Quotes from Thích Nh?t H?nh

Understanding is the foundation of love.

Debes saber cómo desembarazarte de las cosas que te hacen sufrir. Puedes alcanzar la felicidad soltando…, soltando incluso tus ideas sobre la felicidad. Quizás creas que para ser feliz debes cumplir determinados requisitos, pero, si observas profundamente, descubrirás que son precisamente esas mismas nociones las que te impiden alcanzar la felicidad y acaban haciéndote sufrir.

Calming, Smiling, Present moment, Wonderful moment.

mindfulness o la plena consciencia puede ayudarte también a establecer, en tu interior, los cimientos de la libertad, la paz y el amor.

Soldiers fear the frontier post, monks fear the Surangama Dharani!

He whispered to himself, "If I do not find the Way, I will not return to Kapilavatthu.

Because they have learned not to get caught in notions or representations, they do not speak as though they alone hold the truth, and they do not think that those in other traditions are going the wrong way.

While the realm of no materiality was a precious fruit of meditation, it did not help resolve the fundamental problem of birth and death, nor did it liberate one from all suffering and anxiety. It did not lead to total liberation.

When you put a piece of bread into your mouth, chew only your bread and not your projects, worries, fears, or anger.

A Buddha is a person who has no more business to do and isn't looking for anything. In doing nothing, in simply stopping, we can live freely and be true to ourselves, and our liberation will contribute to the liberation of all beings.

I laugh when I think how I once sought paradise as a realm outside of the world of birth and death. It is right in the world of birth and death that the miraculous truth is revealed. -But this is not the laughter of someone who suddenly acquires a great fortune; neither is it the laughter of one who has won a victory. It is, rather, the laughter of one who; after having painfully searched for something for a long time, finds it one morning in the pocket of his coat. -Thich Nhat Hanh

Because we know that our feelings are ourselves, we do not neglect or overrule them. We embrace them affectionately in the arms of mindfulness, as a mother embraces her newborn child when it cries. A mother embraces the child with all her love for the child to feel comforted and stop crying. Mindfulness nourished by conscious breathing takes the feelings in its arms, becomes one with them, calms and transforms them.

A physicist who is able to see the interpenetration and interbeing of elementary particles without going beyond his or her intellect has, from the viewpoint of Buddhist liberation, attained just a decorative facade. -Someone who studies Buddhism without practicing meditation has also accumulated knowledge only as decoration.

Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Meditation is essential for our survival.

A meditation center, for example, is only a form. In our daily life we need forms, but we do not need to cling to them. We can study and practice meditation anywhere.

What we lack is not an ideology or a doctrine that will save the world. What we lack is mindfulness of what we are, of what our situation really is.

Precepts in Buddhism are not imposed by some outside authority. They arise from our own insight based on the practice of mindfulness. To be attached to the form without understanding the essence is to fall into what Buddhism calls attachment to rules.

Understanding is love's other name.

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

he whispered in the king's ear, "If you ask me, I think you should find a wife for Siddhartha. Once he has a family to occupy him, he will abandon this desire to become a monk." King Suddhodana nodded.

When we talk about the theology of "God is dead," this means that the notion of God must be dead in order for God to reveal himself as a reality. The theologians, if they only use concepts, words, and not direct experience, are not very helpful. The same goes for nirvana, which is something to be touched and lived and not discussed and described. We have notions that distort truth, reality.

People ask me, "Why do you do walking meditation?" The best answer I can give is, "Because I like it.

To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one's perception of reality

This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not.