Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

See, Heaven is not someplace on a disc in the sky floating around, it's right here amongst us.

The truth is that you can only come to know God when you give up the past and the future in your mind and merge totally into the now, because God is always here now.

Praying privately in churches, I began to discover that heaven was my true home and also that it was here and now, woven into this life.

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.

The kingdom of God is available to you in the here and the now. But the question is whether you are available to the kingdom. Our practice is to make ourselves ready for the kingdom so that it can manifest in the here and the now. You don't need to die in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, you have to be truly alive in order to do so.

He who lives in the present lives in eternity.

We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with him right now-to be happy with him at this very moment. But being happy with him now means.

Salvation is not a religion. It's not rules or regulations or rituals. Salvation is a relationship. That relationship doesn't begin when you get to Heaven; it begins here on Earth.

The gate of heaven is everywhere.

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.

All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.

The thing is, I've always tried to create transcendent moments. Moments that take people away from their concerns. Heaven to me is when people find a way to become so involved with life that they're no longer concerned for the future.

When you turn to God you discover He has been facing you all the time.

I know I can walk through the world, along the shore or under the trees, with my mind filled with things of little importance, in full self-attendance. A condition I can't really call being alive.

Nowness or the magic of the present moment is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present

it is when you are really living in the present-working, thinking, lost, absorbed in something you care about very much, that you are living spiritually.

I'm not here to be remembered, I'm here to be alive.

Eternity is not the hereafter...this is it. If you don't get it here you won't get it anywhere.

Union with God is really possible. Unity with God I presume, is what is meant by Heaven, but that too is available in this life for the humble of heart.

If you are fully aware in the moment, there is only love.

God is not in heaven - God is in the present moment. If you are also in the present moment you enter the temple.

This is what I mean by becoming religious: no guilt, no ego, no trip of any kind...just being herenow...being with the trees and the birds and the rivers and the mountains and the stars.

Religion is the great balm of existence because it takes us outside ourselves, connects us to something larger

We need to learn to live in the here and now; this moment is the best moment. Live it fully.

Real elegance is simply a true encounter with oneself.