Happiness is mindfulness
Lessons from Thich Nhat Hanh, the father of the Mindfulness movement.
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Lessons from Thich Nhat Hanh
Find time for leisure in your daily life for without it you’ll never find peace. Many of us are over-scheduled, even our children are over-scheduled. We think keeping busy will satisfy us, but our constant busyness is one of the reasons we suffer from stress and depression. We have pushed ourselves to work too hard and we have pushed our children to work too hard. This is not civilization. We have to change the situation.
In solitude you’re able to fill your cup up with the water of life. Without the capacity for being alone, we become poorer and poorer. We don’t have enough nourishment for ourselves, and we don’t have much to offer others. Learning to live in solitude is very important.
You must live in community because only through it can you see past the illusion of the otherness of your neighbour. Practicing mindfulness, we begin to see our connection with other human beings. To flourish in our own practice and to support others, we need a community.
If you struggle with meditation, then implement mindfulness in the small activities in your life. Walking meditation is walking just to enjoy walking. Walking without arriving, that is the technique.
Wake up from the dream that tomorrow is real. The present moment is the only moment that is real. Your most important task is to be here and now and enjoy the present moment.
You can’t lead others if your life is filled with hypocrisy. If you are not truly present in the here and the now, you can’t be a good bell master.
It’s okay to pause in the middle of your stressful day to go for a short walk. The practice of mindfulness should not be tiring, rather it should be energizing. But when we recognize that we are tired, we should find every means possible to rest… practicing with a tired body and mind doesn’t help; it can cause more problems. To take care of ourselves is to take care of our whole community. Resting may mean we stop what we’re doing and take a five-minute walk outside, or we go on a fast for a day or two, or it may mean we practice silence for a period.
Listen to my episode here or find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Four things I enjoyed reading this past week
This superb essay by Gurwinder on the dangers of gamification. And why you should choose to play long-term games that prioritize positive-sum and are atelic by nature.
Hugh Hunter’s essay on Saint Thomas the Apostle. (You can listen to this essay by finding ‘Manly Saints’ on Spotify or Apple Podcast):
Karen Stiller’s beautiful essay:
I listened to this episode on Chris Best’s podcast, the Founder of Substack, where he interviewed Dwarkesh Patel, an up-and-coming podcaster. A few insightful comments were on how viewing podcasting and substack blogs as a “startup” changes how you approach the craft itself. Patel is know for his interviews with Zuckerberg and Bezos:
Till next week!
Thanks for the shoutout, IJ!
Similar to a Note I posted a few weeks ago, “Appreciation is mindfulness.” Nice article. ♥️