10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Happier with Dan Harris

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

October 7, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Four Buddhist Phrases to Bring You Back

On a retreat many years ago, Dan Harris let a camera crew follow him around to film content for his meditation app—a classic move of trying to be maximally productive even while supposedly unplugging. By day seven or eight of the nine-day retreat, something shifted. He was standing outside, eyes closed, face tilted toward the sun, and he was genuinely happy. Not the kind of happiness that comes from finishing a to-do list or watching a movie, but something deeper. "I look so stupid," he says, "but I am truly at home in the universe as cliched as that sounds."

That experience captures what this episode is about: how to stop sleepwalking through life and actually arrive in the present moment. The guests are Brother Phap Dung and Kaira Jewel Lingo, two senior students of the late Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (affectionately called "Thay," Vietnamese for teacher). They walk through four of his most powerful phrases—what Dan calls "Buddhist earworms"—and explain why these simple reminders matter more than ever in a culture that constantly pulls us toward distraction.

Why We Need Reminders

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:03) **Introduction and Setup** - Dan Harris introduces the episode's theme: Buddhist earworms or pithy phrases from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (called "Thay" by his students), and his two senior students, Brother Phap Dung and Kaira Jewel Lingo.
  • 2 (03:50) **Why We Need Reminders** - Brother Phap Dung discusses the human tendency to forget and the need for constant reminders, even for experienced practitioners.
  • 3 (08:27) **Phrase 1: "Breathe, you are alive"** - Kaira Jewel Lingo explains why this is a foundational teaching.
  • 4 (18:55) **Phrase 2: "The present moment is the only moment available to us"** - Brother Phap Dung explains how this phrase heals the past and redirects the future.
  • 5 (24:16) **Kaira Jewel on the Present Moment** - She expands on how the present moment is the only place to truly meet and take care of yourself.
  • 6 (29:07) **The Challenge of Distraction** - Brother Phap Dung calls the present moment "the great medicine for our times" against digital distraction.
  • 7 (34:32) **Planning for the Future While Present** - Kaira Jewel Lingo shares Thay's answer to the common question of how to plan without sacrificing the present.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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

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