Keeping the Peace: Mindfulness and Public Service

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Keeping the Peace speaks to all of us who work in difficult, people-oriented jobs and shows us how to turn environments that are often filled with anger, stress, and frustration into islands of peace. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh creates a revolutionary definition of public service that includes all of us. He challenges us to transform the way we think about our work and offers eleven key practices to strengthen our mindfulness and joy.

Based on a retreat for civil servants, Keeping the Peace is the first book of its kind to demonstrate the usefulness of mindfulness practices for law enforcement officers, social workers, teachers, and others in people-helping professions.

With empathy and humor, Thich Nhat Hanh demonstrates the need for public service professionals to cultivate their own inner peace in order to help others. In clear and simple prose, he offers a path for how we can reduce violence in ourselves, our workplace, and ultimately, in our world.

Genres: Buddhism, Nonfiction, Religion

99 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Thích Nhất Hạnh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who then lived in southwest France where he was in exile for many years. Born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Thích Nhất Hạnh joined a Zen (Vietnamese: Thiền) monastery at the age of 16, and studied Buddhism as a novitiate. Upon his ordination as a monk in 1949, he assumed the Dharma name Thích Nhất Hạnh. Thích is an honorary family name used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan. He was often considered the most influential living figure in the lineage of Lâm Tế (Vietnamese Rinzai) Thiền, and perhaps also in Zen Buddhism as a whole.

Reviews

[M.E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

i adore thich nhat hanh. i believe he is one of the great buddhas of our time, and brings tremendous love, thoughtfulness and presence to all his work. this is collection of talks he gave to police officers, encouraging them to be mindful of their work.

i more or less believe the work of police is to maintain a system of terror, violence and poverty on the lives of people of color and poor people. thich does really reflect on the social role of police, or their more problematic dimensions of them as an institution. so i found it really difficult to read, and brought up a lot of my conflicting frustration with many buddhist teachings.

needless to say, not the book progressives should read if they are curious about buddhism.

[Fred Leland · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring book that will make you rethink how we police. Not for the faint of heat because the book is routed in compassion and respect for all life. We talk about a code of a warrior or protector this book lays out the code and how to implement that code in policing. .

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really useful book for an often overlooked group - public servants. Great for ANY working person, though.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh very comforting and calming. I particularly appreciate the concrete steps for practices, in the case of this book: walking meditation, beginning anew, and three sentences for sharing anger with someone. I also had a lot of trouble reminding myself and reconciling myself in the different approach to problems I see in the world like those around law enforcement in particular. My partner very usefully pointed out that Buddhist philosophy/spirituality is not a political strategy and should not be judged as such. So with that in mind, I had to practice a lot of non-judgmental open mindedness and compassion around the practices and suggestions in this book aimed directly and law enforcement and corrections officers who (i will begrudgingly admit) are worthy and capable of incorporating meaningful and valuable mindful and peaceful practices into their lives and work. Even if I think the structures they act within should be fundamentally different i.e. not exist

[Matt Selin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for people in public service

As a Probation Officer I received a ton of valuable insight by reading this book. I wasn’t sure if my job was a Right Livelihood but after reading this I feel it is.

[Gina Wedekind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small but mighty. More geared to law enforcement but the principals can be applied to other public services work. Some odd analogies but the take away was significant.
Spread joy, end anger through compassion.

[Elizabeth Schurman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a wonderful book to study with a group of teachers or cops or social workers, the crowd it was intended for. Maybe too spiritual or woo-woo, as they say, but so necessary. A necessary refresher for me, for sure, about how important it is to bring calm and peace to your work with people who are not at peace.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good, but as with a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh's work it's all kind of theoretical. I read Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames a while ago and didn't really like it. This is condensed and more focused, so the chapters cut right to the point. There are a lot of good mindfulness exercises that I will be using going forward. Thich Nhat Hanh is really smart and interesting, but I get the impression he has never really worked a mind-numbing, soul-grinding day job. His thoughts on personal development are fantastic, but the community stuff doesn't seem practical or applicable at all. Certainly it would be ideal to have a workplace of like-minded mindful people, like he does in a community of monks and nuns. Making his group mindfulness exercises work at a library (or other public service workplace) isn't the same at all. It's not that I don't think his insights aren't valuable (they really are!), but I think it would be nice for him to collaborate with someone who has worked a public service job. That might make this a little less cerebral and a little more practical.

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thich Nhat Hanh has been my most important spiritual teacher for about six years. His books are deceptively simple, and ideal for contemplative reading. In this little book he addresses mostly police and corrections officers, but also teachers, social workers and other public servants. Here is a taste of his wisdom:

"Police officers, teachers, social workers and other people who deal with violence should arm themselves with compassion, intelligence and lucidity. These are the best means to protect yourself.... You may feel you have to choose between protecting yourself and being compassionate, but the opposite is true. When you have compassion and serenity in you, you can see the situation much more clearly.... Compassion and mindfulness allow us to be aware of what is really going on." (74-5)

[Keegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the completion of my introductory training seminar in dialectical behavior therapy our instructors gave each one of us a book through a fun yankee swap. I chose this book and hope to be able to inherit some mindfulness techniques to stay more grounded during stressful and unpredictable days at work!

[Sian Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written with Thich Nhat Hanh's hallmark clarity and tranquility, at least as far as I got. Apparently, I just wasn't in the mood for enlightenment. My bad.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories of letting go of the need for revenge. From a man who knows.

[lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

mainly for those in public service like cops, but applicable to teachers and such too.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thich Nhat Hanh provides some wonderful and useful techniques for public servants to keep themselves at peace, both on and off of the job.

[Austin Wright · Rating 1 out of 5]

FUN FACT: This book thinks you can be a non-violent Buddhist AND a gun-carrying Police Officer at the same time....the entire premise of this book is false.