No Mud No Lotus, the art of transforming suffering
by Thich Nhat Hanh indeed offers a very different yet pragmatic take
on overcoming life's problems.
The author who is a renowned Zen Buddhist master says that the main
affliction of our modern civilization is that we don't know how to
handle the suffering inside us and we try to cover it up with all
kinds of consumption. He states that we have the seeds, the potential
in us for understanding, love, compassion, and insight as well as the
seeds of anger, hate, and greed. While we can't avoid all the
suffering in life, we can suffer much less by not watering the seeds
of suffering inside us.
We are truly alive only when the mind is with the body. What a simple
yet profound statement. The book is full of such gems. At another
place the author says the Buddha said that nothing can survive
without food. This is true, not just for the physical existence of
living beings, but also for states of mind. Love needs to be
nurtured and fed to survive and our suffering also survives because
we enable and feed it. We ruminate on suffering, regret, and sorrow.
We chew on them, swallow them, bring them back up, and eat them again
and again. If we are feeding our suffering while we're walking,
working, eating or talking, we are making ourselves victims of the
ghosts of the past, of the future or our worries in the present. We
are not living our lives.
Speaking of suffering he says part of the art of suffering well is
learning not to magnify our pain by getting carried away in fear,
anger and despair. We build and maintain our energy reserves to
handle the big sufferings; the little sufferings we can let go.
The book offers eight meditation techniques for happiness. Indeed
this book is to be treasured.
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