The Art of Suffering Retreat – Question and Answer Session

August 29, 2013. 117-minute dharma talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh from Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York during the 2013 Nourishing Great Togetherness teaching tour. This is a session of questions and answers during the 6-day retreat with the theme Transformation and Healing – The Art of Suffering.

Children

1. Why do people get so angry sometimes and their hearts filled with anger?
2. Why do people have to suffer?
3. What do you have to do to have a calm mind?

Teens

1. If you could live your life again, would you choose the same path?
2. My sister (a monastic aspirant) has been staying with the monastics and it’s been hard for me. How do I practice non-attachment?
3. What made you decide to become a monk?
4. What is the hardest thing that you practice?
5. How have you detached from your strongest attachments in life?
6. Can we be fast and mindful, especially with sports?

Adults

1. A father who has suffered greatly from violence – his son died at Sandy Hook Elementary. What could have happened differently? What could we have done differently?
2. Another parent shares about the teen child who died from leukemia. Her question is whether or not she can ever truly be happy again.
3. If you were Obama’s spiritual advisor, what would you tell him? Referring to Syria.
4. UN disarmament negotiator. How can we approach young men who are recruited by groups like Al Qaeda that can offer so much?
5. How to practice joyfully with physical limitations?
6. How do I forgive myself because of trusting someone who sexually abused him as a child?
7. A question on depression and anxiety.

http://youtu.be/WcddKkjJG9g