Understanding Our Mind

Summary

Zen teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh’s introduction to Buddhist psychology, built on fifty verses on consciousness drawn from the fifth-century master Vasubandhu. Its central image is the mind as a field sown with every kind of seed – suffering and anger, joy and peace – so the quality of a life depends on which seeds we water and which we transform.

Rationale

We came to ‘storehouse consciousness’ through this book. Its seeds, flourishing where they’re watered, fit how we think dispositions are cultivated: through the contexts we keep returning to.