Bringing Forth Your Potential
“Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
Quoting The Gospel of Thomas, verse 70 in:
“Living Buddha, Living Christ 10th Anniversary Edition” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Interdependence
“Each thing depends on all other things to be. That is interdependence. Nothing can be by itself alone. It has to inter-be with all other things.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
“Living Buddha, Living Christ 10th Anniversary Edition” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
There Is No Separation
“There is no separation between you and me, between you and any other person…we all ‘inter-are.’ As my friend Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, ‘All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
The Ultimate Realm
“If you touch the phenomenal realm deeply, you touch the ultimate realm which is the realm of no birth and no death. The ultimate is nirvana, it is God, and it is available to us twenty-four hours a day.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
“Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Learning to Breathe
There are few skills more valuable than learning to breathe properly. And I say that as someone who used to have a terrible way of moving air in and out of myself!
For the last three decades I have routinely offered to teach patients and students how to help themselves with simple breathing exercise. If you are interested, I have recorded some of my methods.
Sadly some people have scant interest in learning. I recently saw a patient with a chronic problem with anxiety. I asked her if anyone had tried to help her to help herself with some breathing techniques. She told me, rather tartly, that I was “talking “Bull ****” and that she just wanted me to give her a “narcotic.”
Oh well, you can’t help everyone.
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness: which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
Understanding the Person You Want to Love
“We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
“Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
