𝘾 𝙖 𝙡 𝙢 🌼 A Pocket Guide To Breathe Easy

🍃🎥 Loneliness and the Illusion of Connection

I hope to curate more of these. This is a video from the Plum Village Monastery channel on YouTube. 

Plum Village, a monastic community in France, celebrated forty years in 2022. It was founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his global efforts for peace during the Vietnam War. Although he died in January 2022, his teachings live on through his students, their students, and the broad Zen Buddhist community, which includes this little corner of Wattpad!

Here's a teaching that hopefully helps you from the people that have helped me and so many. I highly recommend the channel. Plum Village hosts thousands of laypeople each year, and even offers online retreats to help people.

So here's the teaching. I'll add a few notes below.

My favorite quotes in this teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh are "Sitting down is an act of revolution" and "The way out is in."

We think that the only way to connect with the world is to connect with others, but it's important to go home and connect with ourselves. It's hard to stop moving, but we must. 

To help others, we must first help ourselves. Another teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh is that of the bowl. If our bowl is brimming, then we can share it with others. This is our love. However, if our bowl is empty, we have nothing to give. This is also our love. So our love must first be for ourselves, and there is no better way to do that than to stop running and sit down with yourself: to find how to be comfortable alone.

Only by being alone can you truly connect with others, can you truly create love.