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massaglia's review against another edition
5.0
My son Danny and I discovered this book while reading Rainn Wilson's "Soul Boom" book (which I highly recommend) and found it timely, important, and engaging. I listened to the very meditative audio version - perfect for this type of book. I gained so much from this work that I ordered a hard copy to write notes on. Thầy Nhất Hạnh offers an approach to saving the earth but also provides simple yet clear guidance on how we should interact with ourselves, each other, the planet, and ultimately, the universe.
I highly recommend this book.
Quotes
“My aim is not to give you knowledge. My aim is to help you break free from your views.”
“Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?”
“When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing. And at that moment you can have real communication with the Earth… We have to wake up together. And if we wake up together, then we have a chance. Our way of living our life and planning our future has led us into this situation. And now we need to look deeply to find a way out, not only as individuals, but as a collective, a species.”
“You have the right to pursue economic growth, but not at the expense of life.”
“This is the attitude of bodhisattvas: to practice meditation not only for yourself, but for the world, to relieve the suffering. And, when others suffer less, you suffer less. When you suffer less, they suffer less. That is interbeing. There is no separation between yourself and others. You do not live just for yourself; you live for other people. Your peace, freedom, and joy also profit others; you are already helpful. And so, when you breathe mindfully or walk mindfully and create joy and peace, that is already a gift for the world.”
“Sometimes even if we think we want to be heard, we're not always ready for it.”
“We can make the most of the Earth and benefit from its beauty, but in such a way that we respect the Earth, just as a bee respects the flower.”
“Cultivating a strong training in meditation and mindfulness is not an opiate to escape what’s going on but a way for us to truly still the mind and look deeply, in order to see ourselves and the world clearly.”
“It is very important to wake up and see that we don’t need to borrow anymore. What is available in the here and now is already sufficient for us to be nourished, to be happy. And that is the miracle of mindfulness, concentration, and insight: realizing we can be happy with the conditions that”
“You don’t need to be perfect. What’s important is that you have a path to follow, a path of love. If we get lost in a forest and we don’t have a compass at night, we can look at the North Star in order to go north, to get out. Your purpose is to get out of the forest, it’s not to arrive at the North Star.”
“You need to have the gift of non-fear within you in order to be able to offer it to others.”
“Man is present in all things, and all things are present in man."
“In the Diamond Sutra the meditator is urged to throw away, to release, four notions in order to understand our own true nature and the true nature of reality: the notion of “self,” the notion of “human being,” the notion of “living beings,” and the notion of “life span."
“Thay encourages us to boldly reimagine an entirely new way of living and doing things, and to never be afraid to dream. And he reminds us, no matter what, to always work together, never alone.”
catelise99's review against another edition
4.0
As always I love reading the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh. I especially love the concept of having a warrior, artist, and mediator in you.
Loving yourself and others will always lead to loving and caring for earth. It all is interconnected.
Loving yourself and others will always lead to loving and caring for earth. It all is interconnected.
juliette_dunn's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a mixed bag. I read this at a time I really needed some of its lessons, when I was consumed in depression over the state of the world and starting to feel far too much hatred.
Obviously, this book takes a Buddhist approach, but one doesn’t need to be a believer in Buddhism to learn from it. As an atheist, I found the sections on the interbeing of the world to ring true. We are all made out of the same matter, formed all together.
So much of activist thought is on raging at the system, but this book takes a very different approach. Thich teaches acceptance of all, even the worst of humanity (he names the Koch brothers as an example). A firm distinction between fighting someone’s actions, versus continuing to see them and accept them as a part of the interbeing of the universe.
At times, these teachings cross into complacency. In the worst example, Thich speaks of healing the brutal colonization of Palestine by having Palestinians and Israelis listen to each other’s concerns while hanging out together.
This is where the doctrine of peace above all is hopelessly passive. We can acknowledge the shared interbeing of everyone, we can work not to hate, without insisting that this is the solution against violent oppressors.
The example of a child needing to have compassion and patience with a parent who is constantly raging at them encapsulates the problem with this blanket doctrine.
The mentality of maintaining the peace leads to keeping abusers in power. Some people need to be confronted and fought, and it does not mean you are falling into hatred by doing so. Making the world better simply by being the better person is not applicable in many cases.
That said, there is great value in this book too. It’s true that many activists do get caught up in hatred and despair, and could do with remembering why it is we care. Activist burnout is such a widespread issue, and Buddhist teachings can help find meaning and peace even in the worst of struggles.
The truth is, we are not going to eradicate suffering, and there will always be struggles to overcome. Finding inner peace is essential to maintaining the will and energy to keep going.
A Buddhist approach may not work for everyone, but I have found it can help me, even if I struggle with meditation. Acceptance and peace amid whatever situation you find can only benefit you, as long as you don’t fall into passivity. His example of how finding that acceptance helped him have the rationality to be able to confront a major hurdle in rescuing refugees encapsulates how much being able to do this can benefit people in their work.
I think the main issue with this book is the lack of nuance. It has wonderful ideas that could help a lot of people, but I’m trying to make absolute claims in every scenario, it fails. While preaching nuance, Thich falls into an absolutist doctrine himself.
Take the parts of this book that help you find inner peace to keep going.
Obviously, this book takes a Buddhist approach, but one doesn’t need to be a believer in Buddhism to learn from it. As an atheist, I found the sections on the interbeing of the world to ring true. We are all made out of the same matter, formed all together.
So much of activist thought is on raging at the system, but this book takes a very different approach. Thich teaches acceptance of all, even the worst of humanity (he names the Koch brothers as an example). A firm distinction between fighting someone’s actions, versus continuing to see them and accept them as a part of the interbeing of the universe.
At times, these teachings cross into complacency. In the worst example, Thich speaks of healing the brutal colonization of Palestine by having Palestinians and Israelis listen to each other’s concerns while hanging out together.
This is where the doctrine of peace above all is hopelessly passive. We can acknowledge the shared interbeing of everyone, we can work not to hate, without insisting that this is the solution against violent oppressors.
The example of a child needing to have compassion and patience with a parent who is constantly raging at them encapsulates the problem with this blanket doctrine.
The mentality of maintaining the peace leads to keeping abusers in power. Some people need to be confronted and fought, and it does not mean you are falling into hatred by doing so. Making the world better simply by being the better person is not applicable in many cases.
That said, there is great value in this book too. It’s true that many activists do get caught up in hatred and despair, and could do with remembering why it is we care. Activist burnout is such a widespread issue, and Buddhist teachings can help find meaning and peace even in the worst of struggles.
The truth is, we are not going to eradicate suffering, and there will always be struggles to overcome. Finding inner peace is essential to maintaining the will and energy to keep going.
A Buddhist approach may not work for everyone, but I have found it can help me, even if I struggle with meditation. Acceptance and peace amid whatever situation you find can only benefit you, as long as you don’t fall into passivity. His example of how finding that acceptance helped him have the rationality to be able to confront a major hurdle in rescuing refugees encapsulates how much being able to do this can benefit people in their work.
I think the main issue with this book is the lack of nuance. It has wonderful ideas that could help a lot of people, but I’m trying to make absolute claims in every scenario, it fails. While preaching nuance, Thich falls into an absolutist doctrine himself.
Take the parts of this book that help you find inner peace to keep going.
lilyheron's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book very thought-provoking. What I enjoyed most was the exploration of compassion, and the many examples in the author's life and work where under extreme circumstances and intense stress and danger, he returns to his compassionate practice to make lasting and fundamental change. He never claims it's easy, and in fact is at pains to stress how difficult and complex this task is, yet he presents his work in such a way that I couldn't help but agree in its necessity and importance.
lenanechet's review against another edition
2.0
Thich Nhat Hanh is not the author of a big part of the book.
betsyrisen's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
“Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?”
“This is the attitude of bodhisattvas: to practice meditation not only for yourself, but for the world, to relieve the suffering. And, when others suffer less, you suffer less. When you suffer less, they suffer less. That is interbeing. There is no separation between yourself and others. You do not live just for yourself; you live for other people. Your peace, freedom, and joy also profit others; you are already helpful. And so, when you breathe mindfully or walk mindfully and create joy and peace, that is already a gift for the world.”
"If a habit is hard to shift, it's likely to have been transmitted to us through several generations, or held in place by society, culture, and our context, or environment. We can discover a lot about ourselves and our Ancestors, as we begin to make changes to align our choices with our values.”
I already had pretty high expectations for this book, and it just kept getting better and better. I really liked the way this book was organized, and was so, so helpful.
“This is the attitude of bodhisattvas: to practice meditation not only for yourself, but for the world, to relieve the suffering. And, when others suffer less, you suffer less. When you suffer less, they suffer less. That is interbeing. There is no separation between yourself and others. You do not live just for yourself; you live for other people. Your peace, freedom, and joy also profit others; you are already helpful. And so, when you breathe mindfully or walk mindfully and create joy and peace, that is already a gift for the world.”
"If a habit is hard to shift, it's likely to have been transmitted to us through several generations, or held in place by society, culture, and our context, or environment. We can discover a lot about ourselves and our Ancestors, as we begin to make changes to align our choices with our values.”
I already had pretty high expectations for this book, and it just kept getting better and better. I really liked the way this book was organized, and was so, so helpful.
jjkamin's review against another edition
4.0
This book had a lot of the same strengths as previous books on the topic by Thich Nhat Hanh, but I believe the ones that came before this were stronger and provided more of an emotional impact.