Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation is not about turning yourself into a battlefield where one side fights the other, because the basis of Buddhist meditation is nonduality.

The notion or emptiness in Buddhism is derived from the notion of non-identity. Emptiness ( suryata ) signifies the hollow space at the interior of a thing, the absence of identity of this thing, and not the absence of the thing itself. The image is that of a balloon. The balloon is empty; in the same way, everything is devoid of absolute identity.

We blame our suffering on another person or group, or on bad luck, but outside conditions are not the reason it appears. Our suffering was already there.

Our feelings are us, and for that moment we are those feelings. We needn't be intoxicated or terrorized by them, nor do we need to reject them. The practice of not clinging to or rejecting feelings is an important part of meditation. If we face our feelings with care, affection, and non violence, we can transform them into a kind of energy that is healthy and nourishing.

Our moods fluctuate and we identify ourselves with these feelings. When we're sad, we say, I'm sad. When we're happy, we say, I'm happy. But our true person is not those things, nor is it something outside of them.

There's a radio playing in our head, Radio Station NST: Non-Stop Thinking. Our mind is filled with noise, and that's why we can't hear the call of life, the call of love. Our heart is calling us, but we don't hear. We don't have the time to listen to our heart.

Watering the seeds of happiness is a very important practice for those who are sick or dying.

In Vietnamese, there's a proverb that says, When you love, you use the cane. When you hate, you use your sweet kind words.

Without fear, we are able to see more clearly our connections to others. Without fear, we have more room for understanding and compassion. Without fear, we are truly free.

The higher our degree of concentration, the greater the quality of our life. Vietnamese girls are often told by their mothers that if they concentrate, they will be more beautiful. This is the kind of beauty that comes from dwelling deeply in the present moment. When a young lady moves inattentively, she does not look as fresh or at ease. Her mother may not use these words, but she is encouraging her daughter to practice Right Concentration

Fortresses, bombs, or airplanes are not going to take away our fear; in fact, they will more likely increase it. The United States of America has a very powerful military and the most advanced weapons in the world, but the American people don't feel safe. They feel very afraid and vulnerable.

We should not be too proud of being vegetarian, for example. We must acknowledge that the water in which we boil our vegetables contain many microorganisms, not to mention the vegetables themselves, But even when we cannot be completely nonviolent, by being vegetarian we are going in the direction of nonviolence....Our effort is only to proceed in that direction.

The first thing we can do in these situations is to acknowledge internally that the pictures we have in our head, what we think happened, may not be accurate. Our practice is to breathe and walk until we are more calm and relaxed.

Many of us, both monastics and laypeople, learn about the Buddhadharma without anything changing in our life. Our personality remains exactly the same because we cannot digest and apply what we've learned. What we've learned doesn't help us and so we can't help anyone. Zen doesn't travel along a path of learning through writing and words; it relies on direct transmission between teacher and student.

When we learn to calm our minds in order to look deeply at the true nature of things, we can arrive at full understanding, which dissolves every sorrow and anxiety and gives rise to acceptance and love. Gautama now saw that understanding and love are one. Without understanding, there can be no love.

Respirar durante dos o tres segundos conscientemente te permite darte cuenta de que estás vivo

When you listen deeply to someone who suffers, you step into a zone of fire. There is a fire of suffering, of anger burning in the person you are listening to.

Zen is none other than Buddhism.

There is no enlightenment outside daily life.

Si hay alegría y espaciosidad en tu corazón, tus palabras estarán cargadas de sabiduría y crearán una comunicación real», le dije. Y luego añadí lo siguiente:

If the United States wants safety, it has to take care of the safety of other nations also. If Great Britain wants safety, it has to think of the safety of other groups of people. Any of us could be victims of violence and terrorism. No country is immune.

We tend to focus on the object and call it reality. We don't notice how our mind intervenes in our perception.

sheet of paper.

thoughts will cease, allowing your mind to dwell in mindfulness. When you are aware of your breathing, you dwell in mindfulness. Dwelling in mindfulness, you cannot be led astray by any thoughts. With just one breath, you can attain awakening. That awakening is the Buddha-nature that exists in all beings. "Breathing in a short breath, you know that you are breathing in a short breath. Breathing out a long breath