“Is your teaching any different if you’re speaking to members of Congress, or you’re speaking to Hollywood filmmakers, or you’re speaking to law enforcement officers?”
“The practice would be the same, but we need friends to show us how a certain group of people lead their lives; what type of suffering and difficulties they encounter in their lives, so that we can understand. And only after that we could offer the appropriate teaching and practice. That is why we continue to learn every day, with our practice and sharing.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh responds to a question from Krista Tippett on her podcast On Being
From a collection of diary entries from the 1960s entitled Fragrant Palm Leaves by Thich Nhat Hanh:
“If you tarnish your perceptions by holding on to suffering that isn’t really there, you create even greater misunderstanding. One-sided perceptions like these create our world of suffering. We are like an artist who is frightened by his own drawing of a ghost. Our creations become real to us, and even haunt us.”
Past 25 