Quote

Meditation is, first of all, a tool for surveying our territory so we can know what is going on. With the energy of mindfulness, we can calm things down, understand them, and bring harmony back to the conflicting elements inside us.

Nhat Hanh

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Nhat Hanh
First
Elements
Surveying
Going
Meditation
Conflicting
Things
Inside
Mindfulness
Bring
Tool
Understand
Territory
Energy
Calm
Back
Harmony
Firsts
Tools

More quotes by Nhat Hanh

Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. When you touch nonfear, you are free.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
Nhat Hanh
Image
Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what's the use of seeing?
Nhat Hanh
Image
The most important thing that we can do for the healing of our world is to hear inside ourselves, the sounds of the earth crying.
Nhat Hanh
Image
My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.
Nhat Hanh
Image
Meditation is to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.
Nhat Hanh
Image
Freedom is the real foundation of happiness.
Nhat Hanh
Image
Action is called karma. And that's your continuation. When this body disintegrates, you continue on with your actions. It's like the cloud in the sky. When the cloud is no longer in the sky, it hasn't died. The cloud is continued in other forms like rain or snow or ice.
Nhat Hanh
Image
No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
The earth is so beautiful. We are beautiful also. We can allow ourselves to walk mindfully, touching the earth, our wonderful mother, with each step. We don't need to wish our friends, 'Peace be with you.' Peace is already with them. We only need to help them cultivate the habit of touching peace in each moment.-
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh
Image
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.
Nhat Hanh