At Home in the World - Thich Nhat Hanh

Last updated Sep 22, 2024

• Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
• Full Title: At Home in the World
• Category: #books

Teaching is not done by talking alone. It is done by how you live your life. My life is my teaching. My life is my message. – THICH NHAT HANH (Location 23)

In 1968 during the Vietnam War, I went to France to represent the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Paris Peace Talks. Our mission was to speak out against the war on behalf of the mass of Vietnamese people whose voices were not being heard. (Location 122)

The French government granted me asylum, and I was able to obtain an apatride travel document. Apatride means you don’t belong to any country; you become stateless. (Location 133)

The practice brought me back to my true home in the here and now. Eventually I stopped suffering, and the dream did not come back anymore. (Location 156)

It was because I didn’t belong to any particular country that I had to make an effort to break through and find my true home. (Location 168)

I was able to spend so much time eating my cookie because I did not have much to worry about. I was not thinking about the future; I was not regretting the past. I was dwelling entirely in the present moment, with my cookie, the dog, the bamboo thickets, the cat, and everything. (Location 175)

It is possible to eat our meals as slowly and joyfully as I ate the cookie of my childhood. (Location 177)

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. (Location 180)

Life in Vietnam when I was young was quite different from the way it is now. A birthday party, a poetry reading, or the anniversary of a family member’s death would last all day, not only a few hours. You could arrive and leave at any time. You didn’t need to have a car or a bike— you just walked. If you lived far away, you set out the day before and spent the night at a friend’s house along the way. No matter what time you arrived, you were welcomed and served food. When the first four people had arrived, they were served together at a table. If you were the fifth, you waited until three others came so you could eat together with them. (Location 182)

time is not money. Time has much more value than money. Time is life. Money is nothing compared with life. (Location 192)

having a toilet to clean at all can be enough to make us happy. (Location 200)

when we want more insight into a situation, we need to entrust the task of finding a solution to the deeper level of our consciousness. Struggling with our thinking mind will not help. (Location 208)

Our unconscious mind, which in Buddhism is called our “store consciousness,” knows how to listen. It collaborates with the thinking part of our mind (Location 211)

When we meditate, we don’t only use our mind consciousness; we need to use and trust our store consciousness. (Location 212)

Deep breathing, looking deeply, and allowing ourselves simply to be, will help our store consciousness offer the best insight. (Location 213)

When I was a small boy of seven or eight, I happened to see a drawing of the Buddha on the cover of a Buddhist magazine. The Buddha was sitting on the grass, very peacefully, and I was impressed. (Location 218)

He saw the suffering in his kingdom and he saw how his father, King Suddhodana, tried to reduce the suffering around him, but seemed to be helpless. To young Siddhartha, politics seemed ineffective. Even as a teenager, he was searching for a way out of suffering. (Location 224)

We are searching for something good, true, and beautiful to follow. But looking around we can’t find what we’re looking for and we become disillusioned. (Location 228)

Buddha is not the name of a particular person; buddha is just a common name to designate anyone who has a high degree of peace and who has a high degree of understanding and compassion. (Location 233)

birth and death are only waves on the surface of the ocean, not the ocean itself, just like the beautiful images in the kaleidoscope. (Location 241)

There is no birth and no death. There is only continuation. (Location 242)

hermit— a monk who lived alone and sat quietly day and night to become calm and peaceful like the Buddha. (Location 246)

We cooked rice, rolled it into balls, and wrapped them in banana leaves. We prepared sesame seeds, peanuts, and salt to dip the rice in. (Location 248)

The water tasted so good. I had never tasted anything as good as that water. I felt completely satisfied; I did not need or want anything at all— even the desire to meet the hermit was gone. (Location 258)

I fell into a deep sleep. I don’t know how long I slept. When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was. Then I saw the branch of the tree against the sky and the wonderful well. I remembered everything. (Location 261)

It was many years ago that I climbed that mountain. But the image of the well and the quiet, peaceful sound of the dripping water are still alive inside me. You too may have met your hermit. Maybe as a rock, a tree, a star, or a beautiful sunset. (Location 267)

That was my first spiritual experience. After that I became calmer and quieter. I didn’t feel the need to share what had happened. I wanted to keep it in my heart. (Location 269)

a book of fifty practice poems called “Gathas for Everyday Use” compiled by a great Chinese Zen master. (Location 276)

Using gathas to help us become aware of our everyday actions is a Zen monastic tradition going back over a thousand years. (Location 277)

Elements of monastic culture can also be experienced by people who live in society. (Location 288)

later on I wrote a poem for driving a car as well. Poems like these can help us live each moment deeply, in awareness and in touch with the spiritual dimension of life. (Location 297)

My teacher handed me the robe. I received it knowing it was tremendous encouragement and that it was given with a tender and discreet love. (Location 322)

Although it wasn’t yet time for the ordination ceremony and I was not yet kneeling before the Buddha, uttering the great vow to save all beings, my heart made the vast and deep vow with all sincerity to live a life of service. Brother Tam Man looked at me with wholehearted affection and respect. In that moment, the universe for us was truly a universe of fragrant flowers. (Location 326)

Thanks to the wisdom of nondiscrimination, called upeksha in Sanskrit, we do not fight, quarrel, or compete with one another. When we are not caught in the notion of being a separate self from other human beings, there can be harmony between us. (Location 340)

In Vietnam we used to pick the best kind of wheat when it was still young and put it in warm water to sprout. Once it sprouted, we would cook it and condense it into a kind of paste. We didn’t put sugar in it, yet it was still a little bit sweet from the fermentation. We concentrated it until it was very thick. Then we would go to the river and pick up small pebbles, wash them very thoroughly, and dry them in the sunshine. We would cover the pebbles with the wheat-germ paste and dry them again, so that each pebble was caked in wheat-germ paste. That is what our ancestors used to eat when they drank their tea. (Location 348)

Sometimes the weather might suddenly become cooler, and the cherry blossoms wouldn’t have enough time to bloom before the event. In that case, people would bring a drum to the foot of the cherry tree, and play the drum to stimulate the flowers to bloom. That’s the way it was in the past. It may sound childish, but it was very poetic and very beautiful. (Location 355)

taking time to create a special moment to drink tea or eat a meal together with joy, beauty, and simplicity can initiate your children into a spiritual life. (Location 363)

Suppose you need to stand in line, waiting for your turn to buy or serve yourself some food. You can take the opportunity to practice mindful breathing, aware of your in-breath and your out-breath, enjoying yourself and the presence of the people around you. (Location 369)

Meditation can be very informal. When you drive, if you drive with mindfulness, enjoying your in-breath and out-breath, we can say you are practicing meditation. (Location 371)

With the energy of mindfulness, every action in our daily life can become pleasurable. (Location 373)

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, (Location 380)

To my mind, the idea that doing dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you aren’t doing them. (Location 402)

each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and the fact that I am here washing them are miracles! (Location 406)

If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert or a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of enjoying my dessert or my tea when I finally have them. (Location 407)

Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane. (Location 411)

True love requires deep understanding. In fact, love is another name for understanding. (Location 425)

Without understanding, your love will only cause the other person to suffer. (Location 426)

At that time, many young people in Vietnam were inspired to join political and revolutionary groups like the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. (Location 438)

Many young monastics were attracted to Marxist ideology and were tempted out of the monasteries to join these movements. (Location 440)

Taking action against injustice is not enough. We believed action must embody mindfulness. If there is no awareness, action will only cause more harm. (Location 442)

Our editorial team began reporting on the Buddhist community’s work to help bring peace and reunify the country. Buddhists were speaking out, leading huge street protests and hunger strikes, and writing articles and letters. (Location 460)

engaged practice was not only possible, it was necessary if we were going to make real and peaceful change. (Location 467)

Only later did I learn that one of the elder monks had secretly buried a large container of rice on the temple grounds, deep in the earth. (Location 477)

I do not accept the concept of war for peace, nor of a “just war,” in the same way that I cannot accept the concepts of “just slavery,” “just hatred,” or “just racism.” (Location 491)

I turned on my flashlight and aimed it into the room we thought was empty— and I saw fifty or sixty monks sitting still and silent in meditation.” (Location 528)

He found the fragrant mushroom rice soup my brother had prepared so delicious, he couldn’t believe it was vegetarian. (Location 559)

He allowed the lives of all living beings to fill his heart, and he saw the senselessness and destructiveness of war. What made it all possible was that moment of complete and total stopping and opening to the powerful, healing, miraculous ocean called silence. (Location 569)

Simply savoring that plate of fresh herbs was enough to restore my balance. (Location 581)

As activists, we have a deep desire to succeed in our attempt to help the world. But if we don’t maintain a balance between our work and the nourishment we need, we won’t be very successful. (Location 584)

Taking action helps us not to drown in despair. (Location 613)

Mindfulness must be engaged. Once we see that something needs to be done, we must take action. Seeing and acting go together. (Location 618)

We must be aware of the real problems of the world. Then, with mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we will know what to do and what not to do in order to help. (Location 619)

Are you planting seeds of joy and peace? I try to do exactly that with every step. (Location 622)

By sitting very still and talking in a very calm voice, I hoped to convey that I had a lot of sympathy for him and the fact that the war had created a lot of victims, not only among the Vietnamese but also among the Americans. (Location 636)

Danger often comes from the inside. (Location 640)

But we would be the only people in our poor neighborhood with an air conditioner, and that would change the way people looked at us. (Location 650)

In Vietnam, friends drop by whenever they feel like it. No one telephones first or makes an appointment. (Location 654)

“boatpeople”— Vietnamese refugees who were attempting to escape persecution and violence at home. (Location 664)

The suffering we touched doing this kind of work was so deep that if we did not have a reservoir of spiritual strength, we would not have been able to continue. (Location 685)

“If you want peace, peace is with you immediately.” (Location 705)

If I could not be peaceful in the midst of danger, then the kind of peace I might have in simpler times is meaningless. If I could not find peace in the midst of difficulty, I knew I would never know real peace. (Location 709)

Success finally came when I faced the problem directly. (Location 712)

Sometimes you have to react quickly while remaining calm. If you are angry or suspicious, you cannot do it. You have to be clear-minded. (Location 758)

You, the minister of education, were a teacher too, before having a high position in the government. You are like a big brother to us younger teachers.” When he heard this, the minister’s heart softened. He apologized and did not take any more action against Sister Chan Khong. (Location 771)

When we see clearly with the eyes of understanding and compassion, we no longer feel that we are the victims of violence. We can even open the heart and the eyes of the person we feel is trying to hurt us. (Location 773)

To burn ourselves like that was not an act of violence. It was an act of compassion, an act of peace. (Location 780)

Our enemy is not outside of us. Our true enemy is the anger, hatred, and discrimination that is found in the hearts and minds of man. (Location 789)

I made a deep vow to continue building what he called “the beloved community,” (Location 801)

During his four years there, he practiced meditation and was able to live with inner peace. By the time he was released, his mind was as sharp as a sword. (Location 811)

no one can ever steal our determination or our freedom. No one can ever steal our practice. (Location 814)

Sometimes people have a certain idea or way of looking at things, and they want to put you in a box. (Location 820)

It’s the reality of the thing that matters, and not the word we use to describe it. (Location 822)

Each one of us is constantly changing. We don’t need to be caught in an idea of ourselves from many years ago. (Location 829)

The oppressed and the oppressors lie within each one of us, and our practice is to attain the wisdom of nondiscrimination. (Location 840)

Don’t think that when someone is in a coma, you can no longer communicate with them. Speak to them anyway. Somehow, they can perceive your message. (Location 857)

Nobody had ever taught me how to love, how to understand, how to see the suffering of others. My father and mother were not taught this either. I didn’t know what was wholesome and what was unwholesome, I didn’t understand cause and effect. I was living in the dark. (Location 884)

When I saw those babies being born and growing up with no help, I knew that I had to do something so that they would not become pirates. (Location 891)

When I’m able to see that I am all those people, my hatred disappears, and I am determined to live in such a way that I can help the victims, and also help those who create and perpetrate wars and destruction. (Location 900)

One soldier told me that the retreat was the first time in fifteen years that he had felt safe in a group of people. For fifteen years, he had not been able to swallow solid food easily. (Location 906)

We breathed mindfully to get deeply in touch with the fresh air, and we looked deeply into our cup of tea in order to be truly in touch with the tea, the water, the clouds, and the rain. (Location 911)

Veterans have experience that makes them the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the roots of war and the way to peace. (Location 913)

Nothing exists by itself alone. We all belong to each other; we cannot cut reality into pieces. My happiness is your happiness; my suffering is your suffering. We heal and transform together. Every side is “our side”; there is no evil side, no enemy. (Location 914)

who could not hear it. She said, “My dear son, that is the nature of war. Such things always happen in war. Do not blame yourself too harshly.” That did not help him at all, (Location 931)

You have killed five children, but now you have the opportunity to save fifty children. In the present moment, you can heal the past.” (Location 943)

The practice of mindfulness is like a boat, and by practicing mindfulness, you offer yourself a boat. (Location 944)

The present moment contains the past, and if you can live deeply in the present moment you can heal the past. (Location 947)

In 1962 I was invited to teach at Princeton University, and it was there that I began to have many deep insights, flowers and fruits of the practice. For me, going to Princeton was like entering a monastery. (Location 951)

We learn to nourish the positive and to recognize, embrace, and transform the negative. (Location 958)

the practice isn’t about getting somewhere or achieving something. The practice itself is the very joy and peace we are seeking. The practice is the destination. (Location 959)

One morning in my little hut at Truc Lam, I woke up very early, around three o’clock. When I put my feet on the earthen floor, the coolness made me feel very awake. (Location 965)

There are days when you feel it’s just not your day, and that everything is going wrong. The more you try, the worse the situation becomes. Everyone has days like that. That’s when it’s time to stop everything, go home, and to take refuge in yourself. The first thing to do is to close the doors and windows. (Location 985)

If we only rely on external conditions, we will get lost. We need a refuge we can always rely on, and that is the island of self. (Location 993)

Despite the hardships, our life was full of happiness. (Location 1007)

Ten years later, we found land in the southwest of France and founded Plum Village Mindfulness Practice Center. I never wanted to build a luxurious, beautiful monastery. Whatever money we were offered we would send to Vietnam to bring relief to the hungry and to victims of floods. (Location 1012)

We may be infatuated with what we’ve bought for a while, but soon we take it for granted, we get bored, throw it away, and then buy something else. (Location 1028)

As you grow in mindfulness, you reclaim your life. You begin to see how much time we lose in empty, meaningless consumption. (Location 1029)

he was always cheerful no matter what happened. Mr. Mounet was a big man and very strong. (Location 1043)

Each of us needs a reserve of memories and experiences that are beautiful, healthy, and strong enough to help us during difficult moments. (Location 1059)

Every positive experience we live deeply, in full awareness, is like a wholesome seed planted in our consciousness. We need to practice mindfulness all the time so that we can plant healing, positive seeds in ourselves. (Location 1067)

As I walked, I knew that I wasn’t going anywhere in particular, so I would walk slowly, gathering each page, conscious of each movement, breathing softly, conscious of each breath. (Location 1097)

If you want to have a lot of money, you have to work hard and quickly, but if you live simply, you can work gently and in full awareness. (Location 1100)

The apple juice became clear after resting awhile. In the same way, if we rest in meditation awhile, we too become clear. This clarity refreshes us and gives us strength and serenity. (Location 1117)

The few hours I spent writing every day were like sitting with the Buddha for a cup of tea. I knew that the readers would be very happy reading the book because I had so much happiness while writing it. (Location 1129)

Years ago in Vietnam, people used to go out onto a lotus pond with a small boat to put some tea leaves into an open lotus flower. The flower would close in the evening and perfume the tea during the night. Then, in the peace of early morning, when the dew was still glistening on the large lotus leaves, they would return in the boat with their friends to collect the tea. On the boat, they would take everything they needed to make delicious, fragrant tea: fresh water, a stove to heat it, teacups, and a teapot. (Location 1143)

In Plum Village we often have tea meditations. These tea meditations are a remnant of the times when we used to spend two or three hours just drinking a cup of tea. (Location 1148)

Because he had been practicing simply noticing his feelings, without acting them out, he stopped himself from shouting. Instead, he turned around and practiced slow walking. (Location 1160)

samsara, the habitual continuation of negative or destructive behavior. (Location 1163)

The boy had a sudden urge to go home and invite his father to practice sitting meditation with him. When that good intention arose in him, all his anger and resentment toward his father began to dissolve. (Location 1164)

Trees are like our older brothers and sisters. We need to take care of them and treat them with great respect. (Location 1173)

Hugging meditation is a combination of East and West. It’s like tea bags. (Location 1180)

be really there, fully present. Breathe consciously while hugging, and hug with all your mind, body, and heart. “Breathing in, I know my dear one is in my arms, alive. Breathing out, he is so precious to me.” (Location 1183)

When you love someone, you want him to be happy. If he is not happy, there is no way you can be happy. Happiness is not an individual matter. (Location 1185)

True love requires deep understanding. In fact, love is another name for understanding. (Location 1186)

Practicing mindful consumption, we are able to heal ourselves, heal our society, and heal the Earth. (Location 1198)

Eating this way, he knew that the tangerine had become real, the one eating the tangerine had become real, and life had also become real in that moment. (Location 1209)

please put it in the palm of your hand and look at it in a way that makes the tangerine real. You don’t need a lot of time to do this, just two or three seconds. (Location 1212)

Looking at a tangerine in this way, you will see that everything in the cosmos is in it— the sunshine, rain, clouds, trees, leaves, everything. (Location 1216)

When I am healthy, I like to jog at least twice a day. I practice mindful jogging (Location 1220)

I see that the very act of raking is at least as wonderful as having a clean path. (Location 1223)

I think it is better not to mistreat my body. I must take care of it and treat it with respect, just as a musician takes care of his instrument. (Location 1242)

Since they didn’t have a bell, he proposed that every fifteen minutes a student would clap his hands so that the entire class could stop and practice breathing, relaxing, and smiling. (Location 1252)

We should practice meditation collectively, because looking deeply into our situation is no longer an individual matter. (Location 1259)

Pointing at a bush he said, “When people today look at leaves and flowers, it’s as if they’re in a dream.” (Location 1263)

Lay down your burdens, your worries, and your projects. Just sit and feel that you are alive. (Location 1278)

I have learned that my home, my country, is the whole planet Earth. I do not limit my love to a tiny piece of land in Asia, Vietnam. (Location 1291)

We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love: to be at one. (Location 1295)

When you love someone, you want to take care of them as you would take care of yourself. When we love the Earth like this, it’s a reciprocated love. (Location 1296)

Every day I wake up and have new insight, like an old tree producing new flowers, and my love continues to grow. (Location 1303)

Our practice is to cultivate good seeds in the soil of our mind, knowing that they will mature and bloom in their own time. (Location 1310)

We are not strangers to each other. We are united by our Buddha nature. The desire to become an awakened person is strong in all of us. (Location 1344)

Our true home is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. (Location 1351)

In Plum Village, our brothers and sisters program a bell of mindfulness on their computer. Every quarter of an hour, the bell sounds and they stop working or thinking, and they go back to their in-breath and out-breath; they come home to their body. They feel they are there, truly alive. They enjoy mindful breathing at least three times, and smile before they continue their work. (Location 1356)

Our body is here, but our mind is somewhere else— in the past or the future, possessed by anger, frustration, hopes, or dreams. We are not really alive; we are not fully present; we are like ghosts. (Location 1369)

Anything good needs time to ripen. When enough conditions come together, what has been latent in us for a long time can arise. (Location 1392)

At that moment I woke up, and at first I could not remember the contents of the dream. I only knew I had just had a very powerful and important dream. So I stayed in bed and practiced conscious breathing, and slowly the details came back. (Location 1421)

If we do not practice peace in our lives, war will continue to break out within us and in the world around us. (Location 1475)

As journalists, we need to report events truthfully, while at the same time watering the seed of understanding and compassion in our readers and viewers. And as consumers, we need to use our mindfulness to be aware of our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions when we consume the news, so that we can protect ourselves. (Location 1513)

we can commit to actively watering the seeds of understanding, tolerance, and nondiscrimination within ourselves and our society. (Location 1518)

The realization that we have already arrived, that we don’t have to travel any further, that we are already home, can bring us peace and joy. (Location 1528)

The practice of stopping and looking deeply is to stop our habit energy being sustained by the negative seeds that have been transmitted to us. (Location 1535)

When we are able to stop, we do it for all our ancestors, and we end the vicious circle that is called samsara. (Location 1536)

After the harsh winter, when spring came, the young shoots sprouted. So instead of having one trunk, the olive trees had three or four trunks. (Location 1547)

If you are siblings of the same parents, you are part of the same tree. You have the same roots, (Location 1549)

I had attained some kind of insight that enabled me to free myself of attachment to views, or whatever else it was that was still holding the young man back. (Location 1600)

Each of us may have views that we hold on to and consider to be the truth, and we are attached to those views. But if you get caught in your views, then you have no chance to progress. (Location 1601)

But if we know how to take care of others, they will grow well, just like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade by means of reason or argument. That is my experience. (Location 1607)

No blame, no reasoning, no argument— just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and any difficult situation will improve. (Location 1608)

Looking at his hand, he can penetrate deeply into the reality of beginningless and endless time. He can see that thousands of generations before him and thousands of generations after him are all him. (Location 1629)

From time immemorial until the present moment, his life has never been interrupted, and his hand is still there, a beginningless and endless reality. (Location 1630)

He took the first page of Being Peace, wrapped some tobacco in it, and sneaked it to the other side with the hope that the other person might enjoy reading Being Peace. (Location 1649)

The death penalty merely reveals our weakness and helplessness. We don’t know what to do and we give up. (Location 1663)

the wave lives the life of a wave and, at the same time, the life of water. (Location 1671)

They are used to living in the realm of birth and death, and they forget about the realm of no birth and no death. Just as a wave lives the life of water, so, too, do we live the life of no birth and no death. (Location 1673)

Our work can take up all our life. We may even be addicted to our work, not because we need the money, but because we don’t know how to handle the suffering and loneliness inside, and so we take refuge in our work. (Location 1694)

The Buddha’s presence in the car makes every moment of the journey a moment worth living. The more of us who are breathing mindfully, the stronger the presence of the Buddha will be. (Location 1715)

Every day we are engaged in a miracle that we don’t even recognize: the blue sky, the white clouds, the green leaves, and the curious eyes of a child. All is a miracle. (Location 1730)

Every mindful step has the power to transform us and all our ancestors within us, including our animal, plant, and mineral ancestors. (Location 1733)

whether you are walking at the railway station, at the airport, or along the bank of a river, make sure that every step you make brings you joy, relaxation, and happiness. Every step can be healing, (Location 1749)

if you want to connect with others, all you need to do is to practice walking meditation every morning after breakfast on your way to work. Walking like that, in peace and freedom, we become connected right away. (Location 1758)

The nuclear family, consisting of two parents and a few children, is a relatively recent invention. (Location 1764)

We need to expand our definition of family to include not only our friends and community, but also the sun, the sky, the trees, the birds, and the hills around us. Practicing mindfulness is much easier when we do it together. (Location 1774)

If you are the fierce, red-faced bodhisattva and demonstrate firmness and strength, you must also have a tender heart and deep understanding. (Location 1786)

But if we’re on the moon and looking back at the Earth, we see Earth’s magnificence. (Location 1796)

We have the capacity to take happy, light, and free steps on our beautiful planet Earth. We need to remember how precious this is. (Location 1802)

The Buddha said, “When conditions are sufficient, the body reveals itself, and we say the body is. When conditions are not sufficient, the body cannot be perceived by us, and we say the body is not.” (Location 1814)

The day of our so-called death is a day of our continuation in many other forms. (Location 1815)

Nirvana means extinction, the extinction of all notions and concepts, including the concepts of birth, death, being, nonbeing, coming, and going. (Location 1817)

Do you have a true home where you feel comfortable, peaceful, and free? (Location 1832)

The whole cosmos has come together in order to help you to manifest. (Location 1842)

Our true home is a place without discrimination, a place without hatred. Our true home is the place where we are no longer seeking anything, no longer yearning for anything, no longer regretting anything. (Location 1845)

When we return to right here and right now with the energy of mindfulness, we will be able to establish our true home in the present moment. (Location 1847)

Home is not something to hope for, but to cultivate. There is no way home; home is the way. (Location 1852)

When we stop trying to find our home outside ourselves— in space, time, culture, territory, nationality, or race— we can find true happiness. (Location 1856)

“You have to make the present moment into the most wonderful moment of your life.” (Location 1863)

This body of mine will disintegrate, but my actions will continue me. In my daily life, I always practice to see my continuation all around me. (Location 1870)

In his youth, he was deeply affected by images of the Buddha radiating peace in stark contrast to the strife and suffering he witnessed all around him. (Location 1883)

In 2004 the Vietnamese government invited Nhat Hanh to visit Vietnam after almost forty years of exile. (Location 1930)

“Teaching is not done by talking alone. It is done by how you live your life. My life is my teaching. My life is my message.” (Location 1939)

Answers from the Heart, Thich Nhat Hanh (Location 1942)

Healing, Sister Dang Nghiem (Location 1945)

Learning True Love, Sister Chan Khong (Location 1947)

Nothing To It, Brother Phap Hai (Location 1951)

Solid Ground: Buddhist Wisdom for Difficult Times, Sylvia Boorstein, Norman Fischer, Tsoknyi Riponche (Location 1952)

World as Lover, World as Self, Joanna Macy (Location 1953)