Love and emotional pain
Imagine the call to become a monk. His whole life, he has dedicated himself to truth and self-mastery, but now, this young monk is faced with an emotional conundrum that is so simultaneously lovely and horrifying that it brings him to his new enlightenment. Hanh explains that before seeing the nun with whom he fell in love, he had never met anyone like her, nor had he ever felt love to such an extent. Within the context of their oaths, though, the emotions are brutal and torturous, and Hanh realizes that love is suffering. His take on Buddhism is related to applying that lesson of love to all aspects of life.
Enlightenment and humor
The dilemma of Hanh's young life as a Buddhist monk was shaped by enlightenment through time. What could possibly ail a young lover's heart when he and his beloved are star-crossed and forbidden? The answer is the thematic connection between Buddhist theology and humor (especially Mahayana Buddhism!) By considering the absurdity of his station, the paradoxical truths of romantic desire and his monastic oath, the emotional conundrums of life are shown to be jokes with punchlines that constitute one's enlightenment.
Buddhism properly understood
Thich Nhat Hanh has often been described as a renegade Buddhist theologian. He often takes classical Buddhist assumptions and explains them as misunderstandings. He is not blindly obedient to tradition, but instead, he considers multiple aspects of every idea, often choosing to remain with a paradox instead of choosing one truth at the expense of another seemingly-contrary truth. He explains that although he was raised to believe that romance was not compatible with Buddhism, it was actually Buddhism that awakened his mind to enlightenment as he learned to love all of life through those emotional lessons. He teaches new ideas from ancient Sutras, informed by a forbidden love.
