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Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

    “Breathing in and out is very important, and it is enjoyable.  Our breathing is the link between our body and our mind.  Sometimes our mind is thinking of one thing and our body is doing another, and mind and body are not unified.  By concentrating on our breathing, ‘In’ and ‘Out,’ we bring body and mind back together, and become whole again.  Conscious breathing is an important bridge.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

      “If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important.  If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it.  If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile?  Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy.  The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

        “We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available.  We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living.  We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on.  But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.  Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.  We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

          “Suffering persists because we nourish the feelings that cause it.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

            “When we get angry, we suffer. If you really understand that, you also will be able to understand that when the other person is angry, it means that she is suffering. When someone insults you or behaves violently towards you, you have to be intelligent enough to see that the person suffers from his own violence and anger. But we tend to forget. We think that we are the only one that suffers, and the other person is our oppressor. This is enough to make anger arise, and to strengthen our desire to punish. We want to punish the other person because we suffer. Then, we have anger in us; we have violence in us, just as they do. When we see that our suffering and anger are no different from their suffering and anger, we will behave more compassionately. So understanding the other is understanding yourself, and understanding yourself is understanding the other person. Everything must begin with you.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

            Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life [Book]

              Savor by Thich Nhat Hanh

              By: Thích Nhất Hạnh, Lilian Cheung

              From this Book: 19 Quotes

              Book Overview:  Common sense tells us that to lose weight, we must eat less and exercise more. But somehow we get stalled. We start on a weight-loss program with good intentions but cannot stay on track. Neither the countless fad diets, nor the annual spending of $50 billion on weight loss helps us feel better or lose weight.  Savor teaches us how to easily adopt the practice of mindfulness and integrate it into eating, exercise, and all facets of our daily life, so that being conscious and present becomes a core part of our being.

              Buy from Amazon!  Listen on Audible!

              Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.

              Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

              1. Top 10 Quotes from Savor by Thich Nhat Hanh
              2. Mindful Eating — How To Savor Every Bite and Fulfill More Than Just Your Stomach
              3. An Apple Meditation
              4. The Four Noble Truths
              5. Thich Nhat Hanh Quote on Inner Peace and Understanding The Nature Of Our Inner World (Beyond the Quote 244/365)

                “Your journey to a healthier weight is not a journey that you start and then give up. It is a journey that you are living every day for the rest of your life.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                  “When we smile, the muscles around our mouth are stretched and relaxed, just like doing yoga. Smiling is mouth yoga. We release the tension from our face as we smile. Others who run into us notice it, even strangers, and are likely to smile back. It is a wonderful chain reaction that we can initiate, touching the joy in anyone we encounter. Smiling is an ambassador of goodwill.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                    “Sometimes we believe that happiness is not possible in the here and now, that we need a few more conditions to be happy. So we run toward the future to get the conditions we think are missing. But by doing so we sacrifice the present moment; we sacrifice true life.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                      “When it comes to health and well-being, regular exercise is about as close to a magic potion as you can get.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                        “When practiced to its fullest, mindful eating turns a simple meal into a spiritual experience, giving us a deep appreciation of all that went into the meal’s creation as well a deep understanding of the relationship between the food on our table, our own health, and our planet’s health.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                          “When we are present, life is also present.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                            “Being mindful does not mean that we just sit for hours on our meditation cushion in a retreat or monastery. There are many ways to practice mindfulness that can be fully integrated into our daily living. Besides conscious breathing, we can do walking meditation, sitting meditation, smiling, mindful listening, mindful speaking, and mindful working. We can practice concentration and looking deeply in all the activities of our daily life. Even while walking, we can practice stopping. We can walk in such a way that we arrive with each step – not walking just to get somewhere else. We can walk to enjoy each step.  If we practice stopping while attending to e-mails, surfing the web, attending meetings or appointments, folding the laundry, washing the dishes, or taking a shower, we are living deeply. If we do not practice this way, the days and months will fly by without our awareness, and we will lose many precious moments of our life. Stopping helps us live fully in the present.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                              “We may believe that mistakes have been made already and that we cannot go back to the past to change things. When we look deeply into the relative nature of time, we see that the past has created the present. If we seize the present moment with mindfulness, we are in touch with the past. We can actually go back to the past, while staying firmly rooted in the present moment, and heal the past. We forgive ourselves for our mistakes, knowing we didn’t have enough wisdom or the right conditions at that time to do better. We transform our regrets in the present into compassion and understanding, and in this way we also transform the past.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

                                “The Buddha said, ‘Nothing can survive without food.’ This is a very simple and very deep truth. Love and hate are both living phenomena. If we do not nourish our love, it will die and may turn into hate. If we want love to last, we have to nurture it and give it food every day. Hate is the same; if we don’t feed it, it cannot survive.” ~ Thich Nhat Hahn, Savor