No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

I thought it was excellent. This is not a charlatan by any means. He has done a great deal of good in the world. He had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King and is very respected throughout the world. I have read the book and find the meditation ideas very useful. I started meditating last year and it has been very helpful in my day to day life. I believe it has helped me become less self-centered and more able to pause and listen to others. The book is short, but I like this because it's a type of book that you get more out of it through further readings. I will read this multiple times and can use one or two pages per day as daily reminders/inspiration on living. He writes in a very practical manner. Simple sentence structure that conveys the ideas well. I recommend this book highly and have given it as gifts to others.

"Oh my happiness, oh my happiness." - Badhiya

My first TNH book I read years ago was "The Miracle of Mindfulness," which I would also recommend. In that book, he emphasized concentration and single-mindedness even when doing such a mundane chore as dishes. The message runs deeper and proves that this simple and mindful tasks of attention while washing the dishes applies to all areas of our lives. You learn to live each minute of life, fully experiencing each moment. Breathing and stepping in the right direction.

In the "Lotus in the Mud" we learn how to suffer (you can't avoid it). We can't simply be happy all the time, and sometimes we feel we are failing at happiness. Happiness and suffering are two sides of the proverbial coin and you cannot have spiritual currency without this fact.

Poet William Blake said, "Friendship is true opposition." What he meant is life requires opposites to progress. I recall mythologist Joseph Campbell's blunt, simple and sagely advice, "As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don't bother to brush it off." Life will throw a lot of mud on you, but the Lotus is always there too. "Release your cows," your fears, your arrows. Let go. ‎ TNH illustrates that it is possible to get stuck in the mud of life. It's easy enough to notice mud all over you at all times and you project that onto everything else in the world, thus exaggerating your pain. But you must remember that it is transitory and the mud of life is necessary for the Lotus to blossom.

Learn to invite the bell (explained in the book). When we invite the bell, we pause. We listen to the voice of our heart. We return to our center.

Note the subtitle of this book: "The Art of Transforming Suffering." You will learn how to transform your suffering into happiness, but like all art you will have to work at it. This book helps with exercises, mantras and daily practices to find peace. Whatever hardship you are going through, I wish you peace.

I started reading No Mud, No Lotus at the height of some significant life stressors. Each time I picked up the book to read, I found myself coming into the present moment and connecting with my breath. The book is more than wise words. It is a practical guide to using meditation and breath work in every day life to keep yourself grounded despite suffering.

Thich Nhat Hanh explains how suffering is an integral part of being human and how it can be transformed into happiness. Running away from it is counterintuitive. Through mindfulness, we can navigate through it without getting overwhelmed. First, we need to accept its existence by taking mindful breaths that bring our minds home to our body. In this way, our mind stops rambling. Then, to make the transformation easier, we understand the root cause of our suffering by examining ourselves first. The pain of our ancestors is ours,too, so if we heal ourselves, we are also healing them. Breathing exercises are the main practices to transform suffering into happiness. These breathing exercises are included in the last part of the book. Thic Nhat Hanh also offers how to handle life's small and big sufferings and how to sustain happiness.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a short book but packed with thought-provoking nuggets on suffering, happiness, and life. The breathing practices are easy to understand and follow. I recommend it to those who are interested in the power of breathing and the art of transforming suffering into happiness.

This is my first foray into the writing of this author. I can definitely appreciate why he has earned so many loyal readers. Just the pacing of his phrasing is soothing in itself; meanwhile the content is simplistic in its messaging: be aware, and be mindful.

He makes these ideas accessible and manages to paint a picture that you can’t help but want for yourself.

In the noise of today’s world, this book is the moment of mindfulness and silence we all need to rediscover.