Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't look outside yourself for happiness. Let go of the idea that you don't have it. It is available within you.

If one person keeps calm and smiles at a provocation, the whole world will have a better chance for peace.

The Buddha told him, When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating

Compassion is the only energy that can help us connect with another person. The person who has no compassion in him can never be happy.

Whenever a painful feeling or emotion arises, we should be able to be present with it, not fight it, but recognize it

There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way. There is no way to enlightenment; enlightenment is the way.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.

We can also explore four additional concentrations on impermanence, non-craving, letting go, and nirvana. These four practices are found in Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, a wonderful text from early Buddhism.

Life is real; it's not a dream when mindfulness is there.

You are doing your best in order to embrace it, and so you no longer consider your partner as an enemy to be punished. You see him or her as an ally who is still there to support you.

There are three key practices that can transform your suffering and allow you to truly make a home for yourself so that you have solidity and understanding to give your partner. They also lead you to great joy. They are the practices of mindfulness (smrti), concentration (samadhi), and insight (prajña). With mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we can purify our mind so that the afflictions will be lighter, we can connect more deeply with our loved ones, and we can be free.

Compassion doesn't mean that you have to love that person who's so difficult. But if you stop and look deeper, you'll see that person's difficulties. If you can accept him, then you can love him.

We have to nourish our insight into impermanence every day. If we do, we will live more deeply, suffer less, and enjoy life much more. Living deeply, we will touch the foundation of reality, nirvana, the world of no birth and no death. Touching impermanence deeply, we touch the world beyond permanence and impermanence. We touch the ground of being and see that which we have called being and nonbeing are just notions. Nothing is ever lost. Nothing is ever gained.

Many parents love their children. Yet they make them suffer a lot in the name of love. They're often not capable of understanding their children's suffering, difficulties, hopes, and aspirations. We have to ask ourselves, "Am I really loving the other person by understanding them or am I just projecting my own needs?

Only by looking deeply into the nature of your fear can you find the way out.

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

Your concept or perception of reality is not reality. When you are caught in your perceptions and ideas, you lose reality.

To be a friend means to offer happiness. If love doesn't offer happiness, if it makes the other person cry all the time, then it's not love; it's the opposite.

When there are wars within us, it will not be long before we are at war with others, even those we love.

The Four Establishments of Mindfulness are the foundation of our dwelling place. Without them, our house is abandoned; no one is sweeping, dusting or tidying up. Our body becomes unkempt, or feelings full of suffering, and our mind a heap of afflictions. When we are truly home, our body, mind, and feelings will be a refuge for ourselves and others.

If you are really joyful and your joy is healthy, then that benefits other people. If you're not joyful, not fresh, or not smiling, then that doesn't benefit anyone. If you're inhabited by joy and freshness, even if you do nothing, we profit from you.

Every time we truly stop and look deeply, the result is a better understanding of the true nature of what is there inside us and around us.

Ending our consumption of violent images and toxic communication gives us the chance to transform the violence and suffering in us.

Sometimes things occur beneath the surface that will eventually explode, and by then it is too late to deal with them, so the only recourse is to divorce or fight or even kill each other. To meditate is to be aware of what is going on in yourself, your feelings, your body, your perceptions, your family. The second technique is to recall, and the more details which the community has, the easier it is to help.