110+ Nhat Hanh Quotes On Mindfulness, Gratitude And Healing

Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet, and peace activist. He is a global spiritual leader, renowned for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace. He is a leader in the Engaged Buddhism movement, advocating for peace and social justice through nonviolent action and mindful awareness. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Nhat Hanh on love, mindfulness, gratitude.

Top 10 Nhat Hanh Quotes

1. The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.
2. Around us, life bursts with miracles, a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops.
3. It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.
4. To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
5. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.
6. Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.
7. Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
8. Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.
9. The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.
10. Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.

Nhat Hanh Short Quotes

• May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.
• Today is the most important day of our lives.
• The moment you understand the importance of loving yourself, you will stop hurting others.
• Wisdom and joy arise when you learn to exist now rather than in the nonexistent past or future.
• I have arrived. I am home. My destination is in each step.
• Your presence is a miracle.
• Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.
• The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth.
• By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.
• The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Love

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. — Nhat Hanh

You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free. — Nhat Hanh

We all have the seeds of love in us.We can develop this wonderful source of energy, nurturing the unconditional love that does not expect anything in return. — Nhat Hanh

If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love. — Nhat Hanh

Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness — Nhat Hanh

We can help many people suffer less and realize a lot of happiness without being rich or influential. If love and compassion are in out hearts, every thought, word, and deed can bring about a miracle — Nhat Hanh

Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit. — Nhat Hanh

The sangha is a community where there should be harmony and peace and understanding. That is something created by our daily life together. If love is there in the community, if we've been nourished by the harmony in the community, then we will never move away from love. — Nhat Hanh

Mindful time spent with the person we love is the fullest expression of true love and real generosity. — Nhat Hanh

Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Mindfulness

Only the present moment contains life. — Nhat Hanh

Reconciliation is a deep practice that we can do with our listening and our mindful speech. To reconcile means to bring peace and happiness to nations, people, and members of our family.... In order to reconcile, you have to possess the art of deep listening. — Nhat Hanh

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

The source of a true smile is an awakened mind. Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding. — Nhat Hanh

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. — Nhat Hanh

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again. — Nhat Hanh

When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love. — Nhat Hanh

When your mind is liberated, your heart floods with compassion. — Nhat Hanh

In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality. — Nhat Hanh

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. (21) — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Gratitude

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. — Nhat Hanh

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything. — Nhat Hanh

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

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Healing

Mindfulness is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves. — Nhat Hanh

Meditation is not meant to help us avoid problems or run away from difficulties. It is meant to allow positive healing to take place. To meditate is to learn how to stop—to stop being carried away by our regrets about the past, our anger or despair in the present, or our worries about the future. — Nhat Hanh

When we hug, our hearts connect and we know that we are not separate beings. Hugging with mindfulness and concentration can bring reconciliation, healing, understanding, and much happiness. — Nhat Hanh

One hour of compassionate deep listening can bring about transformation and healing. — Nhat Hanh

Wisdom is a living stream, not an icon to be preserved in a museum. Only when a practitioner finds the spring of wisdom in his or her own life can it flow to a future generation — Nhat Hanh

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

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people. — Nhat Hanh

Every step taken in mindfulness brings us one step closer to healing ourselves and the planet. — Nhat Hanh

Choose to be in touch with what is wonderful, refreshing, and healing within yourself and around you. — Nhat Hanh

When the energy of compassion and love touches us, healing establishes itself. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Peace

I have lost my smile, but don't worry. The dandelion has it. — Nhat Hanh

Because you are alive, everything is possible. — Nhat Hanh

Walk so that your footprints bear only the marks of peaceful joy and complete freedom. To do this you have to learn to let go. Let go of your sorrows, let go of your worries. That is the secret of walking meditation. — Nhat Hanh

In the Light of interbeing, peace and happiness in your daily life means peace and happiness in the world. — Nhat Hanh

If you think that peace and happiness are somewhere else and you run after them, you will never arrive. — Nhat Hanh

Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others. — Nhat Hanh

To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now. — Nhat Hanh

Smile, breathe and go slowly." - Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen monk, author and peace activist. — Nhat Hanh

Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace. — Nhat Hanh

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Life

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. — Nhat Hanh

Freedom is the basic condition for you to touch life, to touch the blue sky, the trees, the birds, the tea, and the other person. — Nhat Hanh

This is a very important practice. Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself. — Nhat Hanh

Each moment you are alive is a gem. It needs you to breathe gently for the miracles to be displayed. — Nhat Hanh

We are determined not to take as the aim of our life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure, nor to accumulate wealth while millions are hungry and dying. We are committed to living simply and sharing our time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. — Nhat Hanh

When we change our daily lives - the way we think, speak and act - we change the world. — Nhat Hanh

The heart of the matter is always our oneness with divine spirit, our union with all life. — Nhat Hanh

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment. — Nhat Hanh

Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible. — Nhat Hanh

The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Change

By eating meat we share responsibility for causing climate change, the destruction of our forests, and the poisoning of our air and water. The simple act of becoming a vegetarian can make a difference in the health of our planet. — Nhat Hanh

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

Each minute we spend worrying about the future and regretting the past is a minute we miss in our appointment with life - a missed opportunity to engage life and to see that each moment gives us the chance to change for the better, to experience peace and joy. — Nhat Hanh

We are often sad and suffer a lot when things change, but change and impermanence have a positive side. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible... If your daughter is not impermanent, she cannot grow up to become a woman. Then your grandchildren would never manifest. — Nhat Hanh

Simple practices like conscious breathing and smiling are very important. They can change our civilization. — Nhat Hanh

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

A smile can change the situation of the world. — Nhat Hanh

Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the Earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing. — Nhat Hanh

We may not have done anything but when we are relaxed, when we are peaceful, when we are able to smile and not to be violent in the way we look at the system, at that moment there is a change already in the world. — Nhat Hanh

In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Hope

If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today — Nhat Hanh

The way you speak to others can offer them joy, happiness, self-confidence, hope, trust, and enlightenment. Mindful speaking is a deep practice. — Nhat Hanh

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. — Nhat Hanh

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Breathing

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace. — Nhat Hanh

Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I am aware that I am breathing out. Breathing in, I am grateful for this moment. Breathing out, I smile. Breathing in, I am aware of the preciousness of this day. Breathing out, I vow to live deeply in this day. — Nhat Hanh

The secret to happiness is happiness itself. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, the wonder of our breathing. We don't have to travel anywhere else to do so. We can be in touch with these things right now. — Nhat Hanh

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

Breathe and you dwell in the here and now, breath and you see impermanence is life. — Nhat Hanh

Just breathing and smiling can make us very happy, because when we breathe consciously we recover ourselves completely and encounter life in the present moment. — Nhat Hanh

In all the practice centers in the tradition of Plum Village whenever the phone rings or the clock chimes in the dining hall, people stop everything they are doing and breathe consciously, releasing all thinking and any tension. — Nhat Hanh

The miracle is not to walk on water, or in the air, or on burning charcoal. The miracle is to walk on earth. You breathe in, you become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. The greatest of of all miracles is to be alive. — Nhat Hanh

The fact that I am standing there and washing bowls is a wondrous reality. I'm being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. — Nhat Hanh

You only need to walk in mindfulness, making peaceful, happy steps on our planet. Breathe deeply, and enjoy your breathing. Be aware that the sky is blue and the birds' songs are beautiful. Enjoy being alive and you will help the living Christ and the living Buddha continue for a long, long time. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Suffering

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

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

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending. — Nhat Hanh

Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. — Nhat Hanh

When you say something really unkind, when you do something in retaliation your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and he will try hard to say or to do something back to get relief from his suffering. That is how conflict escalates. — Nhat Hanh

Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings need you, your perceptions need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for all these things. — Nhat Hanh

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight. — Nhat Hanh

Most of your suffering comes from the lack of understanding of yourself and others. — Nhat Hanh

We need to be aware of the suffering, but retain our clarity, calmness and strength so we can help transform the situation. — Nhat Hanh

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

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Peaceful

Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others will be possible. — Nhat Hanh

As long as we think our lives are not good enough (materially), we will not have happiness. As soon as we realize our lives are good enough, happiness immediately appears. That is the practice of contentment. — Nhat Hanh

We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness. — Nhat Hanh

Without being peace, we cannot do anything for peace. If we cannot smile, we cannot help other people to smile. If we are not peaceful, then we cannot contribute to the peace movement. — Nhat Hanh

Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. — Nhat Hanh

It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way. — Nhat Hanh

Enlightenment, peace, and joy will not be granted by someone else. The well is within us, And if we dig deeply in the present moment, The water will spring forth. — Nhat Hanh

My actions are my only true belongings. — Nhat Hanh

If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything. — Nhat Hanh

As we cultivate peace and happiness in ourselves, we also nourish peace and happiness in those we love. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Inspiring

I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day that is given me to live. — Nhat Hanh

If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. — Nhat Hanh

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. — Nhat Hanh

I think, therefore I am ... not here. — Nhat Hanh

I vow to live fully in each moment. — Nhat Hanh

The wave does not need to die to become water. She is already water. — Nhat Hanh

Our own life has to be our message. — Nhat Hanh

You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person. The seed is already there. A good teacher touches the seed, allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow. — Nhat Hanh

Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know ohw to make peace right in the moment, we are alive. — Nhat Hanh

If we are free from attachment, we can easily recognize ourselves in other people, in different forms of manifestation, and then we don't have to suffer. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Transformative

The way must be in you; the destination also must be in you and not somewhere else in space or time. If that kind of self-transformation is being realized in you, you will arrive. — Nhat Hanh

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed. — Nhat Hanh

You can use your life in a very useful and intelligent way. You can very well transform that negative energy into a positive energy that empowers you and makes life meaningful. — Nhat Hanh

With mindfulness - the practice of peace - we can begin by working to transform the wars in ourselves. Conscious breathing helps us do this. — Nhat Hanh

When we have anger in us, we suffer. When we have discrimination in us, we suffer. When we have the complex of superiority, we suffer. When we have the complex of inferiority, we suffer also. So when we are capable of transforming these negative things in us, we are free and happiness is possible. — Nhat Hanh

You are me, and I am you. Isn't it obvious that we "inter-are"? You cultivate the flower in yourself, so that I will be beautiful. I transform the garbage in myself, so that you will not have to suffer. — Nhat Hanh

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

By taking a look at your anger it can be transformed into the kind of energy that you need - understanding and compassion. — Nhat Hanh

The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment. — Nhat Hanh

Transformations is the word. We can do the work of transformation only in the present moment — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Smile

Sometimes when I am alone in my room in the dark, I practice smiling to myself. I do this to be kind to myself, to take good care of myself, to love myself. I know that if I cannot take care of myself, I cannot take care of anyone else. — Nhat Hanh

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. — Nhat Hanh

Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful...How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow? It is natural--you need to smile to your sorrow because you are more than your sorrow. — Nhat Hanh

If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. — Nhat Hanh

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile which blossoms on the lips of Bodhisattvas and all those who obtain the way. — Nhat Hanh

To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem. To meditate means to observe. Your smile proves it. It proves that you are being gentle with yourself, that the sun of awareness is shining in you, that you have control of your situation. You are yourself, and you have acquired some peace. — Nhat Hanh

Our smile will bring happiness to us and to those around us. Even if we spend a lot of money on gifts for everyone in our family, nothing we buy could give them as much happiness as the gift of our awareness, our smile. And this precious gift costs nothing. — Nhat Hanh

From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax and be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we can walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on Earth. — Nhat Hanh

Each breath we take, each step we make, each smile we realize, is a positive contribution to peace... a necessary step in the direction of peace for the world. — Nhat Hanh

Life has left her footprints on my forehead. But I have become a child again this morning. The smile, seen through leaves and flowers, is back to smooth away the wrinkles, as the rains wipe away footprints on the beach. Again a cycle of birth and death begins. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About People

Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses. — 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. — Nhat Hanh

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom? — Nhat Hanh

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

But if we have the energy of compassion and loving kindness in us, the people around us will be influenced by our way of being and living. — Nhat Hanh

Anger is the energy that people use in order to act. But when you are angry, you are not lucid, and you might do wrong things. That is why compassion is a better energy. — Nhat Hanh

The Buddha also counseled the monks and nuns to avoid wasting any precious time by engaging in idle conversation, oversleeping, pursuing fame and recognition, chasing after desires, spending time with people of poor character, and being satisfied with only a shallow understanding of the teaching. — Nhat Hanh

There are some people who eat an orange but don't really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past, and future. — Nhat Hanh

That is why those who are not capable of being there in the present moment, they don't really live their life - they live like dead people. — Nhat Hanh

Maybe we have enough technology to save the planet but it is not enough because the people are not ready. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Quotes About Touch

If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything. — Nhat Hanh

Meditation means to look deeply, to touch deeply, so we can realize we are already home. — Nhat Hanh

Walk and touch peace every moment. Walk and touch happiness every moment. Each step brings a fresh breeze. Each step makes a flower bloom. Kiss the Earth with your feet. Bring the Earth your love and happiness. The Earth will be safe when we feel safe in ourselves. — Nhat Hanh

Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere, any time. — Nhat Hanh

I do not watch television. But I'm in touch with the world. If anything really important happens, someone will tell me. — Nhat Hanh

You are a miracle, and everything you touch could be a miracle. — Nhat Hanh

As you walk, you touch the ground mindfully, and every step can bring you solidity and joy and freedom. Freedom from your regret concerning the past, and freedom from your fear about the future. — Nhat Hanh

At the moment of waking up, before getting out of bed, get in touch with your breath — Nhat Hanh

With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment. — Nhat Hanh

There is a paradise of form and colors in the world. And because you have eyes still in good condition, you can get in touch with the paradise. So when I become aware of my eyes, I touch one of the conditions of happiness. And when I touch it, happiness comes. — Nhat Hanh

Nhat Hanh Famous Quotes And Sayings

You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. The kingdom of God, the Pure Land, nirvana, happiness, and liberation are all you. — Nhat Hanh

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

Human beings are not our enemy. Our enemy is not the other person. Our enemy is the violence, ignorance, and injustice in us and in the other person. When we are armed with compassion and understanding, we fight not against other people, but against the tendency to invade, to dominate, and to exploit. — Nhat Hanh

Only the present moment contains life. — Nhat Hanh

I have lost my smile, but don't worry. The dandelion has it. — Nhat Hanh

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. — Nhat Hanh

There are many ways to calm a negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you read some inspiring words, you listen to a piece of beautiful music, you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation. — Nhat Hanh

Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk. We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere. — Nhat Hanh

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

I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear. — Nhat Hanh

When you have a toothache, you think that not having a toothache will make you very happy. But when you don't have a toothache, often you are still not happy. If you practice awareness, you suddenly become very rich, very very happy. — Nhat Hanh

We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work 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, the only moment there is for us to be alive. — Nhat Hanh

The kingdom of God is available to you in the here and the now. But the question is whether you are available to the kingdom. Our practice is to make ourselves ready for the kingdom so that it can manifest in the here and the now. You don't need to die in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, you have to be truly alive in order to do so. — Nhat Hanh

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it. — Nhat Hanh

With negative energy you can make the positive energy. A flower will become compost someday, but if you know how to transform the compost back into the flower, then you don't have to worry. You don't have to worry about your anger because you know how to handle it - to embrace, to recognize, and to transform it. So this is what is possible. — Nhat Hanh

There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus. — Nhat Hanh

Silence is essential for deep transformation. It allows the practice of conscious breathing to become deep and effective. Like still water that reflects things as they are, the calming silence helps us to see things more clearly, and therefore, to be in deeper contact with ourselves and those around us. — Nhat Hanh

They criticize the silent ones. They criticize the talkative ones. They criticize the moderate ones. There is no one in the world who escapes criticism. — Nhat Hanh

The Buddha said, 'Nothing can survive without food.' This is a very simple and very deep truth. Love and hate are both living phenomena. If we do not nourish our love, it will die and may turn into hate. If we want love to last, we have to nurture it and give it food every day. Hate is the same; if we don't feed it, it cannot survive. — Nhat Hanh

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

You are like a candle. Imagine you are sending light out all around you. All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many directions. If you say something kind, your kind words go in many directions, and you yourself go with them. We are ...transforming and continuing in a different form at every moment. — Nhat Hanh

Meditation is not passive sitting in silence. It is sitting in awareness, free from distraction, and realizing the clear understanding that arises from concentration. — Nhat Hanh

Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us, we must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish our positive qualities - those of compassion, understanding, and loving kindness. — Nhat Hanh

Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing. — Nhat Hanh

When we are angry, our anger is our very self. To suppress or chase away our anger is to suppress or chase away ourselves. When anger is born, we can be aware that anger is an energy in us, and we can change that energy into another kind of energy. If we want to transform it, first we have to know how to accept it. — Nhat Hanh

Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha. — Nhat Hanh

You are like fireworks. You go out into your children, your friends, your society, and the whole world. — Nhat Hanh

Life Lessons by Nhat Hanh

1. Nhat Hanh teaches us to cultivate mindful awareness in our daily lives, to be present in the moment and to find peace and joy in the simple things.
2. He encourages us to be mindful of our actions and to strive for peace and understanding between all people.
3. He promotes non-violence and kindness, and reminds us that we are all connected and should strive to find common ground.