Mindful Consumption | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

And the second kind for fruit is called

sensory impression.

This kind of nutriment come

through the way of the eyes,
ear, nose, tongue, body and mind.

You consume

by reading articles.

When you read an article, you consume,

and that article may contain
a lot of toxins like

craving,

violence,

fear,

discrimination,

hate.

When you watch television, you consume,

because the TV program
may be full of poisons.

When you drive through the city,
you consume,

because what you see in terms
of advertisements,

what you hear about, what you hear
in terms of advertisements,

they are also items of consumption.

You don't go "I want to consume",

but they force you to consume.

Driving through the city

you have to see these kinds of publicity.

And that is why mindfulness help us

to protect ourselves by the practice of

mindful consumption

and that is the object of
the fifth mindfulness training.

Our young people watch television
several hours a day,

maybe two, maybe three or more,

because their parents are so busy

And while watching television,
they allow the seed of craving,

of violence

in themselves to be watered

they keep growing, growing, growing

and this is very dangerous.

Even conversations may be highly toxic.

What the other person say
may be full of hate

or despair.

And after one hour listening to him
or to her,

you feel paralysed,

so much toxin in what she said.

And it's why don't listen too much
to that kind of conversation.

And if you are a psychotherapist

it's not wise that you
spend all your day

listening to the suffering of the people.

Because you have seeds of suffering in you,

and if you continue to listen to them

the seed of suffering in you
will be watered

again and again

and some day you will get sick

and you will go to another therapist.

(laughter)

And that is why
the practice of a therapist

is to devote enough time
to get in touch with...

with paradise.

There must be hours for him or her
to practice walking,

sitting,

getting in touch with the wonders of life

for her, for their nourishment,

solidity

so that the therapist will
have enough strength, to do,

to do the work
listening to the suffering.

And you have to know your limit.

If your capacity is to receive

six person a day

don't try to do more than six person.

You will, you'll burn out.

Your suffering will increase

to the point that you can not,
you will not be able to continue.

That is why as a therapist

you have to practice

like this,

get in touch with the Third Noble Truth.

Get in touch with the

refreshing and healing elements
to nourish yourself,

using mindfulness in order to look deeply

into the source of wellbeing

and practice mindful consumption

so that, so that

the negative seeds in you

will not be watered.

We have six doors

to God.

We have post a

inspector,

a soldier

in front of each door.

The door of the eyes,

the door of the ear,

the door of the nose,

the door of the tongue,

the door of the body,

and the door of the mind.

And do not allow

the enemies

to penetrate into your citadel.

That is the practice of
mindful consumption.

You select the film,

you select the article,

you select the music,

you select the kind of conversation

that you will not bring toxins, poisons
into yourself

This is the practice of self-protection

and the protection of your family

of your community.

It is very urgent.

Step number one:
the fifth mindfulness training

The basic practice

for you and for your community.

If you don't

and then they grow very big

and they tend to push

the door

of mind consciousness to come up.

Usually,

we say that store consciousness
is like the basement

and mind conciousness
is like the living room.

and anything you don't like
we put in the basement.

We want to keep the
living room beautiful

but the blocks of suffering in you

they don't want to stay in the cave,

in the basement

If the have become so strong

they just push the door

and just settle here without your invitation.

Especially during the night

when you have no means of control.

They push your door,

and go into mind consciousness.

And during the day also

the violence,

the craving,

the hate, the anger

are pushing hard.

Because you have allowed them
to grow every day

by the way of unmindful consumption.

And that is why you try to resist,

you try to close the door

very firm.

You set up a kind of embargo here.

You don't allow them to,

you repress them.

And how do you repress?

You,

you try to,

to fill up mind consciousness

with other items

and you do that by consumption.

You don't feel well,

you feel that it's coming up

so you play the music

to keep the mind busy.

You pick up the telephone and talk,

you take the car and drive out,

you turn on the television,

you do everything to keep
the living room occupied

so that these blocks of pain

have no chance to come up.

That is the policy

that many of us

adopt.

And the market outside

provide us

with many items so that they
can bring into the living room

and fill up always,
24 hours a day

In order for, you are
afraid that they will come up

And you know something?
The thing you consume

like a television,

like a novel,

they might also contain

a lot of toxins

like a craving,

and hate,

and violence

and while you are
consuming like that

these poisons fall

down into store consciousness.

And then these blocks of suffering

grow.

Because they are the fruit

of unmindful consumption

in the past

and now, unmindful consumption

in the present moment

continue to make them grow stronger.

And this is a very, very
dangerous situation.

And that is why the first step is to stop

this kind of unmindful consumption,

preventing these seeds, that are already important

not to grow any more.

The first step:

mindful consumption.

And you have to discuss the strategy
of mindful consumption

with your beloved one,

with members of your family.

You have to meet in emergency

like the cabinet of a government,

to meet in emergency

to discuss a strategy for self-protection,

protection of the family,

of the couple.

Mindful consumption

is the object of the
fifth mindfulness training.