No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

by Thich Nhat Hanh

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.

Thinking we should be able to have a life without any suffering is as deluded as thinking we should be able to have a left side without a right side.

The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a course of action that generates suffering; suffering ceases (i.e., there is happiness); and there is a course of action leading to the cessation of suffering (the arising of happiness).

The way we start producing the medicine of mindfulness is by stopping and taking a conscious breath, giving our complete attention to our in-breath and our out-breath. When we stop and take a breath in this way, we unite body and mind and come back home to ourselves. We feel our bodies more fully. We are truly alive only when the mind is with the body. The great news is that oneness of body and mind can be realized just by one in-breath.

If we know how to take care of our suffering, we not only suffer much, much less, we also create more happiness around us and in the world.

When we bring our mind home to our body, something wonderful happens; our mental discourse stops its chattering.

But if we don’t have the time and the willingness to take care of ourselves, how can we offer any genuine care to the people we love?

We can even smile to our suffering and say, “Good morning, my pain, my sorrow, my fear. I see you. I am here. Don’t worry.”

A mother taking care of a crying baby naturally will take the child into her arms without suppressing, judging it, or ignoring the crying. Mindfulness is like that mother, recognizing and embracing suffering without judgment.

If we can recognize and cradle the suffering while we breathe mindfully, there is relief already.

But nonjudgmentally recognizing and embracing this great suffering is not at all the same thing as giving in to it.

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

If you want to experience what the end of suffering will feel like, it is in the here and the now with this breath. If you want nirvana, it’s right here. Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I smile.

A human being without understanding is a human being without compassion, utterly alone, cut off, and isolated. To connect with others, however, we first have to be willing to look deeply into ourselves.

Getting angry with your father, you’re getting angry with yourself. The suffering of the parent is the suffering of the child. Looking deeply is a chance to transform and heal this suffering and stop the cycle.

“Can I realize my deepest aspiration if I pursue this path?” “What is really preventing me from taking the path I most deeply desire?”

Happiness is impermanent, like everything else. In order for happiness to be extended and renewed, you have to learn how to feed your happiness.

Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won’t have to go around searching for it.

We each have many kinds of “seeds” lying deep in our consciousness. Those we water are the ones that sprout, come up into our awareness, and manifest outwardly.

The first verse is: Waking up this morning I smile. I have twenty-four hours to live. I vow to live them deeply and learn to look at the beings around me with the eyes of compassion.

Letting go doesn’t mean we let go of everything. We don’t let go of reality. But we let go of our wrong ideas and wrong perceptions about reality.

you can only love and understand another when you have practiced love and understanding for yourself.

When someone congratulates you or criticizes you, you can use the sixth mantra: “Darling, you are partly right.” This means that “Your criticism or praise is only partly right, because I have both weaknesses and strengths in me.

When we experience a strong emotion, the mind is agitated like the top of the tree. We have to bring our mind down to the trunk, to the abdomen, and focus all our attention on the rise and fall of the abdomen.

Once we love and take care of ourselves, we can be much more helpful to others.

Metta means loving kindness in Pali.

As we become aware of the feelings in us, our self-understanding will deepen.

According to the Buddha, a human being is made of five elements, called skandhas in Sanskrit. They are: form (body), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.

Usually you follow ingrained habits. But when you look deeply, you see that many of these habits harm your body and mind, so you work to transform your habits in ways conducive to good health and vitality.

Please write beautifully the sentence, “Are you sure?” on a piece of paper and tape it to your wall.

The soil of our mind contains many seeds, positive and negative. We are the gardeners who identify, water, and cultivate the best seeds.

Meditation is the art of using one kind of energy to transform another.

Our idea of happiness can prevent us from being happy. When we believe that happiness should take a particular form, we fail to see the opportunities for joy that are right in front of us.

Kayagatasati Sutta,

But life is available only in the present moment; peace is available only in the present moment.

For those of us who are used to always running, it is a revolution to make a step and stop running. We make a step, and if we know how to make it, peace becomes available in that moment of touching the Earth with our feet.

“I have arrived, I have arrived.” When you breathe out, you might like to take three steps and say: “I am home, I am home, I am home.”

Let your steps follow your breath, not the other way around.

According to Master Linji the miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on Earth. Walk in such a way that you become fully alive and joy and happiness are possible.