Thich Nhat Hanh Chapter Summary

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Buddhist, talks about ecology and Buddhism in his book ‘The World We Have, A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology’. Hanh criticizes the way we are consuming the resources of our mother earth and fears the survival of next generations. Mother earth is suffering from natural disasters which are more or less the results of our consumption patterns. Human beings have affected our mother earth in various ways and as a result the fear of survival has emerged. Ecological behavior is expected from each human being to survive peacefully.
Hanh uses some techniques from Buddhism and gives suggestions to us, so that we can involve in the process of saving our mother earth. The most important suggestion given by Hanh is ‘mindful

He asks us to be attentive and mindful about impact of every action we undertake. It is indeed true; every person must mindfully measure the impact of our actions (Jo. Confino, 2012). I strongly agree with the idea of mindfulness. It is high time that we realize the sufferings of our mother earth. The floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts are all result of global warming. Human beings are the largest contributors of global warming and exploitation of our own environment. As a result we are suffering due to natural disasters. Hence, it is appropriate to judge our actions and work

This would foster a feeling of belongingness. All the human beings are children of our mother earth and this idea when understood will encourage brotherhood and sisterhood. It is crucial to realize this connectivity because it would stop us from directly or indirectly harming our brothers and sisters in some part of this world. While we eat, we must make proper choices because somewhere in some part of the world our brother’s and sisters are deprived of food. And our actions which harm the earth would one lead to the end of our civilization. Hence the book successfully appeals us take mindful actions and follow mindful consumption patterns to make this world a better place to