No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

by Thich Nhat Hanh

If we take care of the suffering inside us, we have more clarity, energy, and strength to help address the suffering violence, poverty, and inequity of our loved ones as well as the suffering in our community and the world.

We ruminate on suffering, regret, and sorrow. We chew on them, swallow them, bring them back up, and eat them again and again.

When we breathe in and focus our attention on our in-breath, we reunite body and mind.

We fear that if we release our diversions and come back to ourselves, we’ll be overwhelmed by the suffering, despair, anger, and loneliness inside.

if you have suffering in you and you don’t know where it comes from, looking deeply you may see that this is the suffering of your ancestors,

If we haven’t taken the time to stop, come home to ourselves, and look deeply, we may not know what brings us our deepest happiness.