Evaluation Of The Book The World We Have Essay

Through the book The World We Have by Thich Nhat Hahn, it is clear that there is a relationship between the way people live and the place they live in. He makes an urgent call for people to take care of their environment because this directly affects the way people live. The central tenets upon which he bases his argument encompass the notion of social responsibility that transcends personal needs and reaches out to preserving the environment. This he argues will ensure the sustainability of nature and mother earth. This will go a long way in ensuring that the future generations are taken good care of. The natural world holds all nature and sustains livelihood, the moment the natural world is tampered with and natural resources depleted, the result is that the current and future generations may not be fully supported and therefore this will mean that they will lose out on the gift of the kind of life that this generation enjoys.
This book is very effective because it seeks to teach people on the importance of behaving responsibly towards the environment. There is a lot of concern towards the whole issue of global warming, environmental degradation as well as issues such as degradation and diminishing of species. It is therefore very imperative of humanity wake up and take precaution in ensuring that our children and their children’s children have a save environment. This is where this writer brings in the teachings of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. Through them people will learn to be mindful about the effects of their actions to the environment. Thich Nhat Hanh reminds the people of the world that life is a blessing and people should therefore uphold it for the common good of everyone.
Hanh reminds readers of the interconnection between the teachings of Buddhism and environmental destruction bearing in mind the issue of impermanence of everything that lives. He goes further to say that the impermanence of people on earth should not make them misuse resources because they will not be alive tomorrow for them to use these resources. People should not therefore disengage from the environment on account that they stand to make the best out of the environment today and tomorrow will sort out itself. This argument calls for people to instead engage themselves with the world around them in order to ensure that people take collective and individual responsibility and at the end of the day everyone will have benefited. This turns out to be the best way out of the problem of mismanagement of natural resources and will have come up with better options of going about the use of natural resources. This makes the book an effective tool of reminding people on the careful decisions they will have to take in ensuring that people become responsible.
The Buddhist teacher goes ahead and paints the picture of a planet in the foreseen future, which will have been overheated and this will have led to the disappearance of fossil fuels. The same planet will be degraded and there will be an overconsumption of its resources. There will be a high and unstoppable population increase which the available resources will not sustain. Having this in mind then people should really review their negative actions and change them so that the earth does not get to such levels where its inhabitants will be in a state of discomfort and torture, at least literary. The issue of impermanence of everything should therefore be a guiding principle upon which people should gauge their actions in an effort to make wise decisions that will ensure that the environment is taken good care of. It is of importance that the reader takes into account that the book serves as a reminder of some of the things that people should focus on which may help them know what to do with the whole issue of environmental conservancy.
The book is also good as it offers real life activities can engage in the quest to take responsibility and act in ways that are beneficial to the environment. This is equally seen through the various monastic activities that Buddhists engage in and that people can dedicate themselves in doing some things that will in the end reflect on the environment. A good example is the “No Car Day” that can be observed once every week in an effort to curb air pollution. People can then go ahead and pick very important lessons from such an activity, come with their own activities that will lead to a stop of environmental degradation even for a day and this will do wonders. On the other hand, implementing something like the “Earth Peace Treaty Commitment will act as a reminder for people to commit to doing something at least in their lifespan that will see them play a role that will positively impact the environment. In fact this is a book that will go a long way in giving people insights and hints on some of the available activities that they can engage in that will ensure that the planet is taken care of.
There is also another perspective that the book brings out that will be quite helpful in meeting the sole aim of the author, that of conserving the environment. This is the fact that people need to accept the problems that plague Mother Nature because then, they will soberly think of the way forward. Accepting the problems is in fact the first and sure step into having a clear understanding of the best practices of taking care of our earth. After accepting the situation as it is then everyone will do their best to find lasting solutions to the current problems. Only this way will people join hands in ensuring best practices that will go a long way in not only conserving the environment but also teaching each other on how to be responsible citizens of the wider world.
The book however small it is addresses the most critical issues that are grounded in environmental responsibility. The efforts of environmental conservancy and responsibility are fused with believe and principles of Buddhism. Buddhists believe the principle of endless and timeless continuity and when the same is related to matters of the environment then this serves as the best recipe for ensuring that indeed the environment is cared for. He encourages people not only to care for the abstract world and more so the species at risk, but both plants and animals. While each meal that humans take might in a way harm or benefit the environment, Hanh points out that doing things in moderation is a sure way of going at it, for instance cutting back can go a long way in ensuring that people make a positive effort in helping out in the whole issue of caring for the environment. This book therefore, motivates people to act responsibly and change their attitudes in order to have a positive influence on the environment for the sake of future generations.