Thich Nhat Hanh

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Our own life has to be our message.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

The source of a true smile is an awakened mind. How can you remember to smile when you wake up? You might hang a reminder – such as a branch, a leaf, a painting, or some inspiring words – in your window or from the ceiling above your bed, so that you notice it when you wake up. Once you develop the practice of smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming through the window. Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Most of the time, we think too much, and mindful breathing helps us to be calm, relaxed, and peaceful. It helps us stop thinking so much and stop being possessed by sorrows of the past and worries about the future.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

When I was in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries, or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who were suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both – to go out and help people and to do so in mindfulness. We called it engaged Buddhism. Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing?
– Thich Nhat Hanh

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves, we cannot take care of the people we love. Loving oneself is the foundation for loving another person.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

You are a miracle, and everything you touch could be a miracle.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

There are a number of breathing techniques you can use to make life vivid and more enjoyable. The first exercise is very simple. As you breathe in, you say to yourself, “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.” And as you breathe out, say, “Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.” Just that. You don’t even need to recite the whole sentence; you can use just two words: “In” and “Out.” This technique can help you keep your mind on your breath. As you practice, your breath will become peaceful and gentle, and your mind and body will
also become peaceful and gentle. This is not a difficult exercise. In just a few minutes you can realize the fruit of meditation.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Watching a bad TV program, we become the TV program. We are what we feel and perceive. If we are angry, we are the anger. If we are in love, we are love. If we look at a snow-covered mountain peak, we are the mountain. We can be anything we want, so why do we open our windows to bad TV programs made by sensationalist producers in search of easy money, programs that make our hearts pound, our fists tighten, and leave us exhausted?
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Because you are alive, everything is possible.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

By eating meat we share the responsibility of climate change, the destruction of our forests, and the poisoning of our air and water. The simple act of becoming a vegetarian will make a difference in the health of our planet.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past or worries about the future. If you are firmly grounded in the present moment, the past can be an object of inquiry, the object of your mindfulness and concentration. You can attain many insights by looking into the past. But you are still grounded in the present moment. – Thich Nhat Hanh

If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Whenever anger comes up, take out a mirror and look at yourself. When you are angry, you are not very beautiful.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If we are not aware that we are happy, we are not really happy. When we have a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. But when we do not have a toothache, we are still not happy. A non-toothache is very pleasant. There are so many things that are not enjoyable, but when we don’t practice mindfulness, we don’t appreciate them. When we practice mindfulness, we come to cherish these things and we learn how to protect them.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If I offer you a freshly picked tangerine to enjoy, I think the degree to which you enjoy it will depend on your mindfulness. If you are free of worries and anxiety, you will enjoy it more. If you are possessed by anger or fear, the tangerine may not be very real to you.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Humankind’s survival depends on our ability to stop rushing. We have more than 50,000 nuclear bombs, and yet we cannot stop making more. “Stopping” is not only to stop the negative, but to allow positive healing to take place.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Your first love has no beginning or end. Your first love is not your first love, and it is not your last. It is just love. It is one with everything.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

When I hold a bowl of rice or a piece of bread, I know that I am fortunate, and I feel compassion for all those who have no food to eat and are without friends or family. This is a very deep practice. We do not need to go to a temple or a church in order to practice this.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

In Buddhism, the word “suchness” is used to mean “the essence or particular characteristics of a thing or a person, its true nature.” Each person has his or her suchness. If we want to live in peace and happiness with a person, we have to see the suchness of that person.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

My actions are my only true belongings.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Going vegetarian may be the most effective way to fight global warming. Buddhist practitioners have practiced vegetarianism over the last 2000 years. We are vegetarian with the intention to nourish our compassion towards the animals. Now we also know that we eat vegetarian in order to protect the earth.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don’t have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don’t have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

It is said that God has created man in his own image. But it may be that humankind has created God in the image of humankind.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Preventing war is much better than protesting against the war. Protesting the war is too late.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Life is available only in the present moment.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

We all have the seeds of love in us.We can develop this wonderful source of energy, nurturing the unconditional love that does not expect anything in return.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos – the trees, the clouds, everything.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Happiness does not come from consumption of things.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

It is said that in the last several years, two million square miles of forest land have been destroyed by acid rain, partly because of our cars. “Before starting the car, I know where I am going,” is a very deep question. Where shall we go? To our own destruction? If the trees die, we humans are going to die also. If the journey you are making is necessary, please do not hesitate to go. But if you see that it is not really important, you can remove the key from the ignition and go instead for a walk along the riverbank or through a park.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our best to help them move in a direction of nonviolence. If we work for peace out of anger, we will never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never come about through non-peaceful means.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Anger is an unpleasant feeling. It is like a blazing flame that burns up our self-control and causes us to say and do things that we regret later. When someone is angry, we can see clearly that he or she is abiding in hell. Anger and hatred are the materials from which hell is made. A mind without anger is cool, fresh, and sane. The absence of anger is the basis of real happiness, the basis of love and compassion.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Nature is our mother. Because we live cut off from her, we get sick. Some of us live in boxes called apartments, very high above the ground. Around us are only cement, metal, and hard things like that. Our fingers do not have a chance to touch the soil; we don’t grow lettuce anymore… We and our children should be in touch again with Mother Earth. In many cities, we cannot see trees – the color green is entirely absent from our view.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Freedom is the basic condition for you to touch life, to touch the blue sky, the trees, the birds, the tea, and the other person.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

We need to be aware of the suffering, but retain our clarity, calmness and strength so we can help transform the situation.
– Thich Nhat Hanh