THE MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS: A Manual on Meditation

Nhat Hanh, head of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation in Paris and Zen master and poet, has been a major force and steady inspiration in the anti-war and world peace movements. In this brief, simply worded manual, he presents the vision and methods he has been teaching of late to busy young peace workers to restore their energies and to ensure that their activity is fruitfully centered. The aim is complete ""mindfulness"" in all one does, thinks, and feels, and the methods are adaptations of Zen approaches, rooted in awareness of one's breathing. He proposes too a Sabbath-like ""day of mindfulness"" each week. Though he touches on advanced Buddhist themes--the interdependence of all things, non-discrimination of subject and object, and universal compassion--the accent is on practical exercises to learn to do whatever one does (waking up, washing dishes, drinking tea) with full presence and consciousness. A modest, honest book, based on the author's experience, although it might suggest, improperly, that Zen meditation can be learned from a printed page.