Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes - Page 4

The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you,

All love may begin by being passionate, especially for younger people. But in the process of living together, they have to learn and practice love, so that selfishness--the tendency to possess--will diminsh, and the elemetns of understanding and gratitude will settle in, little by little, until their love becomes nourishing, protecting, and reassuring," (41).

The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge.

Whether we have happiness or not depends on the seeds in our consciousness. If our seeds of compassion, understanding, and love are strong, those qualities will be able to manifest in us. If the seeds of anger, hostility and sadness in us are strong, then we will experience much suffering. To understand someone, we have to be aware of the quality of the seeds in his consciousness. And we need to remember that his is not solely responsible for those seeds. His ancestors, parents, and society are co-responsible for the quality of the seeds in his consciousness. When we understand this, we are able to feel compassion for that person. With understanding and love, we will know how to water our own beautiful seeds and those of others, and we will recognize seeds of suffering and find ways to transform them.

Meditation consists of generating three kinds of energy: mindfulness, concentration, and insight. These three energies give us power to nourish happiness and take care of our suffering. Suffering may be there. But with the energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we can embrace and take care of that suffering and nourish happiness at the same time.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

We talk about social service, service to the people, service to humanity, service to others who are far away, helping to bring peace to the world - but often we forget that it is the very people around us that we must live for first of all. If you cannot serve your wife or husband or child or parent - how are you going to serve society? If you cannot make your own child happy, how do you expect to be able to make anyone else happy? If all our friends in the peace movement or of service communities of any kind do not love and help each other, whom can we love and help?

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