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Tech notes: lapel mic visible for the interviews and DT, waiting audio from that.

St Petersburg - Moscow

Thich Nhat Hanh · September 1, 1994 · Russia
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“I have arrived, I am home” is the practice of arrival in the here and the now, the true home where life is available. Mindfulness of presence lights up energy, making the present moment an anchor. Silence during meals is eloquent, helping one to be with food and the community. Regarding difficult decisions, the real problem is not the choice between options, but whether one can improve their way of being; without this, suffering continues regardless of the decision made. Mindfulness acts as a healer, allowing one to look deeply into the nature of suffering, hatred, anger, and fear.

The Five Wonderful Precepts are a concrete manifestation of mindful living, offering protection and leading to peace, joy, liberation, and awakening. The Five Precepts are:

  1. To cultivate compassion and learn to protect the lives of people, animals, and plants.
  2. To cultivate loving kindness and learn to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals, practicing generosity.
  3. To cultivate responsibility and learn to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society.
  4. To cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve their suffering.
  5. To cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for oneself, the family, and the society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming.

Freedom and interbeing go together; just as a flower is made of non-flower elements like clouds and sunshine, it is impossible to be alone. Alienation from family, culture, and society leads to a state like hungry ghosts, starving for understanding and love. Understanding, or Prajna, is the foundation of love, known as Maitri and Karuna. True freedom is freedom from ignorance, not the license to destroy the body with alcohol or drugs, as the body belongs to ancestors and future generations. Education must descend from the head to the heart, teaching the art of being happy in the present moment. Habit energy pushes us to run away from internal conflicts through toxic consumption of media and conversation, but happiness is possible by practicing self-protection and stopping the course of destruction.

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