Tag: Thich Nhat Hanh

The New Eight Steps to Happiness – Thich Nhat Hanh

Ginevra Kirkland

All living beings deserve to be cherished because of the tremendous kindness they have shown us.

All our temporary and ultimate happiness arises through their kindness.

Even our body is the result of the kindness of others. We did not bring it with us from our previous life.

The mere fact that we are alive today is a testimony to the great kindness of others.

It is because we have this present body with human faculties that we are able to enjoy all the pleasures and opportunities of human life.

Even simple pleasures such as going for a walk or watching a beautiful sunset can be seen to be a result of the kindness of innumerable living beings.

Our skills and abilities all come from the kindness of others: we had to be taught how to eat, how to walk, how to talk, and how to read and write.

Even the language we speak is not our own invention but the product of many generations.

Without it we could not communicate with others or share their ideas.

We could not read this book, learn Dharma or even think clearly.

All the facilities we take for granted, such as houses, cars, roads, shops, schools, hospitals and cinemas, are produced solely through others’ kindness.

When we travel by bus or car we take the roads for granted, but many people worked very hard to build them and make them safe for us to use.

From “Living Buddha, Living Christ” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Ginevra Kirkland

“Mindfulness of breathing is your island, where you can be safe and happy, knowing that whatever happens, you are doing your best thing. This is the way to take refuge in the Buddha, not as mere devotion but as a transformational practice. You do not have to abandon this world. You do not have to go to heaven or wait for the future to take refuge. You can take refuge here and now. You only need to dwell deeply in the present moment.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Existence: Thich Nhat Hanh

Ginevra Kirkland

njudahlove:

It is night.
Rain pelts the roof.
The soul awakens
to a flooded Earth—
a sea of storm
roaring,
then passing.

In that short moment,
shifting lines and shapes,
fleeting,
barely seen.

Before the passing moment tilts
and falls to melancholy,
laughter sounds
in quiet raindrops.

“This poem was written in Saigon in 1965. It was raining hard. There was so much death and killing, so much destruction. And yet in one moment, I could hear the laughter in a raindrop.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

from Tumblr https://seekingstars.tumblr.com/post/628965792571146240

Please Call Me By My True Names – Thích Nhất Hạnh

Ginevra Kirkland

Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow— even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to my people dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh's Calligraphy Exhibit: Five Pieces From the Show ...