“…It is not exactly a traditional Sunday stroll in the English countryside as 84-year-old Vietnamese zen master Thich Nhat Hanh leads nearly a thousand people through the rolling Nottinghamshire hills in walking meditation.
The silent procession takes on the shape of a snake as it wends its way extremely slowly through a forest glade and an apple orchard.
The assembled throng are asked to deeply experience each step they take on the earth … in order to be mindful in the present moment.
Thay, as he is known, steps off the path into a field of tall grass and sits quietly in meditation.
He exudes a sense of serenity … born of his 68 years practice as a monk.
Despite having hundreds of thousands of followers around the world … and being viewed with the same reverence as the Dalai Lama …
… Thay is little known to the general public.
He has chosen to shun the limelight and avoid the shimmer of celebrity endorsement in order to focus on building communities around the world that can demonstrate his ethical approach to life.
There are monasteries currently in Germany, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
He is seeking to create a spiritual revival that replaces our consumption-based lives …
… with a return to a simpler, kinder world based on deep respect for each other and the environment.
He rarely gives interviews but recognises that the enormous challenges facing the world, combined with his own increasing age and frailty …
… means it is important to use what time and energy he has left to contribute what he can to re-energising society and protecting the planet.
For a man of his age, Thay keeps to a punishing schedule.
After having lectured to thousands at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, Thay has come to Nottingham for a five day retreat ..
…. then goes on to a three month tour of Asia, before returning for a winter retreat at his Plum Village community in France …
… where he has lived in exile for more than 40 years.
Thay, a prolific author with more than 85 titles under his belt, has taken a particular interest in climate change …
… and recently published the best-selling book ‘The World We Have – A Buddhist approach to peace and ecology.’
Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption
In it, he writes: “The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption.
We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties.
Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.”
In his only interview in the UK, Thay calls on journalists to play their part in preventing the destruction of our civilisation …
… and calls on corporations to move away from their focus on profits to the wellbeing of society.
He says that it is an ill-conceived idea that the solution to global warming lies in technological advances.
While science is important, even more so is dealing with the root cause of our destructive behaviour:
“The spiritual crisis of the West is the cause for the many sufferings we encounter.
Because of our dualistic thinking that god and the kingdom of god is outside of us and in the future -
- we don’t know that god’s true nature is in every one of us.
So we need to put god back into the right place … within ourselves.
It is like when the wave knows that water is not outside of her.
“Everything we touch in our daily lives, including our body, is a miracle.
By putting the kingdom of god in the right place, it shows us it is possible to live happily right here, right now.
If we wake up to this, we do not have to run after the things we believe are crucial to our happiness like fame, power and sex.
If we stop creating despair and anger … we make the atmosphere healthy again.
“Maybe we have enough technology to save the planet … but it is not enough because the people are not ready.
This is why we need to focus on the other side of the problem …
… the pollution of the environment not in terms of carbon dioxide but the toxic atmosphere in which we live;…
… so many people getting sick, many children facing violence and despair and committing suicide.
Spiritual pollution
“We should speak more of spiritual pollution.
When we sit together and listen to the sound of the [meditation] bell at this retreat … we calm our body and mind.
We produce a very powerful and peaceful energy that can penetrate in every one of us.
So, conversely, the same thing is true with the collective energy of fear, anger and despair.
We create an atmosphere and environment that is destructive to all of us.
We don’t think enough about that … we only think about the physical environment.
“Our way of life, our style of living, is the cause of it.
We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination.
So when you attend a retreat you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.
“How can we change the atmosphere to get the energy of healing and transformation for us and our children?
When the children come to the retreat … they can relax because the adults are relaxed.
Here together we create a good environment … and that is a collective energy.”
Capitalism as a disease
Thay talks about capitalism as a disease that has now spread throughout the world … carried on the winds of globalisation:…
.. “We have constructed a system we cannot control.
It imposes itself on us … and we become its slaves and victims.”…”
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