Nhat Hanh Quotes About Perception

Quotes about: Perception

• People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one's perception of reality.

  Nhat Hanh

  Cutting, Reality, Break Through

  Various, Ledi Sayadaw, Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Nyanaponika Thera, Padmasiri de Silva (2012). “Collected Wheel Publications Volume XVI: Numbers 231–247”, p.90, Buddhist Publication Society

• If we are at war with our parents, our family, our society, or our church, there is probably a war going on inside us also, so the most basic work for peace is to return to ourselves and create harmony among the elements within us - our feelings, our perceptions, and our mental states. That is why the practice of meditation, looking deeply, is so important.

  Nhat Hanh

  Family, Peace, War

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2007). “Living Buddha, Living Christ 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.10, Penguin

• Looking deeply into the wrong perceptions, ideas, and notions that are at the base of our suffering is the most important practice in Buddhist meditation.

  Nhat Hanh

  Buddhist, Practice, Ideas

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2009). “Beyond the Self: Teachings on the Middle Way”, p.8, Parallax Press

• Anger is like a storm rising up from the bottom of your consciousness. When you feel it coming, turn your focus to your breath. 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 they are unhappy and suffering. You can see their wrong perceptions. You'll feel motivated by a desire to say or do something to help the other person suffer less. This means compassionate energy has been born in your heart. And when compassion appears, anger is deleted.

  Nhat Hanh

  Wisdom, Mean, Home

• Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings need you, your perceptions need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for all these things.

  Nhat Hanh

  Home, Feelings, Perception

  FaceBook post by Thich Nhat Hanh from Dec 01, 2016

• Wrong perceptions cannot be removed by guns and bombs. They should be removed by deep listening, compassionate listening, and loving space.

  Nhat Hanh

  Gun, Space, Perception

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com.

• 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.

  Nhat Hanh

  Inspirational, Life, Change

• We have to have loving speech. And if we are honest, if we are true, terrorists will open their hearts. Then we practice compassionate listening, and we can learn so much about our own perception and their perception. Only after that can we help remove wrong perception. That is the best way, the only way, to remove terrorism.

  Nhat Hanh

  Heart, Practice, Listening

• The Buddha always reminds us that our afflictions, including our fear and our desiring, are born from our ignorance. That is why in order to dissipate fear, we have to remove wrong perception.

  Nhat Hanh

  Ignorance, Order, Perception

  "Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh". Interview with Bell Hooks, www.lionsroar.com. March 24, 2017.

• Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less.

  Nhat Hanh

  Heart, Compassion, Giving

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com.

• Deep listening helps us to recognize the existence of wrong perceptions in the other person and wrong perceptions in us.

  Nhat Hanh

  Perception, Listening, Helping

• Your anger is like a flower. In the beginning you may not understand the nature of your anger, or why it has come up. But if you know how to embrace it with the energy of mindfulness, it will begin to open. You may be sitting, following your breathing, or you may be practicing walking meditation to generate the energy of mindfulness and embrace your anger. After ten or twenty minutes your anger will have to open herself to you, and suddenly, you will see the true nature of your anger. It may have arisen just because of a wrong perception or the lack of skillfulness.

  Nhat Hanh

  Flower, Anger, Walking Meditation

• The other person has wrong perceptions about himself and about us. And we have wrong perceptions about ourselves and the other person. And that is the foundation for violence and conflict and war.

  Nhat Hanh

  War, Perception, Foundation

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com.

• In Zen Buddhism, the greater your doubt, the greater will be your enlightenment. That is why doubt can be a good thing. If you are too sure, if you always have conviction, then you may be caught in your wrong perception for a long time.

  Nhat Hanh

  Time, Buddhism, Long

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.72, ReadHowYouWant.com

• The terrorists, they have the wrong perception. They believe that the other group is trying to destroy them as a religion, as a civilization. So they want to abolish us, to kill us before we can kill them. And the antiterrorist may think very much the same way - that these are terrorists and they are trying to eliminate us, so we have to eliminate them first. Both sides are motivated by fear, by anger, and by wrong perception.

  Nhat Hanh

  Believe, Thinking, Civilization

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com.

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