10 Best Quotes | Tribute to Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh was an incredible teacher who impacted the lives of millions of people. He was and still is, one of my most influential teachers. Here are 10 Great Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh. His ability to translate living with presence, heart, and compassion into everyday life was both artful and masterful. May he rest in peace. May his teachings and memories for bringing peace into our lives and the world, continue on and on.

Transcript

Whether you feel like you're living in the upside down or you just want to feel more grounded or live in a wiser way,

You might do what a lot of us do which is look to quotes from our most respected teachers.

And so today I want to explore with you 10 of my favorite quotes from a teacher who has had a huge influence on my life and millions of lives around the world,

Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thich Nhat Hanh has been known as the father of mindfulness.

He is the person who really pioneered modern mindfulness into the west and also has shown us that we can use what he's teaching us not only to heal ourselves but as actions that can move out into healing the larger world.

Stay tuned.

Okay so the first quote is something practical we can bring into our lives.

It can make really a deep impact if we if we bring it into our lives every day.

I found a wonderful site that I'm going to share with you that brings a lot of his quotes together called the Thich Nhat Hanh Collective.

And so here it is and here's the quote that I want to share with you.

Bring it down a little bit.

When we walk like we are rushing,

Which many of us do,

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,

Which reminds me of this experience of a soul kiss.

Soul being the bottom of your foot but also meaning your soul.

So that when you're walking like each step is a soul kiss.

And we can think of it like that.

And isn't it true when we're rushing we're printing anxiety and sorrow on the earth.

We're also printing it in our soul almost.

We're keeping that energy going.

But if we slow down and we actually feel the connection of our feet to the earth,

It allows us to bring a bit more peace and serenity.

Not just on the earth but you can think of that contact.

That that's what you're giving the earth as you're walking it that way.

And that can also give you something.

But even just for yourself,

Just that walking and feeling the connection of your feet on the earth actually turns the volume down on your thinking and helps you come into a place of greater peace and ease.

Okay,

Second quote.

Today anything is possible because you are alive everything is possible.

Right?

So because you are alive everything is possible.

So this is a quote that's filled with hope.

It's filled with a sense of flexibility of mind.

Oftentimes when we're feeling anxious or depressed or just not well in general our brain becomes a bit more rigid or chaotic.

And so we step into this place and say you know because I'm alive maybe there's more possibilities than my mind is thinking of.

Maybe I can go instead of just sitting here and dwelling or wallowing in my experience or sitting here and just being frenetic in my anxiety.

Maybe I can ask myself what I need and I can go on a walk or I can call a friend or I can make something or I can clean an area of my house or I can do something that gives me a pleasure or accomplishment.

Or maybe I can think bigger and vision bigger and I can accomplish more than ever thought I could.

I never thought I could write a book in my life.

It wasn't until I saw my dad write a book that I thought you know what wow if he can do it maybe I can do it.

And I saw another mentor of mine publish a CD program prior to that.

I thought you know what if he can publish a CD program I can publish a CD program.

And so I was able to do that.

Because you are alive everything is possible.

Okay third quote.

This is maybe a little harder for you to read almost because it's smaller.

But I like I'm putting these in like these these memes that I'm finding on the site that are correlated with these quotes that I love.

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky.

Conscious breathing is my anchor.

So this speaks to this idea that emotions are energy in motion they come and go.

And they're like clouds in the sky or like everything else in nature they come and go.

And things are made up of energy and all energy shifts and changes and comes and goes.

And so and so here we are when we are feeling sadness or anger or even joy or lightness we can begin to recognize that these feelings have an impermanent nature to them.

And so when I allow myself to come down from the busyness of my mind or the hecticness of this energy that's here and allow myself to be aware of my breath it becomes an anchor to the present moment.

I'm not necessarily dwelling on the past anymore.

I'm not worrying catastrophizing about the future.

I'm just here in this present moment anchoring myself.

A little bit of the neuroscience behind that by the way is that when we're able to just be here with this breath turns the volume down on the part of our brain that's actually worrying thinking and defaulting to trying to problem solve and fix everything.

So there's an inverse relationship like justice scales.

When one is up the other one tends to go down.

And so our breathing when we get really good at it of being aware of our breath in this way we can really use it as an anchor to this present moment as things come and go as storms in our minds and bodies shift and change.

Okay next quote.

We'll see if you can it might be small on your screen but hopefully you can read it.

The ocean of suffering is immense but if you turn around you can see the land.

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.

When one tree in the garden is sick you have to take care of it but don't overlook all the healthy trees even while you have pain in your heart and you can enjoy the many wonders of life.

The beautiful sunset the smile of a child the many flowers and trees to suffer is not enough.

Please don't be imprisoned by your suffering.

Incredible.

This reminds me of the of the quote wherever your focus goes energy flows or reminds me of the quote by Jon Kabat-Zinn where he says there's another mindfulness teacher who says as long as you're living and breathing there's more right with you than wrong with you.

So again when we when we tend to not feel well we tend to become anxious or feel kind of down or depressed get caught in our past trauma our brain defaults to the negativity bias.

The negative stuff is so sticky but what but what Thich Nhat Hanh says here or has his as his students and followers call him Thai which means teacher says um hey there is a lot yeah of course there's so much suffering that could be here at the same time there's other things here.

One of my students in the uncover the power within program said something so beautiful around parenting she said you know what when I feel really overwhelmed and stressed what I do as I look at my daughter and I start looking at her eyelashes and the small features on her face and realize how beautiful they are and how intricate they are and how precious they are and that that's also there at the same time.

So while this difficulty is having happening all these other beauties are happening too.

Let's not allow ourselves to only focus on the challenges but also be aware of the beauty of this life at the same time and then see what you notice.

Okay all right next one and this one's also a little bit small give you the full picture here of the art that's here.

Breathing in and this is what Thich Nhat Hanh is so famous for he's such a beautiful way of creating a certain saying while while aligning it with the breath.

Breathing in I'm aware of my body.

Breathing out I celebrate my body.

So much to celebrate here there's so much working for us our our heart is pumping our lungs are allowing us to breathe this air.

Breathing in I feel calm in my body.

Breathing out I release the tension in my body.

If you want to pause the video here and just rewind I'm going to read this in a way where you can close your eyes and you can practice it.

You don't have to do that but if you want to and have that experience go ahead.

So get in a comfortable position you can gently allow your eyes to close.

Breathing in I'm aware of my body.

Breathing out I celebrate my body.

Breathing in I feel calm in my body.

Breathing out I release the tension in my body.

So if you did that or you just followed it right now see what you notice from that.

One of the very introductory aspects of teaching meditation or mindfulness or just living well in life and it's the foundation underpinning initial foundation within the Uncover the Power Within program is is learning how to release the tension in your body to relax and retune your nervous system and so just play with this on its own and see if this has a positive impact in the moments of your life today and tomorrow.

Okay next quote here's the the art of this again.

For things to reveal themselves to us we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

For things to reveal themselves to us we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

There's so much wisdom in this quote and let me explain it let me explain what that is if you if you aren't seeing it.

So what this is saying is when as we grow up in life our brain habituates to things that the nature of our brain is to freeze things to put it in a box to so it can handle more things so it can see this person and say I know who this person is I don't have to like think about it too much so I can know that this person is and also do this work project at the same time or I know exactly what this food is going to taste like I don't like it or I like that food or or I know that when I get really stressed what's soothing to me is stress eating or yelling at my kids or you know and so we can get into that or drinking we can get into unhealthy behaviors as well.

So what this is saying is for things to reveal themselves to us for for us to have insight we need to be ready to abandon our views about them so we need to be able to step aside and bring a beginner's mind a sense of curiosity to the moment.

Maybe this person has changed over time a little bit maybe there's more to them than I knew 10 years ago.

Maybe that's the same with myself maybe I'm not an anxious person if we call ourselves an anxious person guess what we're going to be an anxious person maybe there's more to me than that maybe in the past I labeled myself as an anxious person going forward I'll notice that there's anxiety there and there's also all these other things I have these new tools and ways to meet it so I'm actually more of a confident person or growing in confidence over my emotional life.

So there's different ways of doing maybe in the past I say well I'm a stress eater well maybe in the past I've been a stress eater but let me actually investigate the nature of what I'm avoiding by doing that and I can break free from that rigidity I can bring a sense of curiosity and a beginner's mind to life so I can feel more connected with other human beings more connected with myself and actually live a bit more intentionally in this life.

Okay a lot of freedom in that.

Okay next one today be in the present moment so Thich Nhat Hanh says the present moment is filled with joy and happiness if you are attentive you will see it this goes with the earlier quote we had about don't be married to your suffering where in this one he says all right so again wherever your focus goes we invite an energy to flow and and in this one it reminds me of a practice I do with people where I say all right take five seconds to look around you and see if you can record everything around you that's brown and so you can do that right now five four three two one now close your eyes and see if you can remember everything around you that's green now if you're like most people you'll have a hard time remembering that however all that green stuff is there I promise you one of the things we do in my uncover the power within program is we do these walk and talks and inevitably we practice together bringing mindfulness into our daily life while moving and then we move more into personalized coaching after that but inevitably as we do that in the beginning as we allow ourselves to be more present to the walking outside or inside typically what happens is we start to notice things that we didn't know were there one woman recently noticed this whole stream that as she took a walk that she she had never that she knew was there but never gave herself the opportunity to sit by and be with and notice that the rush of the stream and the sound was so soothing to her mind and body and now she realized she had access to this or other people notice the the the sounds of birds around us did you know that having more birds around you like in your environment actually is correlated with feeling happier there's actually research on that other people notice that that as they engage their laundry because they're inside they can have a different relationship with that and it's no longer this thing to do but it's something that they can actually move through in a soothing way and feel more relaxed on the other end of it so much green around us but we don't see it because our brain defaults to that negativity bias so the present moment is filled with joy and happiness if you are attentive you will see it just like that woman I described in our program who looks at her daughter's eyelashes same idea if you are attentive you will see it okay next quote here we go you can choose what to focus on and therefore what to be you can choose to be your in-breath and out-breath you can choose to listen with your whole being to the sound of the rain or the wind and in some way to be one with the rain or the wind listening to sounds in this way can be very joyful then you are in touch with these refreshing and healing elements you are being and not thinking and that's the issue is we we oftentimes get caught dwelling in the past or worrying about the future we're thinking thinking thinking it's our number one bad habit but really in this life we want to be able to dwell in the moment we want to be here for it so many years from now at the end of life we look back and say I was there I and also what's spoken to in this quote is that same thing that that that quote that's been attributed to victor frankl who's a holocaust survivor and a neurologist who said between stimulus and response there's a space in that space lies our power to choose our response and our response lies our growth and our freedom so here we are we're saying like we can step into this space of awareness we have more choice and with our choice we can choose to focus on things that nurture us that feed us that bring us joy that are more filled with wonder all of that stuff is here and we can choose to do that now with our focus okay the final quote that I want to or one more quote another the next quote sorry that I want to bring to us here is spirituality is not religion it is a path for us to generate happiness and a spirituality kind of like says oh spirituality what's that spirituality is just a sense of like oh wow the world isn't just about me there's something greater out there than than just me and that I'm connected to right spirituality is not just religion it is a path for us to generate happiness understanding and love so we can live deeply each moment of our life having a spiritual dimension in our lives does not mean escaping life or dwelling in a place of bliss outside this world but discovering ways to handle life's difficulties and generate peace joy and happiness right where we are on this beautiful planet and I think if there's one thing that Ty or Thich Nhat Hanh reminds me of one of the things that he's taught me so well in this life it's that life is only lived here that's it it isn't some outside place it's it's through this life the wonders of being human through our challenges beautiful moments of life this is the experience of being human and we can bring that sense of interconnectedness or connected to something greater right here in this space okay so now this final quote I've left this one really intentionally because this is one that shares that what we do in life has ripple effects across the people that view us and see us and this is well documented in the research around emotional contagion and behavioral contagion and so know that your practice in this work or living well or being healthy in your own way has impact on the people that you care about and even strangers that see you so let's move into this when you walk with mindfulness you set an example for everyone who sees you even if you don't realize it when we when we see you walking with freedom with peace with joy we may be motivated by the desire to mirror you which by the way is so common in our culture it's it's native to us to mirror the people around us together without effort we create more of an atmosphere of peace and happiness so this is upon us our work and taking care of ourselves and loving ourselves and bringing more presence and awareness in our lives isn't only for us it's for the people that we live with it's for the people we love it's for the friends and family around us it's for the people we're in contact with in our workplace it's for the strangers who view us and see us one of the practices i have is this practice of looking around me and seeing the people around me who are really taking care of my of themselves like whether they're jogging on the street they're laughing and spending time with friends and i say in my mind good for you you're you're a human being just like me who wants to feel cared about and understood who wants a sense of happiness in this world and a sense of belonging and you're really taking care of yourself good for you and i have a whole video here that i'll leave on the other end it's a simple trick for for joy in our lives and it integrates this talks a little bit more about it and and so here's what he's talking about he's talking about this is greater than ourselves and it's such a beautiful message so i hope you enjoyed this i look forward to seeing you next time

Reviews

These were wonderful!Thank you for sharing 🙏

Beautiful collection of encouraging quotes delivered in an uplifting manner. Thank you.

Well presented, and I loved the first one about walking on the Earth.

deLIGHTful🥰🕊️🪷www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa www.compassioncourse.org

Thank you! I needed to hear all of this today, now, in this moment.

Reflections on Thay's wisdom in ten quotes.

Wonderful quotes that help one to stay mindful and look for and appreciate the beauty and joy of living here and now. Namaste 🤓🙏🏻

Pure Thay. Thank you for this compilation of teachings from my Teacher. A deep bow 🙏. Your Right Action will reverberate. Bless you.

Loved this, thank you 🙏

Such a good chat... Felt like I was sat beside you and sharing in your wisdom. Thank you

I am grateful to you for providing Thay’s teachings here. It is an invaluable & wonderful resource. Ty!!

Wonderful! Thank you

Great explanations. Thanks

An insightful look into some of Thich Nhat Hanh's wise mindful quotes.

Thank you for this tribute to an incredible meditation teacher!