Background Image

...

Listening Is A Very Deep Practice. You Have To Empty Yourself. You Have To Leave Space In Order To Listen Especially To People We Think Are Our Enemies - The Ones We Believe Are Making Our Situation Worse. When You Have Shown Your Capacity For Listening And Understanding, The Other Person Will Begin To Listen To You, And You Have A Change To Tell Him Or Her Of Your Pain, And It's Your Turn To Be Healed. This Is The Practice Of Peace.

-Nhat Hanh

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Listening Is A Very

Nhat Hanh

...

Listening Is A Very Deep Practice. You Have To Empty Yourself. You Have To Leave Space In Order To Listen Especially To People We Think Are Our Enemies - The Ones We Believe Are Making Our Situation Worse. When You Have Shown Your Capacity For Listening And Understanding, The Other Person Will Begin To Listen To You, And You Have A Change To Tell Him Or Her Of Your Pain, And It's Your Turn To Be Healed. This Is The Practice Of Peace.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Nhat Hanh

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.

The Present Moment Is The Substance With Which The Future Is Made. Therefore, The Best Way To Take Care Of The Future Is To Take Care Of The Present Moment. What Else Can You Do?

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

When We Live In The Spirit Of Gratitude, There Will Be Much Happiness In Our Life. The One Who Is Grateful Is The One Who Has Much Happiness While The One Who Is Ungrateful Will Not Be Able To Have Happiness.

Your True Home Is In The Here And The Now.

Peace Ca N Exist Only In The Present Moment. It Is Rid Iculous To Say "wait Until I Fi Nish This, Then I Will Be Free To Live In Peace." What Is "this" ? A Diploma, A Job, A House, The Payment Of A Debt? If Yo U Th Ink That Way, Peace Wi Ll Never Come. There Is Always Another "th Is" That Wi Ll Fo Llow The Present One. If You Are Not Living In Peace At This Moment, You Will Never Be Able To . If You Truly Wa Nt To Be At Peace, You Must Be At Peace Right Now. Otherwise, There Is Only "the Hope Of Peace Some Day.

Each Moment You Are Alive Is A Gem. It Needs You To Breathe Gently For The Miracles To Be Displayed.

Inspirational Life

Freedom Is The Real Foundation Of Happiness.

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.

Working For Peace In The Future Is To Work For Peace In The Present Moment.

Without Understanding, Your Love Is Not True Love. You Must Look Deeply In Order To See And Understand The Needs, Aspirations, And Suffering Of The One You Love.

We Inter-breath With The Rain Forests, We Drink From The Oceans. They Are Part Of Our Own Body.

Mindfulness Must Be Engaged. Once There Is Seeing, There Must Be Acting. Otherwise, What's The Use Of Seeing?

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

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

Before Practicing Meditation, We See That Mountains Are Mountains. When We Start To Practice, We See That Mountains Are No Longer Mountains. After Practicing A While, We See That Mountains Are Again Mountains. Now The Mountains Are Very Free. Our Mind Is Still With The Mountains, But It Is No Longer Bound To Anything.

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 We Shout At The Oak Tree, The Oak Tree Is Not Offended. When We Praise The Oak Tree, It Doesn't Raise Its Nose. We Can Learn The Dharma From The Oak Tree; Therefore, The Oak Tree Is Part Of Our Dharmakaya. We Can Learn From Everything That Is Around, That Is In Us.

When We Speak, We Want To Say Something Sweet, But We Don't Say Something Sweet Because Something Is Ordering Us From Deep Down To Say Something Unkind. We Want To Open Our Hearts To People, But We Can't Do It, Because We Are Being Ordered Around By The Sufferings We Have Concealed Deep In Our Consciousness.

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.

The Therapist Does Not Treat Patients By Simply Giving Them Another Set Of Beliefs. He Or She Tries To Help Them See Which Kinds Of Ideas And Beliefs Have Led To Their Suffering. Many Patients Want To Get Rid Of Their Painful Feelings, But They Do Not Want To Get Rid Of Their Beliefs, The Viewpoints That Are The Very Roots Of Their Feelings.

Painful Feelings

The Practice Of Zen Is To Eat, Breathe, Cook, Carry Water, And Scrub The Toilet — To Infuse Every Act Of Body, Speech, And Mind — With Mindfulness, To Illuminate Every Leaf And Pebble, Every Heap Of Garbage, Every Path That Leads To Our Mind's Return Home.

If We Can Not Smile, We Cannot Help Other People To Smile.

Do Not Be Idolatrous About Or Bound To Any Doctrine, Theory, Or Ideology, Even Buddhist Ones. All Systems Of Thought Are Guiding Means; They Are Not Absolute Truth.

We Have More Possibilities Available In Each Moment Than We Realize.

Do Not Say That I'll Depart Tomorrow Because Even Today I Still Arrive.

Peace Is Every Step

Leaves Are Usually Looked Upon As The Children Of The Tree. Yes, They Are Children Of The Tree, Born From The Tree, But They Are Also Mothers Of The Tree. The Leaves Combine Raw Sap, Water, And Minerals, With Sunshine And Gas, And Convert It Into A Variegated Sap That Can Nourish The Tree. In This Way, The Leaves Become The Mother Of The Tree. We Are All Children Of Society, But We Are Also Mothers. We Have To Nourish Society. If We Are Uprooted From Society, We Can Not Trasform It Into A More Liveable Place For Us And Our Children.

Happiness Is The Cessation Of Suffering. Well-being.

The War Is In Our Souls.

The Source Of Love Is Deep In Us And We Can Help Others Realize A Lot Of Happiness. One Word, One Action, One Thought Can Reduce Another Person’s Suffering And Bring That Person Joy.

Our Own Lives Are The Instruments With Which We Experiment With Truth.

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.

In Every One Of Us There Are Good Seeds And Bad. We Have The Seed Of Brotherhood, Love, Compassion, Insight. But We Have Also The Seed Of Anger, Hate, Dissent.

We May Think Of Peace As The Absence Of War, That If The Great Powers Would Reduce Their Weapons Arsenals, We Could Have Peace. But If We Look Deeply Into The Weapons, We Will See Our Own Minds - Our Own Prejudices, Fears, And Ignorance.

I Am Determined Not To Kill, Not To Let Others Kill, And Not To Support Any Act Of Killing In The World, In My Thinking, And In My Way Of Life

When You Love Someone, You Want To Share Everything With Him Or Her. So It Is Your Duty To Say, "i Suffer And I Want You To Know" - And He Will, She Will, Appreciate It.

When You Love Someone

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.

Those Who Are Without Compassion Cannot See What Is Seen With The Eyes Of Compassion.

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.

Breathe And You Dwell In The Here And Now, Breath And You See Impermanence Is Life.

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.

If The People Who Hurt Us Have Anger Or Desperation Within Them Then They Suffer. When You See That Someone Suffers, You Might Be Motivated By A Desire To Help Him Not To Suffer Anymore.

Your Presence Is A Miracle.

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."

A Real Love Letter Is Made Of Insight, Understanding, And Compassion. Otherwise It's Not A Love Letter. A True Love Letter Can Produce A Transformation In The Other Person, And Therefore In The World. But Before It Produces A Transformation In The Other Person, It Has To Produce A Transformation Within Us. Some Letters May Take The Whole Of Our Lifetime To Write.

There Is A Paradise Of Form And Colors In The World. And Because You Have Eyes Still In Good Condition, You Can Get In Touch With The Paradise. So When I Become Aware Of My Eyes, I Touch One Of The Conditions Of Happiness. And When I Touch It, Happiness Comes.

The Root-word "buddha" Means To Wake Up, To Know, To Understand; And He Or She Who Wakes Up And Understands Is Call A Buddha. It Is As Simple As That. The Capacity To Wake Up, To Understand, And To Love Is Called Buddha Nature.

Anger And Hatred Are The Materials From Which Hell Is Made.

Walk So That Your Footprints Bear Only The Marks Of Peaceful Joy And Complete Freedom. To Do This You Have To Learn To Let Go. Let Go Of Your Sorrows, Let Go Of Your Worries. That Is The Secret Of Walking Meditation.

Walking Meditation

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.

In Our Consciousness, There Are Many Negative Seeds And Also Many Positive Seeds. The Practice Is To Avoid Watering The Negative Seeds, And To Identify And Water The Positive Seeds Every Day.

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.

Fear Keeps Us Focused On The Past Or Worried About The Future. If We Can Acknowledge Our Fear, We Can Realize That Right Now We Are Okay. Right Now, Today, We Are Still Alive, And Our Bodies Are Working Marvelously. Our Eyes Can Still See The Beautiful Sky. Our Ears Can Still Hear The Voices Of Our Loved Ones.

Reconciliation Is A Deep Practice That We Can Do With Our Listening And Our Mindful Speech. To Reconcile Means To Bring Peace And Happiness To Nations, People, And Members Of Our Family.... In Order To Reconcile, You Have To Possess The Art Of Deep Listening.

The Reason We Might Lose Love Is Because We Are Always Looking Outside Of Us, Thinking That The Object Or Action Of Love Is Out There. That Is Why We Allow The Love, The Harmony, The Mature Understanding, To Slip Away From Ourselves.

A Smile Can Change The Situation Of The World.

Compassion Is Our Most Important Practice. Understanding Brings Compassion. Understanding The Suffering That Living Beings Undergo Helps Liberate The Energy Of Compassion. And With That Energy You Know What To Do.

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

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

Even If You Only Stop And Focus On Your Breathing For A Few Breaths, Or For A Minute Or Two, Its Very Valuable.

To Meditate Is To Be Aware Of What Is Going On - In Our Bodies, Our Feelings Our Minds, And In The World. When We Settle Into The Present Moment, We Can See The Beauties And Wonders Before Our Eyes.

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.

If We Do Not Know How To Take Care Of Ourselves And To Love Ourselves, We Cannot Take Care Of The People We Love. Loving Oneself Is The Foundation For Loving Another Person.

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.

Sometimes We Believe That Happiness Is Not Possible In The Here And Now, That We Need A Few More Conditions To Be Happy. So We Run Toward The Future To Get The Conditions We Think Are Missing. But By Doing So We Sacrifice The Present Moment; We Sacrifice True Life.

True Self Is Non-self, The Awareness That The Self Is Made Only Of Non-self Elements. There's No Separation Between Self And Other, And Everything Is Interconnected. Once You Are Aware Of That You Are No Longer Caught In The Idea That You Are A Separate Entity.

Many Communist Government Officials Have A Rigid, Dictatorial Power, But They Live In Constant Suspicion And Fear Of Anything That Might Undermine The Power They Have.

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.

What We Most Need To Do Is To Hear Within Us The Sound Of The Earth Crying.

By Living Deeply In The Present Moment We Can Understand The Past Better & Prepare For A Better Future.

People Have A Hard Time Letting Go Of Their Suffering. Out Of A Fear Of The Unknown, They Prefer Suffering That Is Familiar.

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

We Have To Understand In Order To Be Of Help. We All Have Pain, But We Tend To Suppress It, Because We Don't Want It To Come Up To Our Living Room. The Most Important Thing Is That We Need To Be Understood. We Need Someone To Be Able To Listen To Us And To Understand Us, Then We Will Suffer Less, But Everyone Is Suffering, And No One Wants To Listen. We Don't Know How To Express Ourselves So That People Can Understand. Because We Suffer So Much, The Way We Express Our Pain Hurts Other People, And They Don't Want To Listen.

The Present Moment Is Filled With Joy And Happiness. If You Are Attentive, You Will See It. (21)

Survival Means The Survival Of Human Kind As A Whole, Not Just A Part Of It. If The South Cannot Survive, Then The North Is Going To Crumble. If Countries Of Third World Cannot Pay Their Debts, You Are Going To Suffer Here In The North. If You Do Not Take Care Of The Third World, Your Well-being Is Not Going To Last, And You Will Not Be Able To Continue Living In The Way You Have Been Much Longer. It Is Leaping Out At Us Already. You Cannot Leave The Job To The Governments Or The Political Scientists Alone. You Have To Do It Yourself.

We Have To Have Loving Speech. And If We Are Honest, If We Are True, Terrorists Will Open Their Hearts. Then We Practice Compassionate Listening, And We Can Learn So Much About Our Own Perception And Their Perception. Only After That Can We Help Remove Wrong Perception. That Is The Best Way, The Only Way, To Remove Terrorism.

You Have To Do It By Yourself. You Can Not Do It Alone.

I Am You And You Are Me; It Is Obvious We Inter-are.

Waking Up This Morning, I Smile. Twenty-four Brand New Hours Are Before Me. I Vow To Live Fully In Each Moment And To Look At All Beings With Eyes Of Compassion.

If You Are A Poet, You Will See Clearly That There Is A Cloud Floating In This Sheet Of Paper? ?to Be? Is To Inter-be. We Cannot Just Be By Ourselves Alone. We Have To Inter-be With Every Other Thing. This Sheet Of Paper Is, Because Everything Else Is.

Mindfulness Helps You Go Home To The Present. And Every Time You Go There And Recognize A Condition Of Happiness That You Have, Happiness Comes.

You Can Practice Deep Listening In Order To Relieve The Suffering In Us, And In The Other Person. That Kind Of Listening Is Described As Compassionate Listening. You Listen Only For The Purpose Of Relieving Suffering In The Other Person.

Being Rich Is An Obstacle To Loving. When You Are Rich, You Want To Continue To Be Rich, And So You End Up Devoting All Your Time, All Your Energy, In Your Daily Life To Stay Rich.

Every Path, Every Street In The World Is Your Walking Meditation Path.

Walking Meditation

To Meditate Means To Go Home To Yourself. Then You Know How To Take Care Of The Things That Are Happening Inside You, And You Know How To Take Care Of The Things That Happen Around You.

The Essence Of Nonviolence Is Love. Out Of Love And The Willingness To Act Selflessly, Strategies, Tactics, And Techniques For A Nonviolent Struggle Arise Naturally. Nonviolence Is Not A Dogma; It Is A Process.

Meditation Means To Look Deeply, To Touch Deeply, So We Can Realize We Are Already Home.

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.

The Buddha Said, 'nothing Can Survive Without Food.' This Is A Very Simple And Very Deep Truth. Love And Hate Are Both Living Phenomena. If We Do Not Nourish Our Love, It Will Die And May Turn Into Hate. If We Want Love To Last, We Have To Nurture It And Give It Food Every Day. Hate Is The Same; If We Don't Feed It, It Cannot Survive.

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

Around Us, Life Bursts With Miracles, A Glass Of Water, A Ray Of Sunshine, A Leaf, A Caterpillar, A Flower, Laughter, Raindrops.

You Are Like Fireworks. You Go Out Into Your Children, Your Friends, Your Society, And The Whole World.

If We Take Something To Be The Truth, We May Cling To It So Much That When The Truth Comes And Knocks On Our Door, We Won't Want To Let It In.

Let Us Fill Our Hearts With Our Own Compassion - Towards Ourselves And Towards All Living Beings.

If We Practice Mindfulness, We Always Have A Place To Be When We Are Afraid.

If You Establish Serenity And Happiness Inside Yourself, You Provide The World With A Solid Base Of Peace. If You Do Not Give Yourself Peace, How Can You Share It With Others? If You Do Not Begin Your Peace Work With Yourself, Where Will You Go To Begin It?

The Situation The Earth Is In Today Has Been Created By Unmindful Production And Unmindful Consumption. We Consume To Forget Our Worries And Our Anxieties. Tranquilising Ourselves With Over-consumption Is Not The Way.

The Organic Gardener Does Not Think Of Throwing Away The Garbage. She Knows That She Needs The Garbage. She Is Capable Of Transforming The Garbage Into Compost, So That The Compost Can Turn Into Lettuce, Cucumber, Radishes, And Flowers Again...with The Energy Of Mindfulness, You Can Look Into The Garbage And Say: I Am Not Afraid. I Am Capable Of Transforming The Garbage Back Into Love.

Enlightenment Is Always There. Small Enlightenment Will Bring Great Enlightenment. If You Breathe In And Are Aware That You Are Alive - That You Can Touch The Miracle Of Being Alive - Then That Is A Kind Of Enlightenment.

The Source Of A True Smile Is An Awakened Mind. Smiling Helps You Approach The Day With Gentleness And Understanding.

When We Have Anger In Us, We Suffer. When We Have Discrimination In Us, We Suffer. When We Have The Complex Of Superiority, We Suffer. When We Have The Complex Of Inferiority, We Suffer Also. So When We Are Capable Of Transforming These Negative Things In Us, We Are Free And Happiness Is Possible.

During The Last 2,500 Years In Buddhist Monasteries, A System Of Seven Practices Of Reconciliation Has Evolved. Although These Techniques Were Formulated To Settle Disputes Within The Circle Of Monks, I Think They Might Also Be Of Use In Our Households And In Our Society.the First Practice Is Face-to-face-sitting.

Often We Tell Ourselves, "don't Just Sit There, Do Something!" But When We Practice Awareness, We Discover That The Opposite May Be More Helpful: "don't Just Do Something, Sit There!"

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.

Many Of Us Worry About The Situation Of The World . . . We Need To Remain Calm, To See Clearly. Meditation Is A Means To Be Aware, And To Try To Help.

We Must Look Deeply Into The Nature Of Our Volition To See Whether It Is Pushing Us In The Direction Of Liberation From Suffering And Toward Peace And Compassion, Or In The Direction Of Affliction And Misery. What Is It That We Really Want Deep In Our Heart? Is It Money, Fame, Power? Or Is It Finding Inner Peace, Being Able To Live Life Fully And Enjoy The Present Moment?

Our Walking Is Not A Means To An End. We Walk For The Sake Of Walking.

Knowing That Anger Makes Me Ugly, I Smile Instead. I Return To Myself And Meditate On Love.

An Oak Tree Is An Oak Tree. That Is All It Has To Do. If An Oak Tree Is Less Than An Oak Tree, Then We Are All In Trouble.

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.

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

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

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.

In True Dialogue, Both Sides Are Willing To Change.

Once You Develop The Practice Of Smiling, You May Not Need A Reminder. You Will Smile As Soon As You Hear A Bird Singing Or See The Sunlight Streaming Through The Window.

I Realize That Many Elements Of The Buddhist Teaching Can Be Found In Christianity, Judaism, Islam. I Think If Buddhism Can Help, It Is The Concrete Methods Of Practice.

At Any Moment, You Have A Choice, That Either Leads You Closer To Your Spirit Or Further Away From It.

When You Look Deeply Into Your Anger, You Will See That The Person You Call Your Enemy Is Also Suffering. As Soon As You See That, The Capacity Of Accepting And Having Compassion For Them Is There.

Wrong Perceptions Cannot Be Removed By Guns And Bombs. They Should Be Removed By Deep Listening, Compassionate Listening, And Loving Space.

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.

Live The Actual Moment. Only This Moment Is Life.

Live In The Moment

Happiness And Suffering Support Each Other. To Be Is To Inter-be. It's Like The Left And The Right. If The Left Is Not There, The Right Cannot Be There. The Same Is True With Suffering And Happiness, Good And Evil.

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

I Would Not Be Happy If I Had Not Become A Monk.

Shallow Understanding Accompanies Poor Compassion; Great Understanding Goes With Great Compassion.

Happiness Is Available. Please Help Yourself To It.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Peace And Serenity

Peace Is Every Step

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.

Each Thought, Each Action In The Sunlight Of Awareness Becomes Sacred.

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

We Are Looking For Happiness And Running After It In Such A Way That Creates Anger, Fear And Discrimination. So When You Attend A Retreat, You Have A Chance To Look At The Deep Roots Of This Pollution Of The Collective Energy That Is Unwholesome.

To Love Our Enemy Is Impossible. The Moment We Understand Our Enemy, We Feel Compassion Towards Him/her, And He/she Is No Longer Our Enemy.

If Love Is In Our Hearts, Every Thought, Word, And Deed Can Bring About A Miracle. Because Understanding Is The Very Foundation Of Love, Words And Actions That Emerge From Our Love Are Always Helpful.

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

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.

It Is Not A Matter Of Faith, It Is A Matter Of Practice

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.

With Understanding, Those We Love Will Certainly Flower.

Because Of Your Smile, You Make Life More Beautiful.

When We Respect Our Blood Ancestors And Our Spiritual Ancestors, We Feel Rooted. If We Find Ways To Cherish And Develop Our Spiritual Heritage, We Will Avoid The Kind Of Alienation That Is Destroying Society, And We Will Become Whole Again. ... Learning To Touch Deeply The Jewels Of Our Own Tradition Will Allow Us To Understand And Appreciate The Values Of Other Traditions, And This Will Benefit Everyone.

Breathing In, I Know I Am Breathing In. Breathing Out, I Know I Am Breathing Out.

Keeping Your Body Healthy Is An Expression Of Gratitude To The Whole Cosmos — The Trees, The Clouds, Everything.

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?

Thinking Negative

Love Is The Capacity To Take Care, To Protect, To Nourish.

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

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.

Most Of Your Suffering Comes From The Lack Of Understanding Of Yourself And Others.

Lack Of Understanding

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.

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.

When You Have A Toothache, You Think That Not Having A Toothache Will Make You Very Happy. But When You Don't Have A Toothache, Often You Are Still Not Happy. If You Practice Awareness, You Suddenly Become Very Rich, Very Very Happy.

In True Love, You Attain Freedom.

Personal Growth

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

We Need Enlightenment, Not Just Individually But Collectively, To Save The Planet.

Anger Is The Energy That People Use In Order To Act. But When You Are Angry, You Are Not Lucid, And You Might Do Wrong Things. That Is Why Compassion Is A Better Energy.

I Am Committed To Cultivating Loving Speech And Deep Listening In Order To Bring Joy And Happiness To Others And Relieve Others Of Their Suffering.

To Make Peace, Our Hearts Must Be At Peace With The World.

A Teacher Cannot Give You The Truth The Truth Is Already In You You Only Need To Open Yourself – Body, Mind And Heart- So That His Or Her Teachings Will Penetrate Your Own Seeds Of Understanding And Enlightenment If You Let The Words Enter You, The Soil And The Seeds Will Do The Rest Of The Work

Reconciliation Is To Understand Both Sides; To Go To One Side And Describe The Suffering Being Endured By The Other Side, And Then Go To The Other Side And Describe The Suffering Being Endured By The First Side.

Mutual Understanding

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.

Water Flows From High In The Mountains Water Runs Deep In The Earth Miraculously, Water Comes To Us, And Sustains All Life.

We Are Determined Not To Take As The Aim Of Our Life Fame, Profit, Wealth, Or Sensual Pleasure, Nor To Accumulate Wealth While Millions Are Hungry And Dying. We Are Committed To Living Simply And Sharing Our Time, Energy, And Material Resources With Those Who Are In Need.

In The Mountains Of Wisdom No Climbing Is In Vain.

Loneliness Cannot Be Alleviated Just By The Coming Together Of Two Bodies, Unless There Is Also Good Communication, Understanding, And Loving Kindness.

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

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.

If You Touch One Thing With Deep Awareness, You Touch Everything.

Mindfulness Practices Enhance The Connection Between Our Body, Our Mind And Everything Else That Is Around Us. Mindful Living Is The Key To Understanding Our Struggles With Weight And To Empowering Us To Control Our Weight.

When Our Beliefs Are Based On Our Own Direct Experience Of Reality And Not On Notions Offered By Others, No One Can Remove These Beliefs From Us.

As You Embrace Your Pain, You Get Relief And You Find Out How To Handle That Emotion. And If You Know How To Handle The Fear, Then You Have Enough Insight In Order To Solve The Problem. The Problem Is To Not Allow That Anxiety To Take Over.

The Buddha Also Counseled The Monks And Nuns To Avoid Wasting Any Precious Time By Engaging In Idle Conversation, Oversleeping, Pursuing Fame And Recognition, Chasing After Desires, Spending Time With People Of Poor Character, And Being Satisfied With Only A Shallow Understanding Of The Teaching.

In Buddhist Culture, Offering Food To The Monk Symbolizes The Action Of Goodness, And If You Have No Opportunity To Support The Practice Of Spirituality, Then You Are Somehow Left In The Realm Of Darkness.

If In Our Daily Life We Can Smile, If We Can Be Peaceful And Happy, Not Only We, But Everyone Will Profit From It. This Is The Most Basic Kind Of Peace Work.

Breathing In, I Calm Body And Mind. Breathing Out, I Smile. Dwelling In The Present Moment I Know This Is The Only Moment.

Breathing In, I Am Aware That I Am Breathing In. Breathing Out, I Am Aware That I Am Breathing Out. Breathing In, I Am Grateful For This Moment. Breathing Out, I Smile. Breathing In, I Am Aware Of The Preciousness Of This Day. Breathing Out, I Vow To Live Deeply In This Day.

The First Thing I Learned Was That Even If You Have A Lot Of Money And Power And Fame, You Can Still Suffer Very Deeply.

If You Think That Peace And Happiness Are Somewhere Else And You Run After Them, You Will Never Arrive.

In Mindfulness One Is Not Only Restful And Happy, But Alert And Awake. Meditation Is Not Evasion; It Is A Serene Encounter With Reality.

We All Have The Seeds Of Love In Us.we Can Develop This Wonderful Source Of Energy, Nurturing The Unconditional Love That Does Not Expect Anything In Return.

Unconditional Love

Because If The Manifestations That Happen In The Present Moment Are Beautiful And Good, Their Continuation In The Future Will Be Also Good And Beautiful.

It's Wonderful To Be Alive And To Walk On Earth.

There Are Many, Many Christians Who Practice Buddhism, And They Become Better And Better Christians All The Time.

Live Your Daily Life In A Way That You Never Lose Yourself

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.

May We Awaken From Forgetfulness And Realize Our True Home.

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.

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.

It Is Possible That The Next Buddha Will Not Take The Form Of An Individual. The Next Buddha May Take The Form Of A Community -a Community Practicing Understanding And Loving Kindness, A Community Practicing Mindful Living. This May Be The Most Important Thing We Can Do For The Survival Of The Earth.

Enlightenment Is Always There. Small Enlightenment Will Bring Great Enlightenment.

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.

As Long As You Find Something Beautiful, Good, And True To Believe In And Abide By, You Have The Equivalent Of God In Your Life.

I Still Arrive, In Order To Laugh And To Cry, To Fear And To Hope. The Rhythm Of My Heart Is The Birth And Death Of All That Is Alive.

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

You Are What You Want To Become. Why Search Anymore? You Are A Wonderful Manifestation. The Whole Universe Has Come Together To Make Your Existence Possible. There Is Nothing That Is Not You. The Kingdom Of God, The Pure Land, Nirvana, Happiness, And Liberation Are All You.

You Are A Buddha, And So Is Everyone Else. I Didn't Make That Up. It Was The Buddha Himself Who Said So. He Said That All Beings Had The Potential To Become Awakened. To Practice Walking Meditation Is To Practice Living In Mindfulness. Mindfulness And Enlightenment Are One. Enlightenment Leads To Mindfulness And Mindfulness Leads To Enlightenment.

Walking Meditation

Trending Author

Sherri Shepherd

Category