Introduction to Namo Avalokiteshvara | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

We shall begin today with chanting.

And everyone is invited to participate

in the practice of listening.

The monastics are going to chant

the name of Avalokiteshvara.

The name of a person

who knows how to listen

to the suffering

within himself

and the suffering in the world.

This is a very deep practice.

If you know how to go back to yourself

and listen to the suffering inside

you can get enlightenment.

Understanding and compassion will arise
from that kind of practice.

You understand your suffering.

You understand the suffering
of your father, your mother.

Your ancestors.

You understand the suffering of your people, your country.

You understand the suffering

of the Earth.

Of our society.

And understanding like that will help

love and compassion to arise.

And when compassion arises,
you suffer less right away.

There is a transformation and healing taking place

when compassion is born in your heart.

Now you can look at the other person
with compassion.

You don't suffer anymore
when you look at him or her.

Because you can see the suffering in that person.

You don't blame.

You are not angry at him or her anymore.

Because in your heart there is already compassion.

So instead or trying to punish him

you have the intention to do something

or to say something
to help the other person to suffer less.

You can listen to that person

with compassion.

You can say things that can help him suffer less.

That can make her suffer less.

You can do many wonderful things like that.

Just because you are able
to understand your own suffering.

Understanding your own suffering

you can understand the suffering of the other person

much more easily.

So Avalokita

is the kind of bodhisattva

that is specialized in listening.

First, he goes back to himself

and listens to the suffering inside of him.

When listening to the suffering inside

he can understand the suffering of his parents,

his ancestors,

and at the same time he can understand

the suffering of other people in society.

This is a very important practice

because many of us
do not want to listen to our own suffering.

That is why you do not have a chance.

So today's chanting is to chant
and to touch the suffering inside

so that you can allow compassion to arise

so that you can understand the suffering of the world,

of your parents, of your ancestors.

When the monastics chant the name Avalokitesvara for the first time,

they go back to themselves

and try to touch the suffering inside of them.

And when they sing and
chant the name for the second time

they become aware of the suffering
of the people around them.

And when they sing and chant it for the third time,

they get in touch with the suffering in the world.

There are many spots in the world

where people suffer very deeply.

Not only because of war, because of separation

of natural catastrophes.

They suffer also for social injustice or suppression

because of violence and so on.

They suffer from difficult relationships and so on.

The practice of listening to the suffering

is to give a chance for compassion to arise.

When compassion arises,
you feel better, you suffer less.

It can happen very quickly.

That is the practice of mindfulness of suffering.

You are mindful of your own suffering.

You are mindful of the suffering of the other person.

You are mindful of the suffering of the world.

Mindfulness of suffering will bring
compassion and understanding.

So when we sit and listen,

we can do very much the same.
We don't have to chant aloud.

We follow our in-breath and out-breath,

and we go back to ourselves.
We are not afraid

of being in touch with the suffering inside.

We allow ourselves to embrace our own suffering.

Oh, my dear pain, my dear suffering,
my dear sorrow.

I know you are there.

I'm not running away from you anymore.

I'm back to recognize you and to embrace you

like to embrace a baby.

That is what we practice.

We go home

and allow ourselves

to be embraced, allow our suffering
to be embraced by ourselves.

We take care of ourselves.

And then when we hear the chanting
for the second time,

we are aware that
the people around us they have suffering also.

So we have sympathy.

We can communicate with them.

And then,

when we hear the chanting for the third time

we know that in the world people suffer very much.

And we want

to be in communication with them.

We want to be something or to do something

in order to help the world to suffer less.

The practice is to allow ourselves to be here.

Not to be

taken away

pulled away

by our thinking.

Because if we sit there thinking,

our thinking will bring us elsewhere.

That is why it is very important
to stop the thinking.

Just to focus our attention on the chanting.

And you are with the chanting.

You are breathing in, breathing out

and you stay with the chanting.

So there is only the breathing in,
breathing out and the chanting.

And our mind can stop thinking.

We just feel the energy.

The collective energy of the sangha.
The energy of mindfulness,

the energy of compassion generated by the chanting.

And we allow our body to be relaxed.

To be open,
so that the collective energy of the sangha

can penetrate into our body.
This is very important.

Not to think. Just to feel.

Open our body and allow

the energy of mindfulness and compassion
to penetrate into our body,

And we can do that.

And if we can do that, then a few minutes later

there will be a change.

Our tension, the tension in our body

the pain in our body will go away.

Because we allow our body and our mind

to be embraced by the collective energy

of mindfulness, of compassion,

generated by the chanting.

Chanting is not exactly to pray, no.

Chanting is to touch the suffering

to allow compassion and understanding to arise.

And when we do that together,

the collective energy of compassion
and mindfulness will be great.

If we sit there and allow ourselves
to be embraced by that energy,

we will suffer less in a few minutes.

There is tension and pain in our body.

If we allow our body to be embraced
by the energy of mindfulness and compassion

we can release the tension and reduce the pain
very easily in just a few minutes.

And we will feel much better
after a few minutes of listening.

Listening, feeling and not thinking.

If we have some pain and some sorrow
or anger or fear in our heart

try to open our heart

so that the energy of the sangha
can penetrate into our heart.

Don't keep it for yourself.

Open

and allow the energy of the sangha to penetrate

and to help embrace the pain and the sorrow,
the fear, anger in you.

Dear sangha, I'm here.

I have pain, suffering, fear

despair in me.

Please, help embrace

these blocks of pain in me.

I entrust myself to the sangha.

So if you can open your heart

and allow the energy of the sangha to penetrate

and embrace your pain and your sorrow,

you will feel better after a few minutes of listening.

This is the problem of energy.

The energy of suffering, of fear, of anger,

is been embraced
by the energy of mindfulness and compassion

and transmission can happen.

If you allow

your suffering, your fear, your anger
to be embraced by the sangha.

Transformation and healing is possible

during the time of the practice.

And if we have someone very close to us

back home who could not come to the retreat,

and that person suffers deeply,

we can very well send this energy to him or to her
right here and right now.

We just think of that person.

Or call his or her name silently in your mind.

And then this energy generated by the practice

will be channelled to that person right this morning.

And at home that person may feel better.

Avalokitesvara is a person

who knows how to listen
to the suffering inside and outside.

And he got transformation and healing

because of that practice.

So we are going to practice like him,

the bodhisattva of deep listening.

The bodhisattva of compassionate listening.

And we feel that the bodhisattva in us
is not outside of us,

it is in us. He is in us.

Because we too we have
the capacity to listen to our own suffering

and the suffering of the world.

Let us sit

relaxedly

and practice listening to the chanting.

Namo'valokiteshvaraya

Namo'valokiteshvaraya

Namo'valokiteshvaraya

Namo'valokiteshvaraya

Namo'valokiteshvaraya

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