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# 2022-08-24 - For A Future To Be Possible by Thích Nhất Hạnh
This book was a gift from a friend. I enjoyed the clear,
plain-English writing. This book helped me gain a better
understanding of a few things. For example, the reason why it is
best to avoid discussions of ontotheology. I like that the author
encouraged readers to think about nonviolence with more nuance.
# Introduction
Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Buddha offered certain
guidelines, called the Five Wonderful Precepts, to his lay students
to help them live peaceful, wholesome, and happy lives.
I have translated these precepts for modern times as the Five
Mindfulness Trainings because mindfulness is at the foundation of
each of them. With mindfulness, we are aware of what is going on in
our bodies, our feelings, our minds, and the world, and we avoid harm
to ourselves and others.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings are love itself. To love is to
understand, protect, and bring well-being to the object of our love.
The practice of the trainings accomplishes this.
Many of today's problems did not exist at the time of the Buddha.
Therefore, we have to look deeply together in order to develop the
insights that will help us and our children find better ways to live
wholesome, happy, and healthy lives.
# The Five Mindfulness Trainings
## First Mindfulness Training
Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am
committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the
lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not
to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of
killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.
## Second Mindfulness Training
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice,
stealing, and oppression, I am committed to cultivating loving
kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people,
animals, plants, and minerals. I will practice generosity by sharing
my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real
need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that
should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but
I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the
suffering of other species on Earth.
## Third Mindfulness Training
Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to
cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety
and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am
determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a
long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and
others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments
of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from
sexual abuse and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.
## Fourth Mindfulness Training
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability
to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and
deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and
relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create
happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with
words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I will not spread
news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or
condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering
words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the
family or community to break. I am determined to make all efforts to
reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
## Fifth Mindfulness Training
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am
committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for
myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating,
drinking, and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve
peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in
the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am
determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest
foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV
programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware
that damage to my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to
betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations.
I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in
myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for
society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for
self-transformation and for the transformation of society.
# The First Mindfulness Training: Reverence For Life
To practice nonviolence, first of all we have to practice it within
ourselves. In each of us, there is a certain amount of violence and
a certain amount of nonviolence. Depending on our state of being,
our response to things will be more or less nonviolent. Even if we
take pride in being vegetarian, for example, we have to acknowledge
that the water in which we boil our vegetables contains many tiny
microorganisms. We cannot be completely nonviolent, but by being
vegetarian, we are going in the direction of nonviolence. If we want
to head north, we can use the North Star to guide us, but it is
impossible to arrive at the North Star. Our effort is only to
proceed in that direction.
Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even army generals.
Most important is to become nonviolence, so that when a situation
presents itself, we will not create more suffering. To practice
nonviolence, we need gentleness, loving kindness, compassion, joy,
and equanimity directed to our bodies, our feelings, and other
people. With mindfulness--the practice of peace--we can begin by
working to transform the wars in ourselves.
# The Second Mindfulness Training: Generosity
Exploitation, social injustice, and stealing come in many forms.
Oppression is one form of stealing that causes much suffering both
here and in the Third World. The moment we vow to cultivate loving
kindness, loving kindness is born in us, and we make every effort to
stop exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression.
It requires time to practice generosity. ... Time is for being alive,
for sharing joy and happiness with others. The wealthy are often the
least able to make others happy. Only those with time can do so.
In Buddhism, we say there are three kinds of gifts. The first is the
gift of material resources. The second is to help people rely on
themselves, to offer them the technology and know-how to stand on
their own feet. The third is the gift of non-fear. We are afraid of
so many things. We feel insecure, afraid of being alone, afraid of
sickness and dying. To help people not be destroyed by their fears,
we practice the third kind of gift-giving.
The Second Mindfulness Training is a deep practice. We speak of
time, energy, and material resources, but time is not only for energy
and material resources. Time is for being with others--being with a
dying person or with someone who is suffering. Being really present
for even five minutes can be a very important gift.
# The Third Mindfulness Training: Sexual Responsibility
"Responsibility" is the key word in the Third Mindfulness Training.
We all need to respect, support, and protect each other as Dharma
brothers and sisters. If we don't practice this mindfulness
training, we may become irresponsible and create trouble in the
community and in the community at large.
# The Fourth Mindfulness Training: Deep Listening and Loving Speech
We suffer from so many wars and conflicts. We surely have not
cultivated the arts of listening and speaking. We don't know how to
listen to each other. We have little ability to hold an intelligent
or meaningful conversation.
Unless we look deeply into ourselves, this practice will not be easy.
If there is a lot of suffering in you, it is difficult to listen to
other people or to say nice things to them. First you have to look
deeply into the nature of your anger, despair, and suffering to free
yourself, so you can be available to others.
It is so important that we practice right speech with children,
speech that inspires happiness, self-confidence, and hope in them.
If you tell children they are good-for-nothing, they will suffer in
the future. Always emphasize the positive, hopeful things with your
children, and also with your spouse or partner.
Reconciliation is a deep practice that we can do with our listening
and our mindful speech. To reconcile means to bring peace and
happiness to nations, people, and members of our family. In order to
reconcile, you have to possess the art of deep listening, and you
also have to master the art of loving speech. You have to refrain
from aligning yourself with one party so that you are able to
understand both parties. This is a difficult practice.
# The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Diet for A Mindful Society
In modern life, people think that their body belongs to them and they
can do anything they want with it. "We have a right to live our own
lives." When you make such a declaration, the law supports you.
This is one of the manifestations of individualism. But, according
to the teaching of emptiness, your body is not yours. Your body
belongs to the ancestors, your parents, and future generations. It
also belongs to society and to all the other living beings. All of
them have come together to bring about the presence of this body--the
trees, clouds, everything. To keep your body healthy is to express
gratitude to the whole cosmos, to all ancestors, and also not to
betray the future generations.
We can have a careful diet for our body, and we can also have a
careful diet for our consciousness, our mental health. We need to
refrain from ingesting the kinds of intellectual "food" that bring
toxins into our consciousness.
The toxins around us can be overwhelming. There is so much violence,
hatred, and fear in the media that surrounds us. If we spend one
hour looking at a violent film, we will water the seeds of violence,
hatred, and fear in us. We do that, and we let our children do that,
too. ... We may have to label our [screens] the same way we have
labeled cigarettes: WARNING: [SCREEN TIME] CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR
HEALTH. That is the truth. We do not have to destroy our [screens];
we only have to use [them] with wisdom and mindfulness.
I propose a three-part practice to detoxify ourselves. First, look
deeply into your body and your consciousness and identify the kinds
of toxins that are already in you. We each have to be our own doctor
not only for our bodies, but also for our minds. After we identify
these toxins, we can try to expel them. One way is to drink a lot of
water. Another is to practice massage, to encourage the blood to
come to the spot where toxins are, so the blood can wash them away.
A third is to breathe deeply air that is fresh and clean. This
brings more oxygen into the blood and helps it expel toxins in our
bodies. There are mechanisms in our bodies that try to neutralize
and expel these substances, but our bodies may be too weak to do the
job by themselves. While doing these things, we have to stop
ingesting more toxins.
At the same time, we look deep into our consciousness to see what
kind of toxins are already here. Our happiness depends on our
ability to transform them.
The second step is to be mindful of what we are ingesting into our
bodies and consciousness.
The third part of the practice is to prescribe for yourself a kind of
diet.
We know that there are many items that are nutritious, healthy, and
delightful that we can consume every day. By vowing to consume only
items that preserve our well-being, peace, and joy, and the
well-being, peace, and joy of our family and society, we need not
deprive ourselves of the joys of living.
Transforming the toxins in our collective consciousness is the true
way to uproot war.
A violent society produces violent police officers. A fearful
society creates fearful soldiers. The problem is never "a few rotten
apples." We have to change the society from its roots, which is our
collective consciousness, where the root-energies of fear, anger,
greed, and hatred lie.
No one can practice the mindfulness trainings perfectly, including
the Buddha. The vegetarian dishes that were offered to him were not
entirely vegetarian. Boiled vegetables contain dead bacteria [and,
statistically, insects]. We cannot practice the First Mindfulness
Training or any of the mindfulness trainings perfectly. But because
of the real danger in our society, because alcoholism and addictions
have destroyed so many families, we have lived in a way that will
eradicate or at least lessen that kind of damage.
# The Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha
The Buddha is mindfulness itself; the Dharma is the way of
understanding and love; and the Sangha is the community that supports
our practice.
We need impermanence and we should be happy to say, "Long live
impermanence, so that life can be possible." Still, in the depths of
our being, we yearn for permanence.
In Buddhism there are two kinds of practice, devotional and
transformational. To practice devotion is to rely primarily on the
power of another, who may be a buddha or a god. To practice
transformation is to rely more on yourself and the path you are
following.
When you say, "I take refuge in the Dharma," you are expressing
confidence in the Dharma. You see the Dharma as something wholesome,
and you want to orient yourself toward it. That is devotion. When
you study and apply the Dharma in your daily life, that is
transformational practice. In every religion, there is the
distinction between devotional practice and transformational
practice. [Faith vs. works. Bhakti vs. kriya. etc.]
The Sangha is a community that practices the Dharma. A good Sangha
expresses the Dharma. When we see a practicing Sangha that reveals
some degree of peace, calm, happiness, and transformation, a faith
and confidence arise in us. Imagine I am someone who has not had
anything to believe in for a long time. I have had no peace. But
suddenly I see a community of people who have transformed themselves
to some extent through the practice. Now I have faith and
confidence, and that brings me some degree of peace. Devotion in
Buddhism is not accepting a theory without touching the reality.
The idea of coming, going, being, and nonbeing are representations
and concepts to be extinguished. If there is something you cannot
talk about, it is best not to talk about it. Wittgenstein said the
same thing in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: "Concerning that
which cannot be talked about, we should not say anything." We cannot
talk about it, but we can experience it. We can experience the
non-born, non-dying, non-beginning, non-ending, because it is reality
itself. The way to experience it is to abandon our habit of
perceiving everything through concepts and representations.
Theologians have spent thousands of years talking about God as one
representation. This is called ontotheology, and it is talking about
what we should not talk about.
# Appendix 1: Frequently Asked Questions
Question: I was born a Christian. Do I have to abandon my faith to
receive the Five Mindfulness Trainings formally?
Response: A tree that has no root cannot survive; you cannot grow
well spiritually if you have no roots. You should not abandon your
root religion. Please practice mindfulness as a base with the Five
Mindfulness Trainings as guidelines. With mindfulness you can look
deeply into your root tradition and discover many wonderful jewels in
it. You might rediscover guidelines within your own tradition that
you can share with both Christian and non-Christian friends.
author: Nhất Hạnh, Thích
(TXT) detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Thich_Nhat_Hanh
LOC: BQ549 .F67
tags: book,non-fiction,spirit
title: For A Future To Be Possible
# Tags
(DIR) book
(DIR) non-fiction
(DIR) spirit