Book Excerpts:

SpiritSite.com is pleased to offer excerpts from the following books.  You may click on a book's cover to begin, or on the links below:

Selections from Thich Nhat Hanh's Living Buddha, Living Christ:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Selections from Peace Is Every Step:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Selections from Going Home:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Selections from No Death, No Fear:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

You may read one of Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Dharma Talks in our sermons/ services section here.

You may also listen to the following Thich Nhat Hanh audio selection:

Miracle of Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh was born in Vietnam in 1926, and left home as a teenager to become a Zen monk.  In Vietnam, he founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University and was chairman of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation during the Vietnam War.  Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1966, Mr. Hanh has lived in exile in France, where he continues writing, teaching, gardening, and helping refugees worldwide.

Living Buddha, Living Christ

Buddha and Christ, perhaps the two most pivotal figures in the history of humankind, each left behind a legacy that have shaped the lives of billions of people. Thich Nhat Hanh has been part of a decades-long dialogue between these two great contemplative traditions. In a lucid, meditative prose, Living Buddha, Living Christ (review or buy) explores the crossroads of compassion and holiness at which the two traditions meet, and reawakens our understanding of both.

Peace Is Every Step

In the lovely Peace Is Every Step (review or buy), Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the situations that usually anger us.  Red lights and traffic jams, says Mr. Hanh, can be signals to call back our true selves.  Peace lies all around us, he teaches, and can be brought back to mind with the simple act of consciously breathing, smiling, and quieting our minds.

Going Home

In Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers, Thich Nhat Hanh celebrates the life-affirming roots of two disparate spiritual traditions. While Living Buddha, Living Christ further opened the door to dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism, Going Home (review or buy) takes us on a journey into the practice.  As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "We practice in such a way that Buddha is born every moment of our daily life, that Jesus Christ is born every moment of our daily life."

No Death, No Fear

In No Death, No Fear (review or buy), Thich Nhat Hanh explores traditional myths about how we live and die, and shows us how to come to terms with the true nature of our existence. If we realize that there is no death, we will be released from fear. With deep knowledge and expertise, Thich Nhat Hanh offers us in his book a fresh perspective on living a life unfettered by fear.