True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart

In a new edition of this classic, the renowned Zen monk and best-selling author Thich Nhat Hanh explains what real love is and how we can experience it in our daily lives, for readers of any faith.

Thich Nhat Hanh offers us a Buddhist view of love along with techniques for manifesting it in our daily lives. In his characteristically direct, simple, and sweet style, he explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and freedom.

In True Love, Thich Nhat Hanh explains that in order to love in a real way, we need to learn how to be fully present in our lives. Toward that end, he offers the technique of conscious breathing as a way of synchronizing the mind and the body and establishing the conditions for love. He goes on to offer a mantra practice for cultivating real love that consists of expressing four key statements or intentions in our relationships.

In the concluding section of the book, Thich Nhat Hanh explains how we can bring love to bear on our own pain, fear, and negativity. He explains that we must not regard these things as bad and repress them. We must recognize them as part of us and allow them into our consciousness, where they can be cared for through mindfulness.