Rachel Neumann is an editor who has worked with numerous leading Buddhist and mindfulness authors, including His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Sylvia Boorstein, and Sulak Sivaraska. For the past ten years, she has been the primary editor for bestselling author and Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Her writing has appeared in Shambhala Sun, The Village Voice, and The Nation.
Can you imagine what it would be like editing all the manuscripts of Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the most important spiritual teachers of our time? In this down-to-earth and spunky memoir, Neumann ponders his impact upon her life and and her budding practice of mindfulness.
Working with Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings has helped her be more present and available to her two children. Raised like many of us in a culture that thrives on snap judgments, critical thinking, and adversarial talk, she has had to be patient with the Zen practice of focused listening. In the middle of "juggling" tasks, she remembers to stop and take a deep breath. She uses the car door or the front door knob as reminders to stay in the present moment.
When Neumann gets depressed about the debilitations of old age, she is reminded of Thich Nhat Hanh's view: "For me, aging is a joy. It's a chance to be in the smooth part of the river, and watch the clouds and the birds go by." The author is also challenged by the Buddhist practice of detachment and the all-American disease of worrying. So she struggles on with diligence and makes little advances.
Neumann embraces the path of mindfulness and also discovers much to savor in Buddhist understandings of karma, interbeing, metta, and engaged social action. Mindfulness is very popular these days, but if you are looking at this spiritual practice as an easy fix for all your problems, forget it. It requires a lot of practice! See it as a tool which will help you to stay balanced as you juggle all the deadlines, burdens, disappointments, and responsibilities of your day-to-day existence.
