The Roots of War

The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives--the way we develop our industries, build up our society, and consume goods.  We have to look deeply into the situation.  We cannot just blame one side or the other.  We have to transcend the tendency to take sides.
During any conflict, we need people who can understand the suffering of all sides.  We need links.  We need communication.
Practicing nonviolence is first of all to become nonviolence.  Then when a difficult situation presents itself, we will react in a way that will help the situation.  This applies to problems of the family as well as to problems of society.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Ecology of Mind

We need harmony, we need peace.  Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.  Not only do we have to respect the lives of human beings, but we have to respect the lives of animals, vegetables, and minerals.
Ecology should be a deep ecology.  Not only deep but universal, because there is pollution in our consciousness.  Television, for instance, is a form of pollution for us and for our children.  Television sows seeds of violence and anxiety in our children and pollutes their consciousness, just as we destroy our environment by chemicals, tree-cutting, and polluting the water.  We need to protect the ecology of the mind, or this kind of violence and recklessness will continue to spill over into many other areas of life.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Citizenship

As citizens, we have a large responsibility.  Meditation is to look deeply into things and to see how we can change ourselves and how we can transform our situation.  To transform our situation is also to transform our minds.  As we begin to live more responsibly, we must ask our political leaders to move in the same direction.  We have to encourage them to stop polluting our environment and our consciousness.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Not two

When we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it.  We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it.  If we want to understand a person, we have to feel his feelings, suffer his sufferings, and enjoy his joy.  In Buddhism, we call this kind of understanding "non-duality."  Not two.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Waging Peace

Many people are aware of the world's suffering:  their hearts are filled with compassion.  They know what needs to be done, and they engage in political, social, and environmental work to try to change things.  But after a period of intense involvement, they may become discouraged if they lack the strength needed to sustain a life of action.  Real strength is not in power, money, or weapons, but in deep inner peace.
Practicing mindfulness in each moment of our daily lives, we can cultivate our own peace.  With clarity, determination, and patience--the fruits of meditation--we can sustain a life of action and be real instruments of peace.  I have seen this peace in people of various religious and cultural backgrounds who spend their time and energy protection the weak, struggling for social justice, lessening the disparity between rich and poor, stopping the arms race, fighting against discrimination, and watering the trees of love and understanding throughout the world.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Oprah Talks to Thich Nhat Hanh

 "The moment I meet Thich Nhat Hanh at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, I feel his sense of calm. A deeply tranquil presence seems to surround the Zen Buddhist master."

 

The O Exclusive Interview

He's been a Buddhist monk for more than 60 years, as well as a teacher, writer, and vocal opponent of war—a stance that left him exiled from his native Vietnam for four decades. Now the man Martin Luther King Jr. called "an apostle of peace and nonviolence" reflects on the beauty of the present moment, being grateful for every breath, and the freedom and happiness to be found in a simple cup of tea.

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-Talks-to-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/1

Interbeing

"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be," we have a new verb, inter-be.
If we look into this sheet of paper deeply we can see the sunshine in it.  Without sunshine, the forest cannot grow.  And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper.  And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper.  And we see wheat.  We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper.  The logger's father and mother are in it too.  When we look in this way, we see  that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
Looking even more deeply, we can see ourselves in this sheet of paper too because when we look at a sheet of paper, it is part of our perception.  Your mind is in here and mine is also.  So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper.  Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper.  We cannot just be by ourselves alone.  We have to inter-be with every other thing.  This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness Must Be Engaged

We must be aware of the real problems of the world.  Then, with mindfulness, we will know what to do and what not to do to be of help.  If we maintain awareness of our breathing and continue to practice smiling, even in difficult situations, many people, animals, and plants will benefit from our way of doing things.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Community of Mindful Living

The foundation of a good community is a daily life that is joyful and happy.  Each of us needs to "belong to" a place where each feature of the landscape, the sounds of the bell, and even the buildings are designed to remind us to return to awareness.
The people who live there should emanate peace and freshness, the fruits of living in awareness. They will be like beautiful trees, and the visitors will want to come and sit under their shade.  Even when they cannot actually visit, they only need to think of it and smile, and they will feel themselves becoming peaceful and happy.
We can also transform our own family or household into a community that practices harmony and awareness.  Together we can practice breathing and smiling, sitting together, drinking tea together in mindfulness. If we have a bell, the bell is also part of the community, because the bell helps us practice.  If we have a meditation cushion, the cushion is also part of the community, as there are many other things that help us practice mindfulness, such as the air for breathing.  All these efforts can help us establish a community at home.  From time to time we can invite a friend to join us.  Practicing mindfulness is much easier with a community.


Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Investing in Friends

Even if we have a lot of money in the bank, we can die very easily from our suffering.  So investing in a friend, making a friend into a real friend, building a community of friends, is a much better source of security.  We will have someone to lean on, to come to, during our difficult moments.


We can get in touch with the refreshing, healing elements within and around us thanks to the loving support of other people.  If we have a good community of friends, we are very fortunate.  To create a good community, we first have to transform ourselves into a good elements of the community.  After that, we can go to another person and help him or her become an element of the community.  We build our network of friends that way.  We have to think of friends and community as investments, as our most important asset.  They can comfort us and help us in difficult times, and they can share our joy and happiness.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation on Love

The mind of love brings peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.  If love is real, it will be evident in our daily life, in the way we relate with people and the world.


The source of love is deep in us, and we can help others realize a lot of happiness.  One word, one action, or one thought can reduce another person's suffering and bring him joy.  One word can give comfort and confidence, destroy doubt, help someone avoid a mistake, reconcile a conflict, or open the door to liberation.  One action can save a person's life or help him take advantage of a rare opportunity.  One thought can do the same, because thoughts always lead to words and actions.  If love is in our heart, every thought, word, and deed can bring about a miracle.  Because understanding is the very foundation of love, words and actions that emerge from our love are always helpful.

Meditation on Compassion

Love is a mind that brings peace, joy, and happiness to another person.  Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other.  The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other.  We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering.  We must become one with the object of our observation.  When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us.  Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Understanding

Understanding and love are not two things, but just one.  When you understand, you cannot help but love.  You cannot get angry.  To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion.  When you understand, you cannot help but love.  And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Blaming Never Helps

Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments.  No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.  If you understand, you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

What's Not Wrong?

We often ask, "What's wrong?"  Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest.  We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds.  We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us.  We should learn to ask, "What's not wrong?" and be in touch with that.


Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness.  Elements like these are within us and all around us.  In each second of our lives we can enjoy them.  If we do so, seeds of peace, joy, and happiness will be planted in us, and they will become strong.  The secret to happiness is happiness itself.  Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, and the wonder of our breathing.  We don't have to travel anywhere else to do so.  We can be in touch with these things right now.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Nourishing Healthy Seeds

Consciousness exists on two levels: as seeds and as manifestations of these seeds.  Every time a seed has an occasions to manifest itself, it produces new seeds of the same kind.  If we are angry for five minutes, new seeds of anger are produced and deposited in the soil of our unconscious mind.


There are many kinds of seeds in us, both good and bad.  Some were planted during our lifetime, and some were transmitted by our parents, our ancestors, and our society.  Every time we practice mindful living, we plant healthy seeds and strengthen the healthy seeds already in us.  If we plant wholesome, healing, refreshing seeds, they will take care of the negative seeds, even without our asking.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Suchness

In Buddhism, the word "suchness" is used to mean "the essence or particular characteristics of a thing or a person, its true nature. "  Each person has his or her suchness.  If we want to live in peace and happiness with a person, we have to see the suchness of that person.  Once we see it, we understand him or her, and there will be no trouble.  We can live peaceful and happily together.

Living Together

When we live with another person, to protect each other's happiness, we should help one another transform the internal formations that we produce together. By practicing understanding and loving speech, we can help each other a great deal. Happiness is no longer an individual matter. If the other person is not happy, we will not be happy either. To transform the other person's knots will help bring about our own happiness as well.


The root cause of any internal formation is a lack of understanding. To practice mindful observation is to look deeply to be able to see the nature and causes of something. One important benefit of this kind of insight is the untying of our knots.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Internal Formations

When we live with another person, to protect each other's happiness, we should help one another transform the internal formations that we produce together. By practicing understanding and loving speech, we can help each other a great deal. Happiness is no longer an individual matter. If the other person is not happy, we will not be happy either. To transform the other person's knots will help bring about our own happiness as well.


The root cause of any internal formation is a lack of understanding. To practice mindful observation is to look deeply to be able to see the nature and causes of something. One important benefit of this kind of insight is the untying of our knots.

The Roots of Anger

Anger is rooted in our lack of understanding of ourselves and of the causes, deep-seated as well as immediate, that brought about this unpleasant state of affairs.  Anger is also rooted in desire, pride, agitation, and suspicion.  The primary roots of our anger are in ourselves.  Our environment and other people are only secondary.

Walking Meditation When Angry

When anger arises, we may wish to go outside to practice walking meditation.  Practice like this:

Breathing in, 

I know that anger is here.

Breathing out,

I know that the anger is me.

Breathing in,

I know that anger is unpleasant.

Breathing out,

I know this feeling will pass.

Breathing in, I am calm.

Breathing out, I am strong enough

to take care of this anger.

To lessen the unpleasant feeling brought about by the anger, we give our whole heart and mind to the practice of walking meditation.  As we walk, we recite this verse and wait until we are calm enough to look directly at the anger.  After a while, our anger will subside and we will feel stronger.  Then we can begin to observe the anger directly and try to understand it.

Minfulness of Anger

Anger is an unpleasant feeling.  It is like a blazing flame that burns up our self-control and causes us to say and do things that we regret later.  Anger and hatred are the materials from which hell is made.  A mind without anger is cool, fresh, and sane.  The absence of anger is the basis of real happiness, the basis of love and compassion.


When our anger is placed under the lamp of mindfulness, it immediately begins to lose some of its destructive nature.  Our awareness of our anger does not suppress it or drive it out.  It just looks after it.  This is a very important principle.  Mindfulness is not a judge.  It is more like an older sister looking after and comforting her younger sister in an affectionate and caring way.  We can concentrate on our breathing in order to maintain this mindfulness and know ourselves fully.


When we are angry, our anger is our very self.  To suppress or chase it away is to suppress or chase away our self.  When we are joyful, we are the joy.  When we are angry, we are the anger.  When anger is born in us, we can be aware that anger is an energy in us, and we can accept that energy in order to transform it into another kind of energy.  We know that anger can be a kind of compost, and that it is within its power to give birth to something beautiful.  We need anger in the way the organic gardener needs compost.  If we know how to accept our anger, we already have some peace and joy.  Gradually we can transform anger completely into peace, love, and understanding.

Transforming Feelings

This first step in dealing with feelings is to recognize each feeling as it arises. The agent that does this is mindfulness.  In the case of fear, for example, you bring out your mindfulness, look at your fear, and recognize it as fear.  You know that fear springs from yourself and that mindfulness also springs from yourself.  They are both in you, not fighting, but one taking care of the other.

The second step is to become one with the feeling.  Say, "Hello, Fear.  How are you today?"  Then you can invite the two aspects of yourself, mindfulness and fear, to shake hands as friends and become one.  Doing this may seem frightening, but because you know that you are more than your fear, you need not be afraid.  As long as mindfulness is there, it can chaperone your fear.  The fundamental practice is to nourish your mindfulness with conscious breathing, to keep it there, alive and strong.  As long as mindfulness is present, you will not drown in your fear.  In fact you begin transforming it the very moment you give birth to awareness in yourself.


The third step is to calm the feeling.  As mindfulness is taking good care of your fear, you begin to calm it down.  "Breathing in, I calm the activities of body and mind."  You calm your feeling just by being with it.


The fourth step is to release the feeling, to let it go.  Because of your calm, you feel at ease, even in the midst of fear, and you know that your fear will not grow into something that will overwhelm you.  Calming and releasing are just medicines for the symptoms.  You now have an opportunity to go deeper and work on transforming the source of your fear.


The fifth step is to look deeply.  You look deeply into your baby--your feeling of fear--to see what is wrong, even after the baby has already stopped crying, after the fear is gone.  You cannot hold your baby all the time, and therefore you have to look into him to see the cause of what is wrong.  By looking, you will see what will help you begin to transform the feeling.  You will  realize, for example, that his suffering has many causes, inside and outside of his body.  Looking into your baby, you see the elements that are causing him to cry, and when you see them, you will know what to do and what not to do to transform the feeling and be free.


After recognizing the feeling, becoming one with it, calming it down, and releasing it, we can look deeply into its cause, which are often based on inaccurate perceptions.  As soon as we understand the causes and nature of our feelings, they begin to transform themselves.

Non-Surgery

We do not need surgery to remove our anger. We only have to observe it with love and attention. If we take care of our anger in this way, without trying to run away from it, it will transform itself. This is peacemaking. If we are peaceful in ourselves, we can make peace with our anger. We can deal with any unpleasant feeling in the same way