Anxious? Rushed? Reaching for Your Phone? Four Buddhist Phrases To Bring You Back | Brother Phap Dung and Kaira Jewel Lingo

Why tensing against pain makes it worse, the difference between acceptance and passivity, and how to plan for the future while staying present—from two of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s senior students.

Brother Thích Chân Pháp Dung is a Vietnamese American Buddhist monk ordained in 1998 and a Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village tradition, founded by Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh. He currently practices and teaches at Deer Park Monastery in California and is the founder of the Thích Nhất Hạnh School of Interbeing.

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a senior Dharma teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village Zen lineage who also teaches Vipassana in the Insight tradition. After 15 years as an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, she now teaches internationally, integrating mindfulness with creative expression, social and racial justice, and care for the Earth. She is the author of We Were Made for These Times and co-author of Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation. You can also read Kaira Jewel’s essays on Substack.

In this episode we talk about:

* Why we need to hear the same teachings over and over

* What it means to be alive while you’re alive

* The hidden gifts of turning toward difficulty

* How to plan for the future without leaving the present

* The one sentence legendary teacher Thich Nhat Hanh said summed up all his teachings

* Where our true home really is

* How to accept things without becoming a doormat

* The difference between surrender and giving up