Opening the Heart of the Cosmos Quotes

“This is the great insight of the Mahayana—that everyone can become a Buddha. What Siddhartha achieved, all of us can also achieve, whether we are a man or a woman, no matter what social class or ethnic group we were born into, or whether we practice as a monastic or as a layperson. We all have the capacity to become a fully enlightened Buddha. And while on the path to becoming a fully enlightened Buddha, we are all bodhisattvas.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra

“Therefore the Lotus Sutra is like a cool breeze, a gentle rain, assuaging the stifling atmosphere of contention between the conservatives and the progressives.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra

“The concept of “emptiness” here is not a form of nihilism as some early Western scholars of Buddhism thought; it simply means that all things are empty of an inherent, unchanging, and permanent nature—no thing exists independently and remains fixed, but arises due to a set of constantly changing causes and conditions. This is the insight of interbeing.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra

“Whenever everyone’s eyes are fixed on the earth—looking at the trees, plants, hills, mountains, or each other—then we know we are in the historical dimension, the world of birth and death. But when everyone’s eyes look into space then we have entered the ultimate dimension, the unborn and undying world.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra

“If you know your true nature of no coming, no going; no being, no nonbeing; no birth, no death, then you will have no fear and can dwell in the ultimate dimension, nirvana, right here and now.

You don’t have to die in order to reach nirvana. When you dwell in your true nature, you are already dwelling in nirvana. We have our historical dimension but we also have our ultimate dimension, just as the Buddha does.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra