This extraordinary story takes the reader from the rice fields of Vietnam to the peaceful surrounding of Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastery in Plum Village where Sister Dang Nghiem took refuge. There she gained a deep understanding of the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness forged in the fire of her own life experience. Ordained as a nun by Thich Nhat Hanh, who gave her the name "Dang Nghiem," (adornment with nondiscrimination) Healing shows how the insights gained by her personal experiences now enable Sister Dang Nghiem to become a support and resource for others. With humor, insight, and an irrepressible sense of joy, Sister Dang Nghiem story demonstrates how one woman’s unique path can provide clarity and guidance for everyone.Foreword by Thich Nhat Hanh
Before she became a Buddhist nun in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Dang Nghiem was a doctor. She’d traveled far in her 43 years. Born during the Tet Offensive and part of the amnesty for Amerasian children of the late 1970s, Dang Nghiem arrived in this country virtually penniless and with no home. She lived with three foster families, but graduated high school with honors, earned two undergraduate degrees, and became a doctor. When the man she thought she’d spend her life with suddenly drowned, Sister Dang Nghiem left medicine and joined the monastic community of Thich Nhat Hanh.It is from this vantage point that Dang Nghiem writes about her journey of healing. Devastated by the diagnosis and symptoms of Lyme, she realized that she was also reliving many of the unresolved traumas from earlier in her life. She applied both her medical knowledge and her advanced understanding and practice of mindfulness to healing. Through meditation she finally came to understand what it means to "master" suffering.In Mindfulness as Medicine Sister Dang Nghiem leads readers through her profound journey of healing and shares step-by-step directions for the techniques she used to embrace and transform her suffering."Suffering can be transformed and cured at its roots...Suffering is an art that can be learned and mastered...We do not have to run away from it anymore...The art of suffering can bring about deep appreciation for life as well as profound peace, joy, and love for ourselves and other beings."—Sister Dang Nghiem