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micklz24's review
4.0
I liked this book mostly for the practices at the end - very helpful overall. And all in all a good read, though it seems to be marketed as a book to help manage fear and Im not sure it does that as fully as I would like. I can see how the practices would help over time, but I think I’d like to see a more thorough “fleshing out” of that process.
dunguyen's review
4.0
I'm not a Buddhist. Or any other religion. Which makes reading this book a bit of a curiosity but I had it recommended through many different sources, even from people who are not Buddhists so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Fear is about, well, fear. Thich Nhat Hanh writes on how to get through fear, through the lens of Buddhism. This part was a bit hard for me to read since I don't really know that much about Buddhism, but there are parts of the book which are not Buddhism specific either which makes reading this book for someone like me much easier.
In Fear, Hanh writes about the original fear, which occurs at birth where the environmental changes are for the child enormous. And from then onwards, we fear because of our struggle for survival which starts when we leave the womb.
Hanh provides many different methods of coping with fear, most of all to acknowledge fear and look at its source. This is where it actually began to resemble stoicism a bit which I know much more about. Similarities include accepting things you can't control, know that you eventually will die and that this too shall pass.
At the end of the book Hanh provides some meditation exercises to help with fear and while I haven't done it, it sounds quite reasonable.
I like this book even if some Buddhism specific things did make me feel a bit perturbed. There are so many great things in this book though that doesn't have much to do with religion however so it's definitely worth reading.
There's also bonus points for namedropping Martin Luther King...
Favorite passage:
Everything is impermanent. This moment passes.
Fear is about, well, fear. Thich Nhat Hanh writes on how to get through fear, through the lens of Buddhism. This part was a bit hard for me to read since I don't really know that much about Buddhism, but there are parts of the book which are not Buddhism specific either which makes reading this book for someone like me much easier.
In Fear, Hanh writes about the original fear, which occurs at birth where the environmental changes are for the child enormous. And from then onwards, we fear because of our struggle for survival which starts when we leave the womb.
Hanh provides many different methods of coping with fear, most of all to acknowledge fear and look at its source. This is where it actually began to resemble stoicism a bit which I know much more about. Similarities include accepting things you can't control, know that you eventually will die and that this too shall pass.
At the end of the book Hanh provides some meditation exercises to help with fear and while I haven't done it, it sounds quite reasonable.
I like this book even if some Buddhism specific things did make me feel a bit perturbed. There are so many great things in this book though that doesn't have much to do with religion however so it's definitely worth reading.
There's also bonus points for namedropping Martin Luther King...
Favorite passage:
Everything is impermanent. This moment passes.
lynnannwalsh's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Perhaps not the best to listen to as an audio book, this is a collection if ideas/essays that don’t always flow and I didn’t feel as if I had enough time to reflect on each idea.
jeswachman's review
5.0
An incredible read. This is my third time reading it and I get something new out of it each and every time.