Our Appointment with Life: Discourse on Living Happily in the Present Moment

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Book Overview

This easily accessible translation and commentary by Thich Nhat Hanh on the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way To Live Alone, is the earliest teaching of the Buddha on living fully in the present moment.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0938077368
• ISBN13: 9780938077367
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Parallax Press
• Length: 54 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

happy to read

This is a good book, some parts are a bit repetitious of other Thich Nhat Hanh books. This is a short read.

Living in the Present

This is a short book on Buddhist Sutras relating to living in the present moment. The first half are the Sutras, the second half of the book is how to relate and implement them into your daily life. I have often found myself "stuck" in a mental rut thinking about the past or having anxiety about the future, as I'm sure most people have. This book has some gem quotes to live by. For example: "Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is. The future has yet to come. Look deeply at life as it is in the very here and now..." I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh has a very relatable writing style.

Living alone right in society

My mother raised me. She worked diligently at a job that paid her less than a living-wage. Yet we lived. Mother worked hard and she worked a second-shift as mom: performing domestic work and trying to keep me from becoming a criminal and/or a substance abuser. Being raised as an only child by a single mother afforded me a great deal of alone time. I, like Thera (Elder) did many things alone growing up (some activities wholesome, others curious, and yet others downright antisocial). I am not uncomfortable being alone. Now, as a husband and father, I mostly find myself with others. I first read this text as my wife pre-wedding co-ordinated for our friends' wedding. I had 3 hours to burn in a sweltering parking lot and I decided to read _Our Appointment With Life_. I felt ironic and figured 'why not read a book about being alone' prior to witnessing a marriage, a union of two into one. Thinking simply, I considered alone to mean: without human contact. Buddha (and Hanh) corrected my base thinking. In Buddha's words (to Thera, monk who thought he 'lived alone' because he avoided human contact): 'In observing life deeply, it is possible to see clearly all that is. Not enslaved by anything, it is possible to put aside all craving. The result is a life of peace and joy. This is truly to live alone,' (p. 4). I meditated on this gatha and altered my narrow definition of alone. Hanh fills this book with exhortations on how to live alone within society and the crux of the text focuses on the importance of mindfulness via living fully in the PRESENT MOMENT. As a Sociologist, I especially enjoy Hanh's paragraphs on 'poor', 'unwholesome movies', and 'bad books' and how mindfulness can enlighten these topics. This text contains three parts. 'The Sutras' contain translations of 'The Elder Sutra' and 'The Sutra on the Better Way to Live Alone'. These translations total 6 pages. 'The Subject Matter of the Sutras' consists of Thich Nhat Hahn's elaboration of the Buddha's sutras. Hahn utilizes various ancient Buddhist sources (_Dhammapada_, _Theragatha_, _Agamas_, _Majjhima Nikaya_, _The God of the Forest Hot Springs Sutra_, _Shakyan Hermitage Sutra_, etc.)in this section, yet he makes the material accessible to both non-Buddhists and devout Buddhists. As always, Hanh makes a concerted effort to simplify as much material as possible. This section is 11 pages in length. The third section is 'Putting the Teachings of the Buddha into Practice' and Hanh offers simple life advice. The text ends with translations of 2 Gathas.

Simple, succinct and wonderful

Don't be fooled by the thinness of this book, because it is packed with wisdom presented in an easily absorbed manner. The simplicity of Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary on this sutra makes its meaning so crystal clear, reading this was like experiencing an epiphany. It provides more information on mindfulness, and as a novice, the more concrete the information the better, and this has been the best so far. Perhaps the best guide I have found for instruction on how to live in the here and now and how important the present is to our future. We are how we are because of how we lived in the past, so we must pay critical attention to the present to ensure our futures are happy ones, because the now will turn into the future.

Welcome addition to Buddhist studies for the western reader.

Our Appointment With Life: Discourse On Living Happily In The Present Moment is a splendid and "reader friendly" translation and commentary on the Sutra on "Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone" and one of the earliest teachings of the Buddha on living fully in the present moment. "To live alone" means to live in mindfulness: to let go of the past and the future, and to look deeply and discover the true nature of all that is taking place in the present moment. It does not mean isolating from society, but to know what to do and what not to do to be of help with people. Our Appointment With Life is a welcome addition to library of Buddhist studies available to the Western reader.