Customer Reviews

The Sun My Heart

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful brief introduction to Buddhist thought, but what makes it stand out is the first chapter. If you meditate, and wonder if you are "doing it right," in a few pages you will have a good understanding of what meditation is about--and it's reassuring. Don't try to empty the mind, don't get discouraged at all those random thoughts. Just observe and be aware. This book is encouraging and warm and profound.

This is far and away the best of his 4 books I've read (Thundering Silence, Creating True Peace, and Anger). As a student of Dzogchen, I see tons of parallels with the author's Zen approach. Even better, as a scientist, I greatly enjoyed his use of modern scientific views as parallels to Buddhist thought and theory. Of course, both Mindfulness and Insight Meditation are used in virtually all types of Buddhism including Theravada (Southeast Asian or Southern Buddhism) and Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism--a type of Northern or "Mahayana"). There are many currently available Tibetan books on these two which have far more details and more pithy descriptions IMHO. Even Dzogchen and Mahamudra books describe them and promote their continued usage. Still, this is a good book with some different information (less duplication than some of TNH's other works). It has quite a good deal of useful information in its few pages. I gave a copy as a gift to a friend. This one is worth the read.

With clear explanations and lucid analogies, Thich Nhat Hanh points the way to an understanding of the "historical dimension" of every day life and the "ultimate dimension" of true reality, and shows that these two are not different from each other.

I was somewhat disappointed in this book, since I was expecting something along the lines of previous little books by this author on mindfulness. This book proved different, though of course the subjects of mindfulness, breathing exercises and so on do come up. I suppose one could say that the topic of this book is the same as that of the others, this book just goes deeper (infinitely deeper).

This book shows a highly intellectual, philosophical side of the author. He teaches us that mind and object are one, that "one is all, all is one". He thus discusses the interdependence of all phenomena, leading us to understand, for instance, that the fate of the underdeveloped countries cannot be separated from that of the wealthy countries. Each war involves all countries.

He refers to the Avatamsaka Sutra, which states that a speck of dust contains in itself infinite space and endless time. Time and space contain each other and are interdependent. This is backed by Einstein's theory of relativity, which he also analyzes.

He discusses form and emptiness and concludes that "reality is beyond these two concepts". He also introduces a concept called "the miraculousness of existence", to be aware that the universe is contained in each thing and could not exist otherwise. We thus cannot say that something exists, or does not exist, thus the term "miraculous existence".

He refers back and forth to various Sutras and modern science, demonstrating that the authors of the Sutras and scientists, such as Oppemheimer and Einstein, are saying the same thing. Thus, Oppenheimer indicated that electrons were beyond the concepts of being and non-being.

The final chapter reverts to the discussion of meditation, mindfulness and happiness, as discoursed upon in his other books, and proved to be more easily comprehensible. Hanh refers to the "Four Immeasurables" . lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and non-attachment. In so far as you are developing these virtues in yourself, you are proceeding in the right direction.

He provides us with a valuable topic of meditation - "If you want peace, peace is with you immediately". He tells us that our strength is in the peace within us. This peace empowers us to go out into the world and do what we want to do to help the downtrodden.

This ia a valuable book, but a bit too intellectully challenging to my taste. Read it if you want to delve deeply into the nature of reality, both intellectually and via meditation.

Read it 2 or 3 pages at a time. Wisdom and truth delivered with humility and innocence.

I cannot ever say enough good things about the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, and this is no exception. Extraordinary, wonderful, beautiful! One who is looking for the spiritual side of life will never need more than what is found in his writings. What a treasure. It does not matter if you are Buddhist or not, his teachings are applicable to all faiths. Dont hesitate, you won't be disapointed.

I had to buy this book for class. All-in-all, the book's not terrible, but it's not something I would have bought simply for fun.