"There's usually a great outcome if you train your mind to look for one." — Jeremy Jones The Art of Shralpinism
"...each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself...To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top." — Robert M. Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"There’s always something to look at if you open your eyes." — 5th Doctor Doctor Who, "Kinda"
"Such illusions, depending on how the eye is placed and used, drive home the truth that our habitual vision of things is not necessarily right: it is only one of an infinite number, and to glimpse an unfamiliar one, even for a moment, unmakes us, but steadies us again." — Nan Shepherd The Living Mountain
"...sees what it didn’t see before, or sees in a new way what it had already seen." — Nan Shepherd The Living Mountain
"A smile can be a kind of yoga practice, yoga of the mouth. You just smile, even if you don’t feel joy. And after you smile, you’ll see you feel differently. Sometimes the mind takes the initiative, and sometimes you have to allow the body to take the initiative. ... If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Relax and Being Peace
"In order to be happy, we need first of all to let go of our ideas of happiness. It’s difficult. Each one of us has an idea of happiness; we think that we must have this or that to be happy, or that we have to eliminate this or that to be happy. We think that we have to have certain conditions. ... If we haven’t been able to be happy and joyful, it’s because we’re caught in our ideas. So we have to be able to let them go. Our idea of happiness is the main obstacle to happiness." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Relax
"As you learn how to be in the present moment, you’ll gain faith and trust in your ability to handle the situation. ... That makes you confident; and as your confidence grows, you’re no longer the victim of your worries." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Relax
"Sometimes we want to relax because we want to not think. That’s wonderful; we all need non-thinking time. But that doesn’t mean we should stop listening. When we stop thinking, we can start communicating with ourselves by listening to our bodies and our emotions." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Relax
"In our body there may be tension and pain. If we suppress or ignore this, then every day the tension and pain will grow and prevent us from experiencing the happiness that we should be able to experience. Mindfulness of breathing can help us relax and bring peace to our body. We take care of our body first. We can take care of our mind later." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Relax
"Meditation has two aspects. The first is stopping (shamatha in Sanskrit). We run throughout our whole life, chasing after some idea of happiness. Stopping means to stop our running, our forgetfulness, and our being caught in the past or the future. ... We think that happiness and well-being aren’t possible in the present. If you can stop and establish yourself in the here and the now, you will see that there are many elements of happiness available in this moment. ... The second aspect of meditation is looking deeply (vipashyana in Sanskrit) in order to see the true nature of things. ... Mindfulness is the continuous practice of touching deeply every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly present with your body and your mind, to harmonize your intentions and actions, and to be in harmony with those around you." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Relax
"This is a happy moment. This mantra can be practiced at any moment. We have the tendency to forget the many conditions for happiness that are already available to us." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
"I am here for you. Sometimes ... our loved one is sitting beside us but we have forgotten all about [them]. ... Our loved one is there physically but it’s as if [they're] not truly there. To love someone, you need to be there one hundred percent. The mantra “I am here for you” says that I care about you, I enjoy being in your presence. It helps the other person to feel supported and happy. ... We think that our loved one will be with us forever and we forget how precious [their] presence is in this moment. Once we’re really there for the other person, that person becomes something very real. When the other person is real, [they are] a wonderful manifestation of life and we need to let [them] know that, for [their] happiness and for our own." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
"When someone says something unkind to us and we don’t understand why, we may become upset. A knot is tied inside. ... We can learn the skill of recognizing a knot the moment it is tied in us, and we can find ways to untie it. If we give it our full attention as soon as it forms, while still loosely tied, untying it will be easy. Otherwise, it grows tighter and stronger with time and is more difficult to loosen. ... When you are in a new relationship, both people are still light, and have few knots. Misunderstandings are easy to clear up right away. But when we let things build up, many knots accumulate and we don’t know where to begin untying them. To protect each other’s happiness, we need to become aware of and communicate about our internal knots as soon as they arise." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
"When we’re overcome by strong emotions we’re like a tree in a storm, with its top branches and leaves swaying in the wind. But the trunk of the tree is solid, stable, and deeply rooted in the earth. When we’re caught in a storm of emotions, we can practice to be like the trunk of the tree. We don’t stay up in the high branches. We go down to the trunk and become still, not carried away by our thinking and emotions." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
"When you feel upset or angry, it’s important not to do or say anything. We need to calm down first. Don’t speak or act with the energy of anger in you. Just come back to your body and your breathing." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
"We human beings are all the same in wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer and yet many of the problems we face are of our own making. We seek happiness in external things without realizing that they don’t help when we have problems within. We need to focus instead on the joy that comes with peace of mind that allows us to remain happy whatever happens." — Dalai Lama
"Expectation is the cause of all disappointment." — Unknown
"In Buddhism, we speak of all the various potential states of mind as seeds. ... We aren’t necessarily aware of these seeds, but they are there in the lower level of our consciousness. The seeds contain the potential for all the different emotions, thoughts, and perceptions we may have. If something triggers one of the seeds—for example if someone says something unkind that waters your seed of anger—the seed of anger will come up and manifest in the upper level of consciousness, our mind. ... If you allow anger to stay there for a long time, then the seed of anger will be strengthened in the lower level of consciousness. It will become more important and will arise more easily. If you get angry every day, your seed of anger will grow bigger and bigger, and it will be much more difficult for compassion to grow.
" — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
"Sometimes when we attempt to listen to another person, we can’t hear them because we haven’t listened to ourselves first. Our own strong emotions and thoughts are so loud in our heart and in our head, crying out for our attention, that we can’t hear the other person. Before we listen to another, we need to spend time listening to ourselves. ... We practice to calm ourselves before we express what is in our heart, and we choose our words carefully so the other person can accept what we say and can understand us better." — Thich Nhat Hanh How to Fight
