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A bodhisattva doesn't have to be perfect. Anyone who is aware of what is happening and who tries to wake up other people is a bodhisattva. We are all bodhisattvas, doing our best.

Nhat Hanh

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Nhat Hanh
Aware
Anyone
Perfect
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Bodhisattva
Best
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Wake
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More quotes by Nhat Hanh

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What happens in the present moment? In the present moment, you are producing thought, speech, and action. And they continue in the world.
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In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with ourselves we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.
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Our own life has to be our message.
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By living deeply in the present moment we can understand the past better & prepare for a better future.
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To condemn someone to death is to surrender it proves that you failed. You are not able to change him, to change her you have to kill him or her. You surrender. ... You only demonstrate your lack of capacity, your helplessness. This is failure.
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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It's like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud you cannot have lotus flowers. Without suffering, you have no way to learn how to be understanding and compassionate.
Nhat Hanh
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Silence is something that comes from your heart, not from outside. Silence doesn't mean not talking and not doing things it means that you are not disturbed inside. If you're truly silent, then no matter what situation you find yourself in you can enjoy the silence.
Nhat Hanh
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The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
Nhat Hanh
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When you have a stomach ache you don't tell your stomach to go away.
Nhat Hanh
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When we change our daily lives - the way we think, speak and act - we change the world.
Nhat Hanh
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Happiness is not an individual matter.
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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Even if we cannot be completely non-voilent, by being vegetarian we are going in the direction of non-voilence
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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If you have not suffered hunger, you do not appreciate having something to eat. If you have not gone through a war, you don't know the value of peace. That is why we should not try to run away from one thing after another thing. Holding our suffering, looking deeply into it, we find a way to happiness.
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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Spiritual practice is not just sitting and meditation. Practice is looking, thinking, touching, drinking, eating and talking. Every act, every breath, and every step can be practice and can help us to become more ourselves.
Nhat Hanh