Love Letter to the Earth

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Overview

The world-renowned Zen monk argues for a more mindful, spiritual approach to environmental protection and activism—one that recognizes people and planet as one and the same
 
While many experts point to the enormous complexity in addressing issues ranging from the destruction of ecosystems to the loss of millions of species, Thich Nhat Hanh identifies one key issue as having the potential to create a tipping point. He believes that we need to move beyond the concept of the “environment,” as it leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet only in terms of what it can do for them. Thich Nhat Hanh points to the lack of meaning and connection in peoples’ lives as being the cause of our addiction to consumerism. He deems it vital that we recognize and respond to the stress we are putting on the Earth if civilization is to survive. Rejecting the conventional economic approach, Nhat Hanh shows that mindfulness and a spiritual revolution are needed to protect nature and limit climate change.

Love Letter to the Earth is a hopeful book that gives us a path to follow by showing that change is possible only with the recognition that people and the planet are ultimately one and the same.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937006402
Publisher:	Parallax Press
Publication date:	06/17/2013
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	251,530
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Thich Nhat Hanh was a world-renowned spiritual teacher and peace activist. Born in Vietnam in 1926, he became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of sixteen. Over seven decades of teaching, he published more than 100 books, which have sold more than four million copies in the United States alone. Exiled from Vietnam in 1966 for promoting peace, his teachings on Buddhism as a path to social and political transformation are responsible for bringing the mindfulness movement to Western culture. He established the international Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism in France, now the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe and the heart of a growing community of mindfulness practice centers around the world. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 95 at his root temple, Tu Hieu, in Hue, Vietnam.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In 39 years of environmental reporting, I’ve been most impressed by the insight and commitment of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism. Pope Francis published his commendable green encyclical in 2015, but he didn’t take his church vegan, as Thich Nhat Hanh did in 2007 upon learning of dairy’s culpability in climate change. The Plum Village monastics know what drives the environmental crises, they know how to fix them, they know the inadequacy of the establishment approach, and they speak out.… If this sounds idealistic, consider that they also have a method. And it only takes meeting one of them to know that it works."—Jeff McMahon, Forbes

Editorial Reviews

“We have to live in such a way that a future will be possible for our children and our grandchildren. Our own life has to be our message.” - Thich Nhat Hanh in A Love Letter To The Earth

"Thich Nhat Hanh addresses the root cause of the environmental crisis and, in doing so, offers a roadmap to an entirely new dream of the Earth." — Wade Davis, Explorer in Residence, National Geographic Society, author of The Serpent and the Rainbow

"Thich Nhat Hanh makes an eloquent, uplifting, and urgent call to recognize that our health and happiness are inextricably tied to Mother Earth and all of our kin, the other species that make up the web of life. We need this great wisdom if we are to move from our destructive path." — David Suzuki, author of The Sacred Balance

"In this clear-eyed, loving paean, Thich Nhat Hanh illuminates both our connection and our responsibility to the beautiful planet we call home." — Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, author of Coming Clean

"Understanding our unbreakable connection to the abstraction we call 'the environment' really is the first step to sensible action. In that sense, this is a very practical book!" — Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth and The End of Nature

From the Publisher