True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart, by Thich Nhat Hanh and Sherab Chodzin Kohn. Love might not be what we think it is. We all seek the happiness that comes from loving and being loved, yet we often find ourselves dissatisfied in our relationships and unable to grasp the cause. Thich Nhat Hanh here shows the way to overcome our recurrent obstacles to love—by learning to be mindful, open, and present with ourselves and others. As he explains, “training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice deep looking directed toward the person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love.”
This quintessential guide to loving also introduces the four key aspects of love described in the Buddhist tradition—loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and freedom—and describes many simple and direct ways in which we can practice authentic love in our everyday lives.
A Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh is an internationally known author, poet, scholar, and peace activist, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling Living Buddha, Living Christ; Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames; Peace Is Every Step; and The Miracle of Mindfulness. He has founded monastic communities in France, Vermont, and California and teaches actively around the world.
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When Mountains Sing, by White Feather. We are formless energy and consciousness moving through and manifesting in the world of form. White Feather elaborates on what happens as we move from Source energy into form and then develop identities tied to that form. The separation between our true divine identity and the egoic form identity is the chasm we are trying to bridge in our journey of self-awareness. We build that bridge by embracing unconditional love and the NOW. To begin that bridge building there are choices that must first be made and White Feather illuminates those choices and the ensuing path of loving our selves into existence.