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Touching Peace with the Five Inner Powers
Years ago I wrote Touching Peace to show that peace is already in us and around us; touching peace means becoming peace. Habit energies—perceptions, feelings, thoughts—act as obstacles, creating walls between ourselves and others and giving rise to fear, anger, discrimination, and despair. Recognizing these wrong perceptions (the teaching of Right View) frees us to touch peace.
Sitting, walking, eating, and drinking tea can each be deeply nourishing and healing when we remove worries, fear, and anger. With freedom from wrong views we can
- enjoy sitting down fully present,
- eat breakfast as a moment of healing with friends,
- walk every step with joy at being alive,
- hold and taste tea as a miracle of mindfulness.
The Buddha showed five sources of energy (powers) inherent in us that we must learn to tap into:
- Mindfulness (niệm): brings mind and body together in the here and now
- Confidence (faith): trust in our body’s and mind’s power to heal
- Concentration: focus that burns away afflictions and brings insight
- Diligence (tấn): artful practice to water and sustain wholesome seeds of joy and compassion
- Insight (prajñāpāramitā, Right View): breakthrough understanding that removes wrong views and liberates the mind
