The Sun My Heart

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.

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.

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.

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.