Rating: 
Summary: A conversation in book form.
Review: Going Home is not so much a well thought out book as an informal conversation between the reader and Thich Nhat Hanh. It is as if we were on retreat with master Hanh and had a chance to speak with him about our roots and our values and what they mean to us in our life. It doesn't matter whether we are Christian or Buddhist. We are able to find our way home with either set of teachings or preferably, both.As in most conversations, we are likely to find ourself going over ground we have already covered, but each time with the master to guide us, some new element is added for us to think about. The master does not judge us, but accepts us as we are and, in fact, teaches us to move away from making judgments to a genuine attempt to understand the unique importance of the family and background of each individual. This is the rock on which to build our life. For some whose family background is part of their problem of finding balance and wholeness in their life, the challenge of accepting what can't be changed and understanding the suffering of those who have come before us may be too great a task without help from thoughtful and caring friends. This conversation with the master will also be difficult for those people who come to the discussion with an absolute conviction of the truth value of their religion. Clearly, the master sees himself as both a follower of Jesus and the Buddha and he sees no contradiction in his position. For the master, Jesus and the Buddha are truly brothers. They both loved others unconditionally and wanted only the best for everyone. Their lives were perfect examples of death to a self that had any concern for personal gain. They owned nothing and lived on the charity of others. What little material possessions they acquired, they freely shared with others. The only thing that was truly theirs was their life which they freely gave for the good of the world. Also, Jesus and the Buddha were brothers in suffering. They did not avoid the legitimate suffering of their lives and used their suffering to grow into the most complete human beings the world has ever known. These conversations with the master have less to do with religion than with right living in the present moment. For the master yesterday is a memory and tommorow a dream. Now is the time to live with Jesus and the Buddha as our brothers. We are one family and the master encourages us to rejoin our family if, like the prodigal son, we find ourself lost and alone.
Rating:
Summary: A conversation in book form.
Review: Going Home is not so much a well thought out book as an informal conversation between the reader and Thich Nhat Hanh. It is as if we were on retreat with master Hanh and had a chance to speak with him about our roots and our values and what they mean to us in our life. It doesn't matter whether we are Christian or Buddhist. We are able to find our way home with either set of teachings or preferably, both. As in most conversations, we are likely to find ourself going over ground we have already covered, but each time with the master to guide us, some new element is added for us to think about. The master does not judge us, but accepts us as we are and, in fact, teaches us to move away from making judgments to a genuine attempt to understand the unique importance of the family and background of each individual. This is the rock on which to build our life. For some whose family background is part of their problem of finding balance and wholeness in their life, the challenge of accepting what can't be changed and understanding the suffering of those who have come before us may be too great a task without help from thoughtful and caring friends. This conversation with the master will also be difficult for those people who come to the discussion with an absolute conviction of the truth value of their religion. Clearly, the master sees himself as both a follower of Jesus and the Buddha and he sees no contradiction in his position. For the master, Jesus and the Buddha are truly brothers. They both loved others unconditionally and wanted only the best for everyone. Their lives were perfect examples of death to a self that had any concern for personal gain. They owned nothing and lived on the charity of others. What little material possessions they acquired, they freely shared with others. The only thing that was truly theirs was their life which they freely gave for the good of the world. Also, Jesus and the Buddha were brothers in suffering. They did not avoid the legitimate suffering of their lives and used their suffering to grow into the most complete human beings the world has ever known. These conversations with the master have less to do with religion than with right living in the present moment. For the master yesterday is a memory and tommorow a dream. Now is the time to live with Jesus and the Buddha as our brothers. We are one family and the master encourages us to rejoin our family if, like the prodigal son, we find ourself lost and alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Shows similarities of gnostic Christianity with Buddhism
Review: Hanh in this wonderful little book is advocating a very mystical and gnostic Jesus. One that shows his similarities to the Buddha. Note however that Hanh goes to great pains (pp. 180-190 ) to tell people not to abandon their own religions traditions, but to use Buddhist practices to enhance and rediscover the values in those traditions. Here are a few quotes from his book on this: "If you were born in the West there is a big chance you are a child of Jesus and that you have Jesus as your ancestor. You may not consider yourself a Christian, but that does not prevent Jesus from being one of your spiritual ancestors because your great-grandfather might have been a good Christian. He transmitted to you the seed, the energy, the love, and the insight of Jesus. If you do well, you will be able to help this energy to manifest within yourself. There are those who think they don't have anything to do with Christianity. They hate Christianity. They want to leave Christianity behind, but in the body and spirit of these people Jesus may be very present and very real. The energy, the insight, and the love of Jesus may be hiding in them. ...You have to go back to go back to your roots. You have to go back to your family. You have to go back to your church. We don't want people to get uprooted from their traditions. We want them to go back. Buddhist practice may help them to go back to their roots." This is what Hanh means by the title of his book: "Going Home." He says we all need a home and should go back to that home.
Rating: 
Summary: Tired teachings from a seemingly tired teacher
Review: I was at the retreat when Thich Nhat Hanh released this book. He admitted that "he did not write it." And it's true. It is a compilation of "dharma talks" that he gives on an almost daily basis. And its the same talks, year after year. (...)
Once a prolific poet, it's a shame to see Nhat Hanh resort to rote transcriptions of his talks to sell books, almost as if to cash in on his recent popularity.
Sadly, changes in editors and publishers have taken their toll; or is it just old age?
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointed
Review: I was raised Christian, but very recently have been actively pracicing Buddhism. Although I have rejected many of the belifs from Christian church, I am still trying to reconcile my Christian upbringing with Buddhism. I read Living Buddha, Living Christ a while ago and although the message was simplistic, I enjoyed the book. I was expecting further discussion of Christianity and Buddhism in Going Home, but was dissapointed that it was a disjointed series of dharma talks with the difficult to understand, circular language that many Buddhism books contain and little real content on Christianity and Buddhism.
Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL
Review: If you have any interest in comparative religion you need to read this book. Hanh is a master of poetically clarifying the parallel essence of both Christianity and BUddhism. His reverence for Jesus and his noble existence as a Vietnamese monk allow for the beauty of both belief systems to soothe you soul. It is a fluid continuation of "Living Buddha, Living Christ". It allows Buddhist to love Jesus and Christians to love Buddha. It is a very important book and subject for our world.
Rating: 
Summary: More Harmful Than Helpful To Interfaith Dialog
Review: In Going Home Nhat Hanh continues the Buddhist-Christian "dialog" he began in Living Buddha, Living Christ. The sequel repeats the same strong points and difficulties of the earlier book. The chapters are Christmas season talks given in Plum Village. Probably because many Christians are in his audience as well as among his readership he uses Christian themes and words to get his message across. He says he is encouraging them to return to their roots, to go home, even if they are disaffected with their church. But his words seem to me more destructive than supportive of Christian faith or Buddhist-Christian dialog. Christians frankly do have a lot to learn from Buddhism and even from Nhat Hanh when he is teaching Buddhism explicitly. But his use of Christian terminology causes a very serious problem. If he needed to mention Christianity at all, I wish he had written something like, "Christians believe in the Eucharist. In Buddhism we eat in a way that puts us in touch with Ultimate Reality, let me tell you about it. Perhaps you will see parallels that will help you in your faith." Christians could really profit from something like that. Instead he tells Christians what Eucharist means, what it is all about, and Christ, the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Sacraments, Creed, Church, etc., as well. Yet what he teaches under these words is Buddhism, not Christianity. Where the essentials of Christianity or the meaning of a doctrine differ from his own Buddhist understanding of truth, he rejects them, ignores them, or dismisses them as a matter of mere words. In effect he redefines Christian words so that the Christian faith disappears. His attitude seems to be, "As I see it, if there is a real encounter between Buddhism and Christianity, there will be a very drastic change within the Christian tradition... If we can bring into Christianity the insight of interbeing and of non-duality, we will radically transform the way people look on the Christian tradition..." (p. 98) He says that all this is so that the real jewels of Christianity may appear, but are the jewels Christ's or Buddha's? I am one hundred percent for interfaith dialog, but this approach is not helpful. Nhat Hanh can forward the dialog by sticking to what he does best -- teaching Buddhism in Buddhist terminology.
Rating:
Summary: A risky juxtaposition
Review: In this short book, Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh continues the ecumenical mission he started in the late 1990s. The work developed from teachings he gave at Plum Village, his retreat center located in France. In an inter-faith modality, Hanh does not argue for conversion but instead the cultivation of a mindfulness of their own religious traditions -- or as he calls him in this book - roots. Speaking of roots, Hanh, sought his vocation as a Buddhist monk in Vietnam at the young age of 16. His unrelenting strivings for peace in his war-destroyed country only resulted in his expulsion but moreover a more developed relationships with Christians. Some notable colleagues include Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King Jr. (who later nominated Hanh for a Nobel Peace Price), a both were also opposed to war. From the start, Hanh developed a working feel for both Buddhism and Christianity -- both have much to gain from interaction between each other. This Going Home is a spiritual offering the honored great teacher's dharma teachings, presented to Christian and Buddhist alike. For the curious, like myself, it offers interesting insight into the Buddha mind. Hanh has been known to Americans as a champion for peace and justice and a conduit for the West to the labyrinth of Vietnamese Buddhism and culture. From Plum Village he travels around the globe, leading retreats on mindfulness. It could be argued that after His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Hanh is probably the world's most visible spokesperson for Buddhism. This book Going Home is an ongoing talk with Jesus himself and includes several Christian perspectives. Hanh cites Paul Tillich's approach to God as the ground of being. Hanh reads Tillich's approach as comparable to the Buddhist comprehension of Nirvana. Nirvana bears the same association to the phenomenal world as water bears to waves -- a metaphor that he uses throughout the book. Unfortunately, there is no human concept that can capture the full reality of the of God. In this light, Hanh argues for the necessity of transcending concepts and notions through mindfulness -- the careful attention to the present moment. Hanh embraces Jesus as a brother on the journey. Hanh, moreover, tells us that he is not interested in the body of Jesus, but only in Jesus's teachings. Hanh is sure that Jesus engaged in walking and sitting meditation during his time of temptation in the wilderness. Hanh draws a parallel between the Holy Spirit with the practice of mindfulness in concrete ways in the Five Mindfulness Techniques. Hanh find a contradiction regarding Jesus' oneness with the Father through his explanation that within the metaphor of the wave, Jesus is not other than the water, the ultimate. The utterances during Jesus's crucifixion that he has been abandoned by God, recorded in Mark and Matthew, seems irreconcilable to Hanh, since it is impossible that the wave could be separated from or abandoned by the water. Despite the simplicity of the metaphor, I have to admit that it is indeed thought provoking. Lastly, interestingly enough, Hanh never encounters Jesus as outside of his Buddhist purview. Harmony comes at the price of difference. Jesus and the Buddha might be brothers, but they are not identical twins. Hanh, despite the very risky task of joining the two very different ontological frameworks seem to fall short. The effort, however, is noble in and of itself but it never really hits a home run. Unfortunately, Hanh often seems to suggest that Buddhists and Christians can talk to one another, they must first soft-pedal or ignore those beliefs that make them discrete in the first place. I agree with Hanh -- the differences are inconsequential -- they seem to matter most to those who feel threatened. So in a real world application, human beings being what they are will inevitably sabotage the effort. Hanh sees it as a waste of time to dwell on "whether God is a person or not a person," unfortunately this question significant in Christianity; Hanh also posits that "nothing can come from nothing," be cognizant that creatio ex nihilo is a key Christian belief. Understanding Buddhism better is understood in these pages, but other Buddhist beliefs can also pose an impediment to ecumenical efforts. Hanh says: individuals can become too attached to their own ideas of nirvana, forgetting that "nirvana means extinction of all notions." Hanh's does have tendency to push aside significant (only to purists) differences between Buddhism and Christianity. Going Home speaks softly about the need for tolerance in overcoming those differences. Going Home is an interesting first step towards a greater understanding between two ontology's that have to date have been separated by mutual fear and ignorance. For the effort and the courage to write I give Going Home the 5 stars and Hanh props -- the man is necessary. Miguel Llora
Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed!
Review: The celebrated Vietnamese Buddhist monk writes (speaks) to all those who feel it necessary to abandon the Christianity of their childhood. Hanh explains the similarities between Jesus/Buddha and Christianity/Buddhism, hoping to convince Westerners that it is possible to bring the two traditions together in one's life.
This book is recommended for any spiritualist, but mostly for the Buddhist struggling with his/her innate sense of Christianity, or for the Christian who wishes to incorporate Buddhism into his/her life.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed!
Review: The celebrated Vietnamese Buddhist monk writes (speaks) to all those who feel it necessary to abandon the Christianity of their childhood. Hanh explains the similarities between Jesus/Buddha and Christianity/Buddhism, hoping to convince Westerners that it is possible to bring the two traditions together in one's life.
This book is recommended for any spiritualist, but mostly for the Buddhist struggling with his/her innate sense of Christianity, or for the Christian who wishes to incorporate Buddhism into his/her life.
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