In the Footsteps of the Buddha (3/6) | The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings (Episode #104)

If you want to support our podcast please visit this link. Thank you!

Welcome to a new episode of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives.

The third in a series of six episodes recorded during the In the Footsteps of the Buddha pilgrimage, this instalment was made in Rajgir, India, in February 2026. In it, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and leadership coach Jo Confino are again joined by Dharma teacher Shantum Seth to discuss the foundational initial teachings of the Buddha: the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, Non-Self, and the Fire Sermon.

Together, they also share personal experiences of encountering the Buddha’s teachings, practicing Thich Nhat Hanh’s wisdom in daily life, highlighting the transformative power of mindfulness, community, the realization of non-self, and more.

About the pilgrimage:

In 1988, Shantum Seth was invited by Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) to organize a pilgrimage to the sacred sites associated with the Buddha’s life across India. Subsequently, Thay encouraged Shantum to continue guiding such journeys each year, offering pilgrimage itself as a mindfulness practice—one that the Buddha had suggested.

Shantum has been leading these transformative journeys ever since, offering people from around the world the opportunity to follow In the Footsteps of the Buddha with awareness and insight. After 15 years at the United Nations, Shantum left to volunteer with the Ahimsa Trust, which represents Thay’s work in India and promotes the practice of “peace in oneself and peace in the world”.

Through Buddhapath, his expression of Right Livelihood, Shantum continues to guide pilgrimages and share the wisdom and culture of the places he visits in India and across Buddhist Asia, cultivating community through these deeply meaningful journeys.

To learn more about upcoming pilgrimages, visit www.buddhapath.com, or follow Shantum on Facebook and Instagram at @eleven_directions.

Shantum Seth, an ordained Dharmacharya (Dharma teacher) in the Buddhist Mindfulness lineage of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, teaches in India and across the world. A co-founder of Ahimsa Trust, he has been a student of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings for the past 35 years, and, since 1988, has led pilgrimages and other multi-faith, educational, cultural, spiritual, and transformative journeys across diverse regions of India and Asia.

He is actively involved in educational, social, and ecological programmes, including work on cultivating mindfulness in society, including with educators, the Indian Central Reserve Police Force, and the corporate sector. Across various Indian sanghas, Dharmacharya Shantum is the primary teacher of different practices of mindfulness from Thich Nhat Hanh’s tradition.

Co-produced by the Plum Village App: https://plumvillage.app/ And Global Optimism: https://globaloptimism.com/ With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation: https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/

Recordist: Ann Nguyen https://ann.earth Sound editor: Joe Holtaway https://joeholtaway.com Publisher: Anca Rusu Producer: Clay Carnill https://claycarnill.com Executive Producer: Catalin Zorzini

List of resources

The Way Out Is In: ‘In the Footsteps of the Buddha (2/6) | Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree (Episode #103)’ https://plumvillage.org/podcast/in-the-footsteps-of-the-buddha-2-6-enlightenment-under-the-bodhi-tree-episode-103

The Way Out Is In: ‘In the Footsteps of the Buddha (1/6) | The Buddha: Down to Earth (Episode #102)’ https://plumvillage.org/podcast/in-the-footsteps-of-the-buddha-1-6-the-buddha-down-to-earth-episode-102

Interbeing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbeing

Plum Village Tradition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Village_Tradition

Old Path White Clouds https://www.parallax.org/product/old-path-white-clouds

Sister Chan Khong https://plumvillage.org/about/sister-chan-khong

Rajgir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajgir

Bodhi tree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_tree

Sujata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sujata_(milkmaid)

Magadha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magadha

Poem: ‘Please Call Me By My True Names’ https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/poem-please-call-me-by-my-true-names

Dharma Talks: ‘Redefining the Four Noble Truths’ https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/redefining-the-four-noble-truths

Vinaya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinaya

Dharma Talks: ‘The Noble Eightfold Path’ https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/the-noble-eightfold-path

Duhkha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%E1%B8%A5kha

Dignaga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dign%C4%81ga

The Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anattalakkha%E1%B9%87a_Sutta

The Way Out Is In: ‘The Three Jewels (Episode #89)’ https://plumvillage.org/podcast/the-three-jewels-episode-89

Kosala Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosala_kingdom

Kashyapa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashyapa

Kalachakra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra

Joan Halifax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Halifax

Quotes

“Suffering is all around us. Hell is in the here and now. We have to collectively have the determination, as the Buddha did, not to deprive ourselves from food, from nutriment, but to understand the sources of our suffering – as well as the sources of the path of liberation.”

“The teaching of the Four Noble Truths is the understanding of suffering. We all have suffering. This is the shared experience of us all. We are all equal because we all suffer. In spite of status, class – whatever labels humanity may have for one another – suffering is a truth that none of us can ignore or can escape.”

“We only have so much time on this planet. But there’s so much we can direct our attention towards. What are the seeds we are watering every day? The diligence of watering our consciousness and the seeds that become the action.”

“We have to see the Buddha a little bit like a doctor. We have to see suffering as a disease, a universal disease. You might think it’s very obvious that we all suffer, that we all get angry, that we are all separated from the ones we love, that we have sickness and old age. But it wasn’t a universal idea. Some people said, ‘This life is bliss.’ So when we start with the primacy of suffering, that in itself is a revolutionary moment.”

“As somebody who really is imbued with the Buddha’s teachings, I feel that all human beings experience suffering. And that in itself is revolutionary, saying, ‘This is where it starts.’ Because a lot of it is about escaping from the present, escaping from this world. Most teachings are around something which will come hereafter – but the Buddha is saying, ‘Come back to now; feel, understand your mind, see that your mind is creating your reality.’”

“Thich Nhat Hanh always emphasized that people talk about Buddhism being about suffering. But he said, ‘No, it’s the third noble truth. It is about the releasing of suffering and the transforming of suffering into joy and happiness. That’s very important; don’t get stuck in the suffering. That’s why the first noble truth is a noble truth, because you use the suffering as a compost for happiness.”

“Siddhartha touched the reality that life and death are just a game of hide and seek. They are just labels.”

“Acceptance, and being with all the conditions in the present moment, is a superpower. You cannot escape the present moments – except by being in your suffering and your wishful thinking. But once you arrive in the here and now, and you embrace these realities, you are free.”

“This is because that is. This is not because that is not.”

“‘Thay, what happens when I die?’ Thay said, ‘I haven’t died yet, I don’t know. But what I can tell you is what happens when we are very much alive.’ Let’s come back to that present moment, to that insight.”

“Thay spoke so eloquently of the second teaching, the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta; the sutra on non-self. Under the tree, the Buddha looked at the Bodhi leaf and said, ‘Ah, in that leaf is the sunshine, the earth, the rain, the seed, everything. And if you take one of those elements out of that leaf, the leaf won’t exist as we know it now.’ And that was his deep realization.”

“One Buddha is not enough.”

“The Buddha is the sangha.”

“I’d been a political activist looking for a way of being peace, not fighting for peace. I had a lot of anger in me and I really felt I touched peace for the first time in that walking meditation – as a visceral experience, not as an idea, not as the concept of wanting peace, but as something that I could embody.”