I’ve read most of Thich Nhat Hahn’s books. He is the Vietnamese Buddhist Monk who was banned from ever going back to his country because of his stand against the Vietnamese War.
This latest book,
“The Art of Power,” written in Thich’s 90th decade, is honest and gets to the heart of what ails human kind in the beginning of the 21st century.
The book also addresses what can set us free.
The power that Thich refers to are five in number.
1) The power of faith; this power is rooted as a confidence you develop within yourself that you have the capacity to be a Buddha, Christ or Krishna. You have the power to transform and to heal.
You develop a path to follow and you stay on it. You bring others with you who have the desire to follow the same path.
The path is a metaphor for a strong faith that where you are going is exactly where you are meant to go.
2) The power of diligence; This power refers to the act of returning to our best and our highest selves, by nurturing those seeds that bloom with love, compassion and patience.
When negative vibrations arise, we do not water those seeds. We learn to stop them in their tracks, by nurturing instead the best we have to offer.
Thich suggests that we do not watch violent TV, movies or belabor the negativity that appears to be happening in the world.
We must be careful not to give these vibrations a chance to flower and take over consciousness.
This requires diligence and a community of like minded people to help guide the process.
Skillfulness in this way creates mindfulness, or living in the present moment, called true diligence, in the Buddhist tradition. Sound for healing