Thich Nu Thuan Tue, Dieu Nhan Zen Convent, Rescue, California
“When I grew up, I found that everything in life is temporary. When I saw a flower, I thought it was very beautiful at that moment, but some days later it faded away. I realized we could not keep anything in our hands, like the water flowing through our fingers. And looking around, when I saw my friends with their loves, I found it faded away very fast. Going to a party, it was very bright and beautiful, but at the end it usually was a mess. I still remember that emotion, it was rather hard to endure. So I contemplated about this, and deep down I was looking for something permanent. I loved calmness and quietness. So when I met my Masters, I found something in their tranquility and peace. I decided I wanted to know that path. I found that only the happiness inside, the inner peace, can last. If somebody else brings you happiness, then that person can also take it away.”
“If I don’t practice, then I live in the realm of the thinking mind. And I found that with the thinking mind, many things are created, including hatred, jealousy, and the defilements. That is what I have observed in myself. But if I can live just in the present moment, then everything is fresh and full of compassion and peace. Sometimes I am rather lazy to practice and indulge myself, but then I don’t feel good inside. In this state it is easy to hate or dislike people, even if they don’t do anything really bad to you. But if I live with my fresh mind, the compassion is there.”
“A monastery is a small society. In a family, people just live with their spouse, their children and maybe some relatives. But here in the monastery we have about ten nuns, and in my monastery in Vietnam, there were about 170 nuns living together. We come from different places, backgrounds, we have different education, and so on. We live under the same roof, we share the same life, and I think it is a chance for us to practice living in harmony. We share one thing, which is the love for the truth, the devotedness to the practice. This means we can let go of almost all conflicts coming from our differences. If you practice, living a monastic life will bring you happiness, but if you don’t practice, it can be very difficult, because you have to live with people from different places and backgrounds. Living together, there will always be differences of opinion. But if we remember to practice, we can compromise. We let go.”
“We need to learn how to befriend bad habits, how to just observe the habits in the other person and in ourselves, instead of fighting them. The more I am fighting with the habit in myself and in the other person, the worse the situation gets. The burden of habit is only melting in this present moment. If you are still thinking of the past, you still feel the burden of the past. If you practice, you will naturally live with this present moment, this present breathing, this present hearing, seeing. Usually, I just relax myself and let everything go through me, like an empty box with an open bottom. I just stay open and relaxed. If someone speaks a harsh word to me, it just goes through me. I like to practice like that, because there is no fighting anymore.”
“I believe in the energy of compassion, I believe in the energy of the true mind, and I believe that all the negative things happening in the world can only be solved with the true mind and a true heart. I believe in the formless energy more than in the formed solution. I think there are two parts, one is to help the environment, the poor and so on, that is formed action, and the other part is the energy through meditation, the silent moments together, and so on. In fact, these two parts are of one essence, but people just talk about the formed benefit, and they don’t know that there is a larger, stronger magnetic realm from this energy. People can maintain their activities with a strong heart, with their compassion, and this compassion is the energy that pushes everything forward. The practice brings forth everything, but people just see the fruit, the flower. If people practice well, they will do everything they can to offer help to the world. And if they are not peaceful, they will destroy the world without knowing. Not on purpose, but they are destroying the world. They are destroying their family, their relationships and so on. Without practice, people cannot find true peace within themselves.”