The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion - towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Compassionate listening is to help the other side suffer less. If we realize that other people are the same people as we are, we are no longer angry at them.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive - that you can touch the miracle of being alive - then that is a kind of enlightenment.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

In order to heal others, we first need to heal ourselves. And to heal ourselves, we need to know how to deal with ourselves.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Mother Earth is very talented. She has produced Buddhas, bodhisattvas, great beings.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available - more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

If you can feel that Mother Earth is in you, and you are Mother Earth, then you are not any longer afraid to die because the earth is not dying. Like a wave appears and disappears and appears again.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

There are many, many Christians who practice Buddhism, and they become better and better Christians all the time.

- Thich Nhat Hanh