“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.”
“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.”
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out
of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
“To be beautiful means to be yourself.
You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
“Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
“Because you are alive, everything is possible.”
“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.”
“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.”
“My actions are my only true belongings.”
“Through my love for you, I want to express my love for the
whole cosmos, the whole of humanity, and all beings. By living with you, I want
to learn to love everyone and all species. If I
succeed in loving you, I will be able to love everyone and all species on
Earth... This is the real message of love.”
“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”
“Life is available only in the present moment.”
“Hope is important because it can make the present moment
less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear
a hardship today.”
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious
breathing is my anchor.”
“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
“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.”
“Our own life has to be our message.”
“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”
“Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you
are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.”
“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.”
“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready
to abandon our views about them.”
“By eating meat we share the responsibility of climate
change, the destruction of our forests, and the poisoning of our air and water.
The simple act of becoming a vegetarian will make a difference in the health of
our planet.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is
nothing that can justify your desire.”
“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the
negative, with what is wrong. ... Why not try the other way, to look into the
patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them
bloom?”
“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.”
“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to
the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything.”
“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be
welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both
are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The
mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind.
Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness,
compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.”
“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.”
“I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day
that is given me to live.”
“Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.”
“The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air,
but simply walking on this earth.”
“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we
realize.”
“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.”
“The secret is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order
for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.”
“Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.”
“In true love, you attain freedom.”
“Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the
world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the
world.”
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
“Until there is peace between religions, there can be no
peace in the world.”
“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if
powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But
if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices,
fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots
of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and
sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from
ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give
millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in
their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration,
and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. ”
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you
are attentive, you will see it. ”
“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the
consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”
“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.”
“Breathing in, there is only the present moment. Breathing
out, it is a wonderful moment.”
“If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love.”
“Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the
spiritual path.”
“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.”
“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and
blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will
benefit from our peace.”
“When we walk like we are rushing, we print anxiety and
sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and
serenity on the earth... Be aware of the contact between your feet and the
earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
“I am determined to practice deep listening. I am determined
to practice loving speech.”
“The
“If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is
your presence”
“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism
oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”
“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.”
“To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think
about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to
allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past
or worries about the future. If you are firmly grounded in the present moment,
the past can be an object of inquiry, the object of your mindfulness and
concentration. You can attain many insights by looking into the past. But you are
still grounded in the present moment.”
“If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment,
we miss everything.”
“If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to
him or her, that is not true love.”
“Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes
before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the
life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means,
including personal contact and visits, images, sounds. By such means, awaken
yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world. If we get in
touch with the suffering of the world, and are moved by that suffering, we may
come forward to help the people who are suffering.”
“In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with
ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports,
politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we
want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television
and telling the television to come and colonize us.”
“You are not an observer, you are a participant.”
“Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.”
“I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that
I have to fight. I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with
tenderness, with nonviolence.”
“The fact is that when you make the other suffer, he will
try to find relief by making you suffer more. The result is an escalation of
suffering on both sides.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our
attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like
flowers.”
“There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.”
“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels
free.”
“Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen
with the eyes of compassion.”
“At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you
closer to your spirit or further away from it.”
“Being rich is an obstacle to loving. When you are rich, you
want to continue to be rich, and so you end up devoting all your time, all your
energy, in your daily life to stay rich.”
“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.”
“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.”
“In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.”
“Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I
still arrive.”
“Smile, breathe and go slowly."
“Life can be found only in the present moment. 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.”
“The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk
on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly
alive.”
“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.”
“We who have touched war have a duty to bring the truth
about war to those who have not had a direct experience of it. We are the light
at the tip of the candle. It is really hot, but it has the power of shining and
illuminating. If we practice mindfulness, we will know how to look deeply into
the nature of war and, with our insight, wake people up so that together we can
avoid repeating the same horrors again and again.”
“May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.”
“Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and
nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity.”
“Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even soldiers. Some
army generals, for example, conduct their operations in ways that avoid killing
innocent people; this is a kind of nonviolence. To help soldiers move in the
nonviolent direction, we have to be in touch with them. If we divide reality
into two camps - the violent and the nonviolent - and stand in one camp while
attacking the other, the world will never have peace. We will always blame and
condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without
recognizing the degree of violence in ourselves. We must work on ourselves and
also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact.
It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those
who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our
best to help them move in a direction of nonviolence. If we work for peace out
of anger, we will never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never come about
through non-peaceful means.”
“Guarding knowledge
is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your
knowledge.”
“Please don't wait until the doctors tell you that you are
going to have a baby to begin to take care of it. It is already there. Whatever
you are, whatever you do, your baby will get it. Anything you eat, any worries
that are on your mind will be for him or her. Can you tell me that you cannot
smile? Think of the baby, and smile for him, for her, for the future
generations. Please don't tell me that a smile and your sorrow just don't go
together. It's your sorrow, but what about your baby? It's not his sorrow, it’s
not her sorrow.”
“Know that life can only be found in the present moment.”
“It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state
of love. Every movement, every glance, every thought, and every word can be
infused with love.”
“Only the present moment contains life.”
“Happiness does not come from consumption of things.”
“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.”
“I always encourage them to practice in a way that will help
them go back to their own tradition and get re-rooted. If they succeed at
becoming reintegrated, they will be an important instrument in transforming and
renewing their tradition. When we respect our blood ancestors and our spiritual
ancestors, we feel rooted. If we find ways to cherish and develop our spiritual
heritage, we will avoid the kind of alienation that is destroying society, and
we will become whole again. ... Learning to touch deeply the jewels of our own
tradition will allow us to understand and appreciate the values of other
traditions, and this will benefit everyone.”
“When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is
the beginning of insight.”
“A real love letter is made of insight, understanding, and
compassion. Otherwise it's not a love letter. A true love letter can produce a
transformation in the other person, and therefore in the world. But before it
produces a transformation in the other person, it has to produce a
transformation within us. Some letters may take the whole of our lifetime to
write.”
“Our notions about happiness entrap us. We forget that they
are just ideas. Our idea of happiness can prevent us from actually being happy.
We fail to see the opportunity for joy that is right in front of us when we are
caught in a belief that happiness should take a particular form.”
“If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and to love
ourselves, we cannot take care of the people we love. Loving oneself
is the foundation for loving another person.”
“Words and thoughts concerning compassionate action that are
not put into practice are like beautiful flowers that are colorful but have no
fragrance.”
“Your true home is in the here and the now.”