Thích Nhất Hạnh Quotes

Compassion is a verb.

We can feel lonely even when we’re surrounded by many people. We are lonely together. There is a vacuum inside us. We don’t feel comfortable with that vacuum, so we try to fill it up or make it go away. Technology supplies us with many devices that allow us to “stay connected.” These days, we are always “connected,” but we continue to feel lonely.

If you are a mountain climber or someone who enjoys the countryside, or the green forest, you know that the forests are our lungs outside of our bodies. Yet we have been acting in a way that has allowed two million square miles of forest land to be destroyed by acid rain. We are imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of the comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self.

"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."

The miracle is walking on the earth, not walking on water or fire. The real miracle is walking on this earth.

If we are a Buddha in the morning and we try to nourish the Buddha throughout the day, we may be able to come home at the end of a day with a smile - the Buddha is still there. When you become agitated, you do not have to do or say anything. Just follow your breathing and walk slowly into that room. The "room" for breathing also symbolizes our own inner Buddha Land, so we can enter it whenever we need to, even if we are not at home.

You are a miracle, and everything you touch could be a miracle.

We do not have to look for God, we do not have to look for our ultimate dimension or nirvana, because we are nirvana, we are God.

A smile can relax hundreds of muscles in your face, and relax your nervous system. A smile makes you master of yourself.

Self, person, living being, and life span are four notions that prevent us from seeing reality. Life is one. We do not need to slice it into pieces and call this or that piece a "self." What we call a self is made only of non-self elements. When we look at a flower, for example, we may think that it is different from "non-flower" things. But when we look more deeply, we see that everything in the cosmos is in that flower. Without all of the non-flower elements — sunshine, clouds, earth, minerals, heat, rivers, and consciousness — a flower cannot be. That is why the Buddha teaches that the self does not exist. We have to discard all distinctions between self and non-self.

According to the Buddha, life is available only in the here and now, the present moment. He said, “The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There’s only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment.” If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life.

Our appointment with life is in the present moment. If we do not have peace and joy right now when will we have peace and joy — tomorrow, or after tomorrow? What is presenting us from being happy right now?

Life is available only in the present moment.

Before practicing meditation, we see that mountains are mountains.
When we start to practice, we see that mountains are no longer mountains.
After practicing a while, we see that mountains are again mountains.
Now the mountains are very free. Our mind is still with the mountains,
but it is no longer bound to anything.

As long as fear is in us, happiness cannot be perfect.