Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN MINDFUL GLOSSARY OTHER BOOKS BY THICH NHAT HANH Anger Going Home Fragrant Palm Leaves Being Peace The Blooming of a Lotus Breathe! You Are Alive Call Me By My True Name Cultivating the Mind of Love For a Future to Be Possible The Heart of Understanding The Long Road Turns to Joy Love in Action The Miracle of Mindfulness No Death, No Fear Old Part, White Clouds Peace Is Every Step Present Moment, Wonderful Moment The Sun My Heart Taming the Tiger Within Touching Peace Transformation and Healing Riverhead Books, New York THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (P ty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. Copyright © 1995, 2007 by Thich Nhat Hanh All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. P lease do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. RIVERHEAD is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The RIVERHEAD logo is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Nh’ăt Hanh, Thích. Living Buddha, living Christ / Thich Nhat Hanh. p. cm. eISBN : 978-1-101-00661-0 BR128.B8N43 1995 294.3’37—dc20 95-24014 CIP http://us.penguingroup.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to my friends Martin Pitt, Mobi Warren, and Arnold Kotler for their valuable time and energy in helping to transcribe tapes and edit this book, making it into a wonderful instrument for dialogue. FOREWORD Twice in this book Thich Nhat Hanh puts before us a powerful image of Christian legend: In midwinter, St. Francis is calling out to an almond tree, “Speak to me of God!” and the almond tree breaks into bloom. It comes alive. There is no other way of witnessing to God but by aliveness. With a fine instinct, Thich Nhat Hanh traces genuine aliveness to its source. He recognizes that this is what the biblical tradition calls the Holy Spirit. After all, the very word “spirit” means “breath,” and to breathe means to live. The Holy Spirit is the breath of divine life. This conjures up the Bible story of creation: In the beginning, the Spirit of God—always feminine in the Bible—hovers like a mother bird over the lifeless chaos, brooding and bringing forth life in all its forms and degrees. “For the Spirit of the Lord fills the whole universe and holds all things together ...” (Wisdom 1:7) At the end of this creation myth, we see God, in a touching image, breathe life into the nostrils of the still