Suffering comes in many forms, from eating food that isn’t nourishing to engaging in work that harms others. In the world of the wave, the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad as she falls. Thich Nhat Hanh’s extraordinary contribution to Buddhism and to life is the way he makes these teachings and practices accessible to everyone, showing us how the very suffering that is holding us down can be the path to our liberation.

I don’t personally find it difficult to read because my mind tends to wander a lot anyway and I found it actually helped me take things in, but some people my find it a little tricky to deal with. Covering such significant teachings as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Doors of Liberation, the Three Dharma Seals, and the Seven Factors of Awakening, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching is a radiant beacon on Buddhist thought for the initiated and uninitiated alike. Perhaps if you have a good background in Buddhism then you would probably at least know what they were (I knew a handful) but if you are new to Buddhism then the chances are you wouldn’t know them. It also includes, in the final section, a small selection of translated discourses which had been mentioned in the text. She’d been drinking two glasses of wine a week for 20 years without causing herself any harm; did she really need to quit?

In Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh founded Van Hanh Buddhist University and the School of Youth for Social Service, a corps of Buddhist peace​ workers. With poetry and clarity, Thich Nhat Hanh imparts comforting wisdom about the nature of suffering and its role in creating compassion, love, and joy–all qualities of enlightenment. Instead of viewing it as something to run away from, see it as a Holy Truth – a pathway to growth and freedom. Once you’ve uncovered the source of your suffering, you can practice the Third Noble Truth – nirodha, or ceasing to create suffering. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s translation and commentary for a Buddhist text that has been long considered one of the three key books for monastic meditation practitioners For monks, nuns, or laypeople,. The concepts can be difficult but Thầy offers excellent guidance and explanation to help you understand. and develop superiority or inferiority complexes, but in the world of the water there are no signs, and when the wave touches her true nature — which is water — all of her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death,” (p. Like the Chinese monk, you might think you’re being diligent in your practice – but if your diligence isn’t based on Right View, then you’re not being diligent in the right way. The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching is a radiant beacon on Buddhist thought for the initiated and uninitiated alike.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. It explains how to cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and generosity in daily life to reach enlightenment. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.