I was drawn to this book as someone who suffers from anxiety, and more specifically, health anxiety. (aka, hypochondria). A lot of my fears are centered around death. As someone who isn't particularly religious, I've always had trouble believing in something to provide me relief of my own mind. However, through following the Buddhist path and reading this book, I have a new outlook on death as well as my fear surrounding it. Yes, it's still a struggle of mine, but my eyes have been opened to an entirely new perspective that I really needed to be enlightened to. Overall would read over and over again.

No Death, No Fear was my first book by this Godsend. I was raised in a very disfuntional situation that required years of counseling from the age of 8-30. I could never find the healing to fully move forward in life. I was a prisoner of my past, stuck in a box of hurts, confused angery, with a hardened heart. My trust in anyone other than myself was gone... this book and this wonderful teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh has opened my eyes to more than I ever could imagine. I have found more peace and forgiveness by his heart opening practices than I could with any professional. I have acquired many more books of his, and his words have become a part of my daily routine. Many people are asked , "if you could meet one person i your lifetime, who would that be?" I would choose him just to get a long hug and feel his energy . Thank you for
Your beautiful , eye opening wisdom. I love you and I life you!

If you're wondering if this book is worth buying, it is. I'm not going to spoil the beauty of this book with an overly-detailed description of its contents, as I would with any other book purchase.
If you're scared to die (like we all are), this book will change your life. As an avid reader of every sort of book imaginable, I firmly believe that this book is the single most important book of our time. If you think I'm exaggerating, read it for yourself. I wish there were a way to make it mandatory reading for every human being on the planet. Christians, Muslims, Atheists, Buddhists, Pagans, Jews, Hindus, Agnostics, and any various other will find comfort in this book.

Thich Nhat Hanh's little book on death is a magnificent treatment of the topic intended to be read by the widest possible audience possible. The balance of simplicity and depth here is really quite remarkable. It's as if he has spent his life making Buddhism more understandable...

The book rotates around one central image, that is of wave and water. The problem with the wave is that it often feels that it is taller or shorter, wider or thinner, smoother or more choppy than other waves. Although this causes suffering, nothing causes more fear to the wave that one day it will break on shore and become nothing. But, Thich Nhat Hanh assures the wave that its true nature is that of water. All waves at the core of their being are water. The sooner they realize this, the sooner will they cease to identify with relative definitions and the sooner will the cease to fear their death. The analogy here, I hope, is pretty obvious.

Thich Nhat Hanh, following the teachings of Buddhism, emphasizes pratityasamutpada, or interdependent arising, or the belief that everything is defined by all other things. There is no pen without paper, no coffee mug without coffee, and ultimately no person without people. He spells this out quite wonderfully when he addresses "touching the earth" in chapter 8. First he looks at time in the sense that we are biologically and emotionally dependant upon those who came before us. Our current karmic condition (although he does not emphasize this term) is the bound consequence of our parents and our parents' parents. Next, he looks at space and states that we are all that we encounter. He uses the example of a candle where he states that the candle still exists after it has burnt out. We in the west would say the candle is gone, but Thich Nhat Hanh assures us that it has simply changed form. There are gasses that were released, a bit of ash and also heat and light. The heat is still in the room and some of the light may have escaped the window and is now cruising across the cosmos. People, he writes, are the same. Who we are is not contained in our bodies, but the sum of our actions, thoughts and words. In other words, we live on in all of the people we touch. If this is the case, what does it mean to die? We pass on biologically to our children, but we also pass on our lessons and character. From here, I like to make the analogy that we are more like knots in crochet rather than pieces in a puzzle. The puzzle piece can be isolated and analyzed, but the knot will forever be a nexus of something much larger; anything we do to the know ultimately affects the entire system.

Also addressing this point, Thich Nhat Hanh asks us if we cloned him and placed on in a slum, one in a business school and one in a monastery, who would he be? The conclusion of this little thought experiment, I find, illuminates pratityasamutpada quite well.

Overall, I find this book to be easy to read and deeply insightful for anyone who would pick it up. Thich Nhat Hanh is without question a master at getting such powerful yet subtle ideas across to just about anybody. Whatever your background, you will find something meaningful in this book.