Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

Instead of 'watching the thinker,' you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.

With a practice, we can always remain alive in the present moment. With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.

Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.

If you have your full attention in the moment, you will see only love.

Being aware in the moment of right now is just the most important thing. All of our issues come from us not being aware enough or not seeing through our problems to the depths of the issues.

The only time that any of us have to grow or change or feel or learn anything is in the present moment. But we're continually missing our present moments, almost willfully, by not paying attention.

The truth is in the present moment.

That is why those who are not capable of being there in the present moment, they don't really live their life - they live like dead people.

When you are present, the world is truly alive.

I like to be present; I like to be in the now. The way life has shaped up, it is difficult, you know, with mobile phones taking you to another time and space all the time. So it's always a battle to stay in the moment. But according to me, it's a better way to be.

I've found a way to live in the here and now.

The best way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully conscious in the present.

Go deep into meditation. and be meditation I mean silence, awareness, witnessing. You can meditate any time of the day, you can meditate working, walking, doing things. Meditation is not something separate from life; it should not be separate, otherwise it remains a little artificial. Meditation should be spread all over life. You should walk in meditation, you should sit in meditation; that means silently, fully aware. Slowly slowly it becomes your very flavour, then the bridge is created.

I believe people have to be open to what's happening when they're alive.

Everything we are is at every moment alive in us.

If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything. When a child presents himself to you with his smile, if you are not really there - thinking about the future or the past, or preoccupied with other problems - then the child is not really there for you. The technique of being alive is to go back to yourself in order for the child to appear like a marvellous reality. Then you can see him smile and you can embrace him in your arms.

Practice moment to moment non-judgemental awareness.

The purpose of meditation is to create focus. It is about focusing your attention on your experience. The reason for focus: it allows you to be here now. Your only reality is This Moment, right here, right now. Peace is found in such awareness.

From the perspective of meditation, every state is a special state, every moment a special moment.

Meditation means awareness. Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation. Action is not the question, but the quality that you bring to your action. Walking can be a meditation if you walk alertly. Sitting can be a meditation if you sit alertly. Listening to the birds can be a meditation if you listen with awareness. Just listening to the inner noise of your mind can be a meditation if you remain alert and watchful. The whole point is: one should not move in sleep. Then whatsoever you do is meditation.

Whatever is your present experience, you can recognize the spaciousness that allows it to be. You are this spaciousness, this awareness, this love. Deeper love and more spacious awareness is the best lesson you can get from any experience.

From three to four, he planned to stand perfectly still and think of what it was like to be alive.

How we pay attention to the present moment...determin es the character of our experience and...the quality of our lives.

We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.

I try to just take in every moment of being alive.