Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

Someday, with no effort at all, you will understand. You only have to allow yourself to be there, to touch deeply each thing you encounter, to walk mindfully, and to help others with the whole of your being. This is the practice of non-practice.

If we focus exclusively on pursuing happiness, we may regard suffering as something to be ignored or resisted. We think of it as something that gets in the way of happiness. But the art of happiness is also and at the same time the art of knowing how to suffer well. If we know how to use our suffering, we can transform it and suffer much less. Knowing how to suffer well is essential to realizing true happiness.

We are not passive. To be passive means to be pulled, pushed, and swayed by circumstances or the people around us.

The truth is the truth, whether or not it is accepted by the majority. Therefore, I tell you children, it takes great courage to stand up for and protect what is right.

Standing in line at a grocery store or a restaurant, or waiting for the time to eat, we don't need to waste our time. We don't need to "wait" for one second. Instead, we can enjoy breathing in and out for our nourishment and healing. We can use that time to notice that we will soon be able to have food, and we can be happy and grateful during that time. Instead of waiting, we can generate joy.

El mundo necesita nuestra felicidad.

True happiness isn't found in success, money, fame, or power. True happiness should be found in the here and the now. With that kind of insight you can truly relax.

You have to train yourself, to learn how to go home to the present moment, to the here and now

Buddhist meditation has two aspects — shamatha and vipashyana. We tend to stress the importance of vipashyana ("looking deeply") because it can bring us insight and liberate us from suffering and afflictions. But the practice of shamatha ("stopping") is fundamental. If we cannot stop, we cannot have insight.

As a culture, we place great stock in external appearance. Our attachment to physical beauty is something that we need to let go of, yet it seems that the majority of people are racing toward it.

We must begin to live fully and truly, every moment of our daily lives.

We still have not yet fully understood electrons and nuclei; for scientists, a speck of dust is very exciting. A particle of dust is a marvel.

Nirvana isn't merchandise for sale. Any religion can sell a paradise, a pure land, or nirv??a. But is nirv??a a product that the Buddha and ancestral teachers want to sell us? Is it a promised land or paradise up in the sky, which people try to sell us saying: "If you follow our religion, if you become a member of our congregation, then after you die you will have nirv??a or the Kingdom of Heaven"? We can see clearly that it is not.

We all lose when we think that everything people in our party do and say is right and everything people in another party do and say is wrong. This is simply not true. If we think, speak, and act only along party lines, we operate like a machine without insight, without understanding, without compassion.

The first function of meditation — shamatha — is to stop.

Enlightenment is when the wave realizes that it is the ocean.

Now I see that if one doesn't know how to die, one can hardly know how to live - because death is a part of life.

In the past, we probably did suffer from one thing or another. It may even have felt like a kind of hell. If we remember that suffering, not letting ourselves get carried away by it, we can use it to remind ourselves, How lucky I am right now. I'm not in that situation. I can be happy.

When we compare, we see ourselves as superior, inferior, or as trying to be equal. But with this kind of comparing comes discrimination, and with discrimination comes suffering.

Meditation means being aware of what is going on – in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in the world. Each day thousands of children die of hunger. … Yet the sunrise is beautiful, and the rose that blossomed this morning along the wall is a miracle. Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects of life.

Withough suffering you cannot grow

God the Father is in God the Son; and the Holy Spirit is in the Son and in the Father. That is interbeing.

When you love someone, the most precious gift you can give your loved one is your true presence.

Spirituality is not religion. It is a path for us to generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply each moment of our life. Having a spiritual dimension in our lives does not mean escaping life or dwelling in a place of bliss outside this world but discovering ways to handle life's difficulties and generate peace, joy, and happiness right where we are, on this beautiful planet.