Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

When you speak, allow the insight of our collective humanity to speak through you. When you walk, don't walk for yourself alone; walk for your ancestors and your community. When you breathe, allow the larger world to breathe for you.

We are life without limit. We are not caught in birth, we are not caught in death, we are not caught in being, and we are not caught in non-being. This is the truth of reality.

Practice the non-practice practice.

Knowing how to handle suffering, you know at the same time how to produce happiness. And if you're truly happy, we all profit from your happiness. We need happy people in this world.

You end up sacrificing quality time with family and friends, and you end up sacrificing time with yourself. Often you even sacrifice your health.

and because there are no more obstacles in their mind, they can overcome all fear, destroy all wrong perceptions, and realize Perfect Nirv??a

When our mind is entangled with anger, jealousy, or sadness, we can be in that state hour after hour, day after day. It's a pity, because meanwhile, life is wondrous. If we only concentrate on breathing in and seeing that our body is a wonder, we can see that nothing else is really important.

Ordinary people tend to be caught by the object of the mind, and practitioners of the Path tend to be caught by the mind itself. When both the mind and the object are removed, once both the mind and the objects of the mind are overcome, then there is the true Dharma.

Hay cuatro clases de alimentos que consumimos a diario. En el budismo los llamamos los Cuatro Nutrientes: los alimentos comestibles, las impresiones sensoriales, las voliciones y la conciencia, tanto a nivel individual como colectivo.

When you practice building a home in yourself, you become more and more beautiful. You radiate your inner peace, warmth, and joy.

People don't dare let go of the mind, they grasp onto the mind. They can let go of the objects of the mind, but they don't dare to let go of the mind. Why? We're afraid of falling into a place where we think there will be nothing to feel, to touch, to pick up, afraid we'll have nothing left. But emptiness doesn't mean nothingness.

The negative attitude toward the description of ultimate reality by words is common to all Buddhist doctrine. The dictum used by Bodhidharma is only a drastic way of bringing people to this original attitude which underlines the importance of direct spiritual experience and discredits intellectual speculation.

When we recognize that our suffering is based on images instead of current reality, then living happily in the present moment becomes possible right away.

our afflictions, such as craving, anger

The Buddha's Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a course of action that generates suffering; suffering ceases (i.e., there is happiness); and there is a course of action leading to the cessation of suffering (the arising of happiness).

The people who wrote down the Bible and the people who wrote down the Mahayana sutras were artists. They used images to express their insights.

Every human being wants to love and be loved. This is very natural. But often love, desire, need, and fear get wrapped up all together

It is through the close interaction of the laity and the monks that the essence of Zen penetrates social life.

The Kingdom of God is a treasure. Once you have touched that treasure, you know that the things you previously considered to be conditions for your happiness are just obstacles.

If you hate your body and think that it is only a source of affliction, that it contains only the roots of anger, hatred, and craving, you do not understand that your body is the body of the Buddha, your body is a member of the body of Christ.

Master Linji used language that was particularly harsh and strong to remind the monks in clear terms that the only role of a practitioner is to live simply, as an ordinary person, and not to put on airs. This is still a fundamental challenge for us today.

We move about life in our own corpse because we are not touching life in depth. We live a kind of artificial life, with lots of plans, lots of worries and anger. Never are we able to establish ourselves in the here and now and live our lives deeply. We have to wake up! We have to make it possible for the moment of awareness to manifest. This is the practice that will save us—this is the revolution.

Zen is a living tradition which can help to make sober, healthy, well-balanced, and stable people.

no deberíamos pasar mucho tiempo en una comunidad que exhiba una gran cantidad de odio y desesperación.