Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
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4.7 • 9 Ratings
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing. And at that moment you can have real communication with the Earth… We have to wake up together. And if we wake up together, then we have a chance. Our way of living our life and planning our future has led us into this situation. And now we need to look deeply to find a way out, not only as individuals, but as a collective, a species.”
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
We face a potent intersection of crises: ecological destruction, rising inequality, racial injustice, and the lasting impacts of a devastating pandemic. The situation is beyond urgent. To face these challenges, we need to find ways to strengthen our clarity, compassion, and courage to act.
Beloved Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is blazingly clear: there’s one thing we all have the power to change, which can make all the difference, and that is our mind. Our way of looking, seeing, and thinking determines every choice we make, the everyday actions we take or avoid, how we relate to those we love or oppose, and how we react in a crisis.
Mindfulness and the radical insights of Zen meditation can give us the strength and clarity we need to help create a regenerative world in which all life is respected. Filled with Thich Nhat Hanh’s inspiring meditations, Zen stories and experiences from his own activism, as well as commentary from Sister True Dedication, one of his students Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet shows us a new way of seeing and living that can bring healing and harmony to ourselves, our relationships, and the Earth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nhat Hanh (How to Relax), a prominent Buddhist monk and peace activist, who has written extensively on topics such as mindfulness, love, and creating peaceful communities, collects many of those teachings focused on finding calm and an optimistic way forward amidst the anxieties of climate change. With Sister True Dedication, a longtime acolyte, editing the essays and adding personal commentary, the book alternates between Buddhist parables, personal insights, and examples of the monk's teachings applied in difficult situations, such as a police officer showing compassion in a tense situation. Though many of the essays don't apply directly to climate change, the book encourages simple, non-consumptive lifestyles; respect for nature; and compassionate community-building—both as techniques for building a life of devotion and for combating environmental destruction. For instance, Nhat Hanh rails against the over-borrowing of modern societies as a large-scale form of change: "That is the miracle of mindfulness, concentration, and insight: realizing we can be happy with the conditions that are already available, that we don't need to strive to get more, exploiting the planet as we do so." Nhat Hanh's empowering voice and example will be valuable to those seeking wisdom in a frenetic, threatened world.
