Short parables to help make values based decisions. I love this book. I have more bookmarks in this book than any other book I own. ( )

Working in a bookstore, I frequently am asked for books about mindfulness these days. It seems anyone with a brain is trying to get theirs to settle down and not get too riled up by the state of the world. As a general skeptic to all things that one could even remotely label as “new age,” I’ve stopped short of picking a mindfulness book up myself, despite my anxiety which I’ve seemed to quell it on my own in the last few months. But as Jennifer swore it was helpful, I figured, Why not?

When I first started listening to Peace is Every Step, I forgot that it is over 25 years old, written in an age before the internet and various electronic devices ran most of our lives. Most of the points made still resonate today. Whole Peace is Every Step lacks what some might consider concrete and specific steps, it focuses more on changing your perspective and thought process. I’ve come to know understand that this is what mindfulness really is, it’s about thinking through how behaviors and actions affect not only yourself, but other people and the world as a whole. Love and kindness will get you further than anger and hateful rhetoric, and similar sentiments make up the bulk of the book.

I recently had an interaction with a family friend that left me hurt, upset, and confused. And I realized that my reactions, and actions, in response to this encounter, allow me the opportunity to put what I’ve recently read into practice. I could yell, scream, and burn a bridge, or I can sit back, reflect, and try to empathize and put myself in this person’s shoes. Choosing the latter, is choosing the mindfulness approach. And if this settles my anxiety in regards to the matter, then I think, just maybe, Jennifer was right. ( )

'This is a very worthwhile book. It can change individual lives and the life of our society.'-from the foreword by H. H. the Dalai Lama

'A great spiritual leader whose influence can help us find a living peace in everything we do, Thich Nhat Hanh's words connect inner peace with the need for peace in the world in a compelling way.'-Natalie Goldberg, author of Wild Mind

In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is avalable in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, an author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. For him, a ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to 'mindfulness'-the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality. The most profound satisfactions, the deepest feelings of joy and completeness lie as close at hand as our next aware breath and the smile we can form right now.

Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries and meditations, personal anecdotes and stories form Nhat Hanh's experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the reader already is-in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking in a park-and shows how deep meditative presence is available now. Nhat Hanh provides exercises to increase our awareness of our own body and mind through conscious breathing, which can bring immediate joy and peace. Nhat Hanh also shows how to be aware of relationships with others and of the world around us, its beauty and also its pollution and injustices. The deceptively simple practices of Peace Is Every Step encourage the reader to work for peace in the world as he or she continues to work on sustaining inner peace by turning the 'mindless' into the mindful.

'This book of illunimnating reminders bids us to reorient the way we look at the world...toward a humanitarian perspective.'-Publishers Weekly

Contents

Froeword
Editor's introduction
Part One: Brreath! You are alive
Twenty-four brand-new hours
The dendelion has my smile
Conscious breathing
Present moment, wonderful moment
Thinking less
Nourishing awareness in each moment
Sitting anywhere
Sitting meditation
Bells of mindfulness
Cookie of childhood
Tangerine meditatin
The Eucharist
Eating mindfully Washing dishes
Walking meditation
Telephone meditation
Driving meditation
Decompartmentalization
Breathing and scything
Aimlessness
Our life is a work of art
Hope as an obstacle
Flower insights
Breathing room
Continuing the journey
Part Two: Transformation and healing
The river of feelings
Non-surgery
Transforming feelings
Mindfulness of anger
Pillow-poiunding
Walking meditation when angry
Cooking our potatoes
Teh roots of anger
Internal formatins
Living together
Suchness
Look into yur hand
Parents
Nourishing healthy seeds
What's not wrong?
Blaming never helps
Understanding
Real love
Meditation on compassion
Meditation on love
Hugging meditation
Investing in friends
It is a great joy to hold your grandchild
Community of mindful living
Mindfulness must be engaged
Part Three Peace is every step
Interbeing
Flowers and garbage
Waging peace
Not two
Healing the wounds of war
The sun my heart
Looking deeply
The art of mindful living
Nourishing awareness
A love letter to your congressman
Citizenship Ecology of mind
the roots of war
Like a leaf, we have many stems
We are all linked to each other
Reconciliation
Call me by my true names
Suffering nourishes compassion
Love in action
The river
Entering the twenty-first century

I picked this up because it was the book that started Marc Andrus on his journey to learn more about Thich Nhat Hanh. He went on to write Brothers in Beloved Community which I am reading with a group. Nhat Hanh is a remarkable man. I found this an interesting but frustrating book. So much of what he advocates seems impossible. I can begin to take tiny steps, but I fear I will never attain the peace he describes because of the difficulty of what he prescribes. I was disappointed to find the chapter titled Love in Action is entirely a list of don'ts. I would have appreciated some positive actions to replace the negatives. All that I found was "breathe in, breathe out, smile". I think a helping hand is definitely required on this path. Good narrator for the material. Well delivered. ( )

Interesting introduction to mindfulness

I wanted to get to know more about mindfulness since it is a quite popular buzzword these days. This book provided me with a nice introduction to mindfulness interwoven with small stories and anecdotes which usually hit close to the mark. ( )