Four Attainments of Plum Village

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January 16, 2011. 112-minute Dharma Talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh, from Full Moon Meditation Hall, New Hamlet, Plum Village, France. The recording begins with about 10-minutes of chanting.

Editor’s Note: We are a few dharma talks behind due to one of the Plum Village servers being down for 10-days. The server has been repaired and we’re back on track again. I’ll try to listen to the talks this week and post.

If you practice correctly, you will see results right away. According to the Buddha, there are many fruits of the practice. Results.

The first is “Entering Into the Stream” – the first step of your practice. Only you can judge if you are here. It’s like getting onto the train. Do you have one foot in, and one foot out or are you on the train and in your seat? Or, are you “moving in the direction of the stream” – on the way to the train station. If you arrive, you know you have arrived. The second is two more coming back and third is one more coming back. The fourth is “The Fruit of No Return” – no coming back. You do not go back to the the life of agitation; for a monastic aspirant it is someone who has let go of everything. The fifth is “Extinction of all the Suffering” – arhat. That person is totally free.

In Plum Village we have fruits of the practice, but they are rooted in the traditional teaching. You have arrived, you are home. You are relaxed, you are peaceful. You can arrive in any moment. As soon as you move in that direction, you are happy. The degree of your practice, is the degree of your happiness. How wonderful to be alive! So many conditions of happiness.

The Four Attainments of Plum Village:

1. “I have arrived, I am home” or “froglessness”
2. “Dwelling happily”
3. “Interbeing”
4. “No-birth, no-death”

Thay invites the brothers up to chant The Four Recollections. (1:08)

We continue the sutra (1:15) we have been studying on the safest place. It’s about nirvana. Nirvana is a place when you arrive to a place of no affliction. A place of no birth and no death. No coming and no going. In this talk, we learn verses 20-23.

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).