Thich Nhat Hanh has had a rich and productive life, and the exploration and practice of ethical responsibility has been at the core of it. Born in Vietnam, he was early ordained to the religious life, and has practiced and taught in that country and abroad for decades. During the Vietnam War, he took the controversial stand of not siding with either government, instead insisting on a path of peace and reconciliation through social service work. While in France attending peace talks, he was warned that his life was in danger should he return to his homeland. It has only been in the past few years that he has been able to return, with great fanfare, to Vietnam.

Nhat Hanh’s gentle words on the path of mindfulness and compassion have had great impact on a developing Buddhism in the West. His enunciation of an engaged Buddhism has been enormously influential.

This gentle avatar of a life of mindfulness, or simple awareness of our surroundings and the ramifications of our every action, has written dozens of books. None are more powerful, nor more central to his teachings, than For a Future to be Possible: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life. This exquisite little book clearly explains the heart of the Buddha’s teachings on engagement and responsibility for the individual, and they are as relevant today as they were in the Buddha’s time — or, for that matter, as they were during the Vietnam War.

For a Future to be Possible is an exposition of the traditional five moral precepts taught by the Buddha. Nhat Hanh has rephrased them as “mindfulness trainings,” aware of the negative moral connotations of the word “precept.” The five mindfulness trainings, which he calls “a diet for a mindful society,” are: to not kill; to not take that which is not freely given; to avoid sexual misconduct; to refrain from false speech; and to refrain from intoxicants to the point of heedlessness. Contrary to appearance, these are not “thou shalt nots.” Rather, they are guidelines for an aware and compassionate life, providing a roadmap for a journey rather than an arrived at goal.

God has no role in these pages, nor does the mantle of an inherited faith. Indeed, in Nhat Hanh’s school of Zen, the many deities of Buddhism simply don’t exist, or are recognized as archetypes for mental states. Furthermore, questioning is central to the Buddha’s teaching. Indeed, a whole Sutra, or scripture, is dedicated to the necessity to question and try things out for oneself rather than taking them simply on faith (the Kalama Sutra).

For a Future to be Possible is a handbook of the spirit, of the engaged life. It offers the five mindfulness trainings, and each is accompanied by a rich and absorbing commentary by Nhat Hanh. The book also includes an introduction by Joan Halifax and a stupendous afterword by Jack Kornfield. The nun Chan Khong, Nhat Hanh’s closest associate, has contributed a “Frequently Asked Questions” section, and the remainder of the book consists of guidelines for ceremonies around the five mindfulness trainings. The first invites us to be aware of our lives in relationship to all other beings, animate and inanimate. It is a guideline that could be practiced equally skillfully by theist and nontheist alike, and the implications of which are revolutionary for the individual, the community, and the planet.

Each of the five trainings claim no Truth. They are rather a whisper in the wind, an open invitation to people regardless of faith tradition to live a life of kindness and gentleness in recognition of our simple and beautiful interconnectedness. They can be seamlessly woven into your spiritual life, and they can enrich it immeasurably. One by one, individual by individual, community by community, they can help us to change the world. What more could we ask?