Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

There are many cells in your body that are dying as you read these words. Fifty to seventy billion cells die each day in the average human adult. You are too busy to organise funerals for all of them! At the very same time, new cells are being born, and you don't have the time to sing Happy Birthday to them. If old cells don't die, there's no chance for new cells to be born. So death is a very good thing. It's very crucial for birth. You are undergoing birth and death in this very moment.

Many of us think of our daily nourishment only in terms of what we eat. But in fact, there are four kinds of food that we consume every day. They are: edible food (what we put in our mouths to nourish our bodies), sensory food (what we smell, hear, taste, feel, and touch), volition (the motivation and intention that fuels us), and consciousness (this includes our individual consciousness, the collective consciousness, and our environment).

The wise do not consider the chains and shackles of jail to be the toughest restraints. The chains of attachment are the strongest of the ties that bind.

When we recognize that we have a habit of replaying old events and reacting to new events as if they were the old ones, we can begin to notice when that habit energy comes up. We can then gently remind ourselves that we have another choice. We can look at the moment as it is, a fresh moment, and leave the past for a time when we can look at it compassionately. We

When we read a magazine, we consume. When we watch a television program, we consume. Whatever we consume affects our body and mind. If we consume toxic magazine articles, movies, or video games, they will feed our craving, our anger, and our fear.

When we're having a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. Yet when we don't have a toothache, we're still not happy. A non-toothache is very pleasant.

The past no longer exists, and the future is not here yet.

Often, our pride stands in the way of our asking for help. In true love there is no place for pride. To love each other means to trust each other. If you don't tell the person you love of your suffering, it means you don't love this person enough to trust her. You have to realize that this person is the best person to help you. We need to be able to get help from the person we

Attachment to views, attachment to ideas, attachment to perceptions are the biggest obstacle to the truth

Equanimity means to let go, not to abandon.

We talk about social service, service to the people, service to humanity, service for others who are far away, helping to bring peace to the world - but often we forget that it is the very people around us that we must live for first of all. [...] Are we working for other humans, or are we just working for the name of an organization?

If you always sit in expectation, you're not in the present moment. The present moment contains the whole of life.

There is no difference between healing ourselves and healing the Earth.

Often we either don't plan at all, or we get caught up in obsessive planning because we fear the future and its uncertainty.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life. Don't be attached to the future. Don't worry about things you have to do. Don't think about getting up or taking off to do anything. Don't think about "departing.

What we have is enough for us. Once we adopt that style of living, we become a happy person right away.

Often our thinking goes around and around in circles, so we lose all our joy in living.

If we are aware of our lifestyle, our way of consuming, of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment we are alive.

Our suffering is us, and we need to treat it with kindness and nonviolence.

Relax. It's only a game.

To practice aimlessness is to identify what it is you're looking for, waiting for, or running after, and let it go.

We know that if we eat a certain food, it will upset our digestion, but we still eat it. The way out is to beware of the superficial appearance. From outside, something may look very pleasant. But we have to look deeper and use that deep understanding to see the superficial aspects of the object of our desire. Our understanding can overcome our cravings.

So the place where you should look for the kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha, the place where you should look for your happiness, your peace, and your fulfillment, has to be in the present moment. It's so simple and clear. But since we have the tendency to slide back into the past or to run into the future, we have to recognize that habit and learn how to be free from it to really establish ourselves in the present moment. When

All phenomena are impermanent. They are subject to birth and death. When the notions of birth and death are removed, this silence is called great joy.