Zen is Eating

Play

January 13, 2011. 75-minute Dharma Talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh, from Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France. The recording begins with about 10-minutes of chanting.

Eating meditation. Delicious and healthy. Our sitting meditation should be the same. Healthy. Relaxed. Follow your breath to harmonize your body and mind. Sitting meditation is also a type of consumption. It should be the same for everything. Walking. Eating. Working. Resting. It is an art.

Zen is also eating. The meal is a moment of practice. And there is a collective awakening when you practice together with others. Each of us are a drop contributing to the river.

Every step is your joy. This is it. Thay talks about what his calligraphy called “This is It” means.

The continued sutra commentary begins at 48-minutes into the talk. The verses 17-20 19 Feelings. Perception. Suffering. Mental formations. Nirvana.

The talk was given in Vietnamese with English translation and is available below (French and original Vietnamese audio are also available, as well as video version).

By Chan Niem Hy

Dharma Teacher.

5 comments

  1. Hello there – Many thanks for adding this talk, I’m very grateful as have been unable to get talks from Lang Mai since just before this date, I always check your site as well because I find your notes very helpful thankyou. There seems to be a fair amount of confusion around the various websites at present, some of which I think may have been due to the technical problems at Plum Village for the past couple of weeks, since someone accidentally cut a phone line, causing difficulties for those who listen to the streaming audio and video. However, there is also the question of what is happening to the Lang Mai website and is there some problem with the Deer Park Dharmacast website? I have been trying to follow the Deer Park meditation class, though not on the same timescale, but have been unable to find the talks there for the past couple of weeks. Also, Lang Mai is missing at present, which is where a lot of us usually download the audio talks from. Am wondering if you are able to give any info on these situations, as I have been unable to find any official explanation anywhere, though plenty of conjecture. It would be helpful to know if these are all just technical problems, or is there any other reason for Lang Mai in particular, disappearing. The Online Monastery team have just put up a comment re the situation with live streaming, but maybe a lot of people are also concerned about Lang Mai for obvious reasons. Many thanks for all your efforts in providing tnh.org and I think maybe you also provide the Dharmacast for us, its much appreciated. Trish UK

  2. Dear Trish,
    Thank you for the kind words and support. The Lang Mai site is being transformed and should return soon. Due to continue hacking, we are moving it to a new platform and server. This requires recreating the content, which takes time. As for the Deer Park Dharmacast, it is still available at http://deerpark.libsyn.com/ – if the talks haven’t been posted, it’s probably because the volunteers doing the work have gotten behind.

    I hope this helps.

  3. Hello there, many thanks for explaining – and I was surprised last nite to find Lang Mai is back again, wasn’t expecting it back just yet in view of what had to be done – its brilliant to have the audio of Thay’s talks again in real time. I’ve been enjoying Lang Mai website for a few years now, even though I don’t speak Vietnamese, have found many treasures on it, including the bit where you can download the chanting. Trish

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.