“What I came to realize with John was that accepting death—wishing for it, even—didn’t devalue the days he had left, but made each count more because they were so few. It freed him to live in the things he liked, not agonizing over what he would do if he could. This was why talking about wanting to die could cheer him up. Death gave everything its value. The number of times he would see this or that friend was limited, so each time was precious. The moments were supersaturated, not fleeting as they are in youth.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 151)
“I have no feeling of an afterlife at all. As a matter of fact, I hope not. I can’t imagine anything going on forever. I miss Walter and I wish I could meet him in another life, but I know I won’t. Actually, it’s rather soothing. It is all going to end; I don’t see anything wrong with that.” ~ John Sorensen, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 83)
“I often feel that death is not the enemy of life, but its friend, for it is the knowledge that our years are limited which makes them so precious.” ~ Rabbi Joshua L. Leibman, via Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 46)
“A starting point for wisdom at any age might be to accept that you’re going to die—really accept it—and to feel more contented by the limits, not less. Modern medicine encourages us to consider death a test we can win or lose, something presided over by experts in white coats. But the elders offered a wiser perspective. None of us will get out of here alive, so we might as well live while we can.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 45)
15 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes from No Death, No Fear on Life, Death, and Happiness
Excerpt: Could embracing death actually help us live happier? Read these 15 Thich Nhat Hanh quotes from No Death, No Fear and decide for yourself.
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28 Beautiful Claire Wineland Quotes on Life, Death, and Living with Challenges
Excerpt: While Cystic Fibrosis ultimately took her life, Claire never let CF stop her from living her best life. Read our 28 Claire Wineland Quotes on life, death, and living with challenges.
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“I don’t think that people realize that you’re not supposed to go peacefully. After I came out of almost dying, it really dawned on me how distorted people’s concept of dying is because they think that if they can go peacefully that that means that they’ve lived a good life. That if you can just let it go and you can be completely detached to the outcome, that that means you’re more spiritually enlightened, or that you’re doing it better, or that you’ve had a better life—the truth is, the whole point of dying is to be scared. Because that means that your life meant something to you. You should fear dying. You should be terrified of it. Even though it’s natural, even though it’s going to happen, even though you should come to terms with it in a certain way and go through the feeling of it and have a relationship with it—you also should acknowledge the fact that when it’s going to happen, no matter how much you prepare, you’re going to be terrified. Because life does mean something. And there’s a part of your brain that knows you’re letting it go. And you’re always going to grieve that when it happens. And that’s okay. It’s okay to be terrified.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube
“No matter how spiritually enlightened you are, or how many times you’ve thought about death and think you’re okay with it, you will grieve the life you could’ve lived when you’re dying. You’re losing the person you could’ve become, the things you could’ve done, the things you could’ve made with your life—you’re losing that. And there’s no way to get around that.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube
“I am not opposed to people thinking about death, or processing it, or questioning it—I think that’s wonderful. What I am opposed to is this notion that you can somehow do death properly. For me, there was no amount of preparation, no amount of thinking about death, wondering what it felt like, coming to terms with what it means, questioning the great beyond—none of that meant jack sh*t when I actually was dying.” ~ Claire Wineland, YouTube
“Death is actually not a scary thing. The scary thing is living life without a passion and then realizing at the very last moment that it’s over and you haven’t done what you wanted to do—and that you’re not proud of your life. That is much more terrifying.” ~ Claire Wineland (15), TEDxMalibu
“I was dying. And I couldn’t gain any kind of control on the situation. There was no, ‘mind over matter-ing’ it for me. My lungs were failing. And I got hit with this huge wave of grief. Which is not something that I had expected. As someone who had always known that I would die young—and I had always accepted that and been okay with that—I was expecting maybe some fear, maybe some hesitation, maybe to turn into a 5-year-old then cry and want my mom… But I wasn’t expecting grief. And what I felt grief for wasn’t the fact that I was dying, it wasn’t about fear of the unknown, it was none of that. I felt grief for the life I could’ve lived. I felt grief for life itself. For all of the possibilities that it held. And I was mad at myself. I spent, literally, 30 minutes as my CO2 levels were rising and I slowly started to hallucinate, being thoroughly pissed at myself for waiting around for the world to tell me I was okay even though I was sick. For waiting around for someone to tell me that I was healthy enough, that I was better enough, I was good enough to live a life that I wanted to live. I wish that I yelled at every single person that had come into the room and said that they were sorry for me.” ~ Claire Wineland (20), EEM LA 2018
7 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Life and Death from Nature
Excerpt: These seven quotes look deeper at how we can live our best life & how we can become less afraid of death using simple analogies found in nature.
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No Death, No Fear [Book]
Book Overview: Nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thich Nhat Hanh is one of today’s leading sources of wisdom, peace, compassion and comfort. With hard-won wisdom and refreshing insight, Thich Nhat Hanh confronts a subject that has been contemplated by Buddhist monks and nuns for twenty-five-hundred years— and a question that has been pondered by almost anyone who has ever lived: What is death? In No Death, No Fear, the acclaimed teacher and poet examines our concepts of death, fear, and the very nature of existence. Through Zen parables, guided meditations, and personal stories, he explodes traditional myths of how we live and die. Thich Nhat Hanh shows us a way to live a life unfettered by fear.
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“Our consciousness is like a television with many channels. When we push the button on the remote control, the channel we choose appears. When we sit by the bedside of a dying person, we have to know which channel to call up. Those who are closest to the dying person are in the best position to do this. If you are accompanying someone who is dying, use those sounds and images from the life of the person that will water the seeds of their greatest happiness. In the consciousness of everyone are the seeds of the Pure Land and of nirvana, of the kingdom of God and of paradise.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“When you are about to die, you may not be very aware of your body. You may experience some numbness, and yet your are caught in the idea that this body is you. You are caught in the notion that the disintegration of this body is your own disintegration. That is why you are fearful. You are afraid you are becoming nothing. The disintegration of his body cannot affect the dying person’s true nature. You have to explain to him that he is life without limit. This body is just a manifestation, like a cloud. When a cloud is no longer a cloud, it is not lost. It has not become nothing; it has transformed; it has become rain. Therefore we should not identify our self with our body.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“Watering the seeds of happiness is a very important practice for the sick or dying. All of us have seeds of happiness inside us, and in difficult moments when we are sick or when we are dying, there should be a friend sitting with us to help us touch the seeds of happiness within. Otherwise seeds of fear, of regret or of despair can easily overwhelm us.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
“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
“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