Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet

wake up to the beauties of the planet to heal yourself and wake up to the suffering of the world and try to help.

My aim is not to give you knowledge. My aim is to help you break free from your views.

This is the attitude of bodhisattvas: to practice meditation not only for yourself, but for the world, to relieve the suffering. And, when others suffer less, you suffer less. When you suffer less, they suffer less. That is interbeing. There is no separation between yourself and others. You do not live just for yourself; you live for other people. Your peace, freedom, and joy also profit others; you are already helpful. And so, when you breathe mindfully or walk mindfully and create joy and peace, that is already a gift for the world.

When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing.

Don't make yourself into a battlefield; the world doesn't need anymore fanatics. If a habit is hard to shift, it's likely to have been transmitted to us through several generations, or held in place by society, culture, and our context, or environment. We can discover a lot about ourselves and our Ancestors, as we begin to make changes to align our choices with our values.

Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?

You trust that you contain the whole cosmos; you are made of stars. And that is why you respect yourself and offer reverence to yourself. And, when you look at another person, you see that they are also made of stars. They are a wonderful manifestation. They don't appear only for a hundred years: they carry eternity within them.

Cultivating a strong training in meditation and mindfulness is not an opiate to escape what’s going on but a way for us to truly still the mind and look deeply, in order to see ourselves and the world clearly.

You have the right to pursue economic growth, but not at the expense of life.

The other person needs someone to listen to them, and you may be the first person in their life who has been able to listen and give them a chance to empty their heart. It is a very deep practice and it takes training. You tell yourself: 'They are suffering and they need someone to listen, and I will be that person. I will play the role of the Bodhisattva of deep listening: Avalokiteśvara.' I will be able to do it if I am remember to breathe in and out mindfully while listening, and remind myself of one thing: I am listening with the sole intention of allowing them a chance to empty their heart-- whatever they say, even if its wrong or full of accusation, blaming, and wrong perceptions, I will still listen ... and that is what is called compassionate listening. That is very kind of you to listen like that. You are playing the role of a Bodhisattva. You are protected by the energy of compassion. This is what we have to train ourselves to be able to do. It is possible to listen to suffering in such a way that we don't get sucked in. We all have the seeds of both anger and compassion. If you practice mindfulness effectively, perhaps the seed of compassion in you will be bigger than the seed of anger, and if the seed of compassion is powerful enough, you'll be able to activate your compassion to protect you while listening, and you will be able to protect the seed of anger from being triggered. In compassionate listening, our intention is not to insulate ourselves or cut ourselves off from the other person. We listen to others' suffering with compassion, and take care to recognize, embrace, and transform our own wounds that may have been touched while listening. In Plum Village, after a session of deep listening, we often practice walking medication outside to restore our peace, calm, and freshness. At the same time, we have to know our limit-- we should organize our life so we have balance and enough nourishment, peace and joy, so we can continue to offer compassionate listening to others. Some people have so much pain, hate, and violence in them, and they need to express it, and it's very hard for them to find someone who can sit and listen to them. So, when you come ready to listen to them, they may have the tendency to abuse your time and kindness, and speak non-stop, and you don't know how long, how many days or years of listening will ever be enough to help them-- they repeat the same things again and again. To keep listening in such a situation is not intelligent to deep listening. We have to find skillful ways to actively help them recognize, embrace, and deeply transform the suffering in them. Being listened to, they may be getting a little bit of relief, but its not enough, so we should find allies, and together, help them organize their life so they can cut whatever source of nutriment is feeding their suffering. Simply to keep listening, we may be destroying ourselves and the Bodhisattva in ourselves, and that is not a good thing at all.

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are. Tell me where you eat, and I will tell you who you are.

Our true nature is of no birth and no death.

I’ve often said, one Buddha is not enough. We need a collective awakening — all of us have to become Buddhas in order for our planet to have a chance.

Where is your horse going? There is a Zen story about a man and a horse galloping very quickly. At the crossroads, a friend of his shouted: "Where are you going?" and the man replied: "I don't know, ask the horse" ... and that is the situation of humanity right now. In our times, that horse is technology-- it's carrying us off and it's out of control.

You cannot be perfect. You do your best; that is what's needed.

Sometimes even if we think we want to be heard, we're not always ready for it.

We can make the most of the Earth and benefit from its beauty, but in such a way that we respect the Earth, just as a bee respects the flower.

when someone is sharing out of their grief, if we feel very intentionally where that grief is in us, and begin to get in touch with that and heal that in ourselves, it just gives that experience with the other person a completely different quality, because you meet vulnerability with vulnerability; you hold hands with your mutual vulnerability. And once you have done that with another human being, the quality of that relationship moves to a completely different level, and from then on you can have technical discussions about megatons or whatever, but the deep root is there.

It is very important to wake up and see that we don’t need to borrow anymore. What is available in the here and now is already sufficient for us to be nourished, to be happy. And that is the miracle of mindfulness, concentration, and insight: realizing we can be happy with the conditions that

You don’t need to be perfect. What’s important is that you have a path to follow, a path of love. If we get lost in a forest and we don’t have a compass at night, we can look at the North Star in order to go north, to get out. Your purpose is to get out of the forest, it’s not to arrive at the North Star.

You need to have the gift of non-fear within you in order to be able to offer it to others.

Man is present in all things, and all things are present in man.

In the Diamond Sutra the meditator is urged to throw away, to release, four notions in order to understand our own true nature and the true nature of reality: the notion of “self,” the notion of “human being,” the notion of “living beings,” and the notion of “life span.

Thay encourages us to boldly reimagine an entirely new way of living and doing things, and to never be afraid to dream. And he reminds us, no matter what, to always work together, never alone.