Bringing the mind to stillness is easy. You need only to pay attention to one thing. As long as your mind is listening to the rain it is not thinking about anything else. You don’t need to try to still your mind. You need only to relax and continue listening to the rain. The longer you are able to do so, the more still your mind becomes.
We can observe emptiness and interbeing everywhere in our daily life. If we look at a child, it’s easy to see the child’s mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, in her. The way she looks, the way she acts, the things she says. Even her skills and talents are the same as her parents’. If at times we cannot understand why the child is acting a certain way, it is helpful to remember that she is not a separate self-entity. She is a continuation. Her parents and ancestors are inside her. When she walks and talks, they walk and talk as well.
Whether we’re at work or at home, we can practice to see all our ancestors and teachers present in our actions. We can see their presence when we express a talent or skill they have transmitted to us. We can see their hands in ours as we prepare a meal or wash the dishes.
When we think or work or breathe, many of us believe there must be a person, an actor, behind our actions. We believe there must be “someone” doing the action. But when the wind blows, there is no blower behind the wind. There is only the wind, and if it does not blow, it is not the wind at all. When we say “It is raining,” there does not need to be a rainer in order to have the rain. Who is the “it” that is raining? There is only raining. Raining is happening.
Our loved one is still alive within us and around us. They are very real. We have not lost them. It is possible to still recognize them in a different form or in even more beautiful forms than in the past.
I remember I once left a piece of ginger in a corner in my hermitage and didn’t tend to it. But then one day I discovered that it had sprouted. The stem of ginger was giving rise to a plant of ginger. There was life within it. The same thing can happen with a potato. Everything has this vitality of wanting to go forward and be continued. This is very natural. Everything wants to live. So I put the ginger in a pot with some earth and let it grow.
When a woman becomes pregnant, there is already a life force driving that child’s development. The life force of the mother and of the fetus are neither the same nor different.
The cloud that was in the sky yesterday has not disappeared; it has become tea. It has not died; it is just playing hide-and-seek! You too are
The cloud that was in the sky yesterday has not disappeared; it has become tea. It has not died; it is just playing hide-and-seek!
Are you still that child or are you someone else? This is a practice of contemplating your own signlessness. Today you look, speak, act, and think differently. Your form, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness are all very different. You are not fixed or permanent. So you are not the same person, but you are not a totally different person either. When you are no longer caught in specific images or appearances, you can see things more clearly. You can see that the little child is still alive in every cell of your body. It is possible to listen to and take care of the little boy or little girl in you at any time. You can invite that child to breathe with you, walk with you, and enjoy nature with you.
in the Zen tradition we ask questions like “What did you look like before your grandmother was born?”
Before my mother gave birth to me, she was pregnant with another baby boy, but she had a miscarriage. When I was young I always wondered: Was that my brother or was it me who was trying to manifest? If a baby has been lost, it means that conditions were not sufficient for them to manifest, and the child has decided to withdraw so they can wait for better conditions. “I had better withdraw; I’ll come back again soon, my dearest.” We have to respect their will. If you see the world with eyes like this, you will suffer much less. Was
neither exactly the same nor different.
Your body is not your self; you are much more than this body. You are life without boundaries.
Our body is a masterpiece of the cosmos. Our body carries within it the stars, the moon, the universe, and the presence of all our ancestors. How many millions of years of evolution has it taken to give rise to these wondrous two eyes, legs, feet, and hands?
Spiritual practice is the art of knowing how to generate happiness and handle suffering, just as a gardener knows how to make good use of mud in order to grow lotus flowers.
People can steal your phone, computer, or money, but they can never steal your spiritual practice.
What we have learned from our teachers is far more important than their physical presence.
It is possible to transform not only our home but also our work, school, corporation, or hospital into a beloved community, into a kind of family, where there is love, understanding, and true communication.
We start with a few colleagues who have the same aspirations, and we build up from there. Four people is enough. Five is good. And more than five is excellent.
Each one of us can be present in many places in the world. We can be here and at the same time in a prison. We can be here and also in a distant country where the children suffer from malnutrition. We don’t have to be present with our physical body. When I write a book, I transform myself into thousands of me that can go a little bit everywhere. Every book becomes my body outside the body.
In many prisons in North America and the United Kingdom there are inmates who practice walking and sitting meditation. They have learned to breathe, to walk, and to speak with kindness and compassion. These prisoners are also me. They are my body, because they have read my books; they are practicing what they have read and are continuing me.
Just as an acidic cloud produces acid rain, so will the energy of anger, fear, blaming, or discrimination produce a toxic environment for ourselves and others. Use your time wisely. Every moment it is possible to think, say, or do something that inspires hope, forgiveness, and compassion. You can do something to protect and help others and our world.
If you had a negative thought about someone in the past, it’s not too late to do something about it.
Perhaps instead of calling, you can write an email or a text message that is full of understanding and compassion. Healing already takes place, even before you send it. It is never too late to reconcile with a loved one, even if they have already passed away. You can still write them a letter, expressing your regrets and love. This alone will bring about peace and healing. Your words can be beautiful gems, reaching across space and time to create mutual understanding and love.
We need to ask ourselves: “Where am I investing my physical energy?” “What will I leave behind when my body disintegrates?” “What can I do today to realize my dreams?”
a journalist asked me if I ever planned to retire as a spiritual teacher. I smiled and explained that teaching is given not by talking alone but by the way we live our life. Our life is the teaching. Our life is the message.
I sometimes liken my body to the water being boiled in a kettle that eventually turns to steam. When my body disintegrates, you may say “Thich Nhat Hanh has died.” But this is not true. I will never die.
“I am here now and I won’t be here later.”
Many still believe that God can exist separately from the cosmos, his creation. But you cannot remove God from yourself; you cannot remove the ultimate from yourself. Nirvana is there within you.
I am one with my ancestors and my descendants. I am life manifesting in countless different forms.
am made of light; I am made of the sun.
I am made of light; I am made of the sun.
Many of us have been running all our lives. We have the feeling that we need to run—into the future, away from the past, out from wherever we are. In truth, we don’t need to go anywhere. We just need to sit down and look deeply
We have a habit of running after things, and this habit has been transmitted to us by our parents and ancestors. We don’t feel fulfilled in the here and now, and so we run after all kinds of things we think will make us happier. We sacrifice our life chasing after objects of craving or striving for success in our work or studies. We chase after our life’s dream and yet lose ourselves along the way. We may even lose our freedom and happiness in our efforts to be mindful, to be healthy, to relieve suffering in the world, or to get enlightened. We disregard the wonders of the present moment, thinking that heaven and the ultimate are for later, not for now.
If you feel restless in the here and now, or you feel ill at ease, you need to ask yourself: “What am I longing for?” “What am I searching for?” “What am I waiting for?”
not only was I looking at the mountain, but all my ancestors in me were looking at the mountain with me. As dawn broke over the mountain peak we admired its beauty together. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do. We were free. We needed only to sit there and enjoy the sunrise. Our ancestors may never have had a chance to sit quietly, peacefully, and enjoy the sunrise like that. When we can stop the running, all our ancestors can also stop at the same time. With the energy of mindfulness and awakening, we can stop on behalf of all our ancestors. It is not the stopping of a separate self alone, but of a whole lineage.
If we continue to hold on to a dream for something in the future, we lose the present moment. And if we lose the present, we lose everything. We lose freedom, peace, joy, and the opportunity to
If we continue to hold on to a dream for something in the future, we lose the present moment. And if we lose the present, we lose everything.
To lose the present moment is to lose our only chance to encounter life.
There is a Zen story about a student who felt he hadn’t really received the deepest essence of his master’s teaching, and so he went to question him. His master replied, “On your way here, did you see the cypress in the courtyard?” Perhaps the student was not yet very mindful. The master was saying that if, on the way to see our teacher, we go past a cypress tree or a beautiful plum tree in blossom and we don’t really see it, then when we arrive in front of our teacher, we won’t see our teacher either. We shouldn’t miss any opportunity to really see our cypress tree. There are wonders of life we walk past every day, and yet we haven’t truly seen them. What is the cypress tree on the path you take to work every day? If you cannot even see the tree, how can you see your loved ones?
My name, Nhat Hanh, means “one action.” I spent a long time trying to find out which action this was.
Peace is not something to hope for in the future. Peace is something that we can be in every moment.
Everyone has a dream. You need to take the time to be still, to look deeply, and to listen to your heart to find out what your deepest desire is. Is it to have a lot of money, power, fame, or sex, or is it something else? What do you really want to do with your life? You should not wait until you are already old to ask yourself these questions. Once you can identify your deepest intention, you have a chance to be true to yourself, to live the kind of life you’d like to live, and to be the kind of person you’d like to be.
When you start a relationship with someone, you also need to find out what their deepest dreams are. You need to ask them what they want to do with their life. You need to discover this before you get married, not afterward.
It is tragic to share a bed yet dream different dreams.
You can also ask your parents about their dreams. “Did you ever have a dream when you were young? Were you able to realize it?” If you can ask questions like this, your relationship with your parents will become real and deep. It’s a way to discover who your parents really are. It will enable them to open their hearts, and you will feel as close to them as a good friend. And if your parents have not yet been able to realize their dream, you may be able to realize it for them, because you are their continuation.
is said to be the dwelling place of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva
To wait until tomorrow is too late. We all want to live deeply so our lives are not wasted
To wait until tomorrow is too late. We all want to live deeply so our lives are not wasted and when death comes we won’t have any regrets.
There were times during the war in Vietnam when it seemed the violence would never end. Our teams of young social workers labored tirelessly to rebuild villages that had been destroyed by bombs. So many people lost their homes. There was one village near the demilitarized zone that we had to rebuild not only one but two and even three times after repeated bombings. The young people asked, “Should we rebuild? Or should we give up?” Luckily, we were wise enough not to give up. To give up would be to give up on hope.
Suppose someone you love has just said something that has made you angry, and you want to punish them by saying something unkind back. He has dared to make you suffer, and you want to lash back and make him suffer too. You are about to start an argument. But then you remember to close your eyes and contemplate impermanence. You imagine your beloved three hundred years from now. He will be nothing but ash. It may not take three hundred years; perhaps within thirty or fifty years you will both be ash. You suddenly realize how foolish it is to be angry and to argue with each other. Life is so precious.
I don’t exercise to get fit or be healthier; I do it to enjoy being alive.
As I breathe in I say, “Breathing legendary breaths,” and as I breathe out I say, “Living legendary moments,
The insight and discoveries that Lavoisier made in his lifetime continue to resonate to this day. So Lavoisier has not died. His wisdom is still there. He continues in new forms. When we say that nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything transforms, this also applies to your body, your feelings, your perceptions, your mental formations, your consciousness.
We would rather check our phone for messages or watch television, even if we don’t particularly like what is on, because it’s still better than switching off the TV and being confronted with the reality of the other’s presence.
Don’t think that your love has died. The person you fell in love with has not disappeared. They are still there, waiting to be rediscovered.
Many of us do things only for the sake of form. We do things not because we believe it’s important, but because we think others think it’s important. We may even chant or pray or invoke the Buddha’s name because we think it matters to the Buddha, but not because it’s meaningful for us. The same is true with chasing after signs of success, wealth, or status. We may do it, not because we think it’s important, but because we think others expect it of us.
We all know the feeling of being restless. It is the opposite of feeling at ease and comfortable in ourselves; it’s a kind of mental excitement. We cannot be still. We do everything in a hurry, rushing from one thing to the next. Wherever we are, we always think we should be somewhere else. We’re even restless in our sleep. No position of the body feels comfortable. We’re longing for something and craving something, but we don’t know what it is. We open the refrigerator, we check our phone, we pick up a newspaper, we listen to the news—we do everything we can to forget the feeling of loneliness and suffering inside. We may take refuge in our work, not because
We all know the feeling of being restless. It is the opposite of feeling at ease and comfortable in ourselves; it’s a kind of mental excitement. We cannot be still. We do everything in a hurry, rushing from one thing to the next. Wherever we are, we always think we should be somewhere else. We’re even restless in our sleep. No position of the body feels comfortable. We’re longing for something and craving something, but we don’t know what it is. We open the refrigerator, we check our phone, we pick up a newspaper, we listen to the news—we do everything we can to forget the feeling of loneliness and suffering inside.
It is helpful to look honestly at your habit energy. When you turn on the TV, are you sure the program is worth watching? When you reach for some food, is it because you are hungry? What are you running away from? What is it you are really hungry for?
Happiness is not something that arrives in a package in the mail.
When you wake up in the morning, you can choose how you want to start your day. I recommend you start the day smiling.
you are alive and you have twenty-four brand-new hours ahead of you. The new day is a gift of life offered to you. Celebrate it and vow to live it deeply. Vow not to waste it. Every day is filled with
you are alive and you have twenty-four brand-new hours ahead of you. The new day is a gift of life offered to you. Celebrate it and vow to live it deeply. Vow not to waste it. Every day is filled with equally
you are alive and you have twenty-four brand-new hours ahead of you. The new day is a gift of life offered to you. Celebrate it and vow to live it deeply. Vow not to waste it.
There needs to be a revolution, a kind of gentle revolution, a kind of awakening, in each one of us. We need to rebel. We need to declare, “I don’t want to continue like this! This is not a life. I don’t have
There needs to be a revolution, a kind of gentle revolution, a kind of awakening, in each one of us. We need to rebel. We need to declare, “I don’t want to continue like this! This is not a life. I don’t have enough time to live. I don’t have enough time to love.”