This page lists some of the all-time best Thich Nhat Hanh quotes. Enjoy!
Page Contents:
- Pain & Suffering Quotes
- Compassion & Communication Quotes
- Breathing & Living Quotes
- Mindfulness & Presence Quotes
- Interconnectedness Quotes
50+ Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Breathing, Presence, Mindfulness, & More
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Pain & Suffering
“Many people live, and yet, they are not alive. They live like a dead man or dead woman. They carry their own dead body and circulate around. They are not alive. They are always caught in their regret, in their fear. They cannot touch life … It’s a pity. They spend 50 years, and 60 years, and 70 years living like that and have never been able to touch the wonders of life—the Kingdom of God, the Pure Land of Buddha.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Our century should be a century of spirituality. Whether we can survive or not, depends on it.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Which is more important, your well-being or more money? Another car, or a more healthy body? You have to choose. You may consume less but your happiness will be much greater … Don’t spend too much time looking for money or fame. Use your time to live, to love, to take care of yourself and your beloved one.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“The way of mindful consumption is the way out of this difficult situation of mankind … Mindful consumption will heal us and heal the world.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“In our daily lives, very often our body is there, but our mind is elsewhere … How can you be alive when only your body is there, and your mind still wanders in the past or in the future? You are not really alive.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You have neglected your body. You have made war with your body. You have made your body suffer by the way you live your daily life. You are an enemy of your body. Now you want to go home as a friend.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“We don’t know how to rest anymore. Mankind has lost the capacity of resting. And resting is the ground of healing.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You are running around and searching for healing. But the healing is obtained when you don’t do anything. You just rest and allow nature to do its work … We need a strong will, a big desire, in order to be able to stop because the habit of running is very strong in us—in our body and in our mind.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you are not there for yourself, who will be there for you? So come home to yourself, take good care of your body, take good care of your feelings and emotions.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“With the energy of mindfulness and concentration, you can look deeply into the nature of your suffering … The first thing you do is to use the energy of mindfulness to recognize the pain. And the second thing you do is to embrace the pain tenderly.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“The way is to begin with yourself. Listen to your own suffering, go home to yourself. Don’t try to help the other person, try to help yourself first.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you suffer, you make people suffer, even the people you love. Therefore, you should try to understand your own suffering in order to suffer less.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“‘Understanding’ here means understanding suffering—your own suffering first. Because when you have understood your own suffering, you suffer less. And when you have understood your suffering, it’s much easier to understand the suffering of the other person.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you look at another person deeply, and if you recognize the suffering in them, then you see that this person is the victim of their own suffering. And suddenly, understanding arises in you, and you are not angry at them anymore … When you understand the suffering of someone, you don’t want to punish them anymore. You want to help.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You believe that the other side is the cause of your suffering. But when you suffer, you listen like that, you suddenly realize that they are human beings who have suffered exactly like on your side. And for the first time, you see them as living beings full of suffering.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Compassion & Communication
“You are alive, you can smile, you can look with the eyes of compassion, you can help living beings to wake up, you can help people to become alive again.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you don’t know how to love yourself, how can you talk about loving another person?” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you have difficulties in your relationships, don’t despair. There is a way out. You have to go back to yourself first.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Once you have been able to reconcile with yourself, you can reconcile very easily with the other person and end the difficulties in your relationship.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Compassion makes it possible for you to stop suffering … When you look with the eyes of compassion, you don’t suffer anymore.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Compassion can heal us. And, that is why all of us should learn how to generate the energy of compassion.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you continue to look, to listen, to your pain, your suffering, you come to understand it. And, understanding will always bring compassion … And, when compassion is there, you don’t suffer anymore. No anger; only the intention to help.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Understanding suffering will bring compassion. And compassion is going to heal you and make you suffer less. And then you can help the other person.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You need only some time to look deeply to see the suffering in him or in her, to see that he has been the victim of his own suffering for a long time, and he does not need punishment. He needs help. If you have that kind of insight and compassion, you are surely capable to use loving speech.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“The practice of compassionate listening and loving speech can always restore communication and bring about reconciliation.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“To restore communication, and to reconcile, is something possible with the practice of mindfulness and concentration.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“To love our enemy is impossible. The moment we understand our enemy, we feel compassion towards him or her, and he or she is no longer our enemy.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Breathing & Living
“The energy of mindfulness can be generated by mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful eating, mindful washing … Everything you do in your daily life can be used for your healing. Walking up, walking down, sitting, lying down, breathing, washing your dishes—it can allow you to completely rest.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you sit down and eat your breakfast, eat your breakfast in such a way that makes the healing possible … Chew your food as if you have nothing to worry about, a busynessless person … Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Every step, every breath, every act, can be totally relaxed—can have the power of healing … You breathe as a free person, and you walk as a free person … Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“If we practice breathing in and out with some concentration, we attain what we call the oneness of body and mind. Your mind and your body are unified, and you begin to be there truly yourself.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you breathe in mindfully, you bring your mind home to your body … Recognize and embrace your body as a whole, and allow it to relax.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Your in-breath is an expression of arrival. I have arrived, I don’t need to run. And if your in-breath is like that, it has the power of healing … I have arrived, I am home. In the here, in the now. I am solid, I am free. In the ultimate, I dwell.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You are mindful of your in-breath, and you release everything else. You release the past, the future, your projects, your worries, and you become a free person. And therefore freedom is possible with one in-breath.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you really focus your attention on your in-breath and your out-breath, you release everything else, and you become a free person.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“With the practice of mindful breathing, you can cultivate freedom, and you can preserve that freedom as long as you wish.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Breathing in, I’m aware of the painful feeling within me. Breathing out, I smile and embrace the painful feeling within me.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You don’t need to have faith in Buddha or in God. You need to have only faith in your in-breath.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“As I breathe in, I know I am alive. To be alive is a miracle; it is the greatest of all miracles. And, that insight alone can bring happiness … To breathe and to be aware that you are alive can already bring you a lot of happiness.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Breathing in and out is to get back to the present moment where you have an appointment with life.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Mindfulness & Presence
“Mindfulness means to be aware of what is going on … To be awake is to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your perceptions, in your mental formations, and in the world around you.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Forgetfulness is the opposite of mindfulness. To live in forgetfulness means to get lost in the past or in the future—to be possessed by anger, hatred, fear. Therefore, you are not ready to enter into the Kingdom of God.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Life can be found only in the present moment … The present moment is the substance with which the future is made, and therefore, the best way to take care of the future is to take care the present moment … If you take good care of the present moment, there’s no reason why you have to worry about the future because you know that the future will be made by the present.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Mindfulness is the best part of us … Mindfulness, after having performed the work of calming, will be used to perform the work of looking deeply … Looking deeply and listening deeply is the act of meditation … Take the time to live more deeply.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“There is only one moment when you can be truly alive. That is the present moment. You have an appointment with life in the present moment, and if you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life—which is very serious.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you are fully present in the here and in the now, you become fully alive … Come home to yourself, in the here and in the now, become fully alive, and your true presence profits yourself.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“The first thing is for you to go home to yourself. The way out is in … The basic practice is to always go home to the here and the now … Your destination is not the office, the workplace. Your destination is in the here and now.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“To stop, to go home to the present moment, is a very crucial act—an act that brings you life … Stopping means to be fully present. To stop running, to be truly present. In the here and in the now … You stop thinking, and you begin to be where your body is.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“It takes only 2-3 seconds for the mind to go home to the body. And when mind and body are together, you are there, you are truly there, in the here and the now … You surrender yourself to the present moment. You surrender yourself to the power of healing that is inherent in your body and in your consciousness.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you practice mindful breathing, and you breathe in, and you bring your mind home to your body, you become fully present in the here and the now. You realize what we call the oneness of body and mind. Mind and body are together. And when your mind is with your body, you are established in the here and the now. And when you are established in the here and the now, you are in a position to recognize the many wonders of life, the many conditions of happiness that you already have.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Why do we have to wait in order to be happy? In the here and the now, there are so many conditions of happiness that are already available … There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“What we are looking for is already there … The blue sky is always there for you.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“How wonderful to get in touch! To get in touch with yourself and get in touch with the wonders of life … The wonders of life are available in this very moment. It would be a pity if you have no chance to recognize the wonderful things that are happening in the here and in the now.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“It is possible for us to live every moment of our daily life in such a way that every moment becomes a moment of healing.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Interconnectedness
“About thirty years ago I was looking for an English word to describe our deep interconnection with everything else. I liked the word ‘togetherness,’ but I finally came up with the word ‘interbeing.’ The verb ‘to be’ can be misleading, because we cannot be by ourselves, alone. ‘To be’ is always to ‘inter-be.’” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“The body and the mind inter-are. The body contains the mind and the mind contains the body. They inter-contain each other. That is why helping the body to stop, you can help the mind to stop also. And helping the mind to stop, you help the body to stop.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Whatever I am doing, the energy of mindfulness enables me to do it as ‘us,’ through interbeing, not as ‘me.’” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Interbeing means you cannot be by yourself alone. You have to co-be, inter-be, with everything else.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“We do not exist independently. We inter-are. Everything relies on everything else in the cosmos in order to manifest—whether a star, a cloud, a flower, a tree, or you and me.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“To be means to inter-be. A flower has to inter-be with everything else. She has to inter-be with the sunshine, with the cloud, with everything else. She doesn’t have a separate existence. Being means co-being. Existing means co-existing.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“You carry Mother Earth, you carry the sunshine, you carry the rain, everything. This is not a ‘me’, this is a ‘we’. We inter-are. If we remove the element of parents, ancestors, food, education, air, water, there is no ‘us’ left. So, ‘we’ means the whole cosmos.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. 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.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
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