Saturday, September 25, 2010

thich nhat hanh

"If there are things that are causing you to suffer, you have to know how to let go of them. Happiness can be attained by letting go, including letting go of your ideas about happiness. You imagine that certain conditions are necessary to your happiness, but deep looking will reveal to you that those notions are the very things standing in the way of happiness and are making you suffer." (73)

"The Buddha taught us that joy and pleasure are based on surrender, on letting go. Are you able to let go of things? If not, your suffering will continue." (74)

"Perhaps you too are the prisoner of your own notion of happiness. There are thousands of paths that lead to happiness, but you have accepted only one. You have not considered other paths because you think that yours is the only one that leads to happiness. You have followed this path with all your might, and so the other paths, the thousands of others, have remained closed to you.

We should be free to experience the happiness that just comes to us without our having to seek it." (75)

"In true love, there is no place for pride. I beg you to remember this. You share happiness and adversity with this person, so you must go to him or her and share the truth about your suffering." (95)

"Are you sure of your perceptions?

There is a river of perceptions in you. You should sit down on the bank of this river and contemplate your perceptions." (99)


I read You Are Here over the summer. I am going to read it again. I got the book from the library like a week or two ago because I knew I would need it during the year. I'm also going to finish reading True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart, and then start a book based off his talk with prisoners Be Free Where You Are.

Oh yes, it's not a game.

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