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    “We try to direct the mind toward recognizing reality.  This is a chant that is recited daily in Buddhist monasteries: ‘Breathing in and out, I am aware of the fact that I am of the nature to die; I cannot escape dying.  I am of the nature to grow old; I cannot escape old age.  I am of the nature to get sick.  Because I have a body, I cannot avoid sickness.  Everything I cherish, treasure and cling to today, I will have to abandon one day.  The only thing I can carry with me is the fruit of my own action.  I cannot bring along with me anything else except the fruit of my actions in terms of thought, speech and bodily acts.'” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

      “If you have difficulties with your son or daughter, you may have the tendency to say: “You are not my daughter.  My daughter would not behave like that” or “You are not my son.  My son would never do things like that.”  If you look deeply at yourself, you will see that these negative seeds are in you also.  When you were young you made mistakes and you learned from your suffering.  When your child makes mistakes, you need to help him understand so he will not do it again.  When you can see your own weaknesses, you can say: “Who am I not to accept my son?” Your son is you.  With this insight into non-duality, you can reconcile with your children.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

        “To accept others as they are, we must begin with ourselves.  If we cannot accept ourselves as we are, we will never be able to accept others.  When I look at myself, I see positive, admirable and even remarkable things, but I also know that there are negative parts of me.  So first I recognize and accept myself.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

          “Look into a plum tree.  In each plum on the tree there is a pit.  That pit contains the plum tree and all previous generations of plum tree.  The plum pit contains an eternity of plum trees.  Inside the pit is an intelligence and wisdom that knows how to become a plum tree, how to produce branches, leaves, flowers and plums.  It cannot do this on its own.  It can only do this because it has received the experience and heritage of so many generations of ancestors.  You are the same.  You possess the wisdom and intelligence of how to become a full human being  because you inherited an eternity of wisdom not only from your blood ancestors but from your spiritual ancestors, too.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

            “You do not have to wait until the flame has gone out to be reborn.  I am reborn many times every day.  Every moment is a moment of rebirth.  My practice is to be reborn in such a way that my new forms of manifestation will bring light, freedom and happiness into the world.  My practice is not to allow wrong actions to be reborn.  If I have a cruel thought or if my words carry hatred in them, then those thoughts and words will be reborn.  It will be difficult to catch them and pull them back.  They are like a runaway horse.  We should try not to allow our actions of body, speech and mind to take us in the direction of wrong action, wrong speech and wrong thinking.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

              “News is to the mind what sugar is to the body. News is easy to digest. The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking. That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike reading books and long magazine articles (which require thinking), we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, which are bright-coloured candies for the mind.” ~ Rolf Dobelli, via James Clear Blog

                “Our children are our continuation.  We are our children and our children are us.  If you have one or more children, you have already been reborn in them.  You can see your continuation body in your son or your daughter, but you have many more continuation bodies as well.  They are in everyone you have touched.  And you cannot know how many people your words, actions and thoughts have touched.”

                Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

                  “We run during the daytime and we run during our sleep.  We do not know how to stop.  Our practice is first of all to stop, then to relax, to calm down and to concentrate.  When we can do this, then we are in the here and now.  Then we become solid.  And when we are solid, we can look around.  We can look deeply into the present moment, we can look deeply into our true nature, and we can discover the ultimate dimension.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

                    “A wave does not have to die in order to become water.  She is water right here and now.  We also do not have to die in order to enter the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is our very foundation here and now.  Our deepest practice is to see and touch the ultimate dimension in ourselves every day, the reality of no birth and no death.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

                      “Only a free person can be a happy person.  The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom that you have in your heart.  Freedom here is not political freedom.  Freedom here is freedom from regret, freedom from fear, from anxiety and sorrow.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear