble Eightfold Path

 

 

Part Three: Other Basic Buddhist Teachings

• The Two Truths
• The Three Dharma Seals
• The Three Doors of Liberation
• The Three Bodies of Buddha
• The Three Jewels
• The Four Immeasurable Minds
• The Five Aggregates
• The Five Powers
• The Six Paramitas
• The Seven Factors of Awakening
• The Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising
• Touching the Buddha Within

 

17. The Two Truths

• Relative, or worldly, truth (samvriti satya)
• Absolute truth (paramartha satya)
• Five Remembrances:
• Old Age
• Illness
• Death
• Impermanence and inseparation of all that is dear
• Actions are the only true belongings

 

18. The Three Dharma Seals

• Three Dharma Seals (dharma mudra)
• Impermanence (anitya)
• Non-self (anatman)
• Nirvana
• Eight Concepts
• Birth
• Death
• Permanence
• Dissolution
• Coming
• Going
• One
• Many
• Opposites
• Impermanence
• Non-self
• Interdependent co-arising
• The middle way
• Drishtadharma nirvana (nirvana in this very life)
• Four Dharma Seals
• Impermanence
• Non-self
• Nirvana
• Suffering
• Two Dharma Seals
• Suffering
• Nirvana
• One Dharma Seal
• The Seal of the True Mark
• Two Relevances
• Relevance to the Essence
• Relevance to the Circumstance
• Four Standards of Truth (siddhanta)
• The worldly
• The person
• Healing
• The absolute
• Four Reliances
• Rely on the teaching, not the person
• Rely on the absolute truth, not the relative truth
• Rely on the meaning, not the words
• Rely on the insight of looking deeply (jnana), not on differentiation and discrimination (vijnana)

 

19. The Three Doors of Liberation

• Emptiness (shunyata)
• Signlessness (animita)
• Aimlessness (apranihita)

Four signs

• Self
• Person
• Living being
• Lifespan

 

20. The Three Bodies of Buddha

Three Bodies (trikaya) of Buddha

• Dharmakaya (body of bliss / enjoyment)
• Nirmanakaya (historical embodiment)
• Sambhogakaya (transformation bodies)

 

21. The Three Jewels

Faith (shraddha) in the Three Jewels (triratna)

• Buddha (shows the way in this life)
• Dharma (the way of understanding and love)
• Sangha (community that lives in harmony and awareness)

 

22. The Four Immeasurable Minds

Four Immeasurable Minds (brahmaviharas)

• Love (maitri)
• Compassion (karuna)
• Joy (mudita)
• Equanamity (upeksha)

 

23. The Five Aggregates

Five aggregates (skandhas)

• Form (rupa)
• Feelings (vedana)
• Perceptions (samjna)
• Mental formations (samskara)
• Consciousness (vijnana)

 

24. The Five Powers

Five Faculties / Bases (indriyani) -> Five Powers (balani)

• Faith (shraddha)
• Energy (virya)
• Mindfulness (smriti)
• Concentration (samadhi)
• Insight (prajna)
• [Capacity / Inclusiveness (kshanti)]

Three Kinds of Pride

• Better than others
• Worse than others
• Just as good as others

Bodhisattva Never-Despising

• “I do not dare to underestimate you. You are a future Buddha.”
• Practicing joy
• Living in the present moment

Good time to start watering positive seeds in store consciousness when the following are dormant:

• Internal formations (samyojana)
• Suffering (dukkha)

 

25. The Six Paramitas

Meaning:

• Paramita: “perfection,” “perfect realization”
• Chinese = du4
• Figure 4: The Six Paramitas
• Giving (dana paramita)
• Mindfulness trainings (shila paramita)
• Inclusiveness (kshanti paramita)
• Diligence (virya paramita)
• Meditation (dhyana paramita)
• Understanding (prajna paramita)

 

Giving (dana paramita)

• Our true presence
• Our stability
• Our freedom
• Our freshness
• Peace
• Space
• Understanding

 

Mindfulness trainings (shila paramita)

• Five Mindfulness Trainings

 

Inclusiveness (kshanti paramita)

• Love (maitri)
• Compassion (karuna)
• Joy (mudita)
• Equanamity (upeksha)

 

Diligence (virya paramita)

Four practices (Fourfold Right Diligence):

• Refrain from watering the negative seeds in us
• Return already risen negative seeds to store consciousness
• Touch positive seeds in store consciousness -> manifest in mind consciousness
• Maintain the wholesome seed

Figure 5: Seeds of Mindfulness

 

Meditation (dhyana paramita)

Two aspects:

• Stopping (shamatha)
• Looking deeply (vipashyana)

 

Understanding (prajna paramita)

• Wave metaphor

 

26. The Seven Factors of Awakening

Seven Factors of Awakening / Seven Limbs of Enlightenment (sapta bodhyanga)

• Mindfulness (smriti)
• Investigation of phenomena (dharma-pravicharya)
• Energy, effort, diligence, perseverance (virya)
• Ease (prashabdhih)
• Joy (priti) – as opposed to happiness (sukha)
• Concentration (samadhi)
• Equanamity (upeksha)

 

27. The Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising

Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising (pratitya samutpada)

• Cause = en1
• Figures 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

 

Twenty-four conditions (paccaya)

 

Four kinds of conditions (pratyaya)

• Cause / seed / root condition (hetu-pratyaya)
• Condition for development (adhipati-pratyaya)
• Condition of continuity (samanantara-pratyaya)
• Object as condition (alambana-pratyaya)
• Motivating / creative force (karana-hetu)
• Concurrent condition (sahabhu-hetu)
• Seed condition of the same kind (sabhaga-hetu)
• Associated condition (samprayukta-hetu)
• Universal condition (sarvatraga-hetu)
• Ripening condition (vipaka-hetu)

 

28. Touching the Buddha Within

• Seeking meaning for our life
• Looking deeply in the Five Aggregates
• Finding places for practicing mindfulness and concentration
• Seeking world peace and universal compassion