Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet

If you don’t have silence in yourself, you cannot hear her call: the call of life. Your heart is calling you, but you don’t hear. You don’t have time to listen to your heart.

In Buddhism we often say that with our mind we create the world. Our perceptions are conditioned by language and culture and by society’s tendency to put reality into boxes and categories that simply don’t fit. These discriminating labels limit our clarity and our action to protect the planet and prevent us from living in harmony with each other and with the world.

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

When we ourselves suffer less we can be more helpful and we can help others to change themselves too. Peace, awakening, and enlightenment always begin with you. You are the one you need to count on.

Depending on our way of living now, their death can mean something. As we continue to live, they continue to live with us. We carry them all in us. With this insight of interbeing, we can have peace.

My teacher has done his best and I, as a teacher, have done my best, but there are things we have not done, and our students must do them for us. It’s very kind of you to help your teacher in you to evolve.

Doing so, you free yourself from discrimination—the discrimination that is the ground of all suffering.

Whose eyes are enjoying the sunset? Whose feet are walking? How many generations of ancestors are walking with you? What’s a lifetime? When did the chain of heat that is your bodily warmth first begin?

The stark truth is that the planet doesn’t need to be saved only once; it needs to be saved countless times, for eons to come. It’s impossible to save the planet once and for all, or on our own.

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

The future of the planet doesn’t depend solely on one person, but you have done your part. And that is why you can have peace.

I will eventually be separated from those I love. And so, have I lived today in such a way that I can truly cherish everything I have and everyone I love?

“When you can face the truth and fully accept reality as it is, you will have a breakthrough and be able to have peace.”

When peace and acceptance is born in our hearts, we realize we have nothing whatsoever to lose; we’re inspired to do whatever we can to help. In the light of the teachings on karma, whatever we think, say, and do in this moment will make a difference to the next moment, to this evening, to tomorrow, to the next generation.

It is only by having the courage to encounter our own suffering that we can generate the clarity and compassion we need to serve the world.

The moment you recognize the feeling and smile to it with love and care, embracing the fear with mindfulness, it will begin to change.

Don’t be afraid. The wave of emotion is like a storm, and it will go away after some time. You may breathe in for a count of six, seven, eight, or even ten seconds, and you breathe out for ten, twelve, fifteen seconds or more, without thinking.

We have to find a way to face our suffering and transform it into happiness and compassion, just as we use the place where we fall to help us stand up.

Taking refuge in our breathing, we allow the feeling to arise, stay for a while, evolve, and pass. We don’t deny it or try to change it in any way.

When suffering is emerging, adopt another attitude. Don’t try to run away. This is my recommendation. Stay where you are and welcome it, whether it is anger or frustration or a longing for something that is not satisfied.

Every time we fall is an opportunity to stand up again—that’s the attitude of one who is active: every time I fall, I’ll stand up again so life can get better.

Bodhisattvas are not people who don’t have difficulties. Difficult moments may come, but bodhisattvas are not afraid because they know how to handle them.

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.

If you don’t have enough peace, understanding, and tolerance, or if you’re burdened by anger and anxiety, your action will have little value. And so, the quality of action depends on the quality of being.

But, in the ultimate dimension, you can do everything relaxingly and joyfully, with no worries at all. That is what it means to be “acting the non-acting action.” You are very active, but you’re so relaxed you seem to be doing nothing at all.

If we’re awakened, action will naturally take us. We can’t avoid it.

The important thing is to not lose ourselves in our action. We remain sovereign in every situation. We are at ease in ourselves, and we are free.

Practicing mindfulness can always be healing and nourishing, if we know how to be creative.

According to Master Linji, if, while walking or eating or going about your day, you can create even just one flash of mindfulness, that’s good enough. Just 1 percent success is good enough because that 1 percent can be the ground of many other percents.

In this way, obstacles are not really obstacles. They are an accelerator of wisdom, of aspiration.

And so, the distinction between the sacred and the profane is not absolute. We live in the world and what is so-called “worldly” can become spiritual once we bring the energy of awakening to it.

You greet life with a smile so you can really feel alive and feel the energy of being alive in you. You are generating the energy of mindfulness, and that makes you spiritual right away.

What is important is that energy is in you, and if you know how to cultivate it, you can make it manifest.

When you’re caught in the idea that this body is you, or this mind is you, you underestimate your value. But, when you can free yourself from the notion of self and see your body and mind as a stream of being of all your ancestors, you’ll begin to treat your body and mind with more respect.

Your ancestors in you all need love. So why deprive them of love? They are still alive in every cell of our body. Perhaps in their lifetime they did not get enough love. But now we have a chance to offer them love by loving and taking care of ourselves.

There may be work to be done. When is there not work to be done?

it’s up to us to assert our right to be free: to be a simple human enjoying being alive on a beautiful planet.

Discrimination itself is a kind of violence. When you discriminate, you don’t give the other person a chance; you don’t include them.

Don’t wait to be confronted by a difficult situation to decide whether to act violently or non-

Helping people transform discrimination, hatred, fear, and anger, before they become action, is non-violent action, and it’s something you can begin doing right now. Don’t wait to be confronted by a difficult situation to decide whether to act violently or non-violently.

Don’t ask for the absolute. You cannot be perfect. You do your best; that is what’s needed. What is important is that you’re determined to go in the direction of understanding and compassion.

We only have to do our best, and that is good enough.

In Buddhist meditation we train to be there for our suffering, anger, hatred, or despair. Allow the energy of mindfulness to gently embrace and penetrate whatever feeling is there. You allow it to be, you embrace it, and you help it transform.

Real protest is to help them wake up and take up a new direction. To do that is real action. We can do it by setting an example. You create a community of peace and true solidarity.

In Buddhism, the sword of insight is, first of all, to cut off the view, the label: in this case, that a person or a group of people is “evil.”

Our enemy is not other people. Our enemy is hatred, violence, discrimination, and fear.

It is they who are the victims of their ignorance and discrimination,

It is they who are the victims of their ignorance and discrimination, and they are the object of your work and practice.

But, if you are attached to one particular idea of happiness, it’s as though you have closed all the doors except one. And, because that particular door does not open, happiness cannot come to you. So, don’t close any door. Open all the doors.

Remove the idea of happiness you have, and happiness may come right away.

We should not be too sure of our ideas. We should be ready to let go of them. What we consider to be a misfortune may turn out to be a fortune later on. It depends on our way of handling the situation.

Everything you are looking for, everything you want to experience, must all happen in the present moment.

notion. If we grasp onto the future, we may lose the present moment. And, if we lose the present moment, we lose everything—our happiness, freedom, peace, and joy.

When you have real freedom, even if the crowd is shouting or going in one direction, you can still be yourself.

We sit to be in touch with all the wonders of the cosmos, of life, in the present moment. There is no other aim. We just sit, and we don’t need to do anything.

Twenty or thirty minutes of sitting can be twenty or thirty minutes of taking care of the world, in the way its suffering is reflected in our own body and feelings. It takes courage.

We don’t sit to be a buddha, to be someone else, someone better, or someone different. We just sit to be ourselves, sitting.

Happiness doesn’t depend on external conditions alone; it depends on our way of looking at and seeing things. We can live more simply if we know how to cherish the conditions we have.

Living more simply can give us tremendous courage to speak the truth. When we speak out, we do so out of love and compassion. You have the courage to speak out because you’re not afraid of losing anything. You are free.

Our daily life should be an offering. You don’t need a lot of money to make an offering; your own peace and happiness are already a big gift for others.

Your presence—your way of being—is what you offer every minute, every hour of the

Your presence—your way of being—is what you offer every minute, every hour of the day.

Our practice is to live our daily life in such a way that every act becomes an act of love.

What is essential is that, while you do it, you enjoy it and you are fully offering your presence to the world and to yourself. Anything is good. It depends on how you do it, not what you do.

Burnout is a reality. It’s not worth it. Life is a gift and we need to make the most of that gift. We need time to live. We need to avoid a kind of dualistic thinking that “work” is one thing and “life” is another thing.

It is a question of quality not quantity, of how you live, not how much you do or how efficient you are.

We should avoid making decisions when our mind is not free. Even if people pressure us, we should refuse because a wrong decision can make ourselves and others suffer for a long time.

The idea is not to get lost in fear or uncertainty about the future but to be grounded in the present moment and bring the future into the present moment and have a deep look.

Right action is motivated by compassion. And, if everything you do to arrive at your success is right action, then you have nothing to fear because that right action is generating the energy of goodness, of compassion, of peace.

Taking care of what you think, say, and do, there is no more fear of failure.

If you do not know how to live each moment deeply, life can pass you by like a dream, very quickly, perhaps even quicker than the time it takes to cook a pot of millet.

Look deeply into your ambitions and plans, to see if it’s worth spending all your life and your energy chasing after those things you crave.

The great Zen masters tell us that, if only we take the time to be still and listen, we will know the path we need to take.

The words can point the way, yes, but they can’t walk the path for us.

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to practicing generosity in my thinking,

The well-being of the planet depends on the well-being of your own body and mind, just as the well-being of your mind and body depends on the well-being of the planet.

“When we suffer, we blame the outside, and we blame other people we think make us suffer. But, looking deeply, we find out that our enemy number one is ourselves.”

if our deepest desire is to learn how to embrace and transform our suffering, so we can suffer less and help others do the same—then that is good.

What’s important is, in every situation, to find a way to cultivate compassion, calm, and clarity. If these can be kept alive, then there is hope. The worst enemy is despair. We must keep hoping.

Another way to understand it is like this: you are already what you want to become. Don’t underestimate yourself. In this very moment, everything is here.

There is no practice that leads to healing and transformation; the practice should be healing and transformation itself.

There’s a dynamism in the meditator’s understanding of the world. Insight and understanding suffering gives rise to compassion and a deep wish to protect and nurture life.

If you’re not free yet, if you haven’t got the freedom, peace, and healing you’re looking for, it’s because you don’t want it enough yet.

Compassion protects you and prevents what the other person is saying from triggering irritation and anger in you. One hour of listening like that can help the other person suffer much less and can help restore communication.

It’s not important whether what they are saying is right or wrong. What is important is to give them a chance to unburden themselves.

Listening is a training, a practice. It’s a gift we offer the other person, and it’s a gift we offer ourselves: to expand our perspective and encounter the human being in front of us in a deep way.

Breathing mindfully as we listen, we soon discover that our breathing contains within it the trace of our reactions. By taking care of our breathing, we have a chance to recognize, receive, and embrace any reactions right away as they arise.

We don’t repress any feelings that come up for us; we simply take note of them and embrace them, knowing we can always look into them later after we have finished listening.

But, in deep, compassionate listening, our task is above all to allow the other person to say everything they have to say. It’s our chance to hear what they really think, in their heart of hearts.

words. I find that the best way I can listen to difficult, bitter, or angry speech is to listen to the pain behind the words, to the feeling the person is trying to articulate, however clumsily they’re doing

I find that the best way I can listen to difficult, bitter, or angry speech is to listen to the pain behind the words, to the feeling the person is trying to articulate, however clumsily they’re doing it. Thay described the action of the bodhisattva of deep listening, Avalokiteshvara, as listening “so attentively that we will be able to hear what the other person is saying, and also what is being left unsaid.”

Are we really ready to listen? Do we have enough space inside? If we’re not in the right frame of mind to listen, it is better to say so, and offer to listen deeply another time. We have the right to respect our own limits too.

The second thing you can say is “Please know I’m doing my best.” It means “I’m trying not to say anything or do anything out of anger because I know that, if I do, it will only create more suffering. I am doing my best to embrace my anger, and look deeply into it.”

Expressing yourself is an art. If you still have too much anger, too much energy of blaming and punishing, you’ll only widen the division.

But, with this way of thinking, we will surely fail. The Buddha teaches us that first we have to win ourselves, meaning we have to free ourselves from resentment, hatred, and wrong perceptions.

But, first, there must be the change within your heart: the intention to include others, to give them a chance. With that intention, you suffer less right away; you no longer have the desire to eliminate.

Which side does not have hatred? Which side does not have misunderstanding?

Thay and Dr. King shared the insight that it is not other people who are our enemies; instead, our enemies are anger, resentment, hatred, fear, and discrimination.

“love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that person does.”

“if I am labeling myself as a victim, I am immediately labeling somebody else a perpetrator.”

The moment that you engage in the blaming game and demonizing a person, a company, or a sector, you’ve lost your game.

Understanding is the very foundation of love; it’s another word for love because, once we understand, we already begin to

Understanding is the very foundation of love; it’s another word for love because, once we understand, we already begin to love.

And, once you are truly present, you can offer that presence to those you love. If you are not there, how can you love?

Meditation is to be truly present, to look deeply, and to recognize the people and wonders around us.

How can I generate—how can I create—the energy of peace, understanding, and love?

It’s important to remember that you are made of non-you elements. There may be seeds of actions that were planted in your lifetime, and other seeds that were planted long before.

We don’t need to buy anything to bring them joy; we simply need to offer our full presence.

To love means to be there for the one you love. We don’t need to buy anything to bring them joy; we simply need to offer our full presence.

Your suffering is their suffering; their happiness is your happiness. You can’t say, “That’s your problem.” There’s no individual happiness; there’s no individual suffering. This is the meaning of no-self.

You and the person you love are one. Your suffering is their suffering; their happiness is your happiness. You can’t say, “That’s your problem.” There’s no individual happiness; there’s no individual suffering. This is the meaning of no-self.

May I know how to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.

You don’t have to push your loneliness away. Your loneliness is there, and you accept it. You breathe in and out to be truly there and you embrace your loneliness.

To love means to be there and listen deeply to see the suffering and loneliness of the other person.

True love should always include a sense of reverence and respect.

If we don’t take time to observe ourselves, we won’t understand who we are, and we won’t be able to see our strengths and weaknesses, and we’ll have a wrong perception of ourselves. And yet we want the other person to have a good, correct perception of us!

We can say, “I know I still haven’t understood myself completely, so, if you’ve seen something, please let me know. Please help me understand myself better, so I can then also understand you.”

If you don’t understand their deepest desire and motivation, if you don’t feel you can support them in realizing that intention, you won’t be able to be a true friend.

There should be a perfect harmony in the way you live and the way you love. You have to be able to talk with your beloved about the way you earn your living, your worries, your concerns about society or the planet.

Your purpose is to get out of the forest, it’s not to arrive at the North Star. So, having a path, a direction to go in, is what we need most. And then we have nothing more to fear.

We need to be ready to let go of what we already know in order to be open to others’ insights and experiences.

Means and ends go together; we don’t just “speak the truth” (which is only our perception of the truth) without responsibility for the consequences.

Preserving ourselves is a way to preserve our opportunity to serve others.

As a meditator, a practitioner of mindfulness, it is with wisdom that you can solve your difficulties. You become rich in insight, rich in freedom. Nobody can steal it from you; nobody can use a gun to rob you of your wisdom.

You may be “poor” but you have chosen to be poor. In fact, you are very rich because everything belongs to you—the sunshine, the blue sky, the birdsong, the mountains.

But if you try to get power by destroying your own values, then you lose yourself and you lose the trust of your people. That is why we should not try to get power at any cost.

Right mindfulness is, first of all, not a tool or an instrument but a path. Right mindfulness is not a means that can be used to arrive at an

Right mindfulness is, first of all, not a tool or an instrument but a path. Right mindfulness is not a means that can be used to arrive at an end.

We need to keep reminding ourselves to practice in such a way that we get peace, calm, and joy right away.

And we should always remember that what we call “Buddhism” is made only of non-Buddhist elements.

Together, you can do it. Do not be a lone warrior. Find your allies and build community wherever you are.