The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Spirituality is not religion. It is a path for us to generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply each moment of our life.

The spirit of practicing mindfulness, concentration, and insight in Buddhism is very close to the spirit of science. We don’t use expensive instruments but rather our clear mind and our stillness to look deeply and investigate reality for ourselves, with openness and non-discrimination.

The first wrong view we need to liberate ourselves from is the idea that we are a separate self cut off from the rest of the world.

The second wrong view that many of us hold is the view that we are only this body, and that when we die we cease to exist. This wrong view blinds us to all the ways in which we are interconnected with the world around us and the ways in which we continue after death.

to help liberate us from these three wrong views: the concentrations on emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness.

As you breathe in and out, imagine someone playing a very long note on a violin, drawing the bow back and forth across the string. The note sounds continuous. If you were to draw an image of your breath, it would look like a figure eight, not a straight line, because there is continuity as your breath flows in and out. Your breathing becomes the music itself. Breathing like this is mindfulness, and as you sustain mindfulness, that is concentration. Wherever there is concentration, there is insight—a breakthrough—bringing more peace, understanding, love, and joy into your life.

The insight of interbeing helps us touch this wisdom of non-discrimination. It sets us free. We no longer want to belong just to one geographical area or cultural identity. We see the presence of the whole cosmos in us. The more we look with the insight of emptiness, the more we discover and the deeper we understand. This naturally brings compassion, freedom, and non-fear.

One day a group of young people came to ask the Buddha, “Of all these teachers, whom should we believe?” “Don’t believe anything, not even what I tell you!” replied the Buddha. “Even if it’s an ancient teaching, even if it’s taught by a highly revered teacher. You should use your intelligence and critical mind to carefully examine everything you see or hear. And then put the teaching into practice to see if it helps liberate you from your suffering and your difficulties. If it does, you can believe in it.” If we want to be a soulmate of the Buddha, we need to have a discriminating, critical mind like this.

If we do not allow our beliefs to evolve, if we do not maintain an open mind, we risk waking up one day to discover that we have lost faith in what we once believed. This can be devastating. As practitioners of meditation, we should never accept anything on blind faith, regarding it as absolute, unchanging truth. We should investigate and observe reality with mindfulness and concentration, so our understanding and faith can deepen day by day. This is the kind of faith we cannot lose, because it is not based on ideas or beliefs but on experienced reality.

The spirit of Buddhism is very tolerant. We should always keep our hearts open to the people who have different views or beliefs. Practicing openness and non-attachment to views is fundamental in Buddhism. That is why, even though there are dozens of different schools of Buddhism, Buddhists have never waged a holy war against each other.

You browse through a family photo album and come across a photo of yourself as a young child. Where is that little child now? You know that it is you. You have the same name, and yet it doesn’t look like you. Are you still that child or are you someone else? This is a practice of contemplating your own signlessness. Today you look, speak, act, and think differently. Your form, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness are all very different. You are not fixed or permanent. So you are not the same person, but you are not a totally different person either. When you are no longer caught in specific images or appearances, you can see things more clearly. You can see that the little child is still alive in every cell of your body. It is possible to listen to and take care of the little boy or little girl in you at any time. You can invite that child to breathe with you, walk with you, and enjoy nature with you.

There is an intimate connection between birth and death. Without the one, we cannot have the other. As it says in the gospel, unless the seed dies, it could never bear fruit.

We have to learn to live our life deeply as a human being. We need to live every breath deeply, so that we have peace, joy, and freedom as we breathe.

People can steal your phone, computer, or money, but they can never steal your spiritual practice. It is always there to protect and nourish you.

When I met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the last time a year later, we spoke about our dreams of building community. He called it the “beloved community.” A beloved community is a community of people who share the same aspiration and want to support each other to realize that aspiration. If we want to grow on our spiritual path, we need a community and spiritual friends to support and nourish us. And in return, we support and nourish them, like cells in the same body. On our own, without a community, we cannot do much. We need a community of like-minded friends and colleagues to help us realize our deepest dreams.

We all want to produce thoughts of compassion, understanding, and love. When you are able to produce a thought of compassion and understanding, it is healing and nourishing for yourself and the world. Just as an acidic cloud produces acid rain, so will the energy of anger, fear, blaming, or discrimination produce a toxic environment for ourselves and others. Use your time wisely. Every moment it is possible to think, say, or do something that inspires hope, forgiveness, and compassion. You can do something to protect and help others and our world.

Your words can be beautiful gems, reaching across space and time to create mutual understanding and love.

To me, God is not outside us or outside reality. God is inside. God is not an external entity for us to seek, for us to believe in or not believe in. God, nirvana, the ultimate, is inherent in every one of us. The Kingdom of God is available in every moment. The question is whether we are available to it. With mindfulness, concentration, and insight, touching nirvana, touching our cosmic body or the Kingdom of God, becomes possible with every breath and every step.

To practice meditation means to have the time to look deeply and see these things.

Where are Jesus Christ and the Buddha? Where are love and compassion? They are here.

If we continue to hold on to a dream for something in the future, we lose the present moment. And if we lose the present, we lose everything. We lose freedom, peace, joy, and the opportunity to touch the Kingdom of God, to touch nirvana. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of a farmer who discovers treasure hidden in a field and returns home to sell everything he has so he can buy the field. That treasure is the Kingdom of God, which is found only in the present moment.

Every tree, every flower belongs to the Kingdom of God. If the dahlia in bloom does not belong to the Kingdom of God, where does it belong? If we want to have a relationship with God, if we want to understand God, all we need to do is behold the cypress tree on our path. Mindfulness helps us arrive in the present moment to see and hear the wonders of life—to see and hear God.