The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Collection

Description

Philosophy. Religion & Spirituality. Nonfiction. HTML: With poetry and clarity, Thich Nhat Hanh imparts comforting wisdom about the nature of suffering and its role in creating compassion, love, and joy ?? all qualities of enlightenment.  ??Thich Nhat Hanh shows us the connection between personal, inner peace, and peace on earth.???His Holiness the Dalai Lama In The Heart of the Buddha??s Teaching, now revised with added material and new insights, Nhat Hanh introduces us to the core teachings of Buddhism and shows us that the Buddha??s teachings are accessible and applicable to our daily lives. Covering such significant teachings as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Doors of Liberation, the Three Dharma Seals, and the Seven Factors of Awakening, The Heart of the Buddha??s Teaching is a radiant beacon on Buddhist thought for the initiated and uninitiated alike.… (more)

Publication

Harmony (1999), Edition: Illustrated, 304 pages

Rating

(215 ratings; 4.1)

User reviews

LibraryThing member travelster
Some good insights mixed with 80% drivel.
LibraryThing member mamorico
The best primer I have read on the major principles of Buddhism written by perhaps the most readable authors of eastern thought. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member Essa
An excellent and very enjoyable introduction to basic Buddhist teachings by noted Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn. The book is as pleasurable to read as it is enlightening---the author's encouraging, joyful style reads easily and sometimes gives the impression that he is right there with you. The
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material in the book can, in my view, be understood and appreciated by people of any religion (or none).
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LibraryThing member ShiraC
An excellent introduction to Buddhist ideas. Not a guide to practice however.
LibraryThing member Wonderfool
I'm currently only about a third of the way through, but so far this book is beautifully written. Thich Nhat Hanh writes in a clear yet elegant way that is very helpful in comveying a basic understanding of some of the Buddha's core teachings. I bought this on recommendation from a fellow Buddhist
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and will definitely be looking into more of his work. I would recommend this book to anyone who, like me, is starting out in Buddhism or who just would like to learn about the basics. This is one of the few books that I'll likely go back and read multiple times.
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LibraryThing member Mary_Overton
"Let us look at a wave on the surface of the ocean. A wave is a wave. It has a beginning and an end. It might be high or low, more or less beautiful than other waves. But a wave is, at the same time, water. Water is the ground of being of the wave. It is important that a wave knows that she is
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water, and not just a wave. We, too, live our life as an individual. We believe that we have a beginning and an end, that we are separate from other living beings. That is why the Buddha advised us to look more deeply in order to touch the ground of our being which is nirvana. Everything bears deeply the nature of nirvana. Everything has been 'nirvanized' That is the teaching of the LOTUS SUTRA. We look deeply, and we touch the suchness of reality. Looking deeply into a pebble, flower, or our own joy, peace, sorrow, or fear, we touch the ultimate dimension of our being, and that dimension will reveal to us that the ground of our being has the nature of no-birth and no-death.

"We don't have to ATTAIN nirvana, because we ourselves are always dwelling in nirvana. The wave does not have to look for water. It already is water." pg. 211

"...The Buddha said that in the depth of our store consciousness, alayavijnana, there are all kinds of positive and negative seeds - seeds of anger, delusion, and fear, and seeds of understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. Many of these seeds have been transmitted to us by our ancestors. We should learn to recognize every one of these seeds in us in order to practice diligence. If it is a negative seed, the seed of an affliction like anger, fear, jealousy, or discrimination, we should refrain from allowing it to be watered in our daily life. Every time such a seed is watered, it will manifest on the upper level of our consciousness, and we will suffer and make the people we love suffer at the same time. The practice is to refrain from watering the negative seeds in us....

"We also try to recognize the positive seeds that are in us and to live our daily life in a way that we can touch them and help them manifest on the upper level of our consciousness, manovijnana. Every time they manifest and stay on the upper level of our consciousness for a while, they grow stronger. If the positive seeds in us grow stronger day and night, we will be happy and we will make the people we love happy. Recognize the positive seeds in the person you love, water those seeds, and he will become much happier.... Whenever you have time, please water the seeds that need to be watered. It is a wonderful and very pleasant practice of diligence, and it brings immediate results.

"Imagine a circle divided in two. Below is the store consciousness and above is mind consciousness. All mental formations lie deep down in our store consciousness. Every seed in our store consciousness can be touched and manifests itself on the upper level, namely our mind consciousness. Continued practice means trying our best not to allow the negative seeds in our store consciousness to be touched in our daily life, not to give them a chance to manifest themselves. The seeds of anger, discrimination, despair, jealousy, and craving are all there. We do what we can to prevent them from coming up. We tell the people we live with, 'If you truly love me, don't water these seeds in me. It is not good for my health or yours.' We have to recognized the kinds of seeds not to be watered. If it happens that a negative seed, the seed of an affliction, is watered and manifests itself, we do everything in our power to embrace it with our mindfulness and help it return to where it came from. The longer such seeds stay in our mind consciousness, the stronger they become." pg. 206-207
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LibraryThing member bness2
This is a bit deeper than most of the other books I have read by Hanh. I found it to be a very thorough introduction to Hanh's own particular school of Buddhism, along with tidbits about some of the other schools and the history of the development of Buddhism. The primary focus, though, was on the
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central tenets of Buddhism. the final third of the book gets a bit too deep for my taste, and due to the density of information left me a little overwhelmed.
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LibraryThing member ProfH
Well meaning with brief moments of insight, but largely tedious. It felt like an endless amount of lists and repetitive phrasings. I really tried to give this text every benefit of the doubt, but I kept putting it down in boredom. There are better ways to teach than this pedantic method. Perhaps
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the monk is a better speaker than writer?
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