August 10, 2004
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We are what we think. All that we think arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. We are what we think. All that we think arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable. How can a troubled mind understand the way? Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much, not even your own father or mother.
Dhammapada
Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If we educate ourselves and our children on how to enjoy peace in the present moment and to be happy with the refreshing and healing elements that are available, we will avoid those kinds of traps. [drugs, alcohol, sexual misconduct, and other things that destroy us]
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk as well as a writer, scholar, and teacher. He was born in central Vietnam in 1926 and was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk in 1942 at the age of 16. At the age of 24, he co-founded the An Quang Buddhist Institute in South Vietnam. In 1961 he travelled to the United States where he studied at Princeton and later lectured on comparative religion at Columbia.
In 1964, Thich Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam and with other Buddhist students, helped found Van Hanh University. Through the University and the La Boi Press publishing house they also set up, they released a steady stream of publications and writings calling for peace and reconciliation. Nhat Hanh also founded the School of Youth for Social Service, which performed various services such as rebuilding villages destroyed by bombings. By the mid-70s, more than 10,000 monks, nuns, and students were involved with the organization. They are perhaps best known for their role in evacuating villagers caught in the cross fire: monks and nuns, dressed in their yellow robes, would enter the battlefields, form a double line and walk the villagers to safety.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s writings and publications were censored by both opposing Vietnamese governments. In 1966, after travelling to the United States to lecture about the plight of the Vietnamese people, he was warned not to return to Vietnam. He has been living in exile since then. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967, and led the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969.
Thich Nhat Hanh now lives in Southern France where he founded the Plum Village retreat center in 1982. He still lectures widely, teaches, and writes
“My thoughts are always in a turmoil over the fact most of us should know but don’t recognize the needs of the physical Earth and what needs to be done to save it. Man, he gets what he asks for, no more, no less. It’s great there are people who are concerned with helping those who are in need but, what good is it if the Earth in the end, does not survive?”-SpaceTheFinalFrontier
Comments (17)
hmm i like this post.
I’m not sure if this post is apropo of my previous question or not… but it seems to answer it well. (Too well for coincidence, me thinks) Thank you… whether it was in deliberate intention (being the eternal educator, you… giving me the sources where it could be found) or not… just happy coincidence… the outcome is the same. *happy vegimite*
If your post was prompted by my question… especially grateful thanks… considering the lateness you stayed up to complete it. *huggles* Thank you, Doug.
i like your new look, its very ZEN!
danke fur deine comment , das war sehr nett :love:
a bodhi trail? heh heh
i was meditating on the word belief-saw be leaf
nice time o’post…
this post reminds me of somethin…
what?!…i find i just dont know…wink
The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. — Thich Nhat Hanh
So many ppl say in so many ways, its in the listening, not the talking.
We all seem to be on the same wavelenght today…even SDJ:lol:
You MIGHT be getting another genreation of ERers today:shysmile:
thanks for this glimpse into better ways of knowing. beautiful site.
Your posts always have a way of commenting on my thoughts….:)
you have entries on the page that are really fine. This one and the Tao caught my eye althoug the others I read as well. I read the Tom Dooley books before the conflict in Vietnam really, really came to the forefront of the world. The books were written to help it to find it’s place as it needed a lot of help for the people. No one was safe there even then. This man deserves to be on the Nobel Prize winners list as to deal with that country had to take super human efforts and the dangers exist there still to this day. I give the peace keepers a lot of credit as they are working in a world that is fighting them all the way.
My thoughts are always in a turmoil over the fact most of us should know but don’t recognize the needs of the physical Earth and what needs to be done to save it. Man, he gets what he asks for, no more, no less. It’s great there are people who are concerned with helping those who are in need but, what good is it if the Earth in the end, does not survive?
love this post…it summed up what i’m trying to deal with at the moment..finding peace within myself and within the moments…i’ve read several books by the Dali Lama, one of my most favorites, and he talks about peace and living it everyday, in every moment, and living simply, from this all good things will come…thanks for a great post, it made my day
I lo:heartbeat:e that painting of the Buddha by Odilon Redon! (the first image on your post) A poster of it hangs over the changing table in my son’s room. I stare at Buddha every time I change a smelly booty! :spinning:
lo :heartbeat: e!
:spinning:
:giggle:
I have to admit to that word (scared, scary, frightened) but we have no choice but to face the realities of what is. We can hide as individuals or, we can be strong as a unit. I find it all very scary as well but will we be less scared if we do nothing and then be worse off for it? If the world does not face up to the realities of what some have in store for it, what then? Is it best to go down as the Hitlers of the world tried to do to the Jews or is it best to go down fighting for something better. Death will come to many no matter the choice but there is honor in trying for something better, in my eyes. Even Christ displayed temper at the wrongs of his day.
Nice post… I enjoyed it
still :spinning: