This week’s quote from Thich Nhat Hanh comes from his book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, first published in 1991. The book is a practical guide to cultivating mindfulness and peace in daily activities, even amid the stress and rush of modern life. Hanh was one of the first teachers who showed me that peace is not distant or abstract. If I pause and notice, it can be found in every breath, every step, and even in the most ordinary moments—washing dishes, waiting in traffic.

It is also where I first encountered his phrasing of the reality that all things are interconnected—a concept he calls Interbeing. Everything we do, he explained, even small gestures, can influence the happiness and peace of others—reinforcing that personal change ripples outward into the world.

As someone who values checklists, manifestos, and clarity of principle, I especially appreciate that he closes the book with The 14 Precepts of the Order of Interbeing. These ethical guidelines, created for members of his international Buddhist community, serve as a framework for living mindfully, compassionately, and in active engagement with the world. They are designed to help practitioners weave mindfulness and ethical conduct into every aspect of daily life, fostering both personal transformation and positive social change.

Plum Village—the Buddhist monastery and mindfulness practice center that serves as both the heart of Thich Nhat Hanh’s global teaching community and the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe—offers the 14 Precepts on their website, and as a download resource."We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a dualistic or discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform dogmatism and violence in ourselves and the world."

"We are committed to respecting the right of others to be different, to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however, learn to help others let go of and transform fanaticism and narrowness through loving speech and compassionate dialogue."

"Aware that lack of communication always brings separation and suffering, we are committed to training ourselves in the practice of compassionate listening and loving speech. Knowing that true community is rooted in inclusiveness and in the concrete practice of the harmony of views, thinking and speech, we will practice to share our understanding and experiences with members in our community in order to arrive at collective insight."‍

‍WEBPAGE:The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings‍

‍PDF: The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings