Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022)

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In a time of great division and discord, our capacity to listen deeply and with compassion is paramount to solving pressing issues—across the realms of global politics, interpersonal relationships, and our own hearts and minds.

In How to Listen, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh demonstrates how deep listening is a fundamental building block of good communication. But perhaps more fundamentally, listening is central to our practice, a basic ingredient to show more strengthen our capacity for mindfulness, concentration, insight, and compassion. Learning how to listen with equanimity to life itself, we generate insight into the true nature of our deep connection to all things. And from this place of understanding—when we know that we aren’t separate—our capacity to listen deepens even further.

With clear and gentle guidance from Thich Nhat Hanh, we learn how truly listening—to ourselves, to each other, to Mother Earth, and to the many “bells of mindfulness” that are available to us in each moment—is the foundation of our practice, an expression of love, and a solution to our deepest and most urgent large-scale conflicts.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself," said Tolstoy, and that truth has never faded or lost relevance.

When confronted by disagreement, wisdom says to listen first, then react. As a goal, that is very admirable, but largely unattainable, I hear everyone saying. I said it, too. Truth is it's hard, it's challenging, and you will fail in practicing it.

Zen practices are the butt of many jokes in the Western overculture, unsurprisingly. Google "zen koan" and imagine being presented with it sans context or preparation for the simple existence of a context where this is not intended to be humorous. Mindfulness is not natural to homo sapiens occidentalis. We're fed a constant media diet of covetousness, triumphalism, and valorized ignorance. These are the antithesis of mindfulness, its very opposite both in worldview and in the practices promoted therein.

The author was a vocal peace and mindfulness advocate most of his near-century of life. This book, charmingly illustrated by Jason DeAntonis, offers up practical steps towards a practice of mindful listening. In reading the ideas I was forcefully struck by the way they could be read: I've been at the mindfulness game for quite a while now, and began my own journey from a more or less Buddhist perspective. (My sexual preference has always been "more," so Buddhism, with its emphasis on renunciation, and I were destined to part.) These pages are full of advice for practices that can be read and applied by the novice through to the student of Buddhism. No one is left out of the benefits because there is no presumption of an expert audience.

So I hope, like the departed author, that you'll start a journey to becoming a real listener by reading and heeding his words. From the 1975 publication of The Miracle of Mindfulness through to this posthumous publication (he died in 2022), he's been making steady inroads into US and Western culture with his interlocking message of listening as a practice, and mindful existence in the modern world, in place of mere passivity and disengagement.

There is no better way to transform one's experience of the world than to be fully present in it. Starting here is not a bad idea at all. show less

In this book, Thich Nhat Hanh unpacks fifty fifth-century Buddhist verses on the nature of consciousness and relates them to modern life. This is pretty heady stuff, and a lot more technical and philosophical than my other dabblings into Buddhism, but I really enjoyed it. The translations of the verses themselves are beautiful, simple, and moving, and Thich Nhat Hanh's usual clear and compassionate writing style makes the complicated nature of reality stuff land more smoothly than it would show more in the hands of another author. I particularly liked his advice in the introduction to read just a bit each day, don't worry too much if you aren't understanding every word, and to "Allow the teachings to enter you as you might listen to music, or in the way the earth allows the rain to permeate it." By following his advice, I feel like I got a perspective on my own mind and existence that I didn't have before. Maybe don't start here if you have never read anything about Buddhism, but don't be put off by the complexity of the content if this is something you'd like to dig into a little more deeply. show less

Originally published in 1987, Being Peace outlasts its post-Vietnam, Reagan-Era milieu for the most part. No doubt the many references to nuclear proliferation will seem a bit dated, but the wisdom is that suffering is indeed universal and timeless, so we need not jump far to find the proliferations and crises of our own time. Further, anyone aware of Nhat Hanh's work with the Vietnamese boat people will understand that this is not some monastic who sat on a cushion away from society, but show more instead a powerfully invested human being. For those skeptical about Buddhism, this book does much to explain that one should not be looking for "a Buddha from the outside" but instead, " it is our "own Buddha that calls us."

Thich Nhat Hanh is surprisingly witty at moments, slipping in a surreptitious lesson in a parenthetical comment: "The technique (if we must speak of a technique), is to be alive...". His blend of storytelling, poetry, and prose, makes this primer on some basic sutras and concepts of Buddhism extremely accessible. There are definitely worldly pleasures about which he has some strong feelings, and initially I rolled my eyes a bit at his disdain for television. However, when he says "telling the television to come colonize us"--that language made me understand. It isn't television, but how we use it to escape from the present, or rather WHEN we use it to escape from the present. He doesn't soapbox on this particular point, but I did find myself wondering what he thought of audiobooks...

Nhat Hanh died in January (2022), and we lost a voice that managed to move beyond dogma toward a practical understanding of being, really. In a rather slim volume (or short audiobook, if you prefer), he offers precepts (or rather "mindfulness trainings") of Thiền Buddhism, parsing (a bit) that which is monastic and that which can be followed by the layperson. I struggled a bit with his explanation regarding awareness of injustice, but not taking sides. His point, if I understand it, is that it isn't about absolution or even forgiveness, but to understand the universality of suffering and existence of compassion. This may be something I never quite internalize. However, I was very much struck by Mindfulness Training no. 11, wherein he compares compassion to a North Star---it is there to light the way and we move toward it, but like the North Star, we do not arrive AT it. This may seem like a more fanciful way to espouse "it is the journey, not the destination", and it is, but the poetry of his language seems more meaningful than your typical inspirational poster or Pinterest meme. His poem "Please call me by my true names" is a powerful moment, and I'd invite anyone to go to the Plum Village website to listen to him read it: https://plumvillage.org/articles/plea...

"I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,/to fear and to hope" he tells us in the poem. He quips later in the book "Don't just do something, sit there." And by the time we reach that point of learning, we get that it isn't some sort of cutesy verbal trinket because he has put much spirit and energy into explaining what "sit" means in the meditation tradition. We understand that a smile is a gift of the spirit, not an indication of happiness. Edoardo Ballerini captures the spirit of Nhat Hanh's voice, which truly smiles at us, like a Buddha. In fact, he tells us that if we must bring a Buddha home to adorn our breathing space, to be sure to find one that is smiling and relaxed. If we do not find such a beautiful Buddha, he tells us, then we should find a flower instead, because the flower is a Buddha.

This is not a book for someone looking for a guide to serious practice. It is, however, a book full of wisdom and grace, that can make connections for us if we just take the time to listen. show less

I love this book! The Miracle of Mindfulness is a gentle, beautiful guide to meditation and living fully in the present. Thich Nhat Hanh’s writing is calm, clear, and profoundly grounding. The exercises are simple but effective, making it easy to incorporate mindfulness into even the busiest days.

That said, some sections felt repetitive, and readers looking for a highly structured or step-by-step meditation manual might wish for more detailed guidance. The book is more reflective and show more philosophical than technical.

Still, it’s deeply inspiring. Reading it felt like having a patient teacher guiding me toward awareness and peace in everyday life. It’s a small book with a big impact, one I find myself returning to again and again. show less