Quotes From "Peace Is Every Step: The Path Of Mindfulness In Everyday Life" By Thich Nhat Hanh

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment. Thich Nhat Hanh

Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word "art". If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don't have to talk about it at all. Thich Nhat Hanh

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

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight. Thich Nhat Hanh

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. We must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations, and suffering of the person we love. This is the ground of real love. You cannot resist loving another person when you really understand him or her. From time to time, sit close to the one you love, hold his or her hand, and ask, 'Darling, do I understand you enough? Or am I making you suffer? Please tell me so that I can learn to love you properly. I don't want to make you suffer, and if I do so because of my ignorance, please tell me so that I can love you better, so that you can be happy." If you say this in a voice that communicates your real openness to understand, the other person may cry. That is a good sign, because it means the door of understanding is opening and everything will be possible again. Maybe a father does not have time or is not brave enough to ask his son such a question. Then the love between them will not be as full as it could be. We need courage to ask these questions, but if we don't ask, the more we love, the more we may destroy the people we are trying to love. True love needs understanding. With understanding, the one we love will certainly flower. Thich Nhat Hanh

The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives –the way we develop our industries, build up our society, and consume goods. Thich Nhat Hanh

Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life. Thich Nhat Hanh

If we are aware of our lifestyle, our way of consuming, of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment we are alive. Thich Nhat Hanh

Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Thich Nhat Hanh

We wanted peace. We did not care about anyone’s victory or defeat. We just wanted the bombs to stop falling on us. Thich Nhat Hanh

When you understand, you cannot help but love. You cannot get angry. Thich Nhat Hanh

Together with the patient, a therapist looks at the nature of the pain. Often, the therapist can uncover causes of suffering that stem from the way the patient looks at things, the beliefs he holds about himself, his culture, and the world. The therapist examines these viewpoints and beliefs with the patient, and together they help free him from the kind of prison he has been in. But the patient’s efforts are crucial. A teacher has to give birth to the teacher within his student, and a psychotherapist has to give birth to the psychotherapist within his patient. The patient’s “internal psychotherapist” can then work full-time in a very effective way. 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

The truth is that everything contains everything else. We cannot just be, we can only inter-be. Thich Nhat Hanh

We need the vision of interbeing–we belong to each other; we cannot cut reality into pieces. The well-being of “this” is the well-being of “that, ” so we have to do things together. Every side is “our side”; there is no evil side. Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindful observation is based on the principle of “non-duality”: our feeling is not separate from us or caused merely by something outside us; our feeling is us, and for the moment we are that feeling. We are neither drowned in nor terrorized by the feeling, nor do we reject it. Our attitude of not clinging to or rejecting our feelings is the attitude of letting go[.] Thich Nhat Hanh

In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route. Thich Nhat Hanh

Western civilization places so much emphasis on the idea of hope that we sacrifice the present moment. Hope is for the future. It cannot help us discover joy, peace, or enlightenment in the present moment. Thich Nhat Hanh

We are too undemanding, too ready to watch whatever is on the screen, too lonely, lazy, or bored to create our own lives. We turn on the TV and leave it on, allowing someone else to guide us[.] Thich Nhat Hanh

Whether we are in the city, the countryside, or the wilderness, we need to sustain ourselves by choosing our surroundings carefully and nourishing our awareness in each moment. 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[.] Thich Nhat Hanh

Practicing mindfulness enables us to become a real person. When we are a real person, we see real people around us, and life is present in all its richness. Thich Nhat Hanh

Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment Thich Nhat Hanh

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions. Thich Nhat Hanh

In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears. Thich Nhat Hanh

I have lost my smile, but don't worry. The dandelion has it. Thich Nhat Hanh