Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022)

The Bodhi Tree or Bodhi Fig Tree ("tree of awakening") was a large and ancient sacred fig tree (Ficus religiosa), (Mentioned on page 43)

I used to drive by a business with a sign out front “Bodhi Yoga”. I concluded that it was pronounced Body Yoga and though Oh How Cute. But from this book I learned there is such a tree, and google even knows about the genre of yoga called “Bodhi Yoga,” although from Google, it looks like just one studio.

During the final yoga pose, some yoga teachers tell the class to “relax (body part)” and go through a number of places typically from feet to head while the students are supine. This book say to sit at “ease,” without listing places to sequentialy relax. (Page 46)

Letting Go (Page 48-49)
“Finally we can explore if our emotion is based on something happening in the present or something that we are still attached to from the past.” “Letting go” is an oft repeated phrase in popular psychology. It’s heartening that this book is at last getting beyond the “just sit” that characterized the first half of the book.

Breathing - another focus technique that comes up repeatedly in this book, is an integral component of many yoga and other meditation practices.

Habit Energy (Page 60-61)
Yes, at last something useful. The first half of the book - just sit - got really old and felt as inspiring as making a goal to be a drone bee. Perhaps that would be satisfying to a hormone flooded teen, but as an adult, it feels like a suggestion to be self centered and worthless to the world. But, unfortunately, he seems to regard habits as negative. Oh, well, I did get my hopes up for something positive here. Habits are powerful in moving us forward. Habits may move us toward a good goal or not. In any case, habits free up cerebral processing power for handling new and unusual situations. Without habits life would be even more of a struggle than it is.

Story: On the Bus in India (Page 62-63)
So many people seeking enlightenment look and travel to India, one of the poor and backward countries in the World. After WWII, it reportedly had the same level of resources and opportunity as Japan. But the trajectory of those two countries after the war was very different, with Japan making great progress as a world power, but India did not. In the last 35 years Japan’s progress has floundered, and India has become a technological powerhouse in the telephone support and also some in software, It has long amazed me that people look to India for life direction when quality of life there has been so poor. 2017 GDP $7,200 with 22% of the population below the “poverty line.” It is also “the world’s largest producer of illicit opium”
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print_in.html)

Feelings (Page 70-73)
Now we are getting into something beyond just sitting there. Frankly, I rather like the lotus position.

Meditation
“There are people who meditate only to forget the complications and problems of life. They are like rabbits crouching under a hedge to escape a potential hunter.” (Page 78) Now we are getting into some meaningful reasons for doing all this work of sitting. “But we can’t continue to sit forever.” (Page 79) Hurrah! Finally, escape from the tyranny of the chair.

Sitting and Moping (Page 84)
“... We can be happy mopping the floor.”

Restoring Ourselves (Page 85)
“It takes five or ten seconds ...” Hurrah again! We don’t need to become a motionless blob for hours and days on end.

A Sitting Notebook (Page 89)

(Together) (Page 93-98)
This seems presumptuous to require our superiors to sit with us.

Guided Meditations (Page 101-117)
The penultimate one is “Talking with your Inner Child”, and the final one is “Sitting with Death.”

So, this book is a book about getting away from fears, into a relaxed state, then into a happy state. Then it gets into some more conventional meditation techniques. It is a compact little book small enough to fit into some shirt pockets. But one doesn’t need to carry it around. It is for sitting, to become calm and then move gently toward a more advanced practice.
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This seminal text by Vietnamese monk, poet, and peace activist, revered around the world for his teachings on mindfulness, ethics, and peace, is recommended by many lamas, teachers, and students and is appropriate for adults and children alike. It’s long, but broken up into 2 books with a total of 81 chapters. There are summaries of each chapter in the appendix at the end as well as a map of the area where Buddha roamed, and an excellent appendix of Pali and Sanskrit terms.

An interesting aspect of this book is that the chapters are not in sequential order of the story of the Buddha’s life and there is no description of his enlightenment. He’s teaching sutras in chapter 2 and is born in chapter 6. Chapter 30 presents the Five Precepts. In this way the story flows more from the teachings and it can be read out of order.

One Buddhist mom said she read Old Path, White Clouds cover to cover as a bedtime story to her young daughter. “It was this special place that she and I went to every night. It wasn’t action-packed but it had so much atmosphere, at least for us. It was like we went on a journey every night. It was so gentle. I remember reading every night for about half an hour.” The daughter, now all grown up, recalls this as a very special time. “Even if I don’t remember all the details from the stories, they left a lasting impression. It was the first time I was connected with the Buddha, and through the telling, I developed an affection for him as a main character. This later turned into something more. But at the time, that seed of just really liking this guy Siddhartha was important. The book became a bridge for my mom to share Buddhism with me, which I know she was happy about. That joy of reading something that was so dear to her made it stand out from other bedtime stories and I could feel that.”… (more)