No Mud, No Lotus Quotes

“With mindful breathing, you can recognize the presence of a painful feeling, just like an older sibling greets a younger sibling. You can say, “Hello, my suffering. I know you are there.” In this way, the energy of mindfulness keeps us from being overwhelmed by painful feelings. 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.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“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. If, however, we are preoccupied with the fear and despair in us, we can’t help remove the suffering of others. There is an art to suffering well. 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.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“The notions we entertain about what will bring us happiness are just a trap. We forget that they are only ideas. 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.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“The point of meditation is not to turn yourself into a battlefield, one side opposing the other. Conscious breathing soothes and calms the anger, and mindfulness penetrates it. Anger is just an energy, and all energies can be transformed. Meditation is the art of using one kind of energy to transform another.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“we've seen that our suffering is connected with the suffering of our ancestors, our loved ones, and with the planet itself, so we know our happiness is not an individual matter. If we are able to breathe happily, we can invite our ancestors to enjoy breathing in with our lungs. If we are able to enjoy walking, we can invite our ancestors to walk with our feet.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“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.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“When we suffer we think that the other person has caused our suffering. “She doesn’t love me. So why do I have to love her?” Our natural tendency is to want to punish the other person. And the way we do that is to show her that “I can survive very well without you.” This is an indirect way of saying: “I don’t need you.” But that’s not true love. Many of us have made that mistake. I also have made that mistake. But we learn. In fact, when we suffer we do need the other person. That’s the commitment we made in the beginning of our relationship.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“You see clearly that he has a lot of pain inside and doesn’t know how to handle it. That is why he suffers so much and makes the people around him suffer. What he needs is help, not punishment. If you stay with this practice, the suffering of anger or jealousy in you will dissipate and the flower of compassion will be born.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“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.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“When we feel suffering, we have the urge to run away from it and fill ourselves up with junk food, junk entertainment, anything to keep our mind off the pain that is there inside us. It doesn’t work. We may succeed in numbing ourselves from it for a little while, but the suffering inside wants our attention and it will fester and churn away until it gets it.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“If we’re feeding our suffering while we’re walking, working, eating, or talking, we are making ourselves victims of the ghosts of the past, of the future, or our worries in the present. We’re not living our lives.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“When suffering arises, the first thing to do is to stop, follow our breathing, and acknowledge it. Don’t try to deny uncomfortable emotions or push them down.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“To connect with others, however, we first have to be willing to look deeply into ourselves.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“When we feel suffering, we have the urge to run away from it and fill ourselves up with junk food, junk entertainment, anything to keep our mind off the pain that is there inside us.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“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.”
― Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“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.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“Knowing how to suffer well is essential to realizing true happiness. SUFFERING”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

“One day the Buddha was sistting with some of his monks in the woods. They had just come back from an almsround and were ready to share a mindful lunch together. A farmer passed by, looking distraught.

He asked the Buddha, "Monks, have you seen some cows going by here?"
"What cows?" the Buddha responded.
"Well," the man said, "I have four cows and I don't know why, but this morning they all ran aay. I also have two acres of sesame. This year the insects ate the entire crop. I have lost everything: my harvest and my cows. I feel like killing myself."
The Buddha said, "Dear friend, we have been sitting here almost an hour and we have not seen any cows passing by. Maybe you should go and lookin the other direction."

When the farmer was gone, the Buddha looked at his friends and smiled knowingly. "Dear friends, you are very lucky," he said. "You don't have any cows to lose.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering