Mindful Consumption: The Way Out for Us as a Society — Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
Please play video to see burnt-in English subtitles
Full talk’s original title: “Quy Nhơn – Sống Chăm Sóc Gia Đình và Xã Hội – Ngày 07 tháng 04 năm 2005”
Full talk originally posted: by Thich Nhat Hanh Library Archive Team, thuvien-thichnhathanh.org, date posted unknown
Talk given: April 07, 2005, in Quy Nhơn City, Bình Định Province, Central Vietnam
Excerpt’s length: 06 minutes 04 seconds
This is an excerpt from the Dharma talk given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh on April 07, 2005 in Quy Nhơn City, Bình Định Province, Central Vietnam.
To watch the full Dharma talk Take Care of Family & Society with English subtitles and transcript, please go here.
Transcript
In Buddhism, we learn that we can have happiness with adequate conditions for living. There’s a teaching of “knowing we have enough“. When we’re capable of building brotherhood and sisterhood, father-son relationships, teacher-student relationships,…, even when we run a less luxurious car, even when we eat a less sumptuous meal, happiness is still as great.
In Buddhism, we talk about the Pure Land, symbolizing a realm of happiness. In Plum Village, we practice living in the Pure Land of the Present Moment. All the miracles of life can be recognized and in touch with if we’re able to come home to this moment.
If we know how to build brotherhood and sisterhood, if we get nourished by brotherhood and sisterhood, by the happiness generated by brotherhood and sisterhood, we can live a simple yet content and happy life.
When we know how to live a simple life happily, we no longer want to exploit natural resources on planet Earth. We no longer pollute the environment, and we leave behind a heritage for our children.
So, knowing we’ve already had enough, being easily satisfied with what we have, having few desires and cravings, is a way of living that can save the planet and leave a better future for our children and grandchildren.
I see our way of living right now destroys not only nature but also humans. I heard that here in Bình Định, violent crimes among youths are getting increasingly serious.
Just this morning, I received a letter. In this letter, they said,
“Even at school, children as young as 14 or 15 years olds gang up, and come against each other in bloody street fights and killings. Over trivial things, they easily get into shouting matches.
Recently, on Monday the 4th of April, 2005, a tragedy happened at Trung Vuong Senior High. Over a trivial matter at a classmate’s birthday party, they carried knives & sickles to school, waited for the rival members to appear at the school gate, and stabbed their schoolmates many times to death.
This act of killing was brutal and cold-blooded which could only be found in professional killer movies.”
In the West, as well as in Asia, industrial development has given rise to such social evils.
Moreover, young people nowadays over-consume movies, magazines, and media products that have graphic scenes displaying violence and hostility, acts of revenge, and sensual images. That’s why our children have easily picked up the substance of desires and violence and aggression from the contents and images in these media products. That’s why these social evils happen to us in real life.
In Buddhism, we learn that we have to protect our body, heart and mind. When we eat and drink, we have to be careful and mindful of what we eat and drink so that we don’t bring toxins into our body. When we consume media products such as books, magazines, movies, videos, photos,…, we have to consume them mindfully.
If we consume media products that contain toxins like sensual stimulation, rage, revenge-seeking, violence,…, well, they become poisons in our heart and mind and in the hearts and minds of our children and grandchildren.
That’s why observing the fifth mindfulness training i.e. mindful consumption, can help keep us as a society from those social evils.
That’s why one of the things Shakyamuni Buddha taught that we should take seriously is we should never strengthen the potentialities, or water the seeds, of violence and aggression, of sensual stimulation and pleasures, of rage and revenge-seeking in us by way of consumption.
That’s why if we really want to protect our children and grandchildren, if we really want to protect our society, we have to go on the path of mindfulness, which means producing and consuming everything mindfully.
Teachers, educators, and politicians in our country must pay special attention to this matter if we don’t want our society to go from bad to worse.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Dalai Lama, bell hooks, Joanna Macy, Bill McKibben et al., 2019, True Peace Work: Essential Writings on Engaged Buddhism (second edition, edited by Parallax Press), California, USA: Parallax Press. [First edition titled “Engaged Buddhist Reader”, edited by Arnold Kotler].
References
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Dalai Lama, bell hooks, Joanna Macy, Bill McKibben et al., 2019, True Peace Work: Essential Writings on Engaged Buddhism (second edition, edited by Parallax Press), California, USA: Parallax Press. [First edition titled “Engaged Buddhist Reader”, edited by Arnold Kotler]. The reference materials come from Part V: Community, “Community as a Resource” by Thich Nhat Hanh.
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