THE ART OF POWER
--Thich Nhat Hanh

"If your motivation is to punish someone else
or to run after fame, glory, and power, you are
going to suffer a lot." 66

...looking into your intentions, you will discover
your deepest motivations. We have to identify
the source that motivates our actions every day.
A wholesome motivation will bring us well-being;
it can bring happiness to us and many other people.
An unwholesome motivation, will bring suffering
to us, our family, and many people in society. 68

Greed is based on ignorance. 69

We have misperceptions.
We think that if we can obtain certain things, we'll be happy.
But when we get them, we continue to crave and suffer. 69


It is important to look deeply into our deepest desire...


"If you create jealousy, anger, or frustration, you know it is not true love."

"Respect is the first ingredient of true love."--Thich Nhat Hanh

He is a determined revolutionary--not one who asks us to mount the ramparts
in anger, but rather a revolutionary of the human spirit, a revolutionary of
understanding and of love. viii

For millennia, inquiries into the subject of power have focused primarily
on the state's monopoly on violence, its proper legal use, and the legitimacy
and behavior of those who control it. x

A wholesome intention combined with a lucid mind is the prerequisite for genuine power. x

He asks us how we can make the claim to be powerful when we are not free from
the oppression of our anger or the scourge of our fear.