Home > Work > Enjoying the Ultimate: Commentary on the Nirvana Chapter of the Chinese Dharmapada
1 " Nirvana isn’t merchandise for sale. Any religion can sell a paradise, a pure land, or nirvāṇa. But is nirvāṇa a product that the Buddha and ancestral teachers want to sell us? Is it a promised land or paradise up in the sky, which people try to sell us saying: “If you follow our religion, if you become a member of our congregation, then after you die you will have nirvāṇa or the Kingdom of Heaven”? We can see clearly that it is not. "
― Thich Nhat Hanh , Enjoying the Ultimate: Commentary on the Nirvana Chapter of the Chinese Dharmapada
2 " People have lost faith in God and the Kingdom of God because they have put God in the wrong place. If they put God in the right place, in their own heart, the spiritual crisis will come to an end. This is a spiritual and a cultural matter. In the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions there are people who have discovered that God does not belong to the future or to another place. "
3 " As a practitioner, you can create holiness. Holiness cannot be bestowed on us by someone else. ... We are a saint when we can produce holiness. "
4 " I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. "
5 " That is the Buddha’s way of looking. Man is not our enemy. The things we need to transform are fanaticism, rivalry, discrimination, fear, and attachment. We transcend the ideas of clenched and open, knowing that whether clenched or open, it is still a hand. With that insight, we feel very well. We no longer hate or suffer. "
6 " (wu zuo), "
7 " Once one knows who one is, there is no need to be concerned about where one will go, whether it be the Pure Land, paradise, or Sukhāvatī (the Land of Great Happiness). "
8 " The second way of practice is to remove the discrimination that comes from dualistic thinking, that separates inside from outside; ourselves from others; the subject from the object; the spiritual from the material. With no more dualistic discrimination, we have an immense freedom that is nirvāṇa. "
9 " Reliance on the Dharma Rather than Reliance on the Person Who Teaches It. "
10 " Many Christian mystics talk of God as the absence of burning and discrimination. They do not see God as something external to themselves. They no longer look for God outside of themselves, but recognize God as the freedom and happiness that is available within their own consciousness. When the flames of desire and hatred no longer burn, and the sword of discrimination no longer divides, that is God. "
11 " Patience is the best way to protect oneself. "
12 " We just sit, smile, and breathe, because we know that arguing about the existence of God or nirvāṇa is a waste of time. "
13 " My child, you should practice so that your mind is like the earth. Whether people put on the earth fragrant oils, good-tasting food, excrement, or urine, the earth receives them all without discrimination. "
14 " My child, you should practice for your mind to be like water. When people put fragrant oils or milk into the water, it does not rejoice, and when people put excrement, mud, or urine into the water, the water is not angry, because the water has a tremendous capacity of acceptance and transformation. Water can purify everything. "
15 " Once a seed has been burnt, it cannot sprout anymore. If we are able to burn up the seeds of grief, sexual desire, and hatred, they will not sprout again. "
16 " The home of the deer is the countryside, the home of the birds is the sky, the home of all phenomena is the mind; the mind contains everything that is. "
17 " We are in nirvāṇa. The only problem is that we are not able to return to it. "
18 " Good health is the greatest profit. Satisfaction is the greatest of riches. Loyalty is your best friend. Nirvāṇa is the greatest delight. "
19 " Keep looking into the truth in order to have the understanding that nirvāṇa is the greatest happiness. "
20 " In the world, few people are on the wholesome path. Those on the unwholesome path are many. Look into the truth in order to understand how nirvāṇa is the most secure abode. "
