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Happiness is now
By Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)
present for ourselves, for our loved
ones, and for nature. We delude
ourselves by thinking that online
we can connect with others, but
in reality we only feel more and
more alone. Mindfulness helps us
be moderate in the time we spend
online, and at the same time helps
us to know if what we’re in contact
with is beneficial, or whether it
makes us feel even more loneliness
and despair. We consume the
The late Thich Nhat Hanh is The following is an excerpt of the internet to cover up our loneliness,
one of the most well-known interview. but in reality always it only
Buddhist teachers in the makes us feel worse. Very often,
modern world. In over a What does Buddhism offer to the when we consume news, movies,
hundred books he has created digital generation, young people pornography and advertising, we
a Buddhist teaching adapted who spend the whole day on the are consuming anger, violence, fear
to contemporary society, based Internet? and desire. “
on “Mindfulness”: awareness
and presence. Together with “Today young people spend too Buddhism considers the
individual an illusion: there is
the Dalai Lama he has brought much time on the Internet, this is
an illness of our time. When any still room in this vision for the
the Buddha Dharma to the
of us spend three hours in front of distinction between good and
Western world, with centers in
the computer, we completely forget evil?
each continent and a following
that we have a body. The Internet
of hundreds of thousands of is a tool that can be used to great “In the twentieth century
people. The following interview benefit. It can also bring many individualism was put in the
was conducted on September problems. Using the Internet is a foreground and this has created
10, 2014 by Claudio Gallo of La kind of consumption. We consume a lot of suffering and difficulties.
Stampa, one of Italy’s biggest through the ideas, images and We create a separation between
newspapers. The paper’s Culture sounds we come in contact with, ourselves and others, between
Editor joined the entire Italian and they can be either healthy or father and son, between man
Retreat at Plum Village in toxic. People are often overwhelmed and nature, between one nation
France during the last week by sheer amount of information and another. We are not aware
of August, and experienced for we receive online. And many of us of the interconnection between
himself that “Happiness is Now”. may develop a real addiction to ourselves and everything around
being online. We lose ourselves in us. This interconnection is what
this sea of information and are not in Buddhism we call “interbeing.”
