The novel Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh shows how the world can be made a better place though the application of Buddhism and meditation in our daily lives. Thich Nhat Hanh describes practices and suggestions that the common person can apply in their daily lives immediately in order to create peace in their life and in the world.
Thich Nhat Hanh begins by stating that we are often aware of suffering, however that is not enough. We need to be aware and peace and happiness in order to create peace. He also mentions that today, humans have a very difficult time being alive in the present moment. We are constantly looking to the future for our next goal or our next to-do list to accomplish in order to make us happy. We are always saying, “I will be happy when…” looking ahead of ourselves. According to Hanh, we need to refocus on ourselves and a way to do that is through meditation. Through meditation we can be with ourselves, breathe, smile and become peace all of which make peace in the world, unlike war and violence.
Hanh says that those who sit still and smile have the ability to save the world because they have the ability to meditate and create peace. Therefore, a way to make the world better is to be a Buddha. “Buddha” means to wake-up, to understand, and to love and anybody to practices this is considered to be a Buddha. Thus, if we are to practice Buddhism we can work towards the betterment of society. In Buddhism, there are three gems: Buddha (the awakened one), Dharma (the way of understanding and loving), and Sangha (the community that lives in harmony and awareness). By incorporating all three gems of Buddhism into our daily lives we all can awaken within ourselves, be more understanding and loving of ...
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...eathing room, practice breathing a little bit every morning with your children, and practicing walking meditation every evening. By following all of these teachings the world can transform into a more peaceful place.
This book is an excellent look into a world of meditation for the achievement of peace. I think that one does not even need to be interested in practicing Buddhism in order to appreciate this novel because of its real-life applicability. I truly believe that everyone can benefit from the concepts of breathing, understanding, and peace. We can all take ten minutes out of our lives to breathe and think as this book has shown. Especially with our ever busy schedules, it is easy to get ahead of ourselves and forget the present. It is important for us to stop and check in with the world around us in order to transform civilization for the better.
Hạnh, Nhất, and Arnold Kotler. Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life.
He also makes reference to the long history of religious intolerance and persecution within the Christian tradition, brought about by greed, mistrust, and ignorance. He emphasizes the need for continuous practice, prayer, meditation, mindfulness, and personal growth within individual religious traditions and cultures. We must make the spirit of the Buddha and the spirit of Christ part of our everyday lives. He explores the “Five Wonderful Percepts of Buddhism”: reverence for life, generosity, responsible sexual behavior, speaking and listening deeply, and ingesting only wholesome substances; comparing them to the teachings of Christ. These precepts are without a doubt, very similar to the principles thought by Christ and his apostles. Each precept or teaching works with the next, interconnecting and building upon each other toward the same goal to end suffering, bring about personal and worldly understanding, world peace, and spiritual
However, meditation is not as common within Buddhism as most believe. There is a large assumption “that Buddhism and meditation go hand in hand”, but the majority of Buddhists have focused on “cultivating moral behavior, preserving the Buddha’s teachings (dharma), and acquiring good karma”(Braun 2014, p.1). Meditation and Buddhism are often assumed to be one and same, but this is also not true. As Buddhism has gained popularity among lay people it’s practices have changed Buddha’s teaching of the middle path has adapted to meditation being “possible in the city” rather than with monks in jungles and caves (p.4). As seen in Burma, in less than 75 years Buddhism and meditation were able to grow “from a pursuit of the barest sliver of the population to a duty of the ideal citizen” (p.5). While meditation is not the core of Buddhism it has encouraged the growth of Buddhism as it’s practice of mindfulness has been inspiring an approachable model (p.6). Meditation and mindfulness are easily manipulated to secularization, but still have significance in Buddhism and following the patterns of your
Overall I value this book, and I am glad that I read it. I now know more about the Buddhist religion, and I want to change certain aspects of my life. I like how this religion is so forgiving and laid back. I really wish other things in my life were so forgiving. The idea of oneness with your self sounds very peaceful and understanding. I am going to try to have more oneness with myself. I can now see people from a different standpoint. We are all created equal, and we should all help each other.
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Gautama Buddha, a figure responsible for the founding of the Buddhist culture, urges that those who experienced a fulfilling life will succeed. However, in this generation, social norms placed on citizens prevent this state of spiritual acceptance. For instance, humans have this certain mindset to crave perfection, knowledge, and power; and, as a result, these needs hinder any attempt to succeed. In other words, humans have the condition to continuously strive for success through the means of power and control. Contrarily, this excessive need to succeed, consequently, segways to conflicts; and, as a result, the solution
Thich Nhat Hanh , the author of The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology, is a Buddhist monk. He was born in Hue, Vietnam. He wrote this book to inform the people on Earth about the environmental issues we currently have. He believes that people in the world are like sleepwalkers, who are unaware about the environment. Everything in the world is related to each other. The same thing applied for human; everyone in this world is related and linked to each other like brothers and sisters. Since we all share the Earth, the water and the sun, he points out that we have to be responsible and protect the environment, because everything supports each other in order to adapt to this planet. Although his ideas to practice the mindfulness seems impossible and ridiculous to some people when they first read a few chapters of this book, they are actually possible to practice and succeed. As he indicated in his book, many people and even countries have been practicing his ideas, and that will gradually improve the environment that we live in.
In the comparison with other class of Chinese faith , the study of Chinese Buddhism benefits. First, the International range of Buddhism allows for fruitful comparison with developments in other neighboring finish such as India and japan and the contemporary identicalness of Buddhism as a missionary. Buddhism is a way of breakthrough repose within oneself. It is a organized religion that helps us to find the happiness and contentment we seek. Buddhist develop inner peace, kindness and wisdom through their daily practice; and then share their experience with others delivery real number benefit to this humankind .They try not to injury others and to live
In The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh’s uses simple but powerful words and real world examples to illustrate the profound Buddhist philosophy from the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, an important representative of Mahayana Buddhist literature. The Mahayana school of Buddhist teachings emphasizes the doctrine of Sunyata- emptiness. The doctrine of emptiness, one of the most important Mahayana innovations, focuses on the relational aspect of existence. Thich Nhat Hanh coins and introduces a new word- interbeing to explain the state of emptiness. This idea of interbeing not only illustrates emptiness well but also provides understanding of other fundamental Buddhist ideas such as No-Self, impermanence and non-duality.
Being at peace can have a different meaning to everyone. We can be at peace with ourselves, our neighbors and even the events that are taking place in the world. In this book, Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, he attempts to explains to us all the aspects that peace can create for us. No matter if we receive the good or the bad that comes alone with peace, there is always a lesson to be learned. The book is comprised of many of his teaching about peace and the Buddhist lifestyle. The book offers a clear and enjoyable way to comprehend the steps it takes to acquire peace in a personal or even global way. The potential peace that can be brought into this world first has
This course has helped to improve my understanding of Buddhism and Buddhist precepts. It has also showed me better ways to live my life and that Buddhism can be acutely studied under the pretenses of scientific means. Buddhism and Buddhist meditation is scientifically proven to be psychologically changing and meaningful.
Buddhism is known for happiness. Happiness can be achieved by genuinely practicing meditation. Meditation is the central practice of Buddhism. Practicing Buddhism gives one a way of finding answers to deep questions about life and the nature of reality. “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is the meaning of life?” “Why do we suffer?” and “How can I achieve lasting happiness?” As the Dalai Lama commented,
To reach enlightenment in Buddhism, one must overcome attachment to the pleasure of peace. Gampopa defines the pleasure of peace as “the desire to achieve nirvana only for oneself without the altruistic mind for sentient beings, and because of it, one does not benefit others” which is also termed as the lesser vehicle (Gampopa, 126). The remedy for this is the practices of loving-kindness and compassion. When one develops this loving-kindness and compassion, then one will have a mind that wants all sentient beings to meet with happiness as well as be free from suffering and its cause. When one achieves this, then one is attached to all sentient beings and no longer wants to attain liberation only for oneself. Compassion is so heavily ingrained in Buddhist practices, that it has been noted that the Buddha had said “the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion is not just part of our practice, it is all of our practice” (Strain, “Compassion & Stoic Philosophy”). Compassion is not just a crucial aspect of the path to Enlightenment; practicing and training in compassion can function to improve the lives of those unconcerned with achieving Buddahood through means of improving health, well-being and increasing self-motivation. Considering the benefits that can come from compassion, everyone should take part in practicing and experiencing compassion as its benefits extend into other aspects of life.
One of the three jewels that many Buddhists seek support in is the Buddha. In Sanskrit, the Buddha is defined as the “awakened or enlightened one.” The Buddha is a teacher or model of the perfect Buddhist. The goal of Buddhism is to reach enlightenment and to end the cycle of rebirth. This can be accomplished by following the life of the Buddha.
Story, Francis. "Buddhist Meditation." Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Buddhism is the philosophy of being awake and conscious in life. Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, shared his wisdom with the world and believed that the path to enlightenment was a process of elimination. These eliminations can be conquered through a process called Zen. He believe it was the only way to get rid of the burdens human’s carry of, ignorance, desire and suffering. Buddhism is almost the complete opposite of our western world because our society requires us to act a certain way in order to thrive or even survive.