Our century should be the century of spirituality. Whether we survive or not depends on it, says THICH NHAT HANH
Buddhists regard the earth as a Boddhisatva, because it has many virtues — endurance, perseverance, it is solid, creative, and non-discriminating. When we recognise the earth’s many talents and beauty, it is a kind of prayer — we are prepared to do anything for her. Not to pollute rivers, not to cut trees — that is not enough. We have to realise that when we take care of the earth, we take care of ourselves. Many people get sick today because they get alienated from earth. Our sickness is the sickness of Mother Earth. We forget that we are on earth, that we have a body that is given to us by Mother Eearth. Without that kind of enlightenment, we cannot hope to change our way of living.
Collective Awakening
In Buddhism, we speak of meditation as an act of awakening, to be awake to the fact that the earth is in danger and other species on earth are also in danger. There should be a collective awakening in order to have enough strength to bring about a change.
I think the best way to bring about this collective awakening is to help put people in touch with the suffering they are undergoing now. Many people suffer and deeply so. They don’t know that they suffer. And they try to cover up their suffering by being busy. It is not because they like to be busy, but they want to get busy in order not to have the time to touch the suffering in themselves. If you spend a lot of time in front of the computer, you forget that you have a body. And when you are not with your body, you are not alive.
Breathe Mindfully
So, if you breathe in mindfully, with one in-breath you already get the insight that you have a body, that you are there on earth, and you become aware of so many wonders of your life on earth.
To meditate does not mean that you turn away from life but that you have the time in order to look deeply into the situation — to allow yourself to have the time to sit doing nothing, just look deeply into the situation, look into our minds and find ways to take care, to deal with the anger, fear and despair in us. And if we do not do that, the other things we do will not bring any results.
Through meditation we learn to see that when things are going wrong, we are part of the wrongdoing in the way we live our life. Even if we have laws to protect the environment, people will find a way to continue the way they live. But if everyone of us, whether we are scientists, yogis, school teachers, fathers, mothers, brother, sister, or journalist, resolve in our own way to produce awakening, we can sit down and find concrete ways of saving the earth.
Any insight in the realm of science or any other sphere of our working lives should have an impact on the way we live. We need the time in order to meditate and to apply these insights into our daily life. To have the time like in the Buddhist tradition to be together, to do walking meditation, to do sitting meditation and dharma exchanges in order to deepen our understanding and to try to apply this kind of insight to our daily life so that we can transform our fear, discrimination, anger, which is very important. We have to go home to ourselves and look deeply and that is the work of the spirit. Everyone of us should bring a spiritual dimension to our daily life.
Our century should be the century of spirituality. Whether we survive or not depends on it. ■
Ahimsa Trust represents Thich Nhat Hanh in India. It offers talks, retreats, and Mindfulness meditation sessions. www.ahimsatrust.org, email: ahimsa.trust@gmail.com
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