Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

I saw that nothing was permanent. You don't want to possess anything that is dear to you because you might lose it.

Life is a flux, nothing abides. Still we are such fools, we go on clinging. If change is the nature of life, then clinging is stupidity, because your clinging is not going to change the law of life. Your clinging is only going to make you miserable. Things are bound to change; whether you cling or not does not matter. If you cling you become miserable: you cling and they change, you feel frustrated. If you don't cling they still change, but then there is no frustration because you were perfectly aware that they are bound to change. This is how things are, this is the suchness of life.

According to Buddhist psychology most of our troubles stem from attachment to things that we mistakenly see as permanent.

The logs of wood which move down the river together Are driven apart by every wave. Such inevitable parting Should not be the cause of misery.

He who is attached to things will suffer much.

We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off limits to others. We’re willing to attack if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.

The more you cling to things, The more you love them, The more the pain you suffer, When they're taken from you.

Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.

Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

Everything. Things you lost. Things you’re gonna lose. Everything. Here’s where it all ties together.

To remember non-attachment is to remember what freedom is all about. If we get attached, even to a beautiful state of being, we are caught, and ultimately we will suffer. We work to observe anything that comes our way, experience it while it is here, and be able to let go of it.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

So how can you lose what you've never owned?

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. Unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

I am aware of the depths of heartache I'm experiencing but also how foolish it is to think that the things we have are permanent. They're not.

If you acquire things, you have to let them go.

So we're in this process of letting go of our own attachments to our physical forms and to the people we love, and... basically everything. Life is like this one big process of letting go.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away

So I said I wanted you to stay, even though nothing could stay the same.

Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent...this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering.

Everything ends, people move on, they don't look back. It's how they should be.

Love that well which thou must leave ere long.

It was becoming clear to me that I shouldn't bother to get too attached to anything. Turn your back and you lose it. Just like that.