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A Look Filled With Understanding, An Accepting Smile, A Loving Word, A Meal Shared In Warmth And Awareness Are The Things Which Create Happiness In The Present Moment. By Nourishing Awareness In The Present Moment, You Can Avoid Causing Suffering To Yourself And Those Around You. The Way You Look At Others, Your Smile, And Your Small Acts Of Caring Can Create Happiness. True Happiness Does Not Depend On Wealth Or Fame.

-Nhat Hanh

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A Look Filled With

Nhat Hanh

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A Look Filled With Understanding, An Accepting Smile, A Loving Word, A Meal Shared In Warmth And Awareness Are The Things Which Create Happiness In The Present Moment. By Nourishing Awareness In The Present Moment, You Can Avoid Causing Suffering To Yourself And Those Around You. The Way You Look At Others, Your Smile, And Your Small Acts Of Caring Can Create Happiness. True Happiness Does Not Depend On Wealth Or Fame.

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If You're A Politician, You Might Want To Learn The Buddhist Way Of Negotiation. Restoring Communication And Bringing Back Reconciliation Is Clear And Concrete In Buddhism.

A Human Being Is Like A Television Set With Millions Of Channels.... We Cannot Let Just One Channel Dominate Us. We Have The Seed Of Everything In Us, And We Have To Recover Our Own Sovereignty.

Awareness Is Like The Sun. When It Shines On Things, They Are Transformed.

Live In The Moment

We Try To Live Every Moment Like That, Dwelling Peacefully In The Present Moment, And Respond To Events With Compassion.

Smiling Is Very Important. If We Are Not Able To Smile, Then The World Will Not Have Peace. It Is Not By Going Out For A Demonstration Against Nuclear Missiles That We Can Bring About Peace. It Is With Our Capacity Of Smiling, Breathing, And Being Peace That We Can Make Peace.

Mindful Consumption Is The Object Of This Precept. We Are What We Consume. If We Look Deeply Into The Items That We Consume Every Day, We Will Come To Know Our Own Nature Very Well. We Have To Eat, Drink, Consume, But If We Do It Unmindfully, We May Destroy Our Bodies And Our Consciousness, Showing Ingratitude Toward Our Ancestors, Our Parents, And Future Generations.

Earth Will Be Safe When We Feel In Us Enough Safety.

If You Do Not Know How To Take Care Of Yourself, And The Violence In You, Then You Will Not Be Able To Take Care Of Others. You Must Have Love And Patience Before You Can Truly Listen To Your Partner Or Child. If You Are Irritated You Cannot Listen. You Have To Know How To Breath Mindfully, Embrace Your Irritation And Transform It. Offer Only Understand And Compassion To Your Partner Or Child - This Is The True Practice Of Love.

Life Is Filled With Suffering, But It Is Also Filled With Many Wonders, Like The Blue Sky, The Sunshine, The Eyes Of A Baby. To Suffer Is Not Enough. We Must Also Be In Touch With The Wonders Of Life. They Are Within Us And All Around Us, Everywhere, Any Time.

When You Learn How To Suffer, You Suffer Much Less.

The Mind Can Go In A Thousand Directions, But On This Beautiful Path, I Walk In Peace. With Each Step, The Wind Blows. With Each Step, A Flower Blooms.

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.

Walking Meditation

Today Is The Most Important Day Of Our Lives.

Guarding Knowledge Is Not A Good Way To Understand. Understanding Means To Throw Away Your Knowledge. You Have To Be Able To Transcend Your Knowledge The Way People Climb A Ladder. If You Are On The Fifth Step Of A Ladder And Think That You Are Very High, There Is No Hope For You To Climb To The Sixth.

You Must Be Completely Awake In The Present To Enjoy The Tea.

There Is A Time For Everything. There Is A Time When I Sit Down, I Concentrate Myself On The Problem Of My Bills, But I Would Not Worry Before That. One Thing At A Time.

One Buddha Is Not Enough; We Need To Have Many Buddhas.

As You Walk, You Touch The Ground Mindfully, And Every Step Can Bring You Solidity And Joy And Freedom. Freedom From Your Regret Concerning The Past, And Freedom From Your Fear About The Future.

Your Breathing Should Flow Gracefully, Like A River, Like A Watersnake Crossing The Water, And Not Like A Chain Of Rugged Mountains Or The Gallop Of A Horse. To Master Our Breath Is To Be In Control Of Our Bodies And Minds. Each Time We Find Ourselves Dispersed And Find It Difficult To Gain Control Of Ourselves By Different Means, The Method Of Watching The Breath Should Always Be Used.

Every Morning, When We Wake Up, We Have Twenty-four Brand-new Hours To Live. What A Precious Gift! We Have The Capacity To Live In A Way That These Twenty-four Hours Will Bring Peace, Joy, And Happiness To Ourselves And Others.

Birth Is Okay And Death Is Okay, If We Know That They Are Only Concepts In Our Mind. Reality Transcends Both Birth And Death.

The Miracle Is Not To Walk On Water, Or In The Air, Or On Burning Charcoal. The Miracle Is To Walk On Earth. You Breathe In, You Become Aware Of The Fact That You Are Alive. You Are Alive And You Are Walking On This Beautiful Planet. The Greatest Of Of All Miracles Is To Be Alive.

To Take Care Of The Environment, We Must First Take Care Of The Environmentalist.

You Do Not Suffer Because Things Are Impermanent. You Suffer Because Things Are Impermanent And You Think They Are Permanent.

Through Your Love For Each Other, Through Learning The Art Of Making One Person Happy, You Learn To Express Your Love For The Whole Of Humanity And All Beings. Please Help Us Develop The Curriculum For The Institute For The Happiness Of One Person. Don't Wait Until We Open The School. You Can Begin Practicing Right Away.

If You Are Motivated By Loving Kindness And Compassion, There Are Many Ways To Bring Happiness To Others Right Now, Starting With Kind Speech.

Seeds Can Produce Seeds Seeds Can Produce Formations. Formations Can Produce Seeds. Formations Can Produce Formations.

Be Peace, Don't Just Talk About It.

But If We Have The Energy Of Compassion And Loving Kindness In Us, The People Around Us Will Be Influenced By Our Way Of Being And Living.

Each Second Of Life Is A Miracle

Many People Are Alive But Don't Touch The Miracle Of Being Alive.

Choose To Be In Touch With What Is Wonderful, Refreshing, And Healing Within Yourself And Around You.

If Every Day You Practice Walking And Sitting Meditation And Generate The Energy Of Mindfulness And Concentration And Peace, You Are A Cell In The Body Of The New Buddha. This Is Not A Dream But Is Possible Today And Tomorrow.

Anxiety Is The Illness Of Our Age. We Worry About Ourselves, Our Family, Our Friends, Our Work, And Our State Of The World. If We Allow Worry To Fill Our Hearts, Sooner Or Later We Will Get Sick.

Harm No Person, Animal, Plant Or Mineral.

Mindfulness Is Like That—it Is The Miracle Which Can Call Back In A Flash Our Dispersed Mind And Restore It To Wholeness So That We Can Live Each Minute Of Life.

Contemplate To See That Awakened People, While Not Being Enslaved By The Work Of Serving Living Beings, Never Abandon Their Work Of Serving Living Beings.

The Larger Your Beloved Community, The More You Can Accomplish In The World.

Beloved Community

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We Ourselves Need Love; It's Not Only Society, The World Outside, That Needs Love. But We Can't Expect That Love To Come From Outside Of Us. We Should Ask The Question Whether We Are Capable Of Loving Ourselves As Well As Others.

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Feelings Come And Go Like Clouds In A Windy Sky. Conscious Breathing Is My Anchor.

Walking Meditation

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Every Morning, When We Wake Up, We Have Twenty-four Brand-new Hours To Live. What A Precious Gift!

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Transformations Is The Word. We Can Do The Work Of Transformation Only In The Present Moment

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We Fear That This Moment Will End, That We Won't Get What We Need, That We Will Lose What We Love, Or That We Will Not Be Safe. Often, Our Biggest Fear Is The Knowledge That One Day Our Bodies Will Cease Functioning. So Even When We Are Surrounded By All The Conditions For Happiness, Our Joy Is Not Complete.

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To Abandon The Present In Order To Look For Things In The Future Is To Throw Away The Substance And Hold Onto The Shadow.

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To Live In The Present Moment Is A Miracle. The Miracle Is Not To Walk On Water. The Miracle Is To Walk On The Green Earth In The Present Moment, To Appreciate The Peace And Beauty That Are Available Now.

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We Have To Look Deeply At Things In Order To See. When A Swimmer Enjoys The Clear Water Of The River, He Or She Should Also Be Able To Be The River.

Meditation Is Not To Get Out Of Society, To Escape From Society, But To Prepare For A Reentery Into Society.

I Vow To Live Fully In Each Moment.

Morning Inspirational

We Can Smile, Breathe, Walk, And Eat Our Meals In A Way That Allows Us To Be In Touch With The Abundance Of Happiness That Is Available. 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, The Only Moment There Is For Us To Be Alive. Every Breath We Take, Every Step We Make, Can Be Filled With Peace, Joy, And Serenity. We Need Only To Be Awake, Alive In The Present Moment.

Deep Listening Is The Kind Of Listening That Can Help Relieve The Suffering Of Another Person. You Can Call It Compassionate Listening. You Listen With Only One Purpose: To Help Him Or Her To Empty His Heart.

One Hour Of Compassionate Deep Listening Can Bring About Transformation And Healing.

Our Notions About Happiness Entrap Us. We Forget That They Are Just Ideas. Our Idea Of Happiness Can Prevent Us From Actually Being Happy. We Fail To See The Opportunity For Joy That Is Right In Front Of Us When We Are Caught In A Belief That Happiness Should Take A Particular Form.

Breathing In, I Am Aware Of My Heart. Breathing Out, I Smile To My Heart And Know That My Heart Still Functions Normally. I Feel Grateful For My Heart.

Wherever We Are We Have The Capacity To Enjoy The Sunshine, The Presence Of Each Other And The Wonder Of Our Breathing.

Drink Your Tea Slowly And Reverently, As If It Is The Axis On Which The World Earth Revolves - Slowly, Evenly, Without Rushing Toward The Future.

In True Love, You Attain Freedom.

Personal Growth

We Have To Continue To Learn. We Have To Be Open. And We Have To Be Ready To Release Our Knowledge In Order To Come To A Higher Understanding Of Reality.

No One Is More Worthy Of Your Kindness And Compassion Than You Are.

Do Not Avoid Contact With Suffering Or Close Your Eyes Before Suffering. Do Not Lose Awareness Of The Existence Of Suffering In The Life Of The World. Find Ways To Be With Those Who Are Suffering By All Means, Including Personal Contact And Visits, Images, Sounds. By Such Means, Awaken Yourself And Others To The Reality Of Suffering In The World.

The Electron Is First Of All Your Concept Of The Electron.

The Joy Of Life Is Born Of Concentration. When You Are Having A Cup Of Tea, The Value Of That Experience Depends On Your Concentration. You Have To Drink The Tea With 100 Percent Of Your Concentration.

Peace In Ourselves, Peace In The World.

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.

It Is Not Impermanence That Makes Us Suffer. What Makes Us Suffer Is Wanting Things To Be Permanent When They Are Not.

Anyone Who Is Practicing Understanding And Compassion Can Exemplify True Power. Anyone Can Be A Buddha.

I Think, Therefore I Am ... Not Here.

If You Suffer And Make Your Loved Ones Suffer, There Is Nothing That Can Justify Your Desire.

If You Have A Friend Who Suffers, You Have To Help Him.«my Dear Friend, You Are On Safe Ground. Everything Is Okay Now. Why Do You Continue To Suffer? Don't Go Back To The Past. It's Only A Ghost; It's Unreal». And Whenever We Recognize That These Are Only Movies And Pictures, Not Reality, We Are Free. That Is The Practice Of Mindfulness.

Happiness Is Not An Individual Matter.

We Have To Learn To Die In Every Moment In Order To Be Fully Alive.

I Clean This Teapot With The Kind Of Attention I Would Have Were I Giving The Baby Buddha Or Jesus A Bath.

'emptiness' Means Empty Of A Separate Self. It Is Full Of Everything, Full Of Life. The Word Emptiness Should Not Scare Us. It Is A Wonderful Word. To Be Empty Does Not Mean Non-existent. Emptiness Is The Ground Of Everything. Thanks To Emptiness, Everything Is Possible.

To Live In The Present Moment Is A Miracle.

Live In The Present

Deep Listening Helps Us To Recognize The Existence Of Wrong Perceptions In The Other Person And Wrong Perceptions In Us.

In Buddhism, There Are Three Gems: Buddha, The Awakened One; Dharma, The Way Of Understanding And Loving; And Sangha, The Community That Lives In Harmony And Awareness. The Three Are Interrelated, And At Times It Is Hard To Distinguish One From Another. In Everyone There Is The Capacity To Wake Up, To Understand, And To Love. So In Ourselves We Find Buddha, And We Also Find Dharma And Sangha.

Recognize That It Is Not Really Possible To Steadily Help Others When We Ourselves Are Not In Good Physical, Mental, Or Emotional State. We May Be Able To Carry On For A While, But Sooner Or Later We End Up Feeling Depleted, Discouraged, Or Weak. We Cannot Keep On Giving When We Are Running On An Empty Tank. We Need To Be Solid.

Love Doesn't Have Any Color. Other People May Discriminate Against Us, But What Is More Important Is Whether We Discriminate Against Them. If We Don't Do That, We Are A Happier Person, And As A Happier Person, We Are In A Position To Help. And Anger, This Is Not A Help.

Letting Go Gives Us Freedom, And Freedom Is The Only Condition For Happiness. If, In Our Heart, We Still Cling To Anything - Anger, Anxiety, Or Possessions - We Cannot Be Free.

The Other Person Has Wrong Perceptions About Himself And About Us. And We Have Wrong Perceptions About Ourselves And The Other Person. And That Is The Foundation For Violence And Conflict And War.

Be Angry, It's Okay. To Be Angry, That Is Very Human. And To Learn How To Smile At Your Anger And Make Peace With Your Anger Is Very Nice.

Don't Think You Have To Be Solemn To Meditate. To Meditate, Well, You Have To Smile A Lot.

‎we Have A Lamp Inside Us. The Oil Of That Lamp Is Our Breathing, Our Steps, And Our Peaceful Smile. Our Practice Is To Light Up The Lamp.

I Hold My Face In My Two Hands. No, I Am Not Crying. I Hold My Face In My Two Hands To Keep The Loneliness Warm - Two Hands Protecting, Two Hands Nourishing, Two Hands Preventing My Soul From Leaving Me In Anger.

In True Dialogue, Both Sides Are Willing To Change.

In Buddhism, We Speak Of Touching Nirvana With Our Own Body, In Christianity, You Can Also Touch The Kingdom Of God With Your Body, Right Here And Now. It Is Much Safer Than Placing Our Hope In The Future. If We Cling To The Idea Of Hope In The Future, We Might Not Notice The Peace And Joy That Are Available In The Present Moment. The Best Way To Take Care Of The Future Is To Take Care Of The Present Moment.

The Problem That Faces Us Is The Problem Of Awakening. What We Lack Is Not An Ideology Or Doctrine That Will Save The World. What We Lack Is Mindfulness Of What We Are, Of What Our Situation Really Is. We Need To Wake Up In Order To Rediscover Our Human Sovereignty. We Are Riding A Horse That Is Running Out Of Control. The Way Of Salvation Is A New Culture In Which Human Beings Are Encouraged To Rediscover Their Deepest Nature.

When We Look Deeply Into The Heart Of A Flower, We See Clouds, Sunshine, Minerals, Time, The Earth, And Everything Else In The Cosmos In It. Without Clouds There Could Be No Rain, And Without Rain There Would Be No Flower.

You Must Love In Such A Way That The Person You Love Feels Free.

Positive Thinking

Nonviolent Action, Born Of The Awareness Of Suffering And Nurtured By Love, Is The Most Effective Way To Confront Adversity.

Usually When We Hear Or Read Something New, We Just Compare It To Our Own Ideas. If It Is The Same, We Accept It And Say That It Is Correct. If It Is Not, We Say It Is Incorrect. In Either Case, We Learn Nothing.

Understanding And Love Are Not Two Separate Things, But Just One. To Develop Understanding, You Have To Practice Looking At All Living Beings With The Eyes Of Compassion. When You Understand, You Cannot Help But Love. And When You Love, You Naturally Act In A Way That Can Relieve The Suffering Of People.

Civilisations Have Been Destroyed Many Times, And This Civilisation Is No Different. It Can Be Destroyed. We Can Think Of Time In Terms Of Millions Of Years And Life Will Resume Little By Little. The Cosmos Operates For Us Very Urgently, But Geological Time Is Different.

Dealing With Our Overweight - Or With Any Of Our Life's Difficulties, For That Matter - Is Not A Battle To Be Fought. Instead, We Must Learn How To Make Friends With Our Hardships And Challenges. They Are There To Help Us; They Are Natural Opportunities For Deeper Understanding And Transformation, Brining Us More Joy And Peace As We Learn To Work With Them.

Simple Practices Like Conscious Breathing And Smiling Are Very Important. They Can Change Our Civilization.

When Your Mind Is Liberated, Your Heart Floods With Compassion.

When You Sit In A Café, With A Lot Of Music In The Background And A Lot Of Projects In Your Head, You're Not Really Drinking Your Coffee Or Your Tea. You're Drinking Your Projects, You're Drinking Your Worries. You Are Not Real, And The Coffee Is Not Real Either. Your Coffee Can Only Reveal Itself To You As A Reality When You Go Back To Your Self And Produce Your True Presence, Freeing Yourself From The Past, The Future, And From Your Worries. When You Are Real, The Tea Also Becomes Real And The Encounter Between You And The Tea Is Real. This Is Genuine Tea Drinking.

When We Have Peace, Then We Have A Chance To Save The Planet. But If We Are Not United In Peace, If We Do Not Practice Mindful Consumption, We Cannot Save Our Planet.

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.

You Only Need To Walk In Mindfulness, Making Peaceful, Happy Steps On Our Planet. Breathe Deeply, And Enjoy Your Breathing. Be Aware That The Sky Is Blue And The Birds' Songs Are Beautiful. Enjoy Being Alive And You Will Help The Living Christ And The Living Buddha Continue For A Long, Long Time.

Contemplating The Bowl, It Is Possible To See The Interdependent Elements Which Give Rise To The Bowl.

Today, You Can Decide To Walk In Freedom. You Can Choose To Walk Differently. You Can Walk As A Free Person, Enjoying Every Step.

Eating Mindfully Is A Most Important Practice Of Meditation. We Can Eat In A Way That We Restore The Cookie Of Our Childhood. The Present Moment Is Filled With Joy And Happiness. If You Are Attentive, You Will See It.

There Are Some People Who Eat An Orange But Don't Really Eat It. They Eat Their Sorrow, Fear, Anger, Past, And Future.

Walk As If You Are Kissing The Earth With Your Feet.

To Be A Monk Is To Have Time To Practice For Your Transformation And Healing. And After That To Help With The Transformation And Healing Of Other People.

Each Time You Look At A Tangerine, You Can See Deeply Into It. You Can See Everything In The Universe In One Tangerine. When You Peel It And Smell It, It’s Wonderful. You Can Take Your Time Eating A Tangerine And Be Very Happy.

Live The Actual Moment. Only This Moment Is Life.

Live In The Moment

We Are Always Running, And It Has Become A Habit. We Struggle All The Time, Even During Our Sleep. We Are At War With Ourselves, And We Can Easily Start A War With Others.

We Can Help Many People Suffer Less And Realize A Lot Of Happiness Without Being Rich Or Influential. If Love And Compassion Are In Out Hearts, Every Thought, Word, And Deed Can Bring About A Miracle

The Kingdom Of God Is Available To You In The Here And The Now. But The Question Is Whether You Are Available To The Kingdom. Our Practice Is To Make Ourselves Ready For The Kingdom So That It Can Manifest In The Here And The Now. You Don't Need To Die In Order To Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven. In Fact, You Have To Be Truly Alive In Order To Do So.

Compassion Is A Verb.

There Is No Way To Happiness - Happiness Is The Way.

When We Enter The Present Moment Deeply, Our Regrets And Sorrows Disappear, And We Discover Life With All Its Wonders.

There Are Many Levels Of Christianity. There Are Many Notions About God. To Believe That God Is A Person Is Just One Of The Notions Of God That You Can Find In Christianity. So, We Should Not Say That There Is One Christianity. There Are Many Christianities.

When You Have A Stomach Ache You Don't Tell Your Stomach To Go Away.

Peace Is Present Right Here And Now, In Ourselves And In Everything.

Peace And Serenity

Peace Is Every Step

If We Are Not Empty, We Become A Block Of Matter. We Cannot Breathe, We Cannot Think. To Be Empty Means To Be Alive, To Breathe In And To Breathe Out. We Cannot Be Alive If We Are Not Empty. Emptiness Is Impermanence, It Is Change. We Should Not Complain About Impermanence, Because Without Impermanence, Nothing Is Possible.

Sometimes Your Joy Is The Source Of Your Smile, But Sometimes Your Smile Can Be The Source Of Your Joy.

If You Are Capable Of Brushing Your Teeth In Mindfulness, Then You Will Be Able To Enjoy The Time When You Take A Shower, Cook Your Breakfast, Sip Your Tea.

Buddhism Teaches Us Not To Try To Run Away From Suffering. You Have To Confront Suffering. You Have To Look Deeply Into The Nature Of Suffering In Order To Recognize Its Cause, The Making Of The Suffering.

The Energy Of Compassion Is Very Strong. We Suffer. That Is Real. But We Have Learned Not To Get Angry And Not To Allow Ourselves To Be Carried By Anger. We Realize Right Away That That Is Fear. That Is Corruption.

Breathe In Deeply To Bring Your Mind Home To Your Body. Then Look At, Or Think Of, The Person Triggering This Emotion: With Mindfulness, You Can See That She Is Unhappy, That She Is Suffering. You Can See Her Wrong Perceptions. You Can See That She Is Not Beautiful When She Says Things That Are Unkind.

The Problem Is Whether We Are Determined To Go In The Direction Of Compassion Or Not. If We Are, Then Can We Reduce The Suffering To A Minimum? If I Lose My Direction, I Have To Look For The North Star, And I Go To The North. That Does Not Mean I Expect To Arrive At The North Star. I Just Want To Go In That Direction.

The Only Answer To Fear Is More Understanding. And There Is No Understanding If There Is No Effort To Look More Deeply To See What Is There In Our Heart And In The Heart Of The Other Person.

Words Can Travel Thousands Of Miles. May My Words Create Mutual Understanding And Love. May They Be As Beautiful As Gems, As Lovely As Flowers.

Looking Deeply Into The Wrong Perceptions, Ideas, And Notions That Are At The Base Of Our Suffering Is The Most Important Practice In Buddhist Meditation.

When You Are A Young Person, You Are Like A Young Creek, And You Meet Many Rocks, Many Obstacles And Difficulties On Your Way. You Hurry To Get Past These Obstacles And Get To The Ocean. But As The Creek Moves Down Through The Fields, It Becomes Larges And Calmer And It Can Enjoy The Reflection Of The Sky. It's Wonderful. You Will Arrive At The Sea Anyway So Enjoy The Journey. Enjoy The Sunshine, The Sunset, The Moon, The Birds, The Trees, And The Many Beauties Along The Way. Taste Every Moment Of Your Daily Life.

Tolerance And Tranquility Are Two Characteristics Of True Love.

Happiness Is Not An Individual Matter. When You Are Able To Bring Relief, Or Bring Back The Smile To One Person, Not Only That Person Profits, But You Also Profit.

The Seed Of Suffering In You May Be Strong, But Don't Wait Until You Have No More Suffering Before Allowing Yourself To Be Happy.

To Be Free, First Of All, Is To Be Free From Wrong Views That Are The Foundation Of All Kinds Of Suffering And Fear And Violence.

The Seven Factors Of Awakening Are Mindfulness, Investigation Of Phenomena, Diligence, Joy, Ease, Concentration, And Letting Go.

Preventing War Is Much Better Than Protesting Against The War. Protesting The War Is Too Late.

If You Love Someone But Rarely Make Yourself Available To Him Or Her, That Is Not True Love.

When You Feel Anger Arising, Remember To Return To Your Breathing And Follow It. The Other Person May See That You Are Practicing, And She May Even Apologize.

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.

There Is The Mud, And There Is The Lotus That Grows Out Of The Mud. We Need The Mud In Order To Make The Lotus.

What You Are Looking For Is Already In You...you Already Are Everything You Are Seeking.

Loving Ourselves Means Loving Our Community. When We Are Capable Of Loving Ourselves, Nourishing Ourselves Properly, Not Intoxicating Ourselves, We Are Already Protecting And Nourishing Society.

In The Past There Were People Who Were Not Rich But Contented With Their Living Style, Laughing And Happy All Day. But When The New Rich People Appear, People Look At Them And Ask Why Don't I Have A Life Like That Too, A Beautiful House, Car And Garden And They Abandon Their Values.

You Are Not An Observer, You Are A Participant.

I Have Arrived. I Am Home. My Destination Is In Each Step.

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.

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.

When You Drop Bombs On The Enemy, You Drop Those Same Bombs On Yourself, Your Own Country.

When We Recognise The Virtues, The Talent, The Beauty Of Mother Earth, Something Is Born In Us, Some Kind Of Connection; Love Is Born.

Go Back To The Breathing And Try To Be In That Moment Deeply. Because There Is A Possibility To Handle Every Kind Of Event And The Essential Is To Keep The Peace In Yourself.

At The Moment Of Waking Up, Before Getting Out Of Bed, Get In Touch With Your Breath

The Teachings On Love Given By The Buddha Are Clear, Scientific, And Applicable... Love, Compassion, Joy, And Equanimity Are The Very Nature Of An Enlightened Person. They Are The Four Aspects Of True Love Within Ourselves And Within Everyone And Everything.

It Is Said That God Has Created Man In His Own Image. But It May Be That Humankind Has Created God In The Image Of Humankind.

We Need To Move Beyond The Idea Of 'environment' And Fall Back In Love With Mother Earth.

The Only Way To Ease Our Fear And Be Truly Happy Is To Acknowledge Our Fear And Look Deeply At Its Source. Instead Of Trying To Escape From Our Fear, We Can Invite It Up To Our Awareness And Look At It Clearly And Deeply.

When You Understand The Roots Of Anger In Yourself And In The Other, Your Mind Will Enjoy True Peace, Joy And Lightness

What Happens In The Present Moment? In The Present Moment, You Are Producing Thought, Speech, And Action. And They Continue In The World.

Smile, Breathe And Go Slowly." - Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Monk, Author And Peace Activist.

Changing Is Not Just Changing The Things Outside Of Us. First Of All We Need The Right View That Transcends All Notions Including Of Being And Non-being, Creator And Creature, Mind And Spirit. That Kind Of Insight Is Crucial For Transformation And Healing.

To Make Your Voice Heard Is Difficult. Sometimes We Have To Burn Ourselves In Order To Be Heard. It Is Out Of Compassion That You Do That. It Is The Act Of Love And Not Of Despair.

It Is Difficult To Explain To Children In The "overdeveloped" Nations That Not All Children In The World Have Such Beautiful And Nourishing Food. Awareness Of This Fact Alone Can Help Us Overcome Many Of Our Own Psychological Pains. Eventually Our Contemplation Can Help Us See How To Assist Those Who Need Our Help So Much.

There Are Always Some People Who Are Ready To Embrace A Doctrine, A Notion, A Dogma, And They Miss The Real Teaching.

Silence Is Essential For Deep Transformation. It Allows The Practice Of Conscious Breathing To Become Deep And Effective. Like Still Water That Reflects Things As They Are, The Calming Silence Helps Us To See Things More Clearly, And Therefore, To Be In Deeper Contact With Ourselves And Those Around Us.

When You Look At The Sun During Your Walking Meditation, The Mindfulness Of The Body Helps You To See That The Sun Is In You; Without The Sun There Is No Life At All And Suddenly You Get In Touch With The Sun In A Different Way.

To Be Spiritual Means To Be Solid, Calm, And Peaceful And To Be Able To Look Deeply Inside And Around Us.

If We Are Not Fully Ourselves, Truly In The Present Moment, We Miss Everything. When A Child Presents Himself To You With His Smile, If You Are Not Really There - Thinking About The Future Or The Past, Or Preoccupied With Other Problems - Then The Child Is Not Really There For You. The Technique Of Being Alive Is To Go Back To Yourself In Order For The Child To Appear Like A Marvellous Reality. Then You Can See Him Smile And You Can Embrace Him In Your Arms.

If You Can Feel That Mother Earth Is In You, And You Are Mother Earth, Then You Are Not Any Longer Afraid To Die Because The Earth Is Not Dying. Like A Wave Appears And Disappears And Appears Again.

We Try Many Ways To Be Awake, But Our Society Still Keeps Us Forgetful. Meditation Is To Help Us Remember.

We Are Often Sad And Suffer A Lot When Things Change, But Change And Impermanence Have A Positive Side. Thanks To Impermanence, Everything Is Possible. Life Itself Is Possible... If Your Daughter Is Not Impermanent, She Cannot Grow Up To Become A Woman. Then Your Grandchildren Would Never Manifest.

It Is Best If We Do Not Listen To Or Look At The Person Whom We Consider To Be The Cause Of Our Anger. Like A Fireman, We Have To Pour Water On The Blaze First And Not Waste Time Looking For The One Who Set The House On Fire. "breathing In, I Know That I Am Angry. Breathing Out, I Know That I Must Put All My Energy Into Caring For My Anger." So We Avoid Thinking About The Other Person, And We Refrain From Doing Or Saying Anything As Long As Our Anger Persists. If We Put All Our Mind Into Observing Our Anger, We Will Avoid Doing Any Damage That We May Regret Later.

It Is Often Said That The Buddha's Teaching Is Only A Raft To Help You Cross The River, A Finger Pointing To The Moon. Don't Maistake The Finger For The Moon. The Raft Is Not The Shore. If We Cling To The Raft, If We Cling To The Finger, We Miss Everything. We Cannot, In The Name Of The Finger Or The Raft Kill Each Other. Human Life Is More Precious Than Any Ideology, Any Doctrine.

Most Of Us Experience A Life Full Of Wonderful Moments And Difficult Moments. But For Many Of Us, Even When We Are Most Joyful, There Is Fear Behind Our Joy.

When We Come To The Table, We Shouldn't Negotiate Right Away. We Should Spend Time Walking Together, Eating Together, Making Acquaintance, Telling Each Other About Our Own Suffering, Without Blame Or Condemnation. It Takes Maybe One, Two, Three Weeks To Do That. And If Communication And Understanding Are Possible, Negotiation Will Be Easier. So If I Am To Organize A Peace Negotiation, I Will Organize It In That Way.

Eating Together

There Is No Birth, There Is No Death; There Is No Coming, There Is No Going; There Is No Same, There Is No Different; There Is No Permanent Self, There Is No Annihilation. We Only Think There Is.

Our Joy, Peace And Happiness Depend Very Much On Our Practice Of Recognizing And Transforming Habit Energies. There Are Positive Habit Energies That We Have To Cultivate, And Negative Habit Energies That We Have To Recognize, Embrace And Transform. The Energy With Which We Do These Things Is Mindfulness.

When We Are Mindful, Deeply In Touch With The Present Moment, Our Understanding Of What Is Going On Deepens, And We Begin To Be Filled With Acceptance, Joy, Peace And Love.

Nothing Is More Precious Than Being In The Present Moment. Fully Alive, Fully Aware.

As A Population, If A Large Number Of People Make Even Small Moves To Eat Less Meat And More Plant-based Foods, The Livestock Industry Will Shrink. Over Time, Farmers Will Find Other Crops To Support Their Livelihoods. Through Such Collective Awakening We Can Make A Difference In Our World.

We Need To Be Aware Of The Suffering, But Retain Our Clarity, Calmness And Strength So We Can Help Transform The Situation.

To Think In Terms Of Either Pessimism Or Optimism Oversimplifies The Truth. The Problem Is To See Reality As It Is. A Pessimistic Attitude Can Never Create The Calm And Serene Smile Which Blossoms On The Lips Of Bodhisattvas And All Those Who Obtain The Way.

If I Succeed In Loving You, I Will Be Able To Love Everyone And All Species On Earth... This Is The Real Message Of Love

My Love For You

True Love Always Brings Joy To Ourself And The One We Love. If Our Love Does Not Bring Joy To Both Of Us, It Is Not True Love.

By Eating Meat We Share Responsibility For Causing Climate Change, The Destruction Of Our Forests, And The Poisoning Of Our Air And Water. The Simple Act Of Becoming A Vegetarian Can Make A Difference In The Health Of Our Planet.

When You Say Something Really Unkind, When You Do Something In Retaliation Your Anger Increases. You Make The Other Person Suffer, And He Will Try Hard To Say Or To Do Something Back To Get Relief From His Suffering. That Is How Conflict Escalates.

You Accept That This Civilisation Could Be Abolished And Life Will Begin Later On After A Few Thousand Years Because That Is Something That Has Happened In The History Of This Planet. When You Have Peace In Yourself And Accept, Then You Are Calm Enough To Do Something, But If You Are Carried By Despair There Is No Hope.

We Talk About Social Service, Service To The People, Service To Humanity, Service To Others Who Are Far Away, Helping To Bring Peace To The World - But Often We Forget That It Is The Very People Around Us That We Must Live For First Of All. If You Cannot Serve Your Wife Or Husband Or Child Or Parent - How Are You Going To Serve Society? If You Cannot Make Your Own Child Happy, How Do You Expect To Be Able To Make Anyone Else Happy? If All Our Friends In The Peace Movement Or Of Service Communities Of Any Kind Do Not Love And Help Each Other, Whom Can We Love And Help?

All Violence Is Injustice. Responding To Violence With Violence Is Injustice, Not Only To The Other Person But Also To Oneself. Responding To Violence With Violence Resolves Nothing; It Only Escalates Violence, Anger And Hatred. It Is Only With Compassion That We Can Embrace And Disintegrate Violence. This Is True In Relationships Between Individuals As Well As In Relationships Between Nations.

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