Monday, June 3, 2013
Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese monk who resides in his own retreat center/monastery called Plum Village in France. Exiled during the Vietnam War, in the 60's he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr. He has written more than a 100 books, and over 40 in English.
This is one of the shorter videos of Nhat Hanh on YouTube. In this video he talks about one of his most basic principles called "inter-being." It's very simple but often overlooked. It's an idea that really proves that nobody is alone, whether it be from the relationships between humans, or our relationships with non-human elements, like trees. Co-dependence.
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Thanks for posting this. Even just hearing him speak begins to center me and ground me. I'm starting to see "happiness" more as a practice, not feeling, even though that is initially how we recognize it or how it manifests. Perhaps it can be considered more of a reference for action or behavior, a way to change the way we think about ourselves and the world in moments where we begin to burn out.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people would be happier if they, in a sense, disengage from this programmed matrix; if they begin to understand things not in terms of the narratives of culture or human affairs, but in terms of a deeper sense of natural processes, matter and energy, sensorial experiences, etc. then se can begin to see our cultural eyeglasses in relation to all, instead of through them. Perhaps this is what is meant by mindfulness?
If "solids" do not empirically exist, if everything is composed of smaller and smaller units of matter and energy, then what we see is not actually how things are, right? Which means we are back again on the question of representation and the conditioning of language and perception. Everything is composed of vibration that our human faculties process into recognizable form and figure. So every moment, is a moment of creation, the challenge is navigate the paradigms that solidify one way to see and be.
When I say "disengage," I mean not necessarily drop out and become a hermit, but activate a distance between that immanent essence that is, and the world of particulars that make up the current perceptible reality we live.
Sorry for this incoherent stream-of-consciousness ramble, but I've been meaning to throw some of these ideas on the table, maybe there are some interesting connections to make. Starting to see a new configuration of things in my life...
I think I understand what you're saying about happiness; that it is more of a process that needs work outside of established cultural notions and perceive it differently, based more on sensorial experience, like you suggest. In this sense, I think we are looking at happiness with greater awareness. This is where "mindfulness" comes in. Thich Nhat Hanh describes it as savoring every moment with complete and ultimate awareness for all kinds of experience and how we perceive thee experiences: nature, walking, eating, breathing, etc. There is a video of Thich Nhat Hanh speaking about mindfulness in very simple terms, but I can't figure out how to post it here. Here's the url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD7i6VUOriI
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