These are some of my kindle highlights from Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.
“Peace is every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy.”
“Every morning when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift!”
“The next time while driving, you see a red light, please smile at it and go back to your breathing. Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Happiness is there if you know how to breathe and smile, because happiness can always be found in the present moment.”
On Aimlessness: “In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go and are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route. There is a word in Buddhism that means “wishlessness” or “aimlessness”. The idea is that you do not put something in front of you and run after it, because everything is already here, in yourself.”
“Often we tell ourselves, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” But when we practice awareness, we discover something unusual. We discover that the opposite may be more helpful. “Don’t just do something, sit there!””
“Humankind’s survival depends on our ability to stop rushing. We have more than 50,000 nuclear bombs, and yet we cannot stop making more. “Stopping” is not only to stop the negative, but to allow the positive healing to take place. That is the purpose of our practice — not to avoid life, but to experience and demonstrate that happiness in life is possible now and also in the future.”
“The foundation of happiness is mindfulness. The basic condition for being happy is our counsciousness of being happy. If we are not aware that we are happy, we are not really happy.”
“What is the way to look at a flower so that I can make the most of it for my art?” I said, “If you look in that way, you cannot be in touch with the flower. Abandon all your projects so you can be with the flower with no intention of exploiting it or getting something from it.”
“It has become a kind of habit to look at things with intention of getting something. We call it 'pragmatism,' and we say that the truth is something that pays. If we meditate in order to get to the truth, it seems we will be well paid. In meditation, we stop, and we look deeply. We stop just to be there, to be with ourselves and with the world. When we are capable of stopping, we begin to see and, if we can see, we understand. Peace and happiness are the fruit of this process. We should master the art of stopping in order to really be with our friend and with the flower.”
“How can we bring elements of peace to a society that is very used to making profit? How can our smile be the source of joy and not just a diplomatic maneuver? When we smile to ourselves, that smile is not diplomacy; it is the proof that we are ourselves, that we have full sovereignity over ourselves.”
“When I think deeply about the nature of hope, I see something tragic. Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment. We use hope to believe something better will happen in the future. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover the joy that is already here.”
“To practice peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.”
“Expressing anger is not always the best way to deal with it. In expressing anger we might be practicing or rehearsing it, and making it stronger in the depth of our consciousness. Expressing anger to the person we are angry at can cause a lot of damage. Some of us prefer to go into our room, lock the door, and punch a pillow. We call this ‘getting in touch with our anger.’ But I don’t think this is getting in touch with our anger at all. In fact, I don’t think it is even getting in touch with our pillow. Pillow-pounding may provide some relief, but is not very long-lasting. In order to have real transformation, we have to deal with the roots of our anger — looking deeply into its causes. If we don’t, the seeds of anger will grow again.”
“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it is not doing well. If may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. This is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.”
“We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love. We must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations and sufferring of the person we love. This is the ground of real love. You cannot resist loving another person when you really understand him or her.”
“Love is a mind that brings peace, joy and happiness to another person. Compassion is a mind that removes suffering that is present in the other.”
“We can also meditate on the suffering of those who cause us to suffer. Anyone who has made us suffer is undoubtedly suffering too. We only need to follow our breathing and look deeply, and naturally we will see his suffering.”
Walt Whitman said, “I believe a leaf of grass is no less that the journey-work of the stars…” These words are no philosophy. They come from the depths of his soul. He said, “I am large, I contain multitudes.”
"Meditation is to look deeply into things and to see how we can change ourselves and how we can transform our situation. To transform our situation is also to transform our minds. To transform our minds is also to transform our situation, because situation is mind, and mind is situation."
"Ecology should be a deep ecology. Not only deep but universal, because there is pollution in our consciousness. Television, for instance, is a form of pollution for us and for our children. Television sows seeds of violence and anxiety in our children, and pollutes their consciousness, just as we destroy our environment by chemicals, tree-cutting, and polluting the water. We need to protect the ecology of the mind, or this kind of violence and recklessness will continue to spill over into many other areas of life."
"Practicing nonviolence is first of all to become nonviolence. Then when a difficult situation presents itself, we will react in a way that will help the situation. This applies to problems of the family as well as to problems of society."
"Meditation is a point of contact. sometimes you do not have to go to the place of suffering. You just sit quietly on your cushion, and you can see everything. You can actualize everything, and you can be aware of whats going on in the world. Out of that kind of awareness, compassion and understanding arise naturally, and you can stay right in your own country and perform social action."
"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth."
"Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive other's viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times."
"Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy and material resources with those who are in need."
"Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies for the realization of the Way."
"Are you planting seeds of joy and peace?
I try to do exactly that with every step, and I know that our Mother Earth is most appreciative.
Peace is every step.
Shall we continue our journey?"
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