Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

When we're sitting, we're truly there in the present moment; we have come home, we have arrived. We are present in that time and place; we're not pulled away by the past, the future, or by anger or jealousy in the present.

Our tendency is to think that if we let go, we'll lose the things that make us happy. But the opposite is true. The more we let go, the happier we become.

When we feel suffering, we have the urge to run away from it and fill ourselves up with junk food, junk entertainment, anything to keep our mind off the pain that is there inside us.

One cannot become a practitioner of Zen just by imitating the way of eating, sitting, or dressing of Chinese or Japanese practitioners. Zen is life, Zen does not imitate. If Zen is to fully take root in the West, it must acquire a Western form, different from Oriental Zen.

mindfulness means reclaiming attention Nonthinking is an art, and like any art, it requires patience and practice. Reclaiming your attention and bringing your mind and body back together for even just ten breaths can be very difficult at first. But with continued practice, you can reclaim your ability to be present and learn just to be.

Emptiness is not the opposite of existence. It is not nothingness or annihilation.

We are in nirv??a. The only problem is that we are not able to return to it.

Continuing to work in a spirit of love and understanding required great courage.

We can only understand another person when we're able to truly listen to them. When we can listen to others with deep compassion, we can understand their pain and difficulties. But when we're angry, we can't listen to others or hear their suffering. Listening deeply to another is a form of meditation.

if we are free of the past, free of the future, we can touch the kingdom of God, the Pure Land of the Buddha, with every step.

Humans can be hateful, mean, and violent, but we also have the ability, with spiritual practice, to become compassionate and protective toward not only our own species but other species too—the ability to be awakened beings who can protect our planet and preserve her beauty. Awakening is our hope. And awakening is possible.

Usually when anger manifests, we want to confront the person we think is the source of our anger. We're more interested in setting that person straight than in taking care of the more urgent matter, which is our own anger. We are like the person whose house is on fire who goes chasing after the arsonist instead of going home to put out the fire.

Good health is the greatest profit. Satisfaction is the greatest of riches. Loyalty is your best friend. Nirv??a is the greatest delight.

Whether the object of your love is your heart, your in-breath, your physical body, or your baby, whether it is your son, your daughter, or your partner, your declaration of love is always the same. It is: "Dear one, I am here for you.

Are you sure of your perceptions?" he asked us. I urge you to write this phrase down on a card and put it up on the wall of your room: "Are you sure of your perceptions?" There is a river of perceptions in you. You should sit down on the bank of this river and contemplate your perceptions.

But don't believe that you see all that's contained in the depths of someone's eyes. If you have the impression that you know your beloved inside and outside, and that's why you're bored or restless, you're wrong. Are you sure that you know yourself?

Walk slowly, but not so slowly that you draw too much attention to yourself. This is a kind of invisible practice. Enjoy nature and your own serenity without making others uncomfortable or making a show of it.

Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it. All of us have the capacity of transforming neutral feelings into pleasant feelings, very pleasant feelings that can last a long time.

For love to be true love, it must contain compassion, joy, and equanimity. For compassion to be true compassion, it has to have love, joy, and equanimity in it. True joy has to contain love, compassion, and equanimity. And true equanimity has to have love, compassion, and joy in it.

To me, religious life is life. I do not see any reason to spend one's whole life tasting just one kind of fruit.

When we're first learning sitting meditation, it can be useful to count our breaths. Count one for the first in- and out-breath. Count two for the second, and so on. If your mind wanders and you lose count, go back to one and begin again. This exercise helps develop concentration. You may think counting to ten is easy, but counting to ten while breathing mindfully takes a lot of focus.

Your thoughts can make you and the world around you suffer more or suffer less.

You don't need to be perfect. What's important is that you have a path to follow, a path of love. If we get lost in a forest and we don't have a compass at night, we can look at the North Star in order to go north, to get out. Your purpose is to get out of the forest, it's not to arrive at the North Star.

Mara personifies the inner hindrances to the practice, the opposite of the Buddha nature in each person.