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Meditation is not an escape from life... but preparation for really being in life.

Nhat Hanh

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Nhat Hanh
Preparation
Escape
Meditation
Really
Life

More quotes by Nhat Hanh

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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.
Nhat Hanh
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In English we say 'we are' but it's proper to say 'we are becoming' because things are becoming.
Nhat Hanh
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You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is universal thing, taught by all religions.
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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We have the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast. But in the name of freedom, people have done a lot of damage. I think we have to build a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast in order to counterbalance. Because liberty without responsibility is not true liberty. We are not free to destroy.
Nhat Hanh
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Go slowly, breathe and smile.
Nhat Hanh
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Every feeling is a field of energy. A pleasant feeling is an energy which can nourish. Irritation is a feeling which can destroy. Under the light of awareness, the energy of irritation can be transformed into and energy which nourishes.
Nhat Hanh
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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
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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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Anger is like a flame blazing up and consuming our self-control, making us think, say, and do things that we will probably regret later.
Nhat Hanh
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The wave does not need to die to become water. She is already water.
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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Reality is reality. It transcends every concept. There is no concept which can adequately describe it, not even the concept of interdependence.
Nhat Hanh
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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
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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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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Our own lives are the instruments with which we experiment with truth.
Nhat Hanh
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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.
Nhat Hanh
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Breathe in and take one step, and focus all your attention on the sole of your foot. If you have not arrived fully, one hundred percent in the here and the now, don't take the next step.
Nhat Hanh
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Are we treating our body kindly by the way we eat, by the way we drink, by the way we work? Are we treating ourselves with enough joy and tenderness and peace? Or are we feeding ourselves with toxins that we get from the market - the spiritual, intellectual, entertainment market?
Nhat Hanh