Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh
Thích Nhất Hạnh; born as Nguyen Xuan Bao on October 11, 1926) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. He lives in Plum Village in the Dordogne region in the south of France, travelling internationally to give retreats and talks. He coined the term "Engaged Buddhism" in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. A long-term exile, he was given permission to make his first return trip to Vietnam in 2005...
NationalityVietnamese
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth11 October 1926
CountryVietnam
Nhat Hanh quotes about
- peaceful
- cooperation
- illusion
- done
- world
- unconditional-love
- forbidden-love
- return
- meditation-practice
- anchors
- walking-meditation
- silence
- understanding
- just-listen
- kingdoms
- kingdom-of-god
- available
- buddhism
- acceptance
- deep-love
- community
- meditation
- awakening
- satanic
- personal-growth
- mindfulness
- moments
- peace-is-every-step
- needs
- safe
I do many kinds of work, and if you forbid me from binding books, from gardening, from writing poetry, from practicing walking meditation, from teaching children, I will be very unhappy. To me, work is pleasant. Pleasant or unpleaseant depends on our way of looking.
I am you and you are me; it is obvious we inter-are.
Recently, one friend asked me, "How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn't natural." I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on then we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can not let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty.
In the mountains of wisdom no climbing is in vain.
Knowing that anger makes me ugly, I smile instead. I return to myself and meditate on love.
To make peace, our hearts must be at peace with the world.
When the energy of compassion and love touches us, healing establishes itself.
If things were not impermanent, life would not be possible.
Impermanence is very important, crucial for life. That is why instead of complaining about impermanence you have to say "Long live impermanence!"
Buddhism has to do with your daily life, with your suffering and with the suffering of the people around you.
Real love means loving kindness and compassion, the kind of love that does not have any conditions.
When we eat mindfully, we consume exactly what we need to keep our bodies, our minds, and the Earth healthy. When we practice like this, we reduce suffering for ourselves and for others.
The more we see, the more we understand. The more we understand, the easier it is for us to have compassion and love. Understanding is the source of love. Understanding is love itself. Understanding is another name for love; love is another name for understanding.
We should be able to bring the practice of meditation hall into our daily lives. We need to discuss among ourselves how to do it. Do you practice breathing between phone calls? Do you practice smiling while cutting carrots? Do you practice relaxation after hard hours of work? These are practical questions. If you know how to apply meditation to dinner time, leisure time, sleeping time, it will penetrate your daily life, and it will also have a tremendous effect on social concerns.