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	# 2022-08-24 - For A Future To Be Possible by Thích Nhất Hạnh

	This book was a gift from a friend. I enjoyed the clear,
	plain-English writing. This book helped me gain a better
	understanding of a few things. For example, the reason why it is
	best to avoid discussions of ontotheology. I like that the author
	encouraged readers to think about nonviolence with more nuance.

	# Introduction

	Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Buddha offered certain
	guidelines, called the Five Wonderful Precepts, to his lay students
	to help them live peaceful, wholesome, and happy lives.

	I have translated these precepts for modern times as the Five
	Mindfulness Trainings because mindfulness is at the foundation of
	each of them. With mindfulness, we are aware of what is going on in
	our bodies, our feelings, our minds, and the world, and we avoid harm
	to ourselves and others.

	The Five Mindfulness Trainings are love itself. To love is to
	understand, protect, and bring well-being to the object of our love.
	The practice of the trainings accomplishes this.

	Many of today's problems did not exist at the time of the Buddha.
	Therefore, we have to look deeply together in order to develop the
	insights that will help us and our children find better ways to live
	wholesome, happy, and healthy lives.

	# The Five Mindfulness Trainings

	## First Mindfulness Training

	Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am
	committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the
	lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not
	to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of
	killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.

	## Second Mindfulness Training

	Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice,
	stealing, and oppression, I am committed to cultivating loving
	kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people,
	animals, plants, and minerals. I will practice generosity by sharing
	my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real
	need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that
	should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but
	I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the
	suffering of other species on Earth.

	## Third Mindfulness Training

	Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to
	cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety
	and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am
	determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a
	long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and
	others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments
	of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from
	sexual abuse and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.

	## Fourth Mindfulness Training

	Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability
	to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and
	deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and
	relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create
	happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with
	words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I will not spread
	news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or
	condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering
	words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the
	family or community to break. I am determined to make all efforts to
	reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

	## Fifth Mindfulness Training

	Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am
	committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for
	myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating,
	drinking, and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve
	peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in
	the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am
	determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest
	foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV
	programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware
	that damage to my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to
	betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations.
	I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in
	myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for
	society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for
	self-transformation and for the transformation of society.

	# The First Mindfulness Training: Reverence For Life

	To practice nonviolence, first of all we have to practice it within
	ourselves. In each of us, there is a certain amount of violence and
	a certain amount of nonviolence. Depending on our state of being,
	our response to things will be more or less nonviolent. Even if we
	take pride in being vegetarian, for example, we have to acknowledge
	that the water in which we boil our vegetables contains many tiny
	microorganisms. We cannot be completely nonviolent, but by being
	vegetarian, we are going in the direction of nonviolence. If we want
	to head north, we can use the North Star to guide us, but it is
	impossible to arrive at the North Star. Our effort is only to
	proceed in that direction.

	Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even army generals.

	Most important is to become nonviolence, so that when a situation
	presents itself, we will not create more suffering. To practice
	nonviolence, we need gentleness, loving kindness, compassion, joy,
	and equanimity directed to our bodies, our feelings, and other
	people. With mindfulness--the practice of peace--we can begin by
	working to transform the wars in ourselves.

	# The Second Mindfulness Training: Generosity

	Exploitation, social injustice, and stealing come in many forms.
	Oppression is one form of stealing that causes much suffering both
	here and in the Third World. The moment we vow to cultivate loving
	kindness, loving kindness is born in us, and we make every effort to
	stop exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression.

	It requires time to practice generosity. ... Time is for being alive,
	for sharing joy and happiness with others. The wealthy are often the
	least able to make others happy. Only those with time can do so.

	In Buddhism, we say there are three kinds of gifts. The first is the
	gift of material resources. The second is to help people rely on
	themselves, to offer them the technology and know-how to stand on
	their own feet. The third is the gift of non-fear. We are afraid of
	so many things. We feel insecure, afraid of being alone, afraid of
	sickness and dying. To help people not be destroyed by their fears,
	we practice the third kind of gift-giving.

	The Second Mindfulness Training is a deep practice. We speak of
	time, energy, and material resources, but time is not only for energy
	and material resources. Time is for being with others--being with a
	dying person or with someone who is suffering. Being really present
	for even five minutes can be a very important gift.

	# The Third Mindfulness Training: Sexual Responsibility

	"Responsibility" is the key word in the Third Mindfulness Training.
	We all need to respect, support, and protect each other as Dharma
	brothers and sisters. If we don't practice this mindfulness
	training, we may become irresponsible and create trouble in the
	community and in the community at large.

	# The Fourth Mindfulness Training: Deep Listening and Loving Speech

	We suffer from so many wars and conflicts. We surely have not
	cultivated the arts of listening and speaking. We don't know how to
	listen to each other. We have little ability to hold an intelligent
	or meaningful conversation.

	Unless we look deeply into ourselves, this practice will not be easy.
	If there is a lot of suffering in you, it is difficult to listen to
	other people or to say nice things to them. First you have to look
	deeply into the nature of your anger, despair, and suffering to free
	yourself, so you can be available to others.

	It is so important that we practice right speech with children,
	speech that inspires happiness, self-confidence, and hope in them.
	If you tell children they are good-for-nothing, they will suffer in
	the future. Always emphasize the positive, hopeful things with your
	children, and also with your spouse or partner.

	Reconciliation is a deep practice that we can do with our listening
	and our mindful speech. To reconcile means to bring peace and
	happiness to nations, people, and members of our family. In order to
	reconcile, you have to possess the art of deep listening, and you
	also have to master the art of loving speech. You have to refrain
	from aligning yourself with one party so that you are able to
	understand both parties. This is a difficult practice.

	# The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Diet for A Mindful Society

	In modern life, people think that their body belongs to them and they
	can do anything they want with it. "We have a right to live our own
	lives." When you make such a declaration, the law supports you.
	This is one of the manifestations of individualism. But, according
	to the teaching of emptiness, your body is not yours. Your body
	belongs to the ancestors, your parents, and future generations. It
	also belongs to society and to all the other living beings. All of
	them have come together to bring about the presence of this body--the
	trees, clouds, everything. To keep your body healthy is to express
	gratitude to the whole cosmos, to all ancestors, and also not to
	betray the future generations.

	We can have a careful diet for our body, and we can also have a
	careful diet for our consciousness, our mental health. We need to
	refrain from ingesting the kinds of intellectual "food" that bring
	toxins into our consciousness.

	The toxins around us can be overwhelming. There is so much violence,
	hatred, and fear in the media that surrounds us. If we spend one
	hour looking at a violent film, we will water the seeds of violence,
	hatred, and fear in us. We do that, and we let our children do that,
	too. ... We may have to label our [screens] the same way we have
	labeled cigarettes: WARNING: [SCREEN TIME] CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR
	HEALTH. That is the truth. We do not have to destroy our [screens];
	we only have to use [them] with wisdom and mindfulness.

	I propose a three-part practice to detoxify ourselves. First, look
	deeply into your body and your consciousness and identify the kinds
	of toxins that are already in you. We each have to be our own doctor
	not only for our bodies, but also for our minds. After we identify
	these toxins, we can try to expel them. One way is to drink a lot of
	water. Another is to practice massage, to encourage the blood to
	come to the spot where toxins are, so the blood can wash them away.
	A third is to breathe deeply air that is fresh and clean. This
	brings more oxygen into the blood and helps it expel toxins in our
	bodies. There are mechanisms in our bodies that try to neutralize
	and expel these substances, but our bodies may be too weak to do the
	job by themselves. While doing these things, we have to stop
	ingesting more toxins.

	At the same time, we look deep into our consciousness to see what
	kind of toxins are already here. Our happiness depends on our
	ability to transform them.

	The second step is to be mindful of what we are ingesting into our
	bodies and consciousness.

	The third part of the practice is to prescribe for yourself a kind of
	diet.

	We know that there are many items that are nutritious, healthy, and
	delightful that we can consume every day. By vowing to consume only
	items that preserve our well-being, peace, and joy, and the
	well-being, peace, and joy of our family and society, we need not
	deprive ourselves of the joys of living.

	Transforming the toxins in our collective consciousness is the true
	way to uproot war.

	A violent society produces violent police officers. A fearful
	society creates fearful soldiers. The problem is never "a few rotten
	apples." We have to change the society from its roots, which is our
	collective consciousness, where the root-energies of fear, anger,
	greed, and hatred lie.

	No one can practice the mindfulness trainings perfectly, including
	the Buddha. The vegetarian dishes that were offered to him were not
	entirely vegetarian. Boiled vegetables contain dead bacteria [and,
	statistically, insects]. We cannot practice the First Mindfulness
	Training or any of the mindfulness trainings perfectly. But because
	of the real danger in our society, because alcoholism and addictions
	have destroyed so many families, we have lived in a way that will
	eradicate or at least lessen that kind of damage.

	# The Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

	The Buddha is mindfulness itself; the Dharma is the way of
	understanding and love; and the Sangha is the community that supports
	our practice.

	We need impermanence and we should be happy to say, "Long live
	impermanence, so that life can be possible." Still, in the depths of
	our being, we yearn for permanence.

	In Buddhism there are two kinds of practice, devotional and
	transformational. To practice devotion is to rely primarily on the
	power of another, who may be a buddha or a god. To practice
	transformation is to rely more on yourself and the path you are
	following.

	When you say, "I take refuge in the Dharma," you are expressing
	confidence in the Dharma. You see the Dharma as something wholesome,
	and you want to orient yourself toward it. That is devotion. When
	you study and apply the Dharma in your daily life, that is
	transformational practice. In every religion, there is the
	distinction between devotional practice and transformational
	practice. [Faith vs. works. Bhakti vs. kriya. etc.]

	The Sangha is a community that practices the Dharma. A good Sangha
	expresses the Dharma. When we see a practicing Sangha that reveals
	some degree of peace, calm, happiness, and transformation, a faith
	and confidence arise in us. Imagine I am someone who has not had
	anything to believe in for a long time. I have had no peace. But
	suddenly I see a community of people who have transformed themselves
	to some extent through the practice. Now I have faith and
	confidence, and that brings me some degree of peace. Devotion in
	Buddhism is not accepting a theory without touching the reality.

	The idea of coming, going, being, and nonbeing are representations
	and concepts to be extinguished. If there is something you cannot
	talk about, it is best not to talk about it. Wittgenstein said the
	same thing in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: "Concerning that
	which cannot be talked about, we should not say anything." We cannot
	talk about it, but we can experience it. We can experience the
	non-born, non-dying, non-beginning, non-ending, because it is reality
	itself. The way to experience it is to abandon our habit of
	perceiving everything through concepts and representations.
	Theologians have spent thousands of years talking about God as one
	representation. This is called ontotheology, and it is talking about
	what we should not talk about.

	# Appendix 1: Frequently Asked Questions

	Question: I was born a Christian. Do I have to abandon my faith to
	receive the Five Mindfulness Trainings formally?

	Response: A tree that has no root cannot survive; you cannot grow
	well spiritually if you have no roots. You should not abandon your
	root religion. Please practice mindfulness as a base with the Five
	Mindfulness Trainings as guidelines. With mindfulness you can look
	deeply into your root tradition and discover many wonderful jewels in
	it. You might rediscover guidelines within your own tradition that
	you can share with both Christian and non-Christian friends.

	author: Nhất Hạnh, Thích
	detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Thích_Nhất_Hạnh
	LOC: BQ549 .F67
	tags: book,non-fiction,spirit
	title: For A Future To Be Possible

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	book
	non-fiction
	spirit