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Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries QUOTES

Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries QUOTES

1 " Tomorrow, I will continue to be. But you will have to be very attentive to see me. I will be a flower, or a leaf. I will be in these forms and I will say hello to you. If you are attentive enough, you will recognize me, and you may greet me. I will be very happy. "

― Thich Nhat Hanh , Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries

2 " When we’re angry, our anger is our very self. To suppress or chase away our anger is to suppress or chase away ourselves. When we’re joyful, we are joy. When we’re angry, we are anger. When we love, we are love. When we hate, we are hatred. 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. "

― Thich Nhat Hanh , Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries

3 " When we live with another person, we should help each other transform the internal formations that we have produced in each other. By practicing understanding and loving speech, we can help each other a great deal. Happiness is no longer an individual matter. If the other person is not happy, we will not be happy either. Therefore, to transform the internal formations in the other is to bring about our own happiness as well. A person can create internal formations in her partner, and her partner can do so for her, and if they continue to create knots in each other, one day they’ll have no happiness left. A person needs to recognize quickly any newly formed knot inside herself. She should take the time to observe it and, with her partner’s help, transform the internal formation. She might say, “Darling, I have an internal formation. Can you please help me?” This is easy when the states of mind of both partners are still light and not loaded with many internal formations. "

― Thich Nhat Hanh , Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries

4 " Effortlessness is the key to success. Don’t fight. Don’t try hard. Just allow yourself to sit. This relaxing way of sitting is also resting. Allow your body to rest. "

― Thich Nhat Hanh , Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries

5 " This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is like this, because that is like that.” This is the Buddhist teaching of Genesis. "

― Thich Nhat Hanh , Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries

6 " Because we know that our feelings are ourselves, we do not neglect or overrule them. We embrace them affectionately in the arms of mindfulness, as a mother embraces her newborn child when it cries. A mother embraces the child with all her love for the child to feel comforted and stop crying. Mindfulness nourished by conscious breathing takes the feelings in its arms, becomes one with them, calms and transforms them. "

― Thich Nhat Hanh , Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries