Nhat Hanh Quotes

298 Sourced Quotes

When we hug, our hearts connect and we know that we are not separate beings. Hugging with mindfulness and concentration can bring reconciliation, healing, understanding, and much happiness.

Nhat Hanh
When someone does not know how to handle his own suffering, one allows it to spill all over the people around him or her. When you suffer, you make people around you suffer. That's very natural. This is why we have to learn how to handle our suffering, so we won't spread it everywhere.

Nhat Hanh
When you enter deeply into this moment, you see the nature of reality, and this insight liberates you from suffering and confusion. Peace is already there to some extent: the problem is whether we know how to touch it.

Nhat Hanh
Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.
Look at me: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird whose wings are still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

Nhat Hanh
Without understanding, your love is not true love. You must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations, and suffering of the one you love.

Nhat Hanh
The Buddha said that if we know how to look deeply into our suffering and recognize what feeds it, we are already on the path of emancipation.

Nhat Hanh
Our nature is the nature of no birth and no death. It is impossible for a cloud to pass from being into nonbeing. And that is true with a beloved person. They have not died. They have continued in many new forms and you can look deeply and recognize them in you and around you.

Nhat Hanh
The necessary condition for the existence of peace and joy is the awareness that peace and joy are available.

Nhat Hanh
The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.

Nhat Hanh
Breathe and you dwell in the here and now, breath and you see impermanence is life.

Nhat Hanh
Reconciliation is a deep practice that we can do with our listening and our mindful speech. To reconcile means to bring peace and happiness to nations, people, and members of our family.... In order to reconcile, you have to possess the art of deep listening.

Nhat Hanh
Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other.

Nhat Hanh
When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for them is there.

Nhat Hanh
Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.

Nhat Hanh
Reality is reality. It transcends every concept. There is no concept which can adequately describe it, not even the concept of interdependence.

Nhat Hanh
In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.

Nhat Hanh
There are many ways to calm a negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you read some inspiring words, you listen to a piece of beautiful music, you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation.

Nhat Hanh
Before practicing meditation, we see that mountains are mountains. When we start to practice, we see that mountains are no longer mountains. After practicing a while, we see that mountains are again mountains. Now the mountains are very free. Our mind is still with the mountains, but it is no longer bound to anything.

Nhat Hanh
When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?

Nhat Hanh
If we are not peaceful, if we are not feeling well in our skin, we cannot demonstrate real peace, and we cannot raise our children well either.

Nhat Hanh
If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today

Nhat Hanh
I am determined to practice deep listening. I am determined to practice loving speech.

Nhat Hanh
We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.

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.

Nhat Hanh
Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred.

Nhat Hanh
With mindfulness - the practice of peace - we can begin by working to transform the wars in ourselves. Conscious breathing helps us do this.

Nhat Hanh
Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk. We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere.

Nhat Hanh
Every one of us needs a home. The world needs a home. There are so many young people who are homeless. They may have a building to live in, but they are homeless in their hearts. That is why the most important practice of our time is to give each person a home.

Nhat Hanh
Loneliness cannot be alleviated just by the coming together of two bodies, unless there is also good communication, understanding, and loving kindness.

Nhat Hanh
To educate people for peace, we can use words or we can speak with our lives.

Nhat Hanh