The Heart of Understanding, by Thich Nhat Hanh Essay

“Emptiness stretching for miles, the sense of space, the vastness of the sky above, passing no farm or cottage, no kind of dwelling house at all in three miles. All was emptiness.”

This paper is a book report on “Living Buddha, Living Christ,” written by, Thich Nhat Hanh. In this paper I will discuss the four themes; Mindfulness, Understanding, Interbeing, and Wisdom. I will define the themes, and explain how each theme listed is a part of my life and whether this theme, can be co-related along with my faith.

Thich Nhat Hanh relays that mindfulness and happiness can be achieved through simple actions like counting breaths and remembering to smile. He explains how simple tasks such as washing dishes, taking a walk, eating a meal, and driving a car can be joyous activities if one remembers to breath and smile. He states: “I believe that every home should have one room for breathing. Simple practices like conscious breathing and smiling are very important. They can change our civilization” (p. 47). What would the world look like if everyone put peace into their every step?

Also in Life As We Knew It, there was only one main character that the story’s viewpoint came from. But in Empty, there were three main characters who were, for the most part, in different places than each other. This makes a difference because having more than one viewpoint gives you a view of what life is like during a catastrophe from other perspectives. A final difference was that Life As We Knew It started out like everything was going to be normal but Empty starts off with saying that there is a shortage of

But “it means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering” (142). This is an inconsistency, as for how you are listening while open to anything but you cannot hear. We can hear, but we do not bother on doing anything because we are happy, like Pooh was happy with what he saw and doing nothing. Hoff also says, “an empty sort of mind … can see what it is in front of it,” (146) with an empty mind one can appreciate what is right in life instead of chasing what is wrong with life, thus enjoying what is

In life, nothing is more terrifying than change. We often latch on to permanency without understanding the effects of our action, in search of truth that simply is not there. In this way, the Buddhist idea of anicca, the second mark of existence, is liberating. Anicca is closely related to the idea of anatta, as it expands on the idea of a non-permanent, self and beyond this non-permanent self exists a non-permanent world. Reality, through the lense of anicca, is not a collection of still-life paintings, but rather a life performance. Clinging on to the past, or even the present, can deny us life itself, as we deny the change that is intrinsic to existence. We can look not into specific memories or scenes for truth, but rather the journey

In the text, “As these are what is realized by great people,they are called the awareness of great people. Realizing these principles is the basis of nirvana,” the moral of this point is drawing on the Mahayana techniques and teachings for obtaining nirvana (Koller, 359). The concept of great people is one of the main pathways to reaching nirvana in Mahayana buddhism. This course tied in many different understandings and perspectives of nirvana but, ultimately revealed the emphasis of nirvana in the Mahayana schools. By including the significance of The 8 Awarenesses of Great People, the inclusion of this text helps clarify and break down the Mahayana views and relations to Nirvana and familiarizes the readers with the expansion of this

Kenko, the Buddhist monk and author of Essays in Idleness, took great satisfaction in the idea of impermanence. A hefty amount of this work deals with Kenko talking about Buddhist values and the beauty of change. He felt that “if man was never to fade like the dews of Adishino, never to vanish like the smoke over Toribeyama, but lingered forever in the world, how things would

Anatman is the idea of “no permanent soul” 3. A common misconception is that Anatman means people have no soul. In reality it describes the constant change of the soul during its time on earth. Buddhism holds that while there is no soul, the five elements that make up an individual orient themselves to form a new individual. With each cycle of rebirth, these aggregates, which include mind, consciousness, body, impulse, and feeling, will combine differently to form distinct individuals 4. While Buddhists believe in karma, a summation of positive and negative actions, they

Twenty-five centuries ago, the Buddha found “emptiness” which represents being free from “unsatisfactoriness”. The understanding of emptiness could take two approaches. The first approach is the enlightenment one in which emptiness may refer to the reality of the existences in the world (Nagapriva, 2009). The second approach is the liberation in which emptiness may refer to the skill used to detach oneself from defilement. Emptiness is a way of avoiding attachments. However, emptiness in the Mahayana context may be understood either by its true nature, or by practice. In this text, the understanding of emptiness is expressed in true nature, and it has profound significance in the Mahayana teachings. It is even more important to understand why

Eastern enlightenment religions have been gaining popularity throughout the western world for the past few decades, with many people attracted to a "different" way of experiencing religion. As with many other enlightenment religions, Buddhism requires disciples to understand concepts that are not readily explainable: one such concept is that of no-self. In this essay I shall discuss the no-self from a number of modern perspectives; however, as no-self is difficult to describe I shall focus on both the self and no-self. Beginning with psychological aspects, and neurophysiological research on transcendental meditation, I shall discuss the impact of modern brain science on our understanding of the self and transcendence. Next I will outline

1. To me, emptiness in Buddhism situations or objects don't exist in the past to have a sort of history of good or bad. When the belief of Anatta talks about “ by the name car has no existence apart from axle, wheels, shaft, motor, and so on, that which we conventionally does a night person or "I” is nothing but a continually shifting combination of impersonal physical and mental phenomena”(Novak 68). This part of the reading reminds me that Buddhist also believe that no one or anything is nothing without teamwork and working together to be something and become. I feel like the Buddhist believe that if the whole world can together, their emptiness that they believe in with the whole coming together won't exist and no anger or hatred could

The impermanence of all things includes meditation. While you are wholly in one moment, the moments change – there is not simply one breath, but another breath that follows. If you hold your breath, you will pass out. Eventually an individual will stop breathing. But another will continue. Focusing on being in the moment, being where you are, you can see that even meditation is not permanent. This “spiritual practice hones skills, including the religiously valued to do one thing…to do everything we do with full attention.” (Burford 2003)

In the spirit of The Heart of Understanding, the concept of emptiness is often confusing and seemingly paradoxical and contradictive with the phrase in Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness, Emptiness is form, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form.”. However, by linking the ideas in the concept of emptiness into two main categories: Semantical, Psychological, the concept of emptiness can be better understood.

Based on our knowledge of Northern school and Southern school, we say that during this debate, the Northern school represent the official lineage and practice methods and the Southern represent the experience. However, even the Southern school itself cannot get rid of the influence induced by lineage and Northern school. The Chan lineage provides the stand point for anyone in Chan’s tradition and provides meditation method that leads towards enlightenment. The southern school is in tension itself because of the unsolved lineage and experience dispute. Although Southern school claim people need “Direct, complete awareness [that] is non-mediate awareness” (Gomez 75), such claim is impaired by its Southern school’s vague standard of awaken and