Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

We should treat our anxiety, our pain, our hatred and passion gently, respect-fully, not resisting it, but living with it, making peace with it, penetrating into its nature by meditation on interdependence.

En esta comida veo, con toda claridad, la presencia del universo entero sustentando mi existencia.

If we know how to handle the little sufferings, we don't have to suffer on a daily basis. We can practice letting go of what the French call les petites miseres, the little miseries, and save our energy to embrace and soothe the true pains of illness and loss that are unavoidable.

You can choose what to focus on, and therefore what to be. You can choose to be your in-breath and out-breath. You can choose to listen with your whole being to the sound of the rain or the wind, and in some way to be one with the rain or the wind. Listening to sounds in this way can be very joyful. When you are in touch with these refreshing and healing elements, you are being, and not thinking.

All phenomena are neither produced nor destroyed, because they are in a constant process of manifesting.

The Buddha said, "I have looked deeply into the state of mind of unhappy people and have seen hidden under their suffering a very sharp knife. Because they don't see that sharp knife in themselves, it is difficult for them to deal with suffering." Your

Whether or not one is alive depends on whether one is mindful.

To return home, to see into one's own nature, is the end aimed at by the practitioner, But how is one to see into one's own nature? It is necessary to bring light to one's existence, to live life, to render present and permanent the awareness of being. Put in another way, it is necessary that one sees the cyprus in the courtyard. If one does not see the presence of the cyprus in his own garden, how can one see into his own nature?

If we don't take the time to tell our children about our culture, they'll lose it. But we also have to be aware that in each culture there are flowers and garbage, and there is no need to idealize one culture or denigrate another.

Another time the Buddha recounted a story which made me suddenly see the supreme importance of practicing mindfulness of one's own self--that is, to protect and care for one's self, not being preoccupied about the way others look after themselves, a habit of mind which gives rise to resentment and anxiety.

Most of the time, our head is so full of thoughts that we have no space to listen to ourselves or anyone else.

We do not expect a person always to be a flower, we have to understand his or her gardens as well.

Don't worry if those around you aren't doing their best. Just worry about how to make yourself worthy. Doing your best is the surest way to remind those around you to do their best.

To me, the Five Mindfulness Trainings are the substance of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is a living being animated by the strong desire to help awaken other people, relieve their suffering, and bring them happiness. By receiving the Five Mindfulness Trainings and being determined to live our lives accordingly, we become bodhisattvas and we live not only for ourselves, but for the well-being of others; our life serves as a source of energy for their happiness.

Of course, you have the right to suffer, but as a practitioner, you do not have the right not to practice. We all need to be understood and loved, but the practice is not merely to expect understanding and love. It is to practice understanding and love. Please don't complain when no one seems to love or understand you. Make the effort to understand and love them better.

Many of us have spent our whole lives learning, questioning, and searching. But even on the path of enlightenment, if all we do is study, we're wasting our time and that of our teacher.

According to Buddhism, consciousness is like a field with every possible kind of seed in it: seeds of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity; seeds of anger, fear, and anxiety; and seeds of mindfulness. Consciousness is the storehouse that contains all these seeds, all the possibilities of what might arise in your mind.

Your bodily form is not you. Be at one with life. Live eternally in the trees and grass, in other people, in the birds and other beasts, in the sky, in the ocean waves. Your skeleton is only one part of you. You are present everywhere and in every moment. You are not only a bodily form, or even feelings, thoughts, actions, and knowledge.

Only the person who is empty of self is happy; he has no jealousy, no hatred, no anger, because there is no self to compare.

Hay dos clases de nudos. El primero es el de nuestras opiniones e ideas, nuestros conceptos y conocimientos. Todo el mundo tiene opiniones e ideas, pero cuando nos apegamos a ellas, dejamos de ser libres y no podemos ver la verdad en la vida. La segunda clase de nudo es el de nuestras aflicciones y hábitos de sufrimiento, como el miedo, la ira, la discriminación, la desesperación y la arrogancia. Para ser libres tenemos que deshacer esos nudos.

Without suffering, you cannot get the peace and joy you deserve.

Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart.

To cultivate mindfulness in ourselves is to cultivate the Buddha within, to cultivate the Holy Spirit.

A thought is like the flame of a lamp, and it proceeds through causes and conditions.