Why are some of the world's largest technology companies, including Google, taking a special interest in an 87-year-old Vietnamese Buddhist monk?
The answer is that they all want to know how the teachings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh – affectionately called Thay by his hundreds of thousands of followers around the world – can help their organizations operate more effectively and bring more happiness.
Nhat Hanh has been invited to lead a day of mindfulness practice at Google's headquarters in California later this month – a sign that mindfulness practice is starting to gain popularity in today's society. Thay, author of over 2 million books sold in the US, will meet with over 20 CEOs of US-based technology companies in Silicon Valley to share his insights on the art of being in the present moment.
In this meeting, Thay plans to discuss with CEOs of technology companies how they can gain a deep understanding of the interconnected and interdependent nature of all people and all species. With that understanding, they can offer practical tools to make mindfulness practice an essential part of their daily work, the products they create, and the strategies they outline for how science and technology can change the world. The meeting will conclude with a walking meditation practice.
Thien’s efforts over the past 50 years have been recognized by many world leaders. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has said that Thich Nhat Hanh's practice is one that "allows us to have deep compassion and love for those who are suffering." He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King for his efforts to bring peace and end the war in Vietnam.
Martin Luther King said that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Thich Nhat Hanh "will once again awaken humanity to the great lesson of beauty and love found in peace. It will revive hope for a new order of justice and harmony for this world."
Thich Nhat Hanh has been a monk for 71 years. Despite his advanced age, he continues to teach Dharma all over the world. He is currently on a three-month teaching tour in North America with a very busy schedule. Before that, Thay had also had a 3-month Dharma propagation trip in Asia.
Thach Nhat Hanh's monastic sangha is considered the fastest growing sangha in the world. Tickets to attend the 1-week retreats he led in Toronto, Canada or in New York, Mississippi and California - each retreat had more than 1,000 participants - were sold out in just a few days.
The economy of desire
Thach Nhat Hanh warns that our civilization is in danger of collapsing due to the serious social and ecological damage caused by the economy of desire. Thay also shows us a new direction, which is to build an economy with true happiness as the goal, instead of sacrificing our happiness to worship materialism as we have been doing for so long.
His teachings focus mainly on the practice of transforming suffering by letting go of past sorrows as well as worries about the future, through meditation and mindful living.
He has pointed out that the current state of consumerism is a sign that we are trying to cover up the suffering within ourselves. And the Master suggests that we should go in the opposite direction, which is to return to directly contact with the suffering and pain within us in order to overcome that suffering.
The Master believes that in order for businesses to play an important role in stopping the capitalist train from running off the rails, corporate leaders must first recognize their fundamental mistake, which is a narrow-minded way of thinking, taking profit as the sole measure of the corporation's success.
There needs to be a fundamental change in the perception of businesses
Businesses need to go through a fundamental transformation in perception. They need to realize the importance of incorporating spiritual values into their daily lives.
In an interview with The Guardian at the end of last week's retreat in the Catskill Mountains on the art of transforming suffering, Thay shared: “We need to reexamine our concept of happiness. We think that happiness can only be achieved when we win, when we get to the top. However, the truth is that it doesn't have to be like that. Because even when we earn more money, we still suffer as usual. We compete because we are not happy. Meditation can help us suffer less.”
“Many of us think that we can only be happy when we are above others, when we become number one. The truth is that we don't need to be number one to be happy.
“We need to have a spiritual direction in life in our lives as well as in business, otherwise we cannot handle the suffering created by work and daily life.”
Google engineers discuss and practice meditation
Meetings with Reverend Martin Luther King
Recalling his meetings with Reverend Luther King – these meetings had a very important influence on the decision of this world-famous civil rights activist to fight for peace and end the war in Vietnam, Thay Nhat Hanh said that President Obama missed an important element in his speech last week, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the day Reverend Martin Luther King delivered his immortal speech titled “I have a dream”.
“When President Obama called for let freedom ring, the President only talked about freedom coming from outside such as political freedom, social freedom, but the reality is that even when we have a lot of freedom, we have a lot of freedom. great freedom of organization, speech, press, etc. We can still suffer as usual because we do not have freedom within ourselves, which is freedom from anger and fear,” he shared.
One of the passions of Reverend Luther King was to build communities, groups of happy living that he called Beloved Community. With the same wish, Master Nhat Hanh devoted all his energy to building more than a thousand lay sanghas around the world.
However, can business leaders create a more positive change through building the spirit of sangha, building a collective culture in their businesses?
Mindfulness and meditation in the workplace
Master Nhat Hanh believes that the practice of mindfulness and meditation, if applied to businesses, will help them change their negative way of living and working, and at the same time help them realize the nature of interbeing and interdependence. between people and all species.
“Meditation can help reduce suffering among members of a business,” Thay said. “This alone is helpful, because if the employees of a business are happy enough, the business will be more effective.”
“In the case of your company that is doing activities that are harmful to the environment, and because you have practiced meditation, you can have an insight that will help you find a way to run your company in a way that reduces damage to the environment.
“Meditation has the effect of calming the suffering and pain within us, and at the same time giving us a lot of insight and a true view (right view) about ourselves and about the world. And if we have the insight of a collective, we will certainly organize and run our business activities in a way that makes this world less suffering.”
According to Thay, bringing mindfulness into In the office, in businesses, it also helps employees avoid being overloaded with work, but to do this, business owners and company directors need to set an example first.
“Search Inside Yourself”
Business leaders need to know how to take care of themselves first
He believes that many senior leaders of corporations have begun to mention the importance of sustainable development, but very few of them see the connection between the sustainable development of a business and the internal culture of the business they are running.
“If a business director spends all his time on the business, he will have no time to take care of himself or his family. That director needs to realize that his business will operate more effectively if he becomes calmer, fresher, more sympathetic and compassionate more" He said.
In the current conditions when computers have become so popular and convenient with increasingly fast processing speeds, it is increasingly difficult for business directors to have time for themselves, time to look back at themselves and find inspiration for their lives.
The power of Aimlessness
He shared about the importance of practicing aimlessness, which means not waiting for results, not expecting anything when acting, and not having any object to run after. Normally we have the habit of running from one project to another, without stopping.
“We often think that happiness lies in the future, so the practice of non-action is to stop, not to chase after an object anymore and to find happiness right in the present moment, now and here”, Thay said.
“True happiness cannot be achieved without peace. If we keep chasing after an object, how can we have peace? We keep running, running, even in our dreams we are still running. That is the reality of our civilization”.
“We have to go against this trend. We have to return to ourselves, return to our loved ones, return to nature. For a long time we have let electronic devices pull us away from ourselves. We lose ourselves in the Internet, in projects, in business plans, so we have no time for ourselves We don't have time to care for the people we love, and we don't give Mother Earth a chance to heal us. We tend to run away from ourselves, from our families, and from the nature around us."
Most business leaders find it difficult to talk about the pressures they are under. However, recently, some CEOs of famous corporations have courageously shared with the public about the pressures of their work, similar to the concerns of Thay Nhat Hanh.
Resigning a few months before her corporation went bankrupt, Erin Callan, former Chief Financial Officer of Lehman Brothers, courageously wrote about her experience of being completely absorbed by her work and shared it with the public earlier this year.
“When I decided to leave the company, I felt devastated and extremely sad,” Erin Callan shared in the New York Times. “I can’t regain my strength and continue. I don’t know where to rely on to assert myself without work.”
“On weekends, if I don’t have to do extra work for the company, I still spend time to recharge my batteries for the next working week. In general, for me at that time, work always took the number 1 priority, above family, friends and even my marriage – which only lasted a few years.”
The Dualistic Nature of Technology
Despite his concerns about the negative effects of technology, Thay still recognized the dualistic nature of technology, meaning that besides the negative effects, technology also has very beneficial effects. That is why in the upcoming meeting, Thay will call on CEOs of technology corporations to focus on developing application software and other technological devices to help bring people back to a balanced life.
“We need to be mindful. When I talk to Google and other technology corporations, I will suggest that they use their intelligence and goodwill to create means, tools that can help people return to themselves, to heal themselves,” he said. “We do not eliminate or throw away all these technological devices, but we can fully take advantage of the advances of technology.”
He suggested developing software applications that can help people calm down anger when it arises. He also mentioned the Now Watch, which he designed with the purpose of helping people return to the present moment: on the clock face, each hour is marked with the word “Now” (meaning Now) instead of the usual hour number.
Google invited him to share about topics such as: building goals in work, creativity and insight. He said that we can all achieve these things through practicing mindfulness. mindfulness.
He was invited to visit Google in 2011 and since then, mindfulness practice has been rapidly adopted at the leading technology corporation. The number of people participating in the “Search Inside Yourself” program – Google’s official meditation program – has been increasing. Meditation rooms have also been set up inside many of Google’s office buildings.
He said: “Like everyone else, Google employees also want to learn how to transform their own suffering.”
“Most of the employees here are very young and talented, so they can understand and practice what I teach quickly. They also have enough resources to bring this practice to many people.”
“It would be very helpful if they knew that each of us has the desire to do beautiful and good things, because each of us has Buddha nature. When we look at the unwholesome, unrighteous path, we can find in it the opposite path. Likewise, by looking at suffering, we will see the path that leads to happiness. This is the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, but we don't have to be Buddhists to understand it.
“Our society is in need of a collective awakening to save us from the current crisis. So we need to practice generating the energy of awakening in every step and every breath. If we have awakening, it means we are on the path of happiness, we can transform the suffering within us. And then we can help others do the same.”
(Translated by Sister Tai Nghiem)
Read English here.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/global-technology-ceos-wisdom-zen-master-thich-nhat-hanh
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