Although this book is clearly Buddhist theology, the Eastern costume of the story is covering a subject area that should be well-known to anyone who has ever fallen in love. There is desire for love, which manifests itself as a desire for control and jealousy, but then there is the true experience of falling in love. Hanh fell in love with a nun, and through that experience of love, his Buddhist considerations led him to draw conclusions from the emotional dynamics of that experience.
The first revelation is the primary confession of Buddhism: "Life is suffering." Life is suffering, to be sure, but love is extra suffering. To survive is already painful enough, but what about the infinitely deep emotions that relate to other people? We want bad things to stop happening to us, but love makes us want bad things to stop happening to other people too. Hanh realized that the agony of his love is life's lesson to thoughtful and reflective people.
He realizes that by loving, he has changed his own self. Now, with a fuller portrait of the human life, and with the ironic paradoxes of love under his belt, Hanh turns to review the Buddhist teachings that shaped his life. Within the context of his narrative, the sutras are especially revelatory. He constructs a theory about life's romantic narrative shape and explains that such lessons are theoretically applicable to the entire planet, or universe. His life as a monk is a painful sacrifice of love, not just for one person, but for all people everywhere.
