The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

My aunt gave me a copy of this book about 4 years ago, since then I come back to it just to understand more because the sheer amount of thought that went into the 140 pages is astounding. For one why I find this book so special is because of the “controversial” aspect of this book, specifically because it disagrees with the “your thoughts and feelings are not you” teaching used in a lot of mindfulness practices today, which imo is more western influenced. For example:

“Mind does not grab on to mind; mind does not push mind away. Mind can only observe itself. This observation isn’t an observation of some object outside and independent of the observer”

“Mind contemplating mind is like an object and its shadow—the object cannot shake the shadow off. The two are one. Wherever the mind goes, it still lies in the harness of the mind”

A lot of the other chapters after the this one expound of the oneness of mind and also “inter being” — the oneness of everything — which from what I understood is one of the core tenants of Buddhism. In general though this book has helped me get into meditation, which in turn has helped me probably in all aspects of my life.