How to Take Care of the Habit Energy of Worrying: a short teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh opens with a story about Nelson Mandela, who told the French press that what he most wanted was to sit down and do nothing. He then describes sitting meditation as enjoyment of being alive, with no struggle to become anyone else, and gives short posture instructions: upright, muscles relaxed, a smile.

He teaches resting as an art, compares the body’s trust in its own healing with the mind’s, and names worry as a habit energy that prevents healing, and the habit of running after happiness as the source of restlessness. He quotes the Sanskrit phrase drsta dharma sukha vihara, living happily in the present moment, and offers the image of a boat that carries heavy stones across a river. The boat is mindfulness, trained in drinking, walking and breathing, together with the support of the sangha.