The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

The Buddha’s teachings always contain the Three Dharma Seals: Impermanence, Nonself, and Nirvana. The Buddha taught that everything is impermanent. Thích explains that people’s suffering does not originate from this impermanence, but from their desire for things to be permanent when they are not. While people often react negatively to impermanence, it has value, since it makes us appreciate things and people while they are with us. When people live mindfully, they will not have regrets when conditions change. Impermanence can also produce positive changes, such as political regimes falling, or suffering turning into happiness.

The second Dharma Seal is Buddha’s teaching on nonself. Thích provides the example of a favorite treat, peanut butter cookies, explaining that while they appear to be individuals on the plate, they are really the same dough. Similarly, people become obsessed with their individuality using “discriminative perception” (133) to separate themselves from others. Thích claims that nonself is not a doctrine, but an insight which people can use to suffer less and appreciate life more.

The third and final Dharma Seal is Nirvana, which Thích describes as “the ground of being, the substance of all that is” (135). He explains that the Buddha compared his teachings to a “raft” to help people cross over to the other “shore,” or Nirvana. Clinging to the teachings of the Buddha is to lose Dharma itself. Thích urges people to accept and live out all of these interrelated insights. He believes that studying endlessly is of no value if the teachings are not put into practice. He tells the reader that something cannot come from nothing, as everything originated in some other previous form, including people. This is the meaning of no birth and no death. By removing ignorant concepts of self, birth, and death, people can recognize the reality of how their happiness is tied up with the happiness of others, thereby reducing their suffering.

Thích reiterates that teachings must include the Three Dharma Seals to be considered Buddhist. Including more or fewer teachings is not authentically from the Buddha. The Two Relevances—Relevance to the Essence, and Relevance to the Circumstance—instruct people to make the Buddha’s lessons relevant to their lives, and to share it with others in a relevant and accessible way. Another guide to these teachings is The Four Standards of Truth. The first is “the worldly,” followed by “the person,” “healing,” and “the absolute” (143).

Another tool some Buddhists use to fully understand the Buddha is the Four Reliances, which were created by teachers after the Buddha’s death. The First Reliance is to rely on the message and not the person teaching it. The Second is to prioritize the Buddha’s teachings on Absolute Truth. The third is to rely on the meanings and not the exact words. The final reliance is to rely on insight more than differentiation or discrimination. Since these are not ascribed to the Buddha, Thích does not endorse all of these Reliances. He points the reader to the previous guides to the Buddha’s teachings instead.

Buddhists believe in the Three Doors of Liberation, which are also known as the Three Concentrations. The First Door of Liberation is emptiness, which encourages people to realize that they are “empty of a separate, independent self” (146). Thích clarifies that this emptiness does not mean non-existence, but instead emphasizes interdependence and interbeing, and is the “Middle Way” between existence and non-existence. This realization helps people consider how they affect, and are affected by, other people’s happiness or suffering.

The Second Door of Liberation is Signlessness. Thích explains that “sign” means an appearance. He gives the example of water, which can take many forms: Snow, ice, rain, and clouds. While their different appearances, or signs, might be useful to us, they are not the “absolute truth” of what water is (147). By overcoming their fixation on signs, people can glimpse reality, and nirvana.

The author offers the analogy of a gardener who perceives the rotten matter in compost as a means of creating new fruits and vegetables, recognizing their interbeing. Enlightened people apply this lens to all of life. By seeing beyond signs, people can also free themselves from feelings of blame and fear. Moreover, it allows people to see all of life as valuable: Rather than exploiting animals and nature mercilessly, people learn to interact respectfully with other beings.

The Third Door of Liberation is aimlessness. Rather than struggling to attain something or become someone else, this teaching instructs people to simply be themselves. The author laments that striving is baked into modern culture, and encourages people to practice aimlessness for five minutes. Even enlightenment does not have to be attained, as meditating is a practice to realize the enlightenment already present in each person.

Experiencing aimlessness can free people of the crippling anxiety that is so ubiquitous in the modern world. Thích teaches that anxiety does not help solve anything, it simply weakens people’s bodies and minds and their ability to help make things better. Rather than waiting to be happy, Thích urges people to experience the happiness already present in this moment.

Thích identifies the Three Bodies of the Buddha: “Dharmakaya, the source of enlightenment and happiness; Sambhogakaya, the body of bliss or enjoyment; and Nirmanakaya, the historical embodiment of the Buddha” (156). The Dharmakaya refers to the teaching body of the Buddha, which Thích describes as “the way to realize understanding and love” (156). It can be expressed in actions and words, as well as simply being. Anything which promotes enlightenment, including plants and animals, are a part of Dharmakaya.

The Sambhogakaya, or the body of bliss, is the peace and enjoyment of living out the Buddhist practice. By being peaceful and happy, people can radiate their enjoyment of life to others. The author encourages the reader to discover their own “body of bliss” by releasing their anger and sadness through walking meditations (159). The last body of the Buddha is his historical embodiment, known as Nirmanakaya. Through their practice people can encourage the “seeds of enlightenment” within themselves to blossom, leading to personal transformation.

The Three Jewels of Buddhism are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Buddhists’ faith in these jewels is not a matter of mere conformity, but rather based on personal experience. Thích clarifies that these “Jewels” are not mere concepts to be memorized, but must be a part of people’s lives and daily actions. By being mindful, people engage the Buddha within. By breathing consciously, they engage the Dharma. By participating in a community which supports their practice, they engage in the Sangha. True Sanghas should be mutually supportive, mindful, and joyful.

By using Buddhist practices, people open up access to the three “jewels” within themselves. As with all other aspects of Buddhism, the Three Jewels are intertwined. The author concludes his passage with a recitation of the Three Refuges, which acknowledges the importance of the Three Jewels.

The Four Immeasurable Minds refer to love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Practicing these brings happiness and inner peace, which people can spread to others.

Thích echoes the Buddha’s teaching on how people of different backgrounds can realize enlightenment. Embracing happiness is essential in the process, so Thích recommends adopting whichever Buddhist practices feel right and bring joy. Interestingly, the Buddha did not encourage people to shed their original religions or spiritualities, and neither does Thích. Instead, people should retain their connection to their roots, as this tends to foster happiness.

Learning to love means practicing a deep understanding of what others need. Even good intentions can be hurtful without proper understanding. By nurturing their understanding, people automatically become more loving. The second aspect of love is compassion, which people can develop through deep looking, deep listening, and mindful breathing. Compassion means caring about others’ suffering and helping to alleviate it without becoming overwhelmed by it.

The third element of love is joy, since love brings people joy. In Buddhist thought, happiness is a psychological and physical experience, while joy is limited to the mind. The fourth element of love is equanimity, or letting go. This means loving others in a way that does not discriminate, limit, or control them. True love includes all four of these elements, and people must consider how they can include all of them in their own lives.

Buddhists believe that people consist of five aggregates: “[F]orm, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness” (176). Form, the first Aggregate, refers to one’s physical body. To nurture the body, Thích recommends a mindfulness meditation in which people focus on each part of their body one by one, from their head to their feet. The author compares the body to a river, as it is always flowing and changing. Cells are continually in a cycle of living and dying. Seeing their bodies this way, people can lose their attachment to it and their “self” and recognize it as an impermanent form.

The second Aggregate is feelings. Feelings continually change, and meditation helps people become aware of what their feelings really are. By taking care of their feelings, people can understand their roots as either physical or psychological, and whether they are “wholesome” or “unwholesome” (177). By recognizing feelings as impermanent formations, people can overcome their intense attachment to them.

Perceptions are the third Aggregate. Like feelings, perceptions come and go, and are not always accurate. Thích blames “afflictions” such as hatred, ignorance, jealousy, and habit energies for producing wrong perceptions, leading to wrong thoughts and actions (178). Correcting one’s perceptions is critical: As Thích writes, “All suffering is born from wrong perceptions” (179). Perceptions must be replaced with real knowledge and vision.

The fourth Aggregate is 49 mental formations, such as fear. By being aware of these formations, people stop trying to attach their identities to them or find comfort in them. Finally, the fifth Aggregate is consciousness, which Thích considers the foundation of everything, including one’s mental formations. Consciousness is informed by the individual as well as the collective, and people’s practices should try to transform both. By transforming suffering and other afflictions, people bring wisdom to their consciousness, liberating them and affecting society as well.

Thích explains that the aggregates inter-are, and encourages people to recognize the overlap between them. The Five Aggregates are not the cause of suffering, rather it is people’s poor relationship with them that makes them suffer. Seeing the Five Aggregates for what they are helps people overcome the “false view” that they have a self which is an “unchanging entity” (183).

The author reminisces about his happy early childhood in Vietnam with his brothers and sisters. When they became teens they began to worry more about their livelihoods and the conflict consuming their country, feeling that the “paradise” of their childhood was lost. Thích believes that, actually, everyone can access paradise now by practicing the five faculties and Five Powers. Thích explains that the five powers are “faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and insight” (184). He likens the faculties to factories which produce energy, and the powers as that energy in action.

The first power, faith, will stay strong when based on real insight. The second, diligence, is produced by faith. It is the energy that helps people continue their practice and brings them joy. The third power, mindfulness, powers people’s presentness and insights. The fourth power, concentration, should be developed through every action in daily life. By concentrating, people will gain real insights, which is the fifth power. By perceiving reality properly, people can abandon false impressions, strengthening their faith.

Thích believes that people’s “store consciousness,” or subconscious foundation, has the “seeds” of all experiences and feelings. He encourages the reader to practice the five powers in order to nurture their positive “seeds” while allowing their negative ones to stay inactive. The Buddha could not hate anyone, because he recognized that everyone has the seed of Buddhahood, or awakening, in them.

Thích asks the reader to not struggle for a new life or identity but to realize their own potential for Buddhahood which is already present. Rather than feeling inferior, which Thích believes is a kind of misplaced pride, he asks the reader to respect their own capacity for enlightenment.

Mahayana Buddhism teaches the six Paramitas, or perfect realizations. To transform anger and sadness into well-being, people must engage in a practice, and these are the paramitas. The Buddha taught that feeling safe and well takes effort, and the paramitas were developed with this in mind. They are giving, mindfulness training, inclusiveness, diligence, meditation, and understanding.

The first paramita asks practitioners to give freely, offering their happiness, stability, freedom, peace, and understanding to others. Thích emphasizes the importance of giving, especially to those we do not like or feel angry towards. He believes that extending loving generosity to everyone helps people feel better and brings them closer to well-being.

The second of the Paramitas, mindfulness training, is another form of love and giving to oneself and society. Thích considers these trainings as “the correct medicine for the malaise of our times” (197).

Inclusiveness, the third paramitas, means extending forgiveness and understanding to everyone. By having a huge heart, people can acknowledge and embrace pain without becoming embittered by it. Thích clarifies that this practice is not about repressing pain, but simply about having so much understanding that the pain does not affect us. He tells an anecdote about a monk named Shariputra, who was falsely accused of assault by another monk. He proclaimed his innocence to the Buddha, and when his fellow monk admitted his lie, Shariputra forgave him. This level of understanding helps people suffer less and change others’ hearts more.

The author gives an example from his personal experience. As a young man caught in the middle of Vietnam’s civil war, he established a non-profit with the help of another monk, Nhât Tri. One day Nhât Tri came home upset, telling Thích that an American soldier had spit on him. Thích comforted him, reminding him that the Americans were conditioned to view the Vietnamese monks as their enemy and that the American soldiers were victims as well.

After Nhât Tri was kidnapped and murdered for his role in their non-profit, Thích was challenged to understand and forgive this atrocity instead of burning with hatred and anger. He hopes that people of other war-torn nations can learn to do the same, lamenting that the search for vengeance poisons everyone. Thích points to the Buddha’s teachings on the Four Immeasurable Minds to develop a huge heart.

The fourth of the paramitas is diligence, or continuous practice. By becoming aware of the more negative seeds in one’s “store consciousness,” people can avoid nurturing them and consciously nurture their positive traits instead. Thích recommends asking for help from loved ones to develop wholesome qualities and diminish unwholesome ones. Buddha recommended the strategy of “changing the peg,” or intentionally replacing a negative arising mental formation with a positive one.

The fifth of the paramitas is the perfection of meditation. By stopping and looking deeply, people will tune into the present moment instead of being trapped in the past or an imagined future. Living with mindfulness every day is the greatest meditation.

The sixth of the paramitas is true understanding unhindered by concepts and perceptions. By looking deeply into one’s own feelings as well as everyday reality, people can realize the “suchness of reality” (211). This understanding makes all of the other paramitas possible.

Thích reminds the reader that each of the paramitas contains the other five. By seeing themselves and the present moment as a gift, people can immediately use the paramitas to enjoy happiness and well-being.

The Seven Factors of Awakening are Buddha’s teachings which describe awakening, or enlightenment, as well as the path towards it. The first factor is mindfulness, which always happens in a certain context. Practicing mindfulness makes it easier to arise again, creating the conditions for awakening.

The second factor is investigating phenomena. Rather than investigating in a biased way, people must simply ask questions with an open mind, allowing reality to reveal itself. For instance, considering the life of a single bud brings people to observe its blossoming, wilting, and decaying back into the soil, revealing its interbeing with the whole earth itself.

The third factor is energy, which Buddhists gain from mindfulness, faith, and investigation. Thích believes that having meaning in one’s life naturally gives people energy, and laments how many young people are lacking in meaning and therefore energy, sometimes dying by suicide for this reason.

The fourth factor of awakening is ease. People can feel at ease by consciously letting go of stress and practicing resting, whether they are ill or not. Walking slowly, sitting, and doing nothing are opportunities for deep, intentional rest. The following factor is joy, which can be fostered even through simply thinking about good things.

The sixth factor is concentration, making the mind “one-pointed” and directing one’s energy at a certain object. Concentration on a negative goal only worsens things, so people must learn to concentrate on constructive, positive things.

The seventh and final factor of awakening is equanimity, which Thích also calls “letting go.” By overcoming one’s emotional reactions, people will let go of the false notion of themselves and recognize their interconnectedness.

Thích mentions how the Buddha challenged his followers to never feel hatred or anger, even against people who greatly wrong them. Thích summarizes the seven factors as being a way to practice love.

Thích calls the Buddha’s teaching on Interdependent Co-Arising the “genesis” of Buddhist thought. Rather than interpret reality as a series of linear causes and effects, the Buddha recognized all in the one and the one in the all.

Thích gives several examples of interdependent co-arising. The first is a chicken and an egg; neither one can exist without the other. The next is a table, which required so many conditions to come about, such as a tree and all its history and functions, and the presence of a carpenter and all of his or her needs and activities. Looking at the table, people can recognize the sunshine, wood, leaves, carpenter’s skill, and much more. Thích concludes, “Cause and effect inter-are” (221).

After Buddha’s death, Buddhists created a further analysis of this teaching, believing that different kinds of conditions create reality. There are six cause conditions: Creative force, concurrent condition, same seed condition, associated condition, universal condition, and ripening condition.

The second condition type is the condition of development, which either helps or hinders the development of certain “seeds.” For instance, Buddha’s attempts at asceticism did not help him develop his seed of Buddhahood. The third condition type is the condition of continuity, which means continuing one’s Buddhist practices until they become stronger and continue naturally.

Next, there is the “object as condition.” The Buddha taught that all things are objects of the mind, and when people have feelings, they are always directed at something. Perceiving these objects means bringing them into our consciousness.

Thích states that any teaching which violates Interdependent Co-Arising cannot be a teaching from the Buddha, who always emphasized how everything is connected to everything else. He asked, “How could we live if we were not nourished by multiple causes and conditions?” (225).

The author acknowledges the additional teaching of The Twelve Links, which are “ignorance, formations, consciousness, mind/body, six senses and sense objects, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, being, birth and old age, and death” (229). Since these are teachings which have been added to the Buddhist canon long after the Buddha’s death, and are not based on his original teachings, Thích does not find them useful. He believes that the links present formations and consciousness in a linear way, undermining the Buddha’s teachings on interdependent co-arising, and he dismisses this teaching as necessary. He laments that the 12 links have been inserted into so many Buddhist teachings, making it more difficult for people to understand the Buddha’s meaning.

Instead, Thích proposes that there are 10 links of Interdependent Co-Arising, and that people must recognize that they create and inform themselves and each other. His 10 links are: “(1) Ignorance (2) Formations (3) Consciousness (4) Mind/body (5) Pleasant and painful feelings (6) Craving and aversion (7) Grasping and rejecting (8) Being and nonbeing (9) Birth and death (10) Samsara” (235).

The way to plan and do good work is to first develop the eight consciousnesses, which can be transformed into the four wisdoms. This, in turn, can create The Great Mirror Wisdom, which “reflects” all of true reality. Using one’s senses with intelligence and skill can foster the Wisdom of Wonderful Realization, the Wonderful Observation Wisdom, and finally, the Wisdom of Equality.

Thích discusses the issues presented in his 10 links. He acknowledges the false duality of mind and body, urging people to see them as one rather than a duality. By acknowledging both, people can have a mindful body and an embodied mind. People must use their feelings as motivation for good action, for instance, seeing someone suffer and feeling sadness should propel people to help them. Feelings are natural, and mindful people acknowledge them and use them for good without suppressing them. By protecting their feelings, people experience energy, joy, and equanimity instead of more craving.

The author reiterates Buddha’s teaching on interdependence and continuation. He clarifies that rather than trying to avoid death or re-birth, Buddhists should accept all outcomes, as awakened understanding recognizes that there is no real birth or death, only continuation.

Thích reflects on the 10th link, which is samsara for the “deluded mind” and nirvana for the “true mind” (243). He rejects the notion of trying to avoid rebirth and experience nonbeing or nothingness, explaining that enlightened people hope to be reborn and continue their good work. He believes that people’s minds are their “basis of paradise” (244). If 1,000 angry hateful people live together, they will create hell. If they change their minds into loving, understanding ones, they can create a paradise.

Thích concludes his chapter by presenting a diagram with his 10 links all informing and creating each other rather than presented as a linear list. He reinforces the Buddha’s teaching that being is not responsible for suffering, it is people’s notions of being and nonbeing which confuse their understanding of reality and create suffering.

The author reflects on the inherent beauty of the world and the constant possibility of experiencing happiness through mindfulness. He considers how wise people react to suffering by asking for help and reflecting deeply on their own actions, while unwise people lash out at others to blame and punish.

Thích tells the reader that they can suffer, but as practitioners they cannot simply give up their practice. He urges them to abandon complaints and blame and consider their role in creating their experiences. He instructs the reader to follow the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path as actions, not theories, and to consider the Five Aggregates which make up the self.

This approach cannot be limited to homes, but must extend to schools, hospitals, city halls, corporations, and more. Thích knows that with intentional practice, people can “enter the heart of the Buddha” (251). He acknowledges the challenges of beginning practice with the burdens of personal and ancestral habit energies. He concludes his chapter by encouraging the reader to not simply think about the Buddha’s teachings, but to live them out every day.