"The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers."
"Recently, one friend asked me, "How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn't natural." I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on then we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can not let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty."
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Source: Thich Nhat Hanh (2012). “Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries”, p.440, Parallax Press
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