No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Being able to enjoy happiness doesn’t require that we have zero suffering. In fact, the art of happiness is also the art of suffering well. When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand our suffering, we suffer much less.

Breathing in, I know suffering is there. Breathing out, I say hello to my suffering.

When you practice mindfulness of breathing, you know right away that you are alive, and that to be alive is a wonder. If you can be aware that you have a living body, and notice when there’s tension in your body, that’s already an important insight. With that insight, you have already begun to diagnose the situation. You don’t need to practice eight years or twenty years in order to wake up.

We run away from ourselves because we don’t want to be with ourselves.

“Good morning, my pain, my sorrow, my fear. I see you. I am here. Don’t worry.”

great suffering is not at all the same thing as giving in to it. Once you have offered your acknowledgment and care to this suffering, it naturally will become less impenetrable and more workable; and then you have the chance to look into it deeply, with kindness (but still always with a solid ground of mindful breathing to support you), and find out why it has come to you. It is trying to get your attention, to tell you something, and now you can take the opportunity to listen. You can ask someone to look with you—a teacher, a friend, a psychotherapist. Whether alone or together with your friends, you can explore what kind of roots it has, and what nutriments and habits of consumption have been feeding your sorrow. You can discover how, through looking deeply, you can transform this organic “garbage” into compost, which in turn may become many beautiful flowers of understanding, compassion, and joy.

Every one of us has Buddha nature—the capacity for compassionate, clear, understanding nature—within us.

Before my mother gave birth to me, she had a miscarriage. The child who didn’t arrive that time—was he my brother or was he me? We aren’t the same, but we aren’t totally different. My feet have been transmitted to me by my ancestors. When I walk, I walk with my own feet, but these feet are also theirs. I can see the hand of my mother in my hand. I can see the arms of my father in my arms. I am my parents continuation.

Many people suffer due to the fear of dying. We want to live forever. We fear annihilation. We don’t want to pass from being into nonbeing. This is understandable. If you believe that one day you will cease to exist altogether, it can be very scary. But if you take the time to still the activities of body and mind and look deeply, you may see that you are dying right this very moment. You think that you will die in a few years, or twenty years, or thirty years. That’s not true. You are dying now. You have been dying all the time. It’s actually very pleasant to die, which is also to live.

“Listening like this, my sole aim is to help the other person to suffer less. She may be full of wrong perceptions, but I won’t interrupt her. If I jump in with my perspective on things or correct her, it will become a debate, not a practice of deep listening. Another time, there may be a chance for me to offer her a little information so that she can correct her wrong perception. But not now.”

the stress of the actual event, by ten times or even more. Part of the art of suffering well is learning not to magnify our pain by getting carried away in fear, anger, and despair. We build and maintain our energy reserves to handle the big sufferings; the little sufferings we can let go.

Enlightenment is always enlightenment about something. You are aware that you are alive; that is already enlightenment. You are aware that you have a body; that is already enlightenment. You are aware that your feet are strong enough for you to enjoy walking; that is also enlightenment.

A small portion of happiness is a kind of soup. With a few ingredients, an open mind, and a little resourcefulness, we can make a moment of happiness for ourselves and for the person next to us. We can offer some of our tasty soup to someone else. If we know how to create a moment of happiness, we get to enjoy that happiness ourselves, and we can also double it by sharing it with another person. That is the art of happiness, tasting and delighting in the little happinesses of daily life.

The most precious thing you can offer the person you love is your presence.

A good environment allows the best things in us to manifest. A toxic environment can bring out the worst things in us.

our daily lives, many of us are in toxic environments of mutually reinforcing suspicion, competition, greed, and jealousy. We consume our environment as a kind of food, and its good or harmful elements seep into us.

You may find yourself in a negative environment you can’t get out of due to the realities of family needs or financial constraints. In that case, you can be a force for positive change. Start by creating your own safe harbor, even if it’s only one corner of a room or a desk. There are also wholesome communities online that you can join. Don’t give up hope.

best way to help others lessen their fear, craving, and violence is to show them there is another way.

In the collective action, you can see the individual aspect. There are those who sit differently than others. There are some who focus more easily, some who need more support. In the collective we can see the individual, and in the individual there is the collective. There is no absolute individuality; there is no absolute collectivity.

You don’t have to spend an hour every time you want to buy one item; but you can feel much happier when you know the things in your home are not infused with the pain of child laborers or a poisoned field.

To love is, first of all, to accept ourselves as we actually are.

May I be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May she be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May he be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May they be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May I be safe and free from injury. May she be safe and free from injury. May he be safe and free from injury. May they be safe and free from injury. May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety. May she be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety. May he be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety. May they be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety.

Begin practicing this love meditation on yourself (“I”). Until you are able to love and take care of yourself, you cannot be of much help to others. After that, practice on others (“he/she,” “they”)—first on someone you like, then on someone neutral to you, then on someone you love, and finally on someone the mere thought of whom makes you suffer.

The Buddha observed, “The person who suffers most in this world is the person who has many wrong perceptions, and most of our perceptions are erroneous.”

“May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.”

I get to rest and sleep, but my heart never stops.

In our daily lives we have the habit of running. We seek peace, success, and love—we are always on the run—and our steps are one means by which we run away from the present moment. But life is available only in the present moment; peace is available only in the present moment.