Passion can be good, and compassion is very passionate. But in fact it’s very destructive, because you’re opposing. People are so convinced that anger and all this energy will produce change. So you don’t think anger is a healthy reaction right now? Phap Dung So the first thing in the practice that we learn from the Buddhist tradition is to come back and take care of our emotion. We make the wrong decisions if we base it on fear, anger, and wrong perception. Come back and find a place of calm and peace to cool the flame of emotion down.Īs a collective energy, fear and anger can be very destructive.

Because anything that comes from a place of fear and anxiety and anger will only make the fire worse. Take care of those emotions first it’s the priority. We see the mind like a house, so if your house is on fire, you need to take care of the fire, not to go look for the person that made the fire. What is the best way to manage deep uncertainty and fear in a moment like this? Phap Dung Many people feel very fearful and uncertain about what the future will hold - the harm that will come to America and the planet from new policies under President-elect Donald Trump. Our conversation, which happened over Skype, has been edited for length and clarity.Įver wonder how your mind works? Watch The Mind, Explained, our 5-part miniseries on the workings of the brain. Brother Phap Dung is Vietnamese American, and has lived at Plum Village for six years. I recently got in touch with one of his senior disciples to talk about the Buddha’s psychological teachings on fear, and we ended up discussing a great many other things. While he continues to lead Plum Village, the monastery and retreat center in southwest France he founded in 1982, he is still recovering and is not conducting interviews. In 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh, who is now 90 years old, had a stroke. He wrote a Zen response to terrorism, and the former chief climate negotiator for the UN credits him with helping her broker the Paris climate agreement. In the wake of 9/11, he spoke about compassion, and has lead retreats for Palestinians and Israelis, and American police officers. These days, he’s considered the father of “engaged Buddhism.” He cut his teeth doing human rights and reconciliation work during the Vietnam War, and then was nominated for a Nobel Prize by Martin Luther King Jr. With his 100+ books, he’s been an advocate for mindfulness at some of the most fractious moments of the past 50 years. Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the world’s most renowned Buddhist leaders, second only to the Dalai Lama in fame and influence.

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