11 posts tagged “thich nhat hanh”

If we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.

I remember a short conversation between the Buddha and a philosopher of his time.

I have heard that Buddhism is a doctrine of enlightenment. What is your method? What do you practice every day?

We walk, we eat, we wash ourselves, we sit down.

What is so special about that? Everyone walks, eats, washes, sits down

Sir, when we walk, we are aware that we are walking; when we eat, we are aware that we are eating. When others walk, eat, wash, or sit down, they are generally not aware of what they are doing.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys

Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.

~ 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. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

...has just arrived:

The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Our Spiritual Practice

Thich Nhat Hanh

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When I was four years old, my mother used to bring me a cookie every time she came home from the market. I always went to the front yard and took my time eating it, sometimes half an hour or forty-five minutes for one cookie. I would take a small bite and look up at the sky. Then I would touch the dog with my feet and take another small bite. I just enjoyed being there, with the sky, the earth, the bamboo thickets, the cat, the dog, the flowers. I was able to do that because I did not have much to worry about. I did not think of the future, I did not regret the past. I was entirely in the present moment, with my cookie, the dog, the bamboo thickets, the cat, and everything. It is possible to eat our meals as slowly and joyfully as I ate the cookie of my childhood. Maybe you have the impression that you have lost the cookie of your childhood, but I am sure it is still there, somewhere in your heart. Everything is still there, and if you really want it, you can find it. Eating mindfully is a most important practice of meditation.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book