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Nhat Hanh Quotes - Page 11

All Quotes Acceptance Acting Adversity Anger Anxiety Art Attitude Awareness Beauty Being Happy Being Yourself Belief Birth Blame Buddhism Caring Change Children Christianity Communication Community Compassion Consciousness Country Desire Determination Drinking Earth Effort Empathy Energy Enlightenment Environment Fame Family Fear Feelings Fighting Focus Forgiveness Freedom Future Giving Gratitude Growth Happiness Happy Hate Hatred Healing Heart Helping Others Home Hope House Hurt Ignorance Inspirational Inspiring Jesus Joy Karma Kindness Kissing Laughter Learning Letting Go Life Listening Love Lying Meditation Mindfulness Mom Monk Moon Morning Motivational Mountain Nature Opportunity Pain Past Peace Perception Positive Positive Thinking Positivity Purpose Quality Rain Reality Regret Running Sacrifice Separation Serenity Silence Smile Sorrow Sovereignty Spring Struggle Suffering Sunshine Tea Teaching Time Today Transformation Truth Understanding Vegetarian Violence Waiting War Water Well Being Wisdom Worry Writing Yoga

Nirvana is the complete silencing of concepts.

Nirvana is the complete silencing of concepts.

Silencing, Concepts

Thich Nhat Hanh (2015). “The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation”, p.136, Harmony

To reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides. If we take sides, it is impossible to do the work of reconciliation. And humans want to take sides. That is why the situation gets worse and worse. Are there people who are still available to both sides? They need not do much. They need do only one thing: Go to one side and tell all about the suffering endured by the other side, and go to the other side and tell all about the suffering endured by this side. This is our chance for peace. But how many of us are able to do that?

Party, People, Listening

When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.

Love, Buddhist, Compassion

Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Transformation and Healing”, p.67, ReadHowYouWant.com

The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy.

Helping Others, Love Is, Deep Love

Thich Nhat Hanh (2005). “Wisdom from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life”, p.68, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

The nectar of compassion is so wonderful. If you are committed to keeping it alive, then you are protected. What the other person says will not touch off the anger and irritation in you, because compassion is the real antidote to anger. Nothing can heal anger except compassion. That is why the practice of compassion is a very wonderful practice.

Real, Compassion, Practice

Thich Nhat Hanh (2001). “Anger”, p.85, Penguin

Recently, one friend asked me, "How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn't natural." I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on then we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can not let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty.

Hands, Sorrow, Able

Every feeling is a field of energy. A pleasant feeling is an energy which can nourish. Irritation is a feeling which can destroy. Under the light of awareness, the energy of irritation can be transformed into and energy which nourishes.

Irritation, Light, Feelings

With negative energy you can make the positive energy. A flower will become compost someday, but if you know how to transform the compost back into the flower, then you don't have to worry. You don't have to worry about your anger because you know how to handle it - to embrace, to recognize, and to transform it. So this is what is possible.

Flower, Worry, Positive Energy

"Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh". plumvillage.org. January 1, 2000.

Earth will be safe when we feel in us enough safety.

Safety, Earth, Enough

Thich Nhat Hanh (2013). “Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems”, p.194, Parallax Press

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

Compassion, Meditation, Understanding

"Burma's Monks: Already a Success". content.time.com. October 12, 2007.

Every one of us needs a home. The world needs a home. There are so many young people who are homeless. They may have a building to live in, but they are homeless in their hearts. That is why the most important practice of our time is to give each person a home.

Home, Heart, Practice

Thich Nhat Hanh (2000). “Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers”, p.52, Penguin

If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything. When a child presents himself to you with his smile, if you are not really there - thinking about the future or the past, or preoccupied with other problems - then the child is not really there for you. The technique of being alive is to go back to yourself in order for the child to appear like a marvellous reality. Then you can see him smile and you can embrace him in your arms.

Buddhist, Children, Past

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.

Today, Tomorrow, Peace Is Every Step

It is best if we do not listen to or look at the person whom we consider to be the cause of our anger. Like a fireman, we have to pour water on the blaze first and not waste time looking for the one who set the house on fire. "Breathing in, I know that I am angry. Breathing out, I know that I must put all my energy into caring for my anger." So we avoid thinking about the other person, and we refrain from doing or saying anything as long as our anger persists. If we put all our mind into observing our anger, we will avoid doing any damage that we may regret later.

Regret, Caring, Thinking

In the past there were people who were not rich but contented with their living style, laughing and happy all day. But when the new rich people appear, people look at them and ask why don't I have a life like that too, a beautiful house, car and garden and they abandon their values.

Beautiful, Past, Garden

"Zen and the art of protecting the planet" by Jo Confino, www.theguardian.com. August 26, 2010.

A summer breeze can be very refreshing; but if we try to put it in a tin can so we can have it entirely to ourselves, the breeze will die. Our beloved is the same. He is like a breeze, a cloud, a flower. If you imprison him in a tin can, he will die. Yet many people do just that. They rob their loved one of his liberty, until he can no longer be himself. They live to satisfy themselves and use their loved one to help them fulfill that. That is not loving; it is destroying.

Love, Summer, Flower

Tolerance and tranquility are two characteristics of true love.

Two, Tolerance, Tranquility

It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available-more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more.

Running, Inspirational Life, Order

Total relaxation is the secret to enjoying sitting meditation. I sit with my spine upright, but not rigid; and I relax all the muscles in my body.

Meditation, Relaxation, Secret

"Exclusive Interview With Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh". Interview with Marianne Schnall, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 21, 2010.

When we walk like (we are rushing), we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth... Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.

Kissing, Rushing, Feet

I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight... I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.

Buddhist, Anger, Fighting

Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Being Peace”, p.47, ReadHowYouWant.com

Go back to the breathing and try to be in that moment deeply. Because there is a possibility to handle every kind of event and the essential is to keep the peace in yourself.

Breathing, Trying, Events

Suppose you are drinking a cup of tea. When you hold your cup, you may like to breathe in, to bring your mind back to your body, and you become fully present. And when you are truly there, something else is also there - life, represented by the cup of tea. In that moment you are real, and the cup of tea is real. You are not lost in the past, in the future, in your projects, in your worries. You are free from all of these afflictions. And in that state of being free, you enjoy your tea. That is the moment of happiness, and of peace.

Real, Drinking, Past

Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com.

Everything inside and around us wants to reflect itself in us. We don't have to go anywhere to obtain the truth. We only need to be still and things will reveal themselves in the still water of our heart.

Heart, Water, Needs

Thich Nhat Hanh (2005). “Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living”, p.18, Parallax Press

Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful...How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow? It is natural--you need to smile to your sorrow because you are more than your sorrow.

Suffering, Sorrow, Needs

Joseph Emet, Thich Nhat Hanh (2015). “Mindfulness Meditation: For a Quieter Mind, Self-Awareness and Healthy Living”, p.190, Souvenir Press

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