“The Miracle of Mindfulness,” by Thich Nhat Hanh

book cover Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

One of Thich Nhat Hanh’s most popular books, Miracle of Mindfulness is about how to take hold of your consciousness and keep it alive to the present reality, whether eating a tangerine, playing with your children, or washing the dishes.

Nhat Hanh has a simple and direct style that communicates a profound sense of compassion. when he’s talking about sitting with someone who is in a state of distress and he says “I understood” you think, “Yes, he does understand. He really does.”

And as well as being compassionate, Nhat Hanh is also a master of how to communicate practice. He reminds us to wash the dishes as if they were sacred relics — a practice that helps bring a sense of care and aesthetic enjoyment into a mundane activity. He suggests over and over that we smile — a practice that reminds us that happiness is a choice. He is also of course famous for the mindfulness bell — a practice of stopping and paying attention to our present-moment experience.

A world-renowned Zen master, Nhat Hanh weaves practical instruction with anecdotes and other stories to show how the meditative mind can be achieved at all times and how it can help us all “reveal and heal.” Nhat Hanh is a master at helping us find a calm refuge within ourselves and teaching us how to reach out from there to the rest of the world.

There’s nothing complicated in this book, but then there’s nothing complicated about mindfulness. the difficult thing is to remember to do it, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s book is full of suggestions for reminding ourselves to be mindful.

3 Comments. Leave new

  • after seeing a counselor for a year and gaining ground with my bi-polar condition I was then asked to submit a daily schedule to give structure to my everyday. I am a writer who doesn’t think in a linear fashion (right minded) I would write a daily schedule everyday but was not able to see what the problem was in finding one I could live with. after talking to another counselor who had practiced some of the “mindfulness techniques” shared them with me tonight. I went home and began to see the task in segments…I listed everything I had to do each day and then put it on an hourly schedule I then listed my itinerary on a separate page and prioritized it and then made a place in my daily schedule for just the word itinerary.
    I feel it was influenced by this technique for I have been struggling with structure all my life.
    this is just one day.

    Reply
  • Sandra Stavlo
    April 9, 2008 12:00 pm

    Wonderful book! Inspired me to start seriously applying the principles to my life.

    Reply
  • […] Miracle of Mindfulness. Goal: read it at the park with dogs. But we get to the park: no book. I find it later, driving […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Menu