Thich Nhat Hanh, the influential Zen grasp, died at 95 on Saturday within the Vietnamese metropolis of Hue, on the temple the place he lived. A prolific creator, poet and trainer, he believed in what he referred to as “engaged Buddhism,” making use of Buddhist rules to social points in addition to to each day life. Here’s a modest collection of his ideas, drawn from books, speeches and revealed interviews.
On slowing down
“There is no such thing as a must run, try, search or wrestle. Simply be. Simply being within the second on this place is the deepest apply of meditation. Most individuals can not consider that simply strolling as you probably have nowhere to go is sufficient.”
“The Buddha stated, ‘My apply is the apply of nonpractice.’ Which means rather a lot. Surrender all wrestle. Enable your self to be, to relaxation.”
“Individuals speak about getting into nirvana, however we’re already there. Aimlessness and nirvana are one.”
“Many people have been working all our lives. Apply stopping.”
On dying
“Our biggest worry is that after we die we’ll develop into nothing. Many people consider that our whole existence is barely a life span starting the second we’re born or conceived and ending the second we die. We consider that we’re born from nothing and after we die we develop into nothing. And so we’re stuffed with worry of annihilation.
“The Buddha has a really totally different understanding of our existence. It’s the understanding that delivery and dying are notions. They aren’t actual. The truth that we predict they’re true makes a strong phantasm that causes our struggling. The Buddha taught that there is no such thing as a delivery; there is no such thing as a dying; there is no such thing as a coming; there is no such thing as a going; there is no such thing as a identical; there is no such thing as a totally different; there is no such thing as a everlasting self; there is no such thing as a annihilation. We solely assume there’s. Once we perceive that we can’t be destroyed, we’re liberated from worry. It’s a nice reduction. We are able to get pleasure from life and admire it in a brand new means.”
This physique is just not me. I’m not restricted by this physique.
I’m life with out boundaries.
I’ve by no means been born,
And I’ve by no means died.
On meditation
“Inhaling, repeat, ‘within the right here, within the right here.’ Respiratory out, ‘within the now, within the now.’ Though these are totally different phrases, they imply precisely the identical factor. I’ve arrived within the right here, I’ve arrived within the now. I’m residence within the right here. I’m residence within the now.”
“So please, whenever you apply meditation or strolling meditation, don’t make any effort. Enable your self to be like that pebble at relaxation. The pebble is resting on the backside of the river and the pebble doesn’t must do something. If you are strolling, you’re resting. If you are sitting, you’re resting.”
“To meditate means to go residence to your self. Then you understand how to maintain the issues which might be taking place inside you, and you understand how to maintain the issues that occur round you.”
“Simply be. Simply being within the second on this place is the deepest apply of meditation.”
On struggle
“We all know very nicely that airplanes, weapons and bombs can not take away improper perceptions. Solely loving speech and compassionate listening might help folks right improper perceptions. However our leaders aren’t educated in that self-discipline, they usually solely depend on the armed forces to take away terrorism.”
“To organize for struggle, to present tens of millions of women and men the chance to apply killing day and evening of their hearts, is to plant tens of millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration and worry that shall be handed on for generations to come back.”
“The apply of peace and reconciliation is without doubt one of the most significant and inventive of human actions.”
On mindfulness
“With mindfulness, you may set up your self within the current to be able to contact the wonders of life which might be out there in that second.”
“Many individuals are alive however don’t contact the miracle of being alive.”
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it’s the axis on which the entire earth revolves — slowly, evenly, with out speeding towards the long run. Reside the precise second. Solely this second is life.”
On struggling
“We now have the tendency to run away from struggling and to search for happiness. However, in reality, you probably have not suffered, you haven’t any probability to expertise actual happiness.”
“Buddhism teaches us to not attempt to run away from struggling. You need to confront struggling. You need to look deeply into the character of struggling to be able to acknowledge its trigger, the making of the struggling.”
“Individuals have a tough time letting go of their struggling. Out of a worry of the unknown, they like struggling that’s acquainted.”
On worry
“Most of us expertise a life stuffed with fantastic moments and tough moments. However for many people, even after we are most joyful, there’s worry behind our pleasure.”
“Fearlessness is just not solely doable, it’s the final pleasure. If you contact nonfear, you’re free.”
On happiness
“There is no such thing as a method to happiness — happiness is the way in which.”