Quotes by Peace Activists - Page 2

One day the Buddha was sistting with some of his monks in the woods. They had just come back from an almsround and were ready to share a mindful lunch together. A farmer passed by, looking distraught.He asked the Buddha, "Monks, have you seen some cows going by here?""What cows?" the Buddha responded."Well," the man said, "I have four cows and I don't know why, but this morning they all ran aay. I also have two acres of sesame. This year the insects ate the entire crop. I have lost everything: my harvest and my cows. I feel like killing myself." The Buddha said, "Dear friend, we have been sitting here almost an hour and we have not seen any cows passing by. Maybe you should go and lookin the other direction." When the farmer was gone, the Buddha looked at his friends and smiled knowingly. "Dear friends, you are very lucky," he said. "You don't have any cows to lose.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The energy of mindfulness has the element of friendship and loving kindness in it.
Thich Nhat Hanh
We do so much, we run so quickly, the situation is difficult, and many people say, "Don't just sit there, do something." But doing more things may make the situation worse. So you should say, "Don't just do something, sit there." Sit there, stop, be yourself first, and begin from there.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Meditation is to be aware of what is going on: in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.
Thich Nhat Hanh
If we think we have twenty-four hours to achieve a certain purpose, today will become a means to attain an end. The moment of chopping wood and carrying water is the moment of happiness. We do not need to wait for these chores to be done to be happy. To have happiness in this moment is the spirit of aimlessness. Otherwise, we will run in circles for the rest of our life. We have everything we need to make the present moment the happiest in our life, even if we have a cold or a headache. We don't have to wait until we get over our cold to be happy. Having a cold is a part of life.
Thich Nhat Hanh
There is no need to put anything in front of us and run after it. We already have everything we are looking for, everything we want to become. Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just be. Just being in the moment in this place is the deepest practice of meditation. Most people cannot believe that just walking as though you have nowhere to go is enough. They think that striving and competing are normal and necessary. Try practicing aimlessness for just five minutes,and you will see how happy you are during those five minutes.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Everyone wants to be happy, and there is a strong energy in us pushing us toward what we think will make us happy. But we may suffer a lot because of this. We need the insight that position, revenge, wealth, fame, or possessions are, more often than not, obstacles to our happiness. We need to cultivate the wish to be free of these things so we can enjoy the wonders of life that are always available — the blue sky, the trees, our beautiful children.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Do not lose yourself in the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. Do not get caught in your anger, worries, or fears. Come back to the present moment, and touch life deeply. This is mindfulness.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Now I see that if one doesn't know how to die, one can hardly know how to live - because deathis a part of life.
Thich Nhat Hanh
[A]ll the methods in the search for truth should be looked on as means rather than as ends in themselves or as absolute truth.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The meditation on interdependence is to help one penetrate reality in order to be one with it, not to become caught up in philosophical opinion or meditation methods. The raft is used to cross the river. It isn't to be carried around on your shoulders. The finger which points at the moon isn't the moon itself.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Equanimity means to let go, not to abandon.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Sitting meditation, walking meditation, and mindful eating are good opportunities for resting. When you feel agitated, if you are able to go to a park or a garden, it is an opportunity for rest. If you walk slowly and remember to take it easy, if you are able to sit and do nothing from time to time, you can rest deeply and enter a state of true ease.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Concentration is not wholesome in itself. A thief needs concentration to break into a house.The object of our concentration is what makes it beneficial or not. If you use meditative concentration to run away from reality, that is not beneficial.
Thich Nhat Hanh
When mindfulness is present, the Buddha and the Holy Spirit are already there,
Thich Nhat Hanh
Smiling is a kind of mouth yoga. When we smile, it releases the tension in our face. Others notice it, even strangers, and are likely to smile back. By smiling, we initiate a wonderful chain reaction, touching the joy in anyone we encounter. A smile is an ambassador of goodwill.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Our feelings are formations, impermanent and without substance. We learn not to identify with ourselves with our feelings, not to consider them as a self, not to seek refuge in them, not to die because of them.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Worrying does not accomplish anything. Even if you worry twenty times more, it will not change the situation of the world. In fact, your anxiety will only make things worse. Even though things are not as we would like, we can still be content, knowing we are trying our best and will continue to do so. If we don't know how to breathe, smile,and live every moment of our life deeply, we will never be able to help anyone. I am happy in the present moment. I do not ask for anything else. I do not expect any additional happiness or conditions that will bring about more happiness. The most important practice is aimlessness, not running after things, not grasping.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Impermanence means that everything changes and that nothing remains the same in any consecutive moments. And although things change every moment, they still cannot be accurately described as the same or as different from what they were a moment ago.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Emptiness is not the opposite of existence. It is not nothingness or annihilation.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Direct experience is the only way.
Thich Nhat Hanh
When you lose a loved one, you suffer. But if you know how to look deeply, you have a chance to realize that his or her nature is truly the nature of no birth, no death. There is manifestation and there is the cessation of manifestation in order to have another manifestation. You have to be very keen and very alert in order to recognize the new manifestations of just one person.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Nourish yourself every day with the wonderful things that life has to offer you. Nourish yourself in the present moment. Walk in the kingdom of God.
Thich Nhat Hanh
We can only accept teachings that we have put into practice with our own awakened understanding and that we can see with our own experience to be true.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Don't chase after your thoughts as a shadow follows its object. Don't run after your thoughts. Find joy and peace in this very moment .
Thich Nhat Hanh
The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you,
Thich Nhat Hanh
When a feeling or thought arises, your intention should not be to chase it away, even if by continuing to concentrate on the breath the feeling or thought passes naturally from the mind. The intention isn't to chase it away, hate it, worry about it, or be frightened by it. So what exactly should you be doing concerning such thoughts and feelings? Simply acknowledge their presence.
Thich Nhat Hanh
While practicing mindfulness, don't be dominated by the distinction between good and evil, thus creating a battle within oneself.
Thich Nhat Hanh
A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way.
Thich Nhat Hanh
People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one's perception of reality, a barrier which Buddhism calls the attachment to the false view of self.Attachment to the false view of self means belief in the presence of unchanging entities which exist on their own.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Whatever the tasks, do them slowly and with ease, in mindfulness. Don't do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention.
Thich Nhat Hanh
To take hold of your mind, you must practice mindfulness of the mind. You must know how to observe and recognize the presence of every feeling and thought which arises in you.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindful observation is based on the principle of “non-duality”: our feeling is not separate from us or caused merely by something outside us; our feeling is us, and for the moment we are that feeling. We are neither drowned in nor terrorized by the feeling, nor do we reject it. Our attitude of not clinging to or rejecting our feelings is the attitude of letting go[.]
Thich Nhat Hanh
In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Western civilization places so much emphasis on the idea of hope that we sacrifice the present moment. Hope is for the future. It cannot help us discover joy, peace, or enlightenment in the present moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh
We are too undemanding, too ready to watch whatever is on the screen, too lonely, lazy, or bored to create our own lives. We turn on the TV and leave it on, allowing someone else to guide us[.]
Thich Nhat Hanh
Whether we are in the city, the countryside, or the wilderness, we need to sustain ourselves by choosing our surroundings carefully and nourishing our awareness in each moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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[.]
Thich Nhat Hanh
Practicing mindfulness enables us to become a real person. When we are a real person, we see real people around us, and life is present in all its richness.
Thich Nhat Hanh
We all exist as part of a wonderful stream of life.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment
Thich Nhat Hanh
A wave has a right to live her life as a wave, but she must also learn to live her life as water because she is not only a wave. She is also water. And water lives without the fear carried by the wave.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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.
Thich Nhat Hanh
[T]he flower is made of non-flower elements. We can describe the flower as being full of everything. There is nothing that is not present in the flower. We see sunshine, we see the rain, we see clouds, we see the earth, and we also see time and space in the flower.A flower, like everything else, is made entirely of non-flower elements. The whole cosmos has come together in order to help the flower manifest herself, The flower is full of everything except one thing: a separate self, a separate identity.The flower cannot be by herself alone. The flower has to inter-be with the sunshine, the cloud and everything in the cosmos. If we understand being in terms of inter-being, then we are much closer to the truth. Inter-being is not being and it is not non-being. Inter-being means being empty of a separate identity, empty of a separate self,
Thich Nhat Hanh
I am a continuation like the rain is the continuation of the cloud.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Things cannot stay the same because they are influenced by everything else, everything that is not itself.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Just because we do not perceive something, it is not correct to say it does not exist.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible. If a grain of corn is not impermanent, it can never be transformed into a stalk of corn. If the stalk were not impermanent, it could never provide us with the ear of corn we eat.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.
Thich Nhat Hanh
If we are aware of our lifestyle, our way of consuming, of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment we are alive.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge.
Thich Nhat Hanh
We wanted peace. We did not care about anyone’s victory or defeat. We just wanted the bombs to stop falling on us.
Thich Nhat Hanh
When you understand, you cannot help but love. You cannot get angry.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Together with the patient, a therapist looks at the nature of the pain. Often, the therapist can uncover causes of suffering that stem from the way the patient looks at things, the beliefs he holds about himself, his culture, and the world. The therapist examines these viewpoints and beliefs with the patient, and together they help free him from the kind of prison he has been in. But the patient’s efforts are crucial. A teacher has to give birth to the teacher within his student, and a psychotherapist has to give birth to the psychotherapist within his patient. The patient’s “internal psychotherapist” can then work full-time in a very effective way.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The truth is that everything contains everything else. We cannot just be, we can only inter-be.
Thich Nhat Hanh