As included in the Plum Village App at https://plumvillage.app/ Thay answers this question: With all the madness and violence going on in the world nowadays, how do you keep yourself from losing faith in humanity and giving up altogether?

Thay: There is a practice called the practice of taking refuge. You want to feel safe, to feel protected. We want to feel calm. And if you don't practice that you lose your peace, your feeling of safety, your calm. You will suffer and you will make other people suffer.

So when a situation seems to be turbulent, overwhelming, full of suffering, we have to practice taking refuge in the Buddha, the Buddha in ourself. Because each of us has that seed of Buddhahood, that capacity of being calm, being understanding, being compassionate, and take refuge in that island of safety within us so we can maintain our humanness, our peace, our hope. And this practice is so important.

Practicing like that, you become an island of peace, of compassion, and you may inspire other people to do the same. It's like a boat crossing over the ocean. If they encounter a storm and if everyone on the boat panics, then the boat will turn over. So if there is one person in the boat who can remain calm, then that person can inspire other people to be calm. And then there will be hope for the whole boatload.

Who is that person who can stay calm in the situation of distress? In Mahayana Buddhism the answer is you. You have to be that person. You will be the savior of all of us. This is a very strong practice, the practice of bodhisattva, taking refuge. And in a situation of war, injustice, if you don't practice like that, you cannot survive. You will lose yourself very easily. And if you lose yourself, we have no hope. So we count on you.

Thank you.

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