At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life

Category: Books,Religion & Spirituality,Buddhism

At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life Details

Review "Thich Nhat Hanh shows us the connection between personal inner peace and peace on earth."—His Holiness the Dalai Lama  Read more About the Author Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most revered Zen teachers in the world today. His best–selling books include Be Free Where You Are and Peace of Mind. He lives in Plum Village in southwest France. Nhat Hanh has been teaching the art of mindful living for more than 70 years. Read more Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The LeafOne day when I was a child, I looked into the water container in the front yard and I saw a very beautiful leaf at the bottom. It had so many colors. I wanted to take the leaf out and play with it. But my arm was too short to reach the bottom of the water container. So I used a stick to try to take it out. It was difficult and I became impatient. I stirred and stirred twenty or thirty times, and yet the leaf didn’t come to the surface. So I gave up and I threw away the stick. When I came back a few minutes later the leaf had come to the surface of the water, and I picked it up easily. In the few moments I had been away, the water had continued to swirl and had brought the leaf up to the surface. This is how our unconscious mind works. When we have a problem or difficulty to solve or when we want to have more insight into a situation, our conscious mind has to entrust to the unconscious mind the task of finding the insight. The unconsciousness mind knows how to listen and collaborate with us and with our intentions. Sometimes before going to sleep you might tell your store consciousness: "Tomorrow I want to wake up at 4:30"; and tomorrow you will wake up at 4:30. To meditate you don’t only use your conscious mind, what we call in Buddhism "mind consciousness"; you also need to know how to use and trust your unconscious mind, called "store consciousness" in Buddhism. When we plant a seed in the soil, we trust the soil. Mind consciousness should plant the object of meditation into the soil of store consciousness and not wrestle with it superficially on the level of mind consciousness. When a peace conference takes place, it must be organized in that spirit. We have to rely on the collective insight offered by the collective store consciousness of all those who are in the conference. We should know the techniques of taking care of our collective store consciousness in order to have the greatest insight possible. If we can become more civilized, our legislature will operate like that. Every member will know how to practice so that store consciousness can offer the best insight. During the day, mind consciousness creates all the conditions for store consciousness to be able to do it; it’s by the practice of deep breathing, calming, looking deeply, and allowing ourselves to be, that we can help our store consciousness to offer the best. Not only psychotherapists, but also members of government should learn how to make good use of our unconscious mind to serve our people in our country and our world. We should all know how to practice to have more insight and to have the best kind of insight. When you offer this way to others, it needs to be based on your own experience of practice. KaleidoscopeWhen I was a child I used to enjoy playing with a kaleidoscope that I made from a tube and a few pieces of ground glass. Whenever I turned it a little bit, I saw many wonderful sights. Every time I made a small movement of my fingers, one sight would disappear and another would appear. I didn’t cry at all when the first spectacle disappeared, because I knew that nothing was lost; another beautiful sight always followed. When we look into a kaleidoscope, we see a beautiful symmetrical image; and whenever we turn the kaleidoscope, the image disappears. Can we describe this as a birth or a death? Or is the image only a manifestation? After this manifestation there’s another manifestation that’s equally beautiful—nothing is lost at all. I have seen people die very peacefully, with a smile, because they see that birth and death are only waves on the surface of the ocean, just like the spectacle in the kaleidoscope. Read more

Reviews

Thich Nhat Hanh’s books have been a refuge for me for many years. I’m not sure how many of his books I’ve read so far, but it must be dozens at least. I still treasure his insights and coaching on how to embrace this human experience.In this particular book, he shares personal experiences along with his thoughts on many of life’s challenges. I can’t say this strongly enough, but he just seems to talk to me.On more than one occasion, Thich Nhat Hanh talks about meeting and working with Thomas Merton. I especially like the talk called Closing the Door, which talks about learning how to be mindful in all that we do. Thich Nhat Hanh told this story to Thomas Merton, and Thomas used that story and told that same story to fellow followers and monks that he was working with.Thich Nhat Hanh also told a story about washing dishes and how being mindful and being in the moment changes the whole perception of how you feel about washing dishes. If one is not in the moment the task becomes uncomfortable, because their thinking about the past or the future and not experiencing the moment. I know I’m not sharing the true depth of this story, but I want to encourage you to take a look at this story.In addition, one of his essays within this book is titled “The Times of India.” In this essay he describes a different way of reporting news that needs to be considered. A terrible event or booming happened in Mumbai, and Thich Nhat Hanh talks about a new way of sharing this information to the public so that it doesn’t cause any more anger or violence.He shares that it needs to be communicated in such a way that it doesn’t make matters worse. Empathy might be a good place to start. Let’s try to understand the cause and take appropriate action so not to enflame the disenfranchised to be victims and exacerbate matters even further.If we’re passionate and caring the assailant loses some power and this could change the whole dynamics of these events. I know I’m not doing this essays any justice, so please read the book to get a true picture of what I’m talking about.

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