#Review: Quartet by Thich Nhat Hanh

Books by Thich Nhat Hanh
Publisher: Aleph Book Company

Reading this quartet of Thich Nhat Hanh’s works felt less like moving through four separate books and more like sitting through a long, unhurried conversation with someone who quietly rearranges the furniture inside you.

Teachings on Love surprised me most—not for its gentleness, which I expected, but for how uncompromising it is. The practices he offers sound simple, yet they expose how clumsy we are with love, especially when it comes to those who bruise us.

Being Peace, though, carries a sharper resonance. Its age shows—not in irrelevance, but in how eerily cyclical the world’s anxieties are. I found its insistence on “being peace to make peace” both comforting and, at times, frustratingly idealistic.

Transformation and Healing is where the work begins to feel like a mirror rather than a guidebook. The section on anger didn’t tell me anything new, but it made me notice how rarely I pause before reacting.

And The Long Road Turns to Joy is easily the most disarming—walking as meditation sounds almost quaint until you actually try it and realise how little you inhabit your own body.

Together, these books don’t preach; they gently demand that you participate in your own peace.