The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology by Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh , the author of The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology, is a Buddhist monk. He was born in Hue, Vietnam. He wrote this book to inform the people on Earth about the environmental issues we currently have. He believes that people in the world are like sleepwalkers, who are unaware about the environment. Everything in the world is related to each other. The same thing applied for human; everyone in this world is related and linked to each other like brothers and sisters. Since we all share the Earth, the water and the sun, he points out that we have to be responsible and protect the environment, because everything supports each other in order to adapt to this planet. Although his ideas to practice the mindfulness seems impossible and ridiculous to some people when they first read a few chapters of this book, they are actually possible to practice and succeed. As he indicated in his book, many people and even countries have been practicing his ideas, and that will gradually improve the environment that we live in.
Thay teaches us about impermanence and how it expresses in real life. Everything is impermanent. Thay uses the example of the flower and the seeds to explain this idea. When we look at the flower, we see the flower; but it was actually a seed and then became a flower. It is not just disappearing, but transferring into another form .Just like us human, we were made from the minerals; therefore, these are our ancestors. We have to see it this way so that we can protect these things as we protect our ancestors. Thay wants us to practice an idea that when we see everything in life, we have to respect and look deeply into that, not just the outside. People from other religions will have differ...

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...ing the same air and water, we are all sisters and brothers. We are linked together and we have to stop the discrimination. We have to spread out the love to all around the world. We need the attention of everyone in the world to actually make these practices come true.

Works Cited

BORENSTEIN, S. (2013, November 25). U.S. Methane Study Says Emissions 50 Percent Higher Than EPA Estimates. Retrieved April 17, 2014, from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/us-methane-study-emissions_n_4339308.html
Hanh, T. N. (2008). The World We Have : A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology. Berkeley: Parallax Press.
Sheppard, K. (2014, April 22). Happy Earth Day. We Just Reached Another Scary Climate Change Milestone. Retrieved May 1, 2014, from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/carbon-dioxide-climate-change_n_5187844.html