Clips / Can you do something fast mindfully?

Thich Nhat Hanh

When you come to Blue Cliff, you can see the monks and the nuns playing basketball, table tennis. They can do like you do in the world and when they cross the street, they have to go fast.

They know how to do that. Otherwise they will be run over by vehicles.

And from time to time it rains during walking meditation.

And instead of walking slowly, they begin to run and maybe 1000 people run after Thay.

We call it “running meditation”. It’s possible to run mindfully.

The practice is to be mindful. You can walk slowly or you can run fast. The question is not to be slow or to be fast. The question is whether you are mindful.

But for beginners, to do slowly is more easy to be mindful. And after that, you can do fast, and you can still maintain your mindfulness.

When you do things quickly without mindfulness, you lose yourself easily. That’s not good.

So you have to learn how to do slowly first in order for mindfulness to be possible.

And after that, you can do much more quickly and essential is that you don’t lose yourself. Even if you are in situations where you have to do things very quickly.

So the conclusion is that it’s not a problem of being slow or quick. The problem is about to be mindful or not to be mindful.

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— Discover more...

Touching Peace | An Evening With Thich Nhat Hanh

A lovely public talk by Thay offered in Berkeley, California, in the late 1980’s, introduced by poet and environmental activist Joanna Macy. You can support us by: – donating: https://plumvillage.org/support – helping to caption & translate: https://amara.org/en/profiles/videos/plumvillage/ or http://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UCcv7KJIAsiddB2YRegvrF7g Help us caption & translate this video! https://amara.org/v/lNJg/

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Thich Nhat Hanh, interview Part 2 | Ram Dass Channel

Ram Dass interviews Thich Nhat Hanh at State of the Wold forum. Thich Nhat Hanh talks about using mindfulness to take tender loving care of our anger. Being aware and mindful of our breathing helps us to take good care of our emotions. Our anger is like a flower...

Thich Nhat Hanh

October 1, 1995

Thich Nhat Hanh, interview Part 1 | Ram Dass Channel

Ram Dass interviews Thich Nhat Hanh at State of the Wold forum. Thich Nhat Hanh talks about using mindfulness to take tender loving care of our anger. Being aware and mindful of our breathing helps us to take good care of our emotions. Our anger is like a flower...

Thich Nhat Hanh

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What is Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh January 15, 2020

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