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- Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
- Full Title: The Art of Living
- Category: #books
- Spirituality is not religion. It is a path for us to generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply each moment of our life. Having a spiritual dimension in our lives does not mean escaping life or dwelling in a place of bliss outside this world but discovering ways to handle life’s difficulties and generate peace, joy, and happiness right where we are, on this beautiful planet.
- Emptiness does not mean nothingness. Saying that we are empty does not mean that we do not exist. No matter if something is full or empty, that thing clearly needs to be there in the first place. When we say a cup is empty, the cup must be there in order to be empty. When we say that we are empty, it means that we must be there in order to be empty of a permanent, separate self.
- We are the continuation of all our ancestors. Thanks to impermanence, we have a chance to transform our inheritance in a beautiful direction.
- We have to train ourselves to sustain the insight of emptiness while we’re looking at a person, a bird, a tree, or a rock. It’s very different from just sitting there and speculating about emptiness. We have to really see the nature of emptiness, of interbeing, of impermanence, in ourselves and others.
- The insight of interbeing helps us connect with the ultimate truth of emptiness. The teaching on emptiness is not about the “dying” of the self. The self does not need to die. The self is just an idea, an illusion, a wrong view, a notion; it is not reality. How can something that is not there die? We do not need to kill the self, but we can remove the illusion of a separate self by gaining a deeper understanding of reality.
- When we think or work or breathe, many of us believe there must be a person, an actor, behind our actions. We believe there must be “someone” doing the action. But when the wind blows, there is no blower behind the wind. There is only the wind, and if it does not blow, it is not the wind at all. When we say “It is raining,” there does not need to be a rainer in order to have the rain. Who is the “it” that is raining? There is only raining. Raining is happening.
- In the same way, outside of our actions, there is no person, no thing we can call our “self.” When we think, we are our thinking. When we work, we are the working. When we breathe, we are the breathing. When we act, we are our actions.
- The most accurate way to describe the process of thinking is not that there is “someone” thinking but that thinking is manifesting, as the result of a remarkable, wondrous coming together of conditions. We do not need to have a self in order to think; there is thinking and only thinking. There is not an additional separate entity doing the thinking. Insofar as there is a thinker, the thinker comes into existence at the same time as the thinking.
- There are the actions of thinking, feeling, and perceiving, but there is no actor or separate self-entity doing the thinking, feeling, and perceiving.
- She had just assumed that they would meet again. With the insight of interbeing—the insight that we inter-are with one another and with all life—we don’t need to wait to meet our beloved ones again in heaven. They are still right here with us.
- We cannot assert that after death there is nothing. Something can never become nothing.
- Life force and consciousness are in a stem of ginger or in an acorn. The ginger knows how to become a plant, and the acorn knows how to become an oak tree. We cannot call these things inanimate, because they know what to do.
- If we do not allow our beliefs to evolve, if we do not maintain an open mind, we risk waking up one day to discover that we have lost faith in what we once believed. This can be devastating. As practitioners of meditation, we should never accept anything on blind faith, regarding it as absolute, unchanging truth. We should investigate and observe reality with mindfulness and concentration, so our understanding and faith can deepen day by day. This is the kind of faith we cannot lose, because it is not based on ideas or beliefs but on experienced reality.
- In popular Buddhist culture, it is said there are countless hell realms that we can fall into after dying. Many temples display vivid illustrations of what can happen to us in the hell realms—for example, if we lie in this lifetime, our tongue will be cut out in the next. This is a kind of “skillful means” to motivate people to live their lives in more ethical ways. This approach may help some people, but it may not help others. Although these teachings are not in accord with the ultimate truth, many people benefit from them. Nevertheless, with compassion, skill, and understanding, we may be able to help one another gradually release our current views and deepen our understanding. If we want to open up to a new way of looking at life and death and what happens after death, we need to let go of our present views in order to allow a deeper understanding to emerge. If we want to climb a ladder, we have to let go of one rung in order to reach the next one. If we cling to the views we presently hold, we cannot progress.
- We are continued in our children, in our students, in everyone whose lives we have touched.
- When a cloud turns to rain, we cannot say that a cloud is “reincarnated” in the rain. “Continuation,” “transformation,” and “manifestation” are all good words, but perhaps the best word is “remanifestation.” The rain is a remanifestation of the cloud. Our actions of body, speech, and mind are a kind of energy we are always transmitting, and that energy manifests itself in different forms again and again.
- Once a young child asked me, “How does it feel to be dead?” This is a very good, very deep question. I used the example of a cloud to explain to her about birth, death, and continuation. I explained that a cloud can never die. A cloud can only become something else, like rain or snow or hail. When you are a cloud, you feel like a cloud. And when you become rain, you feel like the rain. And when you become snow, you feel like the snow. Remanifestation is wonderful.
- When we look at an oak tree, it may be difficult to imagine that it grew out of an acorn. Is that acorn still alive? If it is, then why can’t we see it? Or does the acorn no longer exist? If it died, then how come there is an oak tree now?
- Reconnecting with our physical body takes only a few moments of stopping and breathing with awareness. We all have time for this, and yet we do not do it. It is strange that we are scared of what happens to our physical body when we die, and yet we are not truly enjoying our physical body while we are alive.
- We don’t return to the earth only when our entire body disintegrates. We return to the earth and we are renewed by the earth at every moment.
- There was still some attachment. “Vaikali, come on!” exclaimed the Buddha. “You already have my Dharma body. You don’t need my human body!” What we have learned from our teachers is far more important than their physical presence. Our teachers have transmitted to us the fruit of all their wisdom and experience. The Buddha was trying to tell Vaikali that he should look for the teacher within, not the teacher outside. Our teachers are there within us. What more could we want?
- I do my best to transmit every practice experience I’ve had to my students. My Dharma body is the best gift I have to offer. It is the body of all the spiritual practices and insights that have brought me healing, transformation, happiness, and freedom. I trust that all my friends and students will receive my spiritual practice body and nourish it even further for the sake of future generations. We need to practice well, and to continue to help our spiritual practice body grow and become more and more appropriate to our time.
- Let’s look again at the cloud in the sky. While the cloud is still a cloud, she can already begin to see her continuation body in the form of rain, snow, or hail. Let’s say one-third of the cloud has become rain and the other two-thirds of the cloud is still up in the sky, happily watching the rain falling down to earth. She is seeing her continuation body. To be a cloud is beautiful. But to be rain falling down and becoming a stream of water is also beautiful. The cloud enjoys looking down from the sky and seeing her continuation body as a fresh, clear stream of water meandering through the countryside.
- As you get in touch with your cosmic body, it’s as though you stop being a block of ice floating on the ocean and you become the water. With our mindful breathing and deep awareness of our body, we are able to leave the zone of cogitating, discriminating, and analyzing, and enter the realm of interbeing.
- Everything inter-is. This is what the physicist David Bohm called “the implicate order.” At first we see only “the explicate order,” but as soon as we realize that things do not exist outside one another, we touch the deepest level of the cosmic. We realize that we cannot take the water out of the wave. And we cannot take the wave out of the water. Just as the wave is the water itself, we are the ultimate.
- The concentration on aimlessness means arriving in the present moment to discover that the present moment is the only moment in which you can find everything you’ve been looking for, and that you already are everything you want to become. Aimlessness does not mean doing nothing. It means not putting something in front of you to chase after. When we remove the objects of our craving and desires, we discover that happiness and freedom are available to us right here in the present moment.
- I remember one morning contemplating a mountain in the early light of dawn. I saw very clearly that not only was I looking at the mountain, but all my ancestors in me were looking at the mountain with me. As dawn broke over the mountain peak we admired its beauty together. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do. We were free. We needed only to sit there and enjoy the sunrise. Our ancestors may never have had a chance to sit quietly, peacefully, and enjoy the sunrise like that. When we can stop the running, all our ancestors can also stop at the same time. With the energy of mindfulness and awakening, we can stop on behalf of all our ancestors. It is not the stopping of a separate self alone, but of a whole lineage.
- Where is your father, your mother, your grandfather or grandmother? Right here in the present moment. Where are your children, grandchildren, and future generations? Where are Jesus Christ and the Buddha? Where are love and compassion? They are here. They are not realities independent from our consciousness, from our being, from our life. They are not objects of hope or pursuit outside of us. And where is heaven, the Kingdom of God? Also right here. Everything we are looking for, everything we want to experience, has to happen right here in the present moment. The future is merely an idea, an abstract notion.
- The master was saying that if, on the way to see our teacher, we go past a cypress tree or a beautiful plum tree in blossom and we don’t really see it, then when we arrive in front of our teacher, we won’t see our teacher either.
- For Master Lin-Chi, the ideal life is not to be an enlightened “arhat” or a “bodhisattva” devoted to serving all beings, but to be a business-less person. A person who is business-less has realized the insights of emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness. They are not caught in the idea of a self, they have no need for the “signs” of fame or status, and they dwell freely and happily in the present moment.
- What’s essential is to bring a different quality of being to the situation of suffering in the world. If we are suffering just like everyone else, how can we help them suffer less? If doctors have the same sickness as their patients, how can they help them heal? Our energy of peace, joy, compassion, and freedom is essential. We have to nourish and protect our way of being. Whatever we do needs to have a spiritual dimension.
- It is possible to work, serve, and engage as a free person without getting lost in our work. We don’t miss out on the present moment striving or struggling to achieve a future goal—we live deeply each moment of our work. This is the meaning of aimlessness. The peace, freedom, compassion, and loving-kindness we radiate already helps those around us to suffer less. We are not passive. To be passive means to be pulled, pushed, and swayed by circumstances or the people around us. But our freedom and sovereignty means that we don’t become a victim of circumstances. With compassion and insight, we ask ourselves, “In this situation, what can I do to stop things getting worse? How can I help the situation improve?” When we know that we are doing our best on the path of relieving suffering, it is possible to be at peace every step along the way.
- My name, Nhat Hanh, means “one action.” I spent a long time trying to find out which action this was. Then I discovered that my one action is to be peace and to bring peace to others.
- Our quality of being determines our quality of doing.
- non-discrimination—never disparaging anyone—are
- Sometimes, not doing anything is the best thing we can do. Non-action is already something. There are people who do not seem to do very much, but their presence is crucial for the well-being of the world. There may be someone in our own family who does not make a lot of money, and we could say they are not very active, but if that person wasn’t there, the family would be much less happy and stable because that person is contributing the quality of their being, their non-action.
- There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way.
- Impermanence is something wonderful. If things were not impermanent, life would not be possible. A seed could never become a plant of corn; the child couldn’t grow into a young adult; there could never be healing and transformation; we could never realize our dreams. So impermanence is very important for life. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.
- Impermanence is just as capable of bringing about happiness as it is of bringing about suffering. Impermanence is not bad news. Because of impermanence, despotic regimes are subject to fall. Because of impermanence, illness can be cured. Thanks to impermanence, we can enjoy the wonder of the four beautiful seasons. Thanks to impermanence, anything can change and transform in a more positive direction.
- Every day when I get up, I stretch my body and do some gentle morning exercises, which brings me a lot of happiness. I don’t exercise to get fit or be healthier; I do it to enjoy being alive.
- Our mind is like a garden in which there are all kinds of seeds: seeds of joy, peace, mindfulness, understanding, and love, but also seeds of craving, anger, fear, hate, and forgetfulness. How you act and the quality of your life depends on which seeds you water. If you plant tomato seeds in your garden, tomatoes will grow. In the same way, if you water a seed of peace in your mind, peace will grow. When the seed of happiness in you is watered, your happiness will bloom. When the seed of anger in you is watered, you will become angry. The seeds that are watered frequently will grow strong, so you need to be a mindful gardener, selectively watering those seeds you would like to cultivate and not watering the seeds you do not want to grow.
- you don’t know how to practice selective watering in your own garden, then you won’t have enough wisdom to help water the flowers in the garden of your beloved. In cultivating your own garden well, you also help to cultivate your beloved’s garden.
- Many of us do things only for the sake of form. We do things not because we believe it’s important, but because we think others think it’s important. We may even chant or pray or invoke the Buddha’s name because we think it matters to the Buddha, but not because it’s meaningful for us.
- If we let go of our ideas, we can allow ourselves to touch happiness right away. Our idea of happiness may be the very obstacle standing in the way of our happiness.
- So we may need to reexamine our way of seeing God. If God is only on the side of goodness, then God cannot be the ultimate reality. We cannot even say that God is the ground of all being, because if God is the ground of being, what is the ground of nonbeing? We cannot speak of God in terms of existing or not existing, being or nonbeing. Even the peace and happiness that arises from touching the ultimate comes from within us, not from the ultimate itself. The ultimate, nirvana, is not itself peace or joy, because no notion or category like “peace” or “goodness” can be applied to the ultimate. The ultimate transcends all categories.