The Monks and Me Quotes

“We are deemed successful, and therefore worthy of respect based on the simple fact that we managed to work enough hours, to accumulate enough wealth, to then have the means to acquire loads of stuff. How is sucking the life out of the planet admirable? It is a deeply flawed way of thinking and living.”
― Mary Paterson, The Monks and Me: How 40 Days at Thich Nhat Hanh's French Monastery Guided Me Home

“There have been many times you have been drinking tea and didn't know it, because you were absorbed in worries . . . . If you don't know how to drink your tea in mindfulness and concentration, you are not really drinking tea. You are drinking your sorrow, your fear, your anger—and happiness is not possible.”
― Mary Paterson, The Monks and Me: How 40 Days at Thich Nhat Hanh's French Monastery Guided Me Home