MMMM #3: A Non-Toothache is Very Pleasant

Thank you Amit for being open to sharing this with the world. Please feel free to like, comment, and share with your friends, family, and peers. Learn more about the Monday Morning Motivational Minute here.

Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick-Naught-Han) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.  During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam.  His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.  He lives in exile in a small community in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide.  He has conducted many mindfulness retreats in Europe and North America helping veterans, children, environmentalists, psychotherapists, artists and many thousands of individuals seeking peace in their hearts, and in their world.

Monk Hanh writes on the importance of understanding and gratitude. Here are two stories that I hope you enjoy on this Monday.

Here is one practice recommended by Thich Nhat Hanh, and known informally as the “Not-a-Toothache Meditation”

  • “If we are not aware that we are happy, we are not really happy. When we have a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. But when we do not have a toothache, we are still not happy. A non-toothache is very pleasant.”
  • When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce.  You look for reasons it is not doing well.  It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun.  You never blame the lettuce.  Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person.  But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce.  Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument.  That is my experience.  No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.  If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.

And for a little bit of fun….YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN; Watch This Buddhist Monk Absolutely Crush This Cover Of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ With Traditional Instruments

Thank you Amit for being open to sharing this with the world. Please feel free to like, comment, and share with your friends, family, and peers.