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Transcript of Thich Nhat Hanh English Dharma Talks
26 Right Action: Waking Up to Loving Kindness
Published in the Mindfulness Bell, #14 Autumn 1995
Right Action is a
part of the Noble Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha. It includes, first of
all, the kinds of actions that can help humans and other living beings who are
being destroyed by war, political oppression, social injustice, and hunger. To
protect life, prevent war, and serve living beings, we need to cultivate our
energy of loving kindness.
Loving kindness
should be practiced every day. Suppose you have a transistor radio. To tune
into the radio station you like, you need a battery. In order to get linked to
the power of loving kindness of bodhisattvas, buddhas, and other great beings,
you need to tune in to the “station” of loving kindness that is being sent from
the ten directions. Then you only need to sit on the grass and practice
breathing and enjoying.
But many of us are
not capable of doing that because the feeling of loneliness, of being cut off
from the world, is so severe we cannot reach out. We do not realize that if we
are moved by the imminent death of an insect, if we see an insect suffering and
we do something to help, already this energy of loving kindness is in us. If we
take a small stick and help the insect out of the water, we can also reach out
to the cosmos. The energy of loving kindness in us becomes real, and we derive
a lot of joy from it.
The Fourth Precept of
the Order of Interbeing tells us to be aware of suffering in the world, not to
close our eyes before suffering. Touching those who suffer is one way to
generate the energy of compassion in us, and compassion will bring joy and
peace to ourselves and others. The more we generate the energy of loving
kindness in ourselves, the more we are able to receive the joy, peace, and love
of the buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout the cosmos. If you are too lonely,
it is because you have closed the door to the rest of the world.
Right Action is the
action of touching love and preventing harm. There are many things we can do.
We can protect life. We can practice generosity (dana). The first person who
receives something from an act of giving is the giver. The Buddha said, “After
meditating on the person at whom you are angry, if you cannot generate loving
kindness in yourself, send that person a gift.” Buy something or take something
beautiful from your home, wrap it beautifully, and send it to him or to her.
After that, you will feel better immediately, even before the gift is received.
Our tendency when we are angry is to say unkind things, but if we write or say
something positive about him or her, our resentment will simply vanish.
We seek pleasure in
many ways, but often our so-called pleasure is really the cause of our
suffering. Tourism is one example. The positive way of practicing tourism –
seeing new countries, meeting new people, being in touch with cultures and
societies that differ from ours – is excellent. But there are those who visit
Thailand, the Philippines, or Malaysia just for the sake of consuming drugs and
hiring prostitutes. Western and Japanese businessmen go to Thailand and the
Philippines just to set up sex industries and use local people to run these
industries. In Thailand, at least 200,000 children are involved in the sex
industry. Because of poverty and social injustice, there are always people who
feel they have to do this out of desperation. In the Philippines, at least
100,000 children are in the sex industry and in Vietnam, 40,000. What can we do
to help them?
If we are caught up
in the situation of our own daily lives, we don’t have the time or energy to do
something to help these children. But if we can find a few minutes a day to
help these children, suddenly the windows open and we get more light and more
fresh air. We relieve our own difficult situation by performing an act of
generosity. Please discuss this situation with your Sangha and see if you can
do something to stop the waves of people who profit from the sex industry.
These are all acts of generosity, acts of protecting life. You don’t need to be
rich. You don’t need to spend months and years to do something. A few minutes a
day can already help. These acts will bring fresh air into your life, and your
feeling of loneliness will dissolve. You can be of help to many people in the
world who really suffer.
Right Action is also
the protection of the integrity of the individual, couples, and children.
Sexual misbehavior has broken so many families. Children who grow up in these
broken families become hungry ghosts. They don’t believe in their parents
because their parents are not happy. Young people have told me that the
greatest gift their parents can give them is their parents’ own happiness.
There has been so much suffering because people do not practice sexual
responsibility. Do you know enough about the way to practice Right Action to
prevent breaking up families and creating hungry ghosts? A child who is
sexually abused will suffer all his or her whole life. Those who have been
sexually abused have the capacity to become bodhisattvas, helping many
children. Your mind of love can transform your own grief and pain. Right Action
frees you and those around you. You may think you are practicing to help others
around you, but, at the same time, you are rescuing yourself.
Right Action is also
the practice of mindful consuming, bringing to your body and mind only the
kinds of food that are safe and healthy. Mindful eating, mindful drinking, not
eating things that create toxins in your body, not using alcohol or drugs, you
practice for yourself, your family, and your society. A Sangha can help a lot.
One man who came to
Plum Village told me that he had been struggling to stop smoking for years, but
he could not. After he came to Plum Village, he stopped smoking immediately
because the group energy was so strong. “No one is smoking here. Why should I?”
He just stopped. Sangha is very important. Collective group energy can help us
practice mindful consumption.
Right Action is also
linked to Right Livelihood. There are those who earn their living by way of
wrong action – manufacturing weapons, killing, depriving others of their chance
to live, destroying the environment, exploiting nature and people, including
children. There are those who earn their living by producing items that bring
us toxins. They may earn a lot of money, but it is wrong livelihood. We have to
be mindful to protect ourselves from their wrong livelihood.
Even when we are
trying to go in the direction of peace and enlightenment, our effort may also
be going in the other direction, if we don’t have Right View or Right Thinking,
and are not practicing Right Speech, Right Action, of Right Livelihood. That is
why our effort is not Right Effort. If you teach the Heart Sutra, and do not
have a deep understanding of it, you are not practicing Right Speech. When you
practice sitting and walking meditation in ways that cause your body and mind
to suffer, your effort will not be Right Effort, because it is not based on
Right View. Your practice should be intelligent, based on Right Understanding
of the teaching. It is not because you practice hard that you can say you are
practicing Right Effort.
There was a monk
practicing sitting meditation very hard, day and night. He thought he was
practicing the hardest of anyone, and he was very proud of his practice. He sat
like a rock day and night, but he did not get any transformation. His teacher
saw him there and asked, “Why are you sitting in meditation?” The monk replied,
“In order to become a Buddha.” Thereupon his teacher picked up a tile and began
to polish it. The monk asked, “Why are you polishing that tile?” and his master
replied, “To make it into a mirror.” The monk said, “How can you make a tile
into a mirror?” and his teacher responded, “How can you become a Buddha by
practicing sitting meditation?”
To me, the practice
should be joyful and pleasant in order to be Right Effort. If you breathe in
and out and feel joy and peace, you are making Right Effort. If you suppress
yourself, if you suffer during your practice, you are probably not practicing
Right Effort. You have to examine your practice. Right Thinking, Right Speech,
Right Action, Right Livelihood, and Right Effort are manifested as the practice
of mindfulness in daily life. This is the teaching of engaged Buddhism – the
kind of Buddhism that is practiced in daily life, in society, in the family,
and not only in the monastery.
During the last few
months of his life, the Buddha talked about the Threefold Training –
sila(precepts), samadhi (concentration), and prajna (understanding).
Mindfulness is the source of all precepts: We are mindful of the suffering
caused by the destruction of life, so we practice protecting life; We are
mindful of the suffering caused by social injustice, so we practice generosity;
We are mindful of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, so we practice
responsibility; We are mindful of the suffering caused by divisive speech, so
we practice loving speech and deep listening; We are mindful of the destruction
caused by consuming toxins, so we practice mindful consuming. These Five
Precepts are a concrete expression of mindful living. The Threefold Training –
precepts, concentration, and understanding – helps us practice Right Thinking,
Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, and Right Effort.
In his first Dharma
talk, the Buddha taught the Noble Eightfold Path. When he was about to pass
away at the age of eighty, it was also the Eightfold Path that the Buddha
taught to his last disciples. The Noble Eightfold Path is the cream of the
Buddha’s teaching. The practice of the Five Precepts is very much connected to
his teaching. Not only is the practice of Right Action linked to the Five
Precepts, but the practice of Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Livelihood,
and Right Effort are also linked to all Five. If you practice, you will see for
yourself. The Five Precepts are connected to each link of the Eightfold Path.
We need Right Speech, Right Livelihood, and Right Action. Buddhism is already
engaged Buddhism. If it is not, it is not Buddhism. It is silly to create the
term engaged Buddhism, but in society where people misunderstand so greatly the
teaching of the Buddha, this term can play a role for a certain time. Whatever
we say, what is most important is that we practice.
This lecture will be
incorporated into The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh, to be
published by Parallax Press in early 1996.
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