Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.
The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.
Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge.
When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?
If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love.
Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.
Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.
The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.
Anger is like a storm rising up from the bottom of your consciousness. When you feel it coming, turn your focus to your breath.
When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.
Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.
Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.
It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.
To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.
Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. (21)
We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don't allow our bodies to heal, and we don't allow our minds and hearts to heal.
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.
If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.
We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.
The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.
Your true home is in the here and the now.
People sacrifice the present for the future. But life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.
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.
If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.
If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.
Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. When you touch nonfear, you are free.
It is said that God has created man in his own image. But it may be that humankind has created God in the image of humankind.
Mindfulness is like that—it is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.
Birth is okay and death is okay, if we know that they are only concepts in our mind. Reality transcends both birth and death.
Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion.
Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.
The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.
Most of us experience a life full of wonderful moments and difficult moments. But for many of us, even when we are most joyful, there is fear behind our joy.
The present moment is the substance with which the future is made. Therefore, the best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment. What else can you do?
Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word "art". If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don't have to talk about it at all.
When we have peace, then we have a chance to save the planet. But if we are not united in peace, if we do not practice mindful consumption, we cannot save our planet.
If you're a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism.
You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.
If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that when the truth comes and knocks on our door, we won't want to let it in.
The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.
Treat your anger with the utmost respect and tenderness, for it is no other than yourself.
If I don't understand you, I may be angry at you, all the time. We are not capable of understanding each other, and that is the main source of human suffering.
I have lost my smile, but don't worry.The dandelion has it.
