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Thich Nhat Hanh's words

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一行禪師慧語

Thich Nhat Hanh explains the core of Zen Buddhism in simple elegant language.
Here are the favourite sayings collected by one of our Buddhist Sangha members.
This list will grow with time.
 
一行禪師以簡潔智慧的語言講解佛教禪宗的精義。
以下是尋道會佛教共修一位成員的收集。
此清單將不斷增長。

 
 
 
Our true nature is the nature of no birth and no death.
 
from No Death, No Fear p7
 
 
Looking deeply, we should also see that there is no birth, there is no death; there is no coming, there is no going; there is no being, there is no non-being; there is no same, there is no different.
 
from No Death, No Fear p14
 
 
When all ideas of is and is not have been extinguished, then reality will manifest itself.
 
from No Death, No Fear p15
 
 
To be and not to be are just two ideas opposing each other.  But they are not reality, and they do not describe reality. 
 
from No Death, No Fear p19
 
 
Nirvana is empty of all notions, including the notion of nirvana.
 
from No Death, No Fear p20
 
 
Impermanence means that everything changes and that nothing remains the same in any consecutive moments.
 
from No Death, No Fear p40
 
 
Impermanence is looking at reality from the point of veiw of time.  No self is looking at reality from the point of view of space.  They are two sides of reality.  No self is a manifestation of impermanence, and impermanence is a menifestation of no self.  If things are impermanent, they are without a separate self.  If things are without a separate self, they are impermanent.  Impermanence means being transformed at every moment.  This is reality.
 
from No Death, No Fear p46
 
 
Consciousness, just like perceptions, feelings and mental formations, is just a manifestation.  When conditions are sufficient, these manifestations are present.  When conditions are no longer sufficient, these manifestations are no longer present.  Present or not present, these manifestations are not me.
 
from No Death, No Fear p182
 
 
 
 
When you are capable of touching yourself deeply, and touching others deeply, you touch the other dimension, the dimension of the ultimate reality.
 
from Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers p4
 
 
The practice of looking deeply reveals to us that one thing is made up of all other things.  One thing contains the whole cosmos.
 
from Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers p5
 
 
Mindfulness is the energy of the Buddha.  The Holy Spirit is the energy of God.  They both have the capacity to make us present, fully alive, deeply understanding, and loving.
 
from Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers p5
 
If we do not live each moment deelply, there is no way we can touch the ultimate dimension, the dimension of the noumena.
 
from Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers p5
 
 
Paul Tillich said that "God is the ground of all being."  The "ground of being" is the noumenal aspect of reality.  God is not a being in the phenomenal world.  He or She is the ground of being.  It would not be difficult for Christians and Buddhists to agree on this.
 
from Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers p7
 
 
When we ask, "Is God a person or is God not a person," we get lost.  In fact, God is not a person, and God is not a non-person.  There is a German theologian who expresses this very beautifully: "God is not a person, but not less than a person."  It is a very Zen-like statement. 
 
from Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers p12
 
 
 
 
When a person's speech is full of anger, it is because he or she suffers deeply.
 
from Anger p3
 
 
To understand and transform anger, we must learn the practice of compassionate listening and using loving speech. 
 
from Anger p3

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