Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/17/2009

The ocean of suffering is immense, but if you turn around, you can see the land. The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

When one tree in the garden is sick, you have to care for it. But don't overlook all the healthy trees. Even while you have pain in your heart, you can enjoy the many wonders of life - the beautiful sunset, the smile of a child, the many flowers and trees. To suffer is not enough. Please don't be imprisoned by your suffering. If you have experienced hunger, you know that having food is a miracle. If you have suffered from the cold, you know the preciousness of warmth.

When you have suffered, you know how to appreciate the elements of paradise that are present.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/16/2009

For forty-five years, the Buddha said, over and over again, "I teach only suffering and the transformation of suffering." When we recognize and acknowledge our own suffering, the Buddha - which means the Buddha in us - will look at it, discover what has brought it about, and prescribe a course of action that can transform it into peace, joy, and liberation. Suffering is the means the Buddha used to liberate himself, and it is also the means by which we can become free.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/15/2009

The layman Vimalakirti said, "Because the world is sick, I am sick. Because people suffer, I have to suffer." This statement was also made by the Buddha. Please don't think that because you are unhappy, because there is pain in your heart, that you cannot go to the Buddha. It is exactly because there is pain in your heart that communication is possible. Your suffering and my suffering are the basic condition for us to enter the Buddha's heart, and for the Buddha to enter our hearts.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/14/2009

"We all have the tendency to struggle in our bodies and in our minds. We believe that happiness is possible only in the future. The realization that we have already arrived, that we don't have to travel any further, that we are already here, can give us peace and joy. The conditions for our happiness are already sufficient. We only need to allow ourselves to be in the present moment, and we will be able to touch them. What are we looking for to be happy? Everything is already here. We do not need to put an object in front of us to run after, believing that until we get it, we cannot be happy. That object is always in the future, and we can never catch up to it. We are already in the Pure Land, the Kingdom of God. We are already a Buddha. We only need to wake up and realize we are already here."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/13/2009

"We are often exposed,if not first hand, then through films, reading material, and conversations, to violence, fear, hatred, meaningless infatuations.Society is full of violence and hatred, which accumulates in the collective consciousness. If in our daily lives we do not know now to abstain from damaging materials and attitudes, the seeds of violence, hatred and suffering in us will continue to be watered. We need to be aware of what we hear,see, and read every day... Do our associations and consumptions poison us?"

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/12/2009

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/11/2009

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself- if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself- it is very difficult to take care of another person. In the Buddhist teaching, it's clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/10/2009

So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/9/2009

Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/8/2009

In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/7/2009

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/6/2009

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/5/2009

When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/4/2009

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air,but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/3/2009

You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is a universal thing, taught by all religions.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/2/2009

We must not be attached to a view or a doctrine, even a Buddhist one. .. . The Buddha said that if in a certain moment or place you adopt something as the absolute truth, and you attach to that, then you will no longer have any chance to reach the truth. Even when the truth comes and knocks on your door, and asks you to open the door, you won't recognize it. So you must not be too attached to dogma--to what you believe, and to what you perceive.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 8/1/2009

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/31/2009

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace.It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/30/2009

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/29/2009

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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An example from a customer!

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/28/2009

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/27/2009

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos - the trees, the clouds, everything.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/26/2009

Everyday we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/25/2009

....there is a great deal of hatred and anger and discrimination. How is it possible, in such a state, for people to practice deep looking with the aim of achieving a deep knowledge...So it is necessary to practice mindfulness- it could be Buddhist or Christian- but it is necessary to bring mindfulness to our everyday life. If you are a journalist, a teacher, or a filmmaker you should practice mindfulness- for the sake of your own calm and your own happiness, but also for that of other people as well. Because we need your calm, your compassion, your understanding. So we should be mindful as individuals but also as a community, as a family, as a nation.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/24/2009

Relief, Peace, well-being, joy and better relations with others will be possible if we practice mindfulness in our everyday life. I am convinced that everybody can practice mindfulness, even politicians, political parties, even the Congress. This is a body that holds the responsibility for knowing the nation's situation well, and knowledge of this kind requires the practice of looking deeply. If our elected officials are not calm enough, do not have enough concentration, how can they see things deeply?

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/23/2009

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,

as if it is the axis

on which the world earth revolves

- slowly, evenly, without

rushing toward the future;

Live the actual moment.

Only this moment is life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/22/2009

To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem. To meditate means to observe. Your smile proves it. It proves that you are being gentle with yourself,that the sun of awareness is shining in you,that you have control of your situation. You are yourself,and you have acquired some peace.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/21/2009

The Buddhist Sutra of Mindfulness speaks about the meditation on the corpse: meditate on the decomposition of the body, how the body bloats and turns violet, how it is eaten by worms until only bits of blood and flesh still cling to the bones, meditate up to the point where only white bones remain, which in turn are slowly worn away and turn into dust. Meditate like that, knowing that your own body will undergo the same process. Meditate on the corpse until you are calm and at peace, until your mind and heart are light and tranquil and a smile appears on your face. Thus, by overcoming revulsion and fear, life will be seen as infinitely precious, every second of it worth living.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/20/2009

So let us decide whether you want a shelter, a safety zone, which will no longer yield conflict, whether you want to escape from the present conflict to enter a condition in which there shall be no conflict; or whether you are unaware, unconscious of this conflict in which you exist. If you are unconscious of the conflict, that is, the battle that is taking place between that self and the environment, if you are unconscious of that battle, then why do you seek further remedies?

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/19/2009

To me, then, true criticism consists in trying to find out the intrinsic worth of the thing itself, and not in attributing a quality to that thing. You attribute a quality to an environment, to an experience, only when you want to derive something from it, when you want to gain or to have power or happiness. Now this destroys true criticism. Your desire is perverted through attributing values, and therefore you cannot see clearly. Instead of trying to see the flower in its original and entire beauty, you look at it through coloured glasses, and therefore you can never see it as it is.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/18/2009

From these prejudices there arises conflict, transient joys and suffering. But we are unconscious of this, unconscious that we are slaves to certain forms of tradition, to social and political environment, to false values.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/17/2009

The fact is there is nothing that you can trust; and that is a terrible fact, whether you like it or not. Psychologically there is nothing in the world, that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in. Neither your gods, nor your science can save you, can bring you psychological certainty; and you have to accept that you can trust in absolutely nothing. That is a scientific fact, as well as a psychological fact. Because, your leaders - religious and political - and your books - sacred and profane - have all failed, and you are still confused, in misery, in conflict. So, that is an absolute, undeniable fact.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/16/2009

.. Human beings, each one, right through the world, go through great agonies, the more sensitive, the more alert, the more observant, the greater the suffering, the anxiety, the extraordinary sense of insoluble problems.

.. And the point is, is it possible for the mind to be totally free from suffering and yet not become indifferent, callous, irresponsible, but to have that passion, the intensity, the energy that freedom brings, freedom from suffering.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/15/2009

"Sorrow is not in death but in loneliness, and conflict comes when you seek consolation, forgetfullness, explanations, and illusions."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/14/2009

"Pain itself destroys pain. Suffering itself frees man from suffering."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/13/2009

"Truth is more in the process than in the result."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/12/2009

"If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity. If there's no relationship with nature then you become a killer; then you kill baby seals, whales, dolphins, and man either for gain, for "sport," for food, or for knowledge. Then nature is frightened of you, withdrawing its beauty. You may take long walks in the woods or camp in lovely places but you are a killer and so lose their friendship. You probably are not related to anything to your wife or your husband "

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/11/2009

"The mind has to be empty to see clearly."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/10/2009

For the total development of the human being, solitude as a means of cultivating sensitivity becomes a necessity. One has to know what it means to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learnt. One can indicate, but learning by what is indicated is not the experiencing of solitude or meditation. To experience what is solitude and what is meditation, one must be in in a state of inquiry; only a mind that is in a state of inquiry is capable of learning. But when inquiry is suppressed by previous knowledge, or by the authority and experience of another, then learning becomes mere imitation, and imitation causes a human being to repeat what is learnt without experiencing it.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/9/2009

"Why do you want to read others´ books when there is the book of yourself?"

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/8/2009

"Do not think about yourself, but be aware of the thought, emotion, or action that makes you think of yourself."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/7/2009

" ...In our relationship with children and young people, we are not dealing with mechanical devices that can be quickly repaired, but with living beings who are impressionable, volatile, sensitive, afraid, affectionate; and to deal with them we have to have great understanding, the strength of patience and love... "

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration = 7/6/2009

"If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/5/2009

Insight is not an act of remembrance, the continuation of memory. Insight is like a flash of light. You see with absolute clarity, all the complications, the consequences, the intricacies. Then this very insight is action, complete. In that there are no regrets, no looking back, no sense of being weighed down, no discrimination. This is pure, clear insight - perception without any shadow of doubt. Most of us begin with certainty and as we grow older the certainty changes to uncertainty and we die with uncertainty. But if one begins with uncertainty, doubting, questioning, asking demanding, with real doubt about man's behaviour, about all the religious rituals and their images and their symbols, then out of that doubt comes the clarity of certainty.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/4/2009

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

~ Buddhist Saying

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/3/2009

A man should first direct himself in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others.

~ Buddhist Saying

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/2/2009

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

~ Buddhist Saying

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 7/1/2009

Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace.

~ Buddhist Saying

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