Thich Nhat Hanh: The Miracle of Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh was a Buddhist monk in Vietnam whose writings had a profound impact around the world. My parents recommended that I read Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation because it could help me learn how to be mindful of the outside world. As I write this blog, I can feel the irony of trying to keep my future assignments at bay. In other words, I have a hard time being in the present moment. Like most Americans (including my parents), I have been trained to focus on completing tasks quickly and without much thought. People fear deadlines and judgment from others. This seems to be the driving force of everything that people do on a daily basis.

In war-torn Vietnam, Nhat Hanh started the School of Youth for Social Service and wrote this book in 1974 as a “letter” to Brother Quang (a fellow monk). The school provided humanitarian aid to the poor and the orphans trapped in the midst of war. The school’s workers were themselves kidnapped, tortured, and killed because of their refusal to take a side in the War.

Breath is an important tool to control one’s consciousness. Much of the book is an instruction guide to the “simple” task of breathing. I discovered that I take my breathing for granted, and that I’m an inconsistent, shallow breather. This easy, automatic business of breath is difficult to notice and to change. The reason? Breathing is a physical and mental practice, but most of us try to ignore it as we focus instead on everything we have to get done. Breath can help one surmount situations of any kind, no matter how hopeless it may be.

To be frank, I needed to read this book multiple times because the statements are deceptively simple, but actually deeply philosophical. For example, washing the dishes to wash the dishes (3) seems pretty easy, until you think about how “un-present” we all are in completing even the smallest task. Let’s say that you have coffee waiting on the table and you are washing the dishes, but thinking about that cup. That is not mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of keeping one’s consciousness “alive in the present reality,” which in short form is being in the moment and alert to the present situation. We are trained to keep our attention on the future, not the present. This paradoxically makes us less alert and less aware. In the case of driving a car, it is vital to focus on the road and the surrounding cars, not on the destination or something in the future (60). Even without distracting devices and substances, one can still get into an accident by simply not paying attention to the now.

A common misconception of the word “meditation” is that it only means the sessions one would attend to “meditate.” Meditation is everywhere and in everything we do. Meditation is mindfulness. Another misunderstanding is that meditation is just another task to get over and done (a chore). While most of us won’t reach the Buddhist state of “perfection”—“reality freed from all false views” (56)—most of us can be mindful by being aware of the best time to do something, the best person to work with, and the best pursuit at all times. These three categories of value are the subject of Tolstoy’s parable, “The Three Questions,” in which the Emperor seeks the answers from a hermit. The best time is now, the best person is the one you are with at the moment, and the best pursuit is helping others.

Here’s one of the most terrifying statements that Nhat Hanh stresses: not practicing mindfulness is not living. It’s like a death in life. If one is not mindful, one is not “here.” Nhat Hanh reminds us that it is only when we are mindful and alive, we can help others be mindful and alive. As a busy person myself, I struggle to keep away the nagging thoughts of upcoming tasks. What mindfulness teaches is acknowledging all of those thoughts, but neither embracing nor trying to brush them away. “Mind does not grab onto mind; mind does not push mind away” (40). If we seek peace, we need to be mindfully present: “Don’t chase after your thoughts as a shadow follows its object. Don’t run after your thoughts. Find joy and peace in this very moment” (36). This book is not just written for the Buddhist, but as a general guidebook for health and well-being for all humans. Don’t worry if you are not practicing mindfulness. You can train over time. This does not happen overnight.

- Kyujin