Some Great Thinkers
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese monk, poet, scholar, and human rights activist, currently living in France but spending much time in the United States and other countries. He has written more than a dozen books, including Being Peace, Living Buddha, Living Christ, and The Miracle of Mindfulness, and is one of the world's preeminent authorities on peace.
He was born in central Vietnam in 1926, and left home at age sixteen to become a Zen Buddhist monk. During the Vietnam War, which is called the American war by the Vietnamese, he and many of his fellow monks became actively engaged in helping war victims and speaking out for peace. In 1966, he toured the United States to describe the enormous suffering of his people and met with hundreds of groups and individuals, eventually being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Because of his outspokenness about the war and the neutrality of his position, he was banned from returning to his native country. He was granted asylum in France, where he founded Plum Village in 1982, a monastic retreat community near Bordeaux, where he resides when not on tour. Plum Village has spawned communities of practice and service around the world.
Mindfulness
There is much interest in the Buddhist notion of mindfulness, a spiritual practice that has value and meaning for people of any religious faith, or of no religious faith at all. It is a set of disciplines for living fully in the present moment in a spirit of compassion towards oneself and others. In his words, "Mindfulness is a part of living. When you are mindful, you are fully alive, you are fully present. You can get in touch with the wonders of life that can nourish you and heal you. And you are stronger, you are more solid in order to handle the suffering inside of you and around you. When you are mindful, you can recognize, embrace and handle the pain, the sorrow in you and around you to bring you relief. And if you continue with concentration and insight, you'll be able to transform the suffering inside and help transform the suffering around you. ... It's like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud, you cannot have a lotus flower. Without suffering, you have no ways in order to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. That's why my definition of the kingdom of God is not a place where suffering is not, where there is no suffering. I could not like to go to a place where there is no suffering. I could not like to send my children to a place where there is no suffering because, in such a place, they have no way to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. And the kingdom of God is a place where there is understanding and compassion, and, therefore, suffering should exist."
Being Peace
Thich Nhat Hanh says that perceptions of our body, feelings, mind, nature, and society are important for our well-being, for our peace. And we need to be the peace in our world. Surprisingly to us in the west, however, knowledge is regarded as an obstacle to the understanding that is necessary for peace. "It is said that if we take one thing to be the truth and cling to it, even if truth itself comes in person and knocks at our door, we won't open it. For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. You have to transcend your knowledge the way people climb a ladder. If you are on the fifth step of a ladder and think that you are very high, there is no hope for you to climb to the sixth. The Buddhist way of understanding is always letting go of our views and knowledge in order to transcend."
He advocates using both science and religion as valid means of learning about our world, and working toward enlightenment and alleviating suffering. "Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We shall learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to others' insights and experiences. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives." He reminds us of the original teaching of the Buddha, "If you cling to something as absolute truth and are caught in it, when truth comes in person and knocks on your door, you will refuse to let it in." A scientist with an open mind, who can question the present knowledge of science, will have more of chance of discovering a higher truth. A Buddhist in her quest for a higher understanding, also has to question her present views concerning reality. The technique of understanding is to overcome views and knowledge. The way of non-attachment from views is the basic teaching of Buddhism concerning understanding.
Sources of Wisdom:
The living tradition we share draws from many sources:
... direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
... words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
... teachings from the world's religions which inspire us in our ethical and spiritual life;
... Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
... humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn against the idolatries of the mind and spirit;
... and spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.