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Question and Answers
Can Mindfulness Training Be Brought Into Elementary and High Schools To Prevent Violence?
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Business Retreat Questions and Answers
Business Retreat Questions and Answers
Thich Nhat Hanh
· October 31, 1999
· Plum Village, France
Not yet reviewed
The title, description and transcript may contain inaccuracies.
- I think the problem of my life is that I’m too occupied with calming my mind and not enough with analyzing my life; I see only problems, get depressed, and return to calming—how can I break this vicious circle?
- As a physician witnessing increasing commercialization of medicine leading to more greed and less compassion, what can we do to keep our noble intention alive and our hearts open?
- Although I try to live in the here and now, I find myself planning for the future and making present decisions for later—what is the key to preventing future concerns from interfering with living now?
- In a conversation of two or three people, I feel embarrassed by silence and try to break it with talk—what else can I do to manage silence?
- Have you had any thoughts about offering mindfulness training in elementary and high schools to reach future professionals and prevent violence?
- How does a young man know that he is on the right way with his ideas and visions concerning his business, and how will he find out whether he will be successful?
- What are the obstacles in our Western world that prevent this wisdom from spreading more quickly across society?
- How can we use our practice in a concrete way in civil disobedience to show those around us that violence is unacceptable?
- Insight is key and mindfulness and concentration are tools to access it—what practice conditions best facilitate the arising of insight?
- To work on my concentration, what would you recommend: daily sitting meditation or is mindful walking enough to integrate into daily life?
- What does awakening mean in practice, and how do we recognize its different levels?
- What do you think about psychotherapy as an aid to mindfulness practice or as an obstruction?
- What is your view on competition, and can it be good if it isn’t harmful to people?
- How can we share the mindful experience we’re having here when we return home to our families and businesses?
- I was impressed by your business language—what sources or methods do you use to learn business terminology and information?
- You mentioned the “finger” as a metaphor—could you explain its role in understanding our true nature and direction?
- How do we understand the origin of greed, and can we explore its roots through vipassanā?
- One of humanity’s major catastrophes is AIDS—do you see it as a punishment for not fulfilling the practice of mindfulness?
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Hi.
This
morning
you
talked
about
perhaps
reaching
the
businessman
or
the
person
earlier
in
life,
before
the
habit
energy
is
too
strong,
to
find
the
mindfulness
training.
And
I
was
wondering,
how
about
even
going
earlier?
Because
in
elementary
school
and
high
school,
where
the
future
children
will
be
politicians,
as
well
as
business
presidents,
and
also
doctors.
Have
you
had
any
thoughts
about
offering
mindfulness
training
in
schools?
And
the
window
of
opportunity
in
the
US
right
now,
with
the
shootings,
would
it
be
more
successful?
I
look
at
mindfulness
training
and
compassion
as
really
a
very
effective
way
to
combat
that.
And
I
was
wondering
what
your
thoughts
were.
Well,
it
is
our
intention
to
offer
mindfulness
practice
to
young
people
and
children,
and
we
have
done
that.
Every
summer,
children
come
to
Plum
Village
in
great
number
from
many
countries,
and
we
have
a
special
program
for
children.
These
programs
have
proved
to
be
very
effective;
the
children
love
it,
and
sometimes
they
help
the
adults
to
practice.
We
have
also
organized
mindfulness
retreats
for
children.
In
Santa
Barbara,
we
organized
two
times
already
a
practice
of
mindfulness
for
children.
Parents
can
come
to
support
and
profit
from
the
practice,
but
the
main
Sangha
is
children.
We
were
able
to
succeed
in
these
retreats
for
children
because
we
had
already
trained
a
number
of
children
in
retreats
and
in
Plum
Village.
If
you
want
to
organize
a
mindfulness
retreat
for
children,
you
have
to
get
a
core
community
of
children
who
know
already
the
practice
and
who
are
happy
with
the
retreat.
Even
if
they
live
far
away,
you
have
to
fly
them
in
in
order
to
constitute
a
core
Sangha
we
call
seed
children.
Seed
children.
And
when
we
have
twenty
or
thirty
of
them,
then
the
other
children
come,
they
will
just
follow,
and
the
teaching
and
the
practice
will
be
very
easy.
So
without
constituting
a
core
community
of
children,
organizing
retreat
for
children
will
be
very
difficult.
And
one
day
we
may
be
able
to
organize
retreat
for
children
a
little
bit
everywhere
in
Europe.
We
have
done
that
one
time
in
Karma
Ling,
a
Tibetan
Buddhist
center
near
Montpellier,
and
the
children
love
it
also.
The
new
children,
when
they
first
came,
they
say,
"Why
do
we
have
to
come
here?"
because
there
is
no
television,
there
is
no
electronic
games
and
things
like
that.
But
after
five
or
six
days
of
retreat,
they
love
it
so
much.
And
on
the
day
of
departure,
they
say,
"Why
do
we
have
to
go?"
So
it
has
proven
to
be
possible
to
offer
mindfulness
practice
for
children.
We
have
a
Dharma
teacher
who
lives
in
Toronto;
he
is
a
professor
of
mathematics.
And
after
his
retreat
from
Plum
Village,
he
came
home
to
his
school
and
began
to
apply
the
techniques
of
mindfulness
practice
in
his
class.
His
students
love
him
very
much.
The
day
he
went
into
his
class,
he
was
walking
mindfully.
And
he
picked
up
the
sponge
and
he
wiped
the
blackboard
mindfully,
slowly,
and
that
surprised
many
school
children.
They
said,
"Papa,
are
you
sick?"
"No,
I
am
not
sick.
I
am
practicing
wiping
the
blackboard
with
mindfulness."
And
he
took
the
chance
to
explain
to
the
children
what
is
mindfulness
practice.
And
then
he
proposed
to
the
school
children:
every
fifteen
minutes,
a
boy
would
clap
his
hands
two
times
like
this,
and
all
of
them
will
practice
mindful
breathing
and
smiling.
And
in
just
a
few
months,
the
atmosphere
in
the
class
changed
drastically.
They
are
very
happy,
so
that
in
other
classes
people
begin
to
adopt
the
same
kind
of
practice.
He
used
to
get
angry
very
easily.
I
heard
when
he
was
able
to
throw
a
piece
of
chalk
to
the
head
of
the
student
when
he
got
angry.
And
when
he
checked
the
exercises,
and
sometimes
he
was
angry
because
the
young
man
was
so
stupid,
he
said,
"You
are
stupid!"
But
after
that,
he
changed
drastically.
He
did
not
do
these
things
anymore.
Instead
of
writing
down
"You
are
stupid,"
he
wrote
like
this:
"You
do
not
understand.
It
is
my
fault.
I
did
not
explain
it
to
you
clearly
enough."
And
after
the
time
when
he
wanted
to
retire,
the
principal
of
his
school
asked
him
to
stay
on
for
another
three
years.
He
is
a
Dharma
teacher
who
lives
in
Canada.
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