Nhat Hanh Quotes

You would not cry if you knew that by looking deeply into the rain you would still see the cloud.

A smile can change the situation of the world.

When you drop bombs on the enemy, you drop those same bombs on yourself, your own country.

Contemplating the bowl, it is possible to see the interdependent elements which give rise to the bowl.

It's wonderful to be alive and to walk on earth.

I would not be happy if I had not become a monk.

There is no real separation between self or no-self. Anything you do for yourself you do for the society at the same time. And anything you do for society you do for yourself also.

There is no distinction between means and ends. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. There is no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way.

Without suffering there cannot be happiness. Without mud there cannot be any lotus flowers.

If you can be aware that you have a living body, and notice when there's tension in your body, that's already an important insight.

Ignorance is in each cell of our body and our consciousness. It's like a drop of ink diffused in a glass of water.

New cells are born everyday and old cells die, but they have neither funerals nor birthdays.

When we see that some suffering or some pain is coming up, we don't try to run away from it. In fact, we have to go back and take care of it.

The third element of love is mudita, joy. True love always brings joy to ourselves and to the one we love. If our love does not bring joy to both of us, it is not true love.

We fall back into the past, we jump ahead into the future, and in this we lose our entire lives.

Do everything in mindfulness so you can really be there, so you can love.

Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won't have to go around search for it.

The person who suffers most in this world is the person who has many wrong perceptions, and most of our perceptions are erroneous.

Only this actual moment is life.

In the light of Buddhist meditation, love is impossible without understanding.

If we practice walking meditation, we walk just for walking, not to arrive.

This is Buddhist meditation-to penetrate, to be one with, in order to really understand.

Understanding is the other name of love. If you don’t understand, you can’t love.

Compassion is born from understanding suffering. We all should learn to embrace our own suffering, to listen to it deeply, and to have a deep look into its nature.

So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.

If a lotus is to grow, it needs to be rooted in the mind.

Once you can communicate with yourself, you'll be able to communicate outwardly with more clarity. The way in is the way out.

When we're inspired by the desire to practice and transform our suffering, the mind of the moment is very beautiful. Sometimes we call it the mind of love. It's because of love that we practice.

Suffering has many faces. If we discover the roots of one suffering, we are at the same time discovering the roots of others.

When you touch someone who authentically represents a tradition, you not only touch his or her tradition, you also touch your own.

No argument, no reasoning, no blame, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.

Understanding and love aren't two separate things, they're just one.

That is why I don't believe much in what Mr. Descartes said: "I think, therefore I am." I think, therefore I'm lost in my thinking. I'm not there.

May we eat only foods that nourish us and prevent illnes.. May we accept this food for the realization of the way of understanding and love.

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.

The most basic precept of all is to be aware of what we do, what we are, each minute . Every other precept will follow from that.

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

If our minds are blocked, there is no device that will make up for our inability to communicate with ourselves or others.

If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. It’s so clear. Mindfulness is the energy and practice that helps you go back to the here and now so that you encounter life.

Suffering has its beneficial aspects. It can be an excellent teacher.

The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives —the way we develop our industries, build up our society, and consume goods.

Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.

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.

Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge.

We wanted peace. We did not care about anyone’s victory or defeat. We just wanted the bombs to stop falling on us.

When you understand, you cannot help but love. You cannot get angry.

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other.

The truth is that everything contains everything else. We cannot just be, we can only inter-be.

In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route.

We are too undemanding, too ready to watch whatever is on the screen, too lonely, lazy, or bored to create our own lives. We turn on the TV and leave it on, allowing someone else to guide us[.]