Cherishing the Present Moment
Following the death of his mother, and the turmoil of partition in 1956, Thich Nhat Hanh turned his spiritual practice to researching and applying concrete methods to relieve suffering and despair. Written during his time at Princeton in 1962, “A Rose for your Pocket” (Bông Hồng Cài Áo) is a deeply felt text in praise of motherhood, and the importance of cherishing what we have in the present moment (dṛṣṭadharmasukhavihāra). It captured Thich Nhat Hanh’s “first blossoms of awakening”, and immediately became a bestseller in Vietnam, inspiring an annual “Rose Festival” on Mother’s Day, now an integral part of Vietnamese Buddhist culture.