Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There is no armor like perseverance.
Meditation is bringing the mind home.
Learning to live is learning to let go.
The act of meditation is being spacious.
Let the sky outside awake a sky inside your mind.
Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha.
Real devotion is an unbroken receptivity to the truth
The future is very much in our hands--in our actions.
Everything can be used as an invitation to meditation
Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow.
Our buddha nature is as good as any buddha’s buddha nature.
Sitting like a mountain let your mind rise and fly and soar.
Tomorrow or the next life - which comes first, we never know.
In this complex world, the best way to survive is to be genuine.
Theories are like patches on a coat, one day they just wear off.
The key to finding a happy balance in modern lives is simplicity.
Let your heart go out in spontaneous and immeasurable compassion.
Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.
There would be no chance to get to know death at all ...if it happened only once.
We may idealize freedom, but when it comes to our habits, we are completely enslaved.
What should we "do" with the mind in meditation? Nothing. Just leave it, simply, as it is.
More important than finding the teacher is finding and following the truth of the teaching.
The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this lifetime.
Light must come from inside. You cannot ask the darkness to leave; you must turn on the light.
We must never forget that it is through our actions, words, and thoughts that we have a choice.
Even though the meditator may leave the meditation, the meditation will not leave the meditator.
The most essential thing in life is to establish an unafraid, heartfelt communication with others.
...we and all sentient beings fundamentally have the buddha nature as our innermost essence. . . .
Our problems, all come from nothing; they are all based on a misunderstanding that does not even exist.
Just as the ocean has waves or the sun has rays, so the minds's own radiance is its thoughts and emotions.
This dying forces you to look into yourself. And in this, compassion is the only way. Love is the only way.
The spiritual journey is one of continuous learning and purification. When you know this, you become humble.
Why, if we are as pragmatic as we claim, don't we begin to ask ourselves seriously: Where does our real future lie?
Whatever we have done with our lives makes us what we are when we die. And everything, absolutely everything, counts.
When I came to the West, I realized there was much hunger for spiritual teachings, but no environment for spirituality.
Living with the immediacy of death helps you sort out your priorities in life. It helps you to live a less trivial life.
I can't say it strongly enough; to integrate meditation in action is the whole ground and point and purpose of meditation
The whole of meditation practice can be essentialized into these 3 crucial points: Bring your mind home. Release. And relax!
Samsara is the mind turned outwardly, lost in its projections. Nirvana is the mind turned inwardly, recognizing its true nature.
If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful, just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear.
Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.
There is only one way of attaining liberation and of obtaining the omniscience of enlightenment: following an authentic spiritual master.
The absolute truth cannot be realized within the domain of the ordinary mind, and the path beyond the ordinary mind is the path of the heart.
It is compassion, then, that is the best protection; it is also, as the great masters of the past have always known, the source of all healing.
And when you talk about realization, accomplishment for that matter enlightenment is that when you realize the fundamental essence of your mind.
The masters say if you create an auspicious condition in your body and your environment then meditation and realization will automatically arise.
What we have to learn, in both meditation and in life, is to be free of attachment to the good experiences, and free of aversion to the negative ones.
Just because we go through a difficult situation, it doesn’t mean that the future is predetermined. The future is very much in our hands, in our actions.
Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life reveals just the opposite: that letting go is the real path to freedom.
Real devotion is an unbroken receptivity to the truth. Real devotion is rooted in an awed and reverent gratitude, but one that is lucid, grounded, and intelligent.