Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

How can we stop this state of agitation? How can we stop our fear, despair, anger, and craving? We can stop by practicing mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful smiling, and deep looking in order to understand. When we are mindful, touching deeply the present moment, the fruits are always understanding, acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy.

You think that you will die in a few years, or twenty years, or thirty years. That's not true. You are dying now. You have been dying all the time. It's actually very pleasant to die, which is also to live.

First, we just acknowledge that it is there inside us. If we don't listen to our own suffering, we won't understand it, and we won't have compassion for ourselves. Compassion is the element that helps heal us. Only when we have compassion for ourselves, can we truly listen to another person.

When we are able to look deeply and let go of permanence, happiness, self, and purity, we arrive at insight. With this insight, instead of idealizing the object of our sensual desire, we can distinguish his or her true nature. We see that in essence he or she is impermanent, without a self, and impure—just like us.

The truth is, when we burn the paper, it will change into something else and will continue on in other forms—as ash, smoke, and heat, in our body and the universe. The heat is one of the next lives of the paper, as is the smoke rising to the sky. The ash will return to the earth and become part of the soil. So the sheet of paper, in its next life, might be a cloud and a rose at the same time.

This is the essence of love—to be there for the one you love when she is suffering.

if our love is only a will to possess, its not love. if we think of ourselves, if we know only our own seeds and ignore the needs of the other person, we can not love. we must understand needs, aspirations, suffering of the person we love. this is the ground of real love.

if the content of your speech is not authentic, talking or texting on a device doesn't mean you're communicating with another person.

But in the beginning, we can use the teaching, the notion of impermanence, as an instrument to help bring about the insight of impermanence. It's like a match and a flame. The match is not the flame, but the match can bring about the flame. And when we have the flame, the flame will consume the match. When we have the insight, the insight will burn away the notion. What we need for our liberation is the insight of impermanence.

Three virtues are required if we are to be true leaders: the virtue of cutting off, the virtue of loving, and the virtue of insight.

When you use concentration to run away from yourself or your situation, it is wrong concentration. Sometimes we need to escape our problems for relief, but at some time we have to return to face them. Worldly concentration seeks to escape. Supramundane concentration aims at complete liberation.

The point of meditation is not to turn yourself into a battlefield, one side opposing the other. Conscious breathing soothes and calms the anger, and mindfulness penetrates it. Anger is just an energy, and all energies can be transformed. Meditation is the art of using one kind of energy to transform another.

The quality of our presence is the most positive element that we can contribute to the world.

We have a lamp inside us, the lamp of mindfulness, which we can light anytime. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. We

You see clearly that he has a lot of pain inside and doesn't know how to handle it. That is why he suffers so much and makes the people around him suffer. What he needs is help, not punishment. If you stay with this practice, the suffering of anger or jealousy in you will dissipate and the flower of compassion will be born.

Our way of eating and producing food can be very violent, to other species, to our own bodies, and to the Earth. Or our way of growing, distributing, and eating food can be part of creating a larger healing. We get to choose. The

There's no feeling of superiority, of inferiority, or even of equality.

Má»™t khi Ä'ã có hi?u bi?t, ta có th? thÆ°Æ¡ng yêu và tha th?. Cuá»™c ??i s? bá»›t kh? r?t nhi?u khi ta có hi?u bi?t. N?u không hi?u bi?t, ta không th? thÆ°Æ¡ng yêu và tha th?.

Any meaningful work for peace must follow the principle of nonduality, the principle of penetration.

M? già nhÆ° chu?i ba hÆ°Æ¡ng NhÆ° xôi n?p má»™t, nhÆ° ???ng mía lau

IF YOU HAVEE EXPERIENCED HUNGER, YOU KNOW THAT HAVING FOOD IS A MIRACLE. IF YOU HAVE SUFFERED FROM THE COLD, YOU KNOW THE PRECIOUSNESS OF WARMTH. WHEN YOU HAVE SUFFERED, YOU KNOW HOW TO APPRECIATE THE ELEMENTS OF PARADISE THAT ARE PRESENT

Most of us walk without chains, yet we aren't free. We're tethered to regret and sorrow from the past. We return to the past and continue to suffer. The past is a prison. But now you have the key to unlock the door and arrive in the present moment. You breathe in, you bring your mind home to your body, you make a step, and you arrive in the here and the

Sitting and watching our breath is a wonderful practice, but it is not enough. For transformation to take place, we have to practice mindfulness all day long, not just on our meditation cushion. Mindfulness is the Buddha. Just as vegetation is sensitive to sunlight, mental formations are sensitive to mindfulness. Mindfulness is the energy that can embrace and transform all mental formations.

Like every species on Earth, we are always seeking the ideal conditions that will allow us to live to our fullest potential