Short Journey Home Awakening to Freedom with Thich Nhat Hanh

A friend on our path of mindfulness practice, Richard Brady shares one of the first deeply personal accounts of a lay practitioner following in the steps of world-renowned Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

Short Journey Home presents a powerful story of transformation, rooted in the author’s long-term and life-changing practice with Thich Nhat Hanh. Richard Brady guides us through his life experiences and lessons learned, offering strikingly deep and sincere accounts of:

• his time spent with Thich Nhat Hanh and with senior monastics, 
• his successes and difficulties with community building, 
• practicing with family,
• working with death, 
• and sharing the practice with others.

Brady skillfully grounds his stories in direct teachings offered by Thich Nhat Hanh, and he organizes these stories according to some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s most powerful lessons on topics like impermanence, interbeing, and transformation. 

By taking these teachings to heart, practicing with them diligently, and sharing the results, Brady acts as our spiritual companion, demonstrating how the Plum Village path of practice can lead us to peace, freedom, and awakening in this present moment.

Richard Brady is a writer, retreat leader, and consultant for mindfulness in education. He taught high school mathematics in Washington, DC for 37 years. In 1989, he co-founded the Washington Mindfulness Community, a practice community in the Plum Village tradition. In 1992, he joined Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing where he was given the Dharma name True Dharma Bridge. In 2001, Thich Nhat Hanh ordained Richard as a Dharma teacher with a focus on cultivating mindfulness in young people. 

That same year, Richard founded the Mindfulness in Education Network to support mindfulness in educational settings. He is the North American coordinator of the  Plum Village Wake Up Schools program which supports educators sharing basic mindfulness practices in their school environments. He also coordinates Wake Up Schools’ Happy Teacher Sangha of the Americas which nurtures self-care and offers monthly space for teachers to practice and connect with one another.

A longtime mindfulness practitioner, Richard has led many mindfulness retreats for educators in the US and in Europe. He is the author of Walking the Teacher’s Path with Mindfulness: Stories for Reflection and Action and coeditor of Tuning In: Mindfulness in Teaching and Learning. For more about Richard Brady and his writings, visit mindingourlives.net