Buddhism, Peace, and Ecology [View All]

[mgc1961]

There is something extraordinarily child-like about the 84-year-old Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh.

To portray him out of context could make him appear naive and unworldly. It is therefore understandable that he does not like to be interviewed by journalists who have not already spent some time in his presence and meditated with him. Perhaps that is why refused on interview with the Daily Mirror after the paper apparently demanded that the piece be illustrated with a photo of him alongside a group of celebrities.

After having a rare personal audience with him for five days during a retreat in Nottingham which nearly a thousand other people took part in, I have come to recognise that his way of being could be an antidote to our politicised and intellectualised world.

He has an uncanny ability to help clear away the complexities of our lives by reminding us to think about the essence of who we are and offering some simple steps to challenge our habitualised problems and neuroticism.


Go to http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/02-7 to finish this morsel.