Inspirational Quotes

You have to remember that this life in which you are appearing right now is only a split second in eternity. You believe so much in your humanhood that you think you live a long time and you're important and what you do matters. You don't see that your life is but a split second in eternity.

It's like this keyhole example that I always give you. You look through the keyhole and you see a certain situation happening and that is all you see. You therefore react to that situation which you see through the keyhole. But if you saw the whole picture if you were able to open the door you would see really what's going on. That's how it is with this body in this age. Your time alloted to you in this particular body is like looking through the keyhole. You're only seeing partially what is going on. Therefore if you understand this and you know what I'm talking about why would you react?

You look through the keyhole and you see somebody stabbing somebody. And you get excited, "Look what's going on. There is a murder going on." That's all you see. Yet if you open the door widely you would see that in a previous life the person being stabbed, stabbed the person who is stabbing. What goes around comes around. And if you continue looking you would see that both people, the person being stabbed and the person who is stabbing are laughing in the end, so-called. And nobody killed and nobody got killed. It just didn't happen.

Another good example of that is when you see a movie. The same thing happens. There is a beginning a middle and an end. But you see the whole movie, you see the beginning the middle and the end. Yet your life is like the middle of the movie. You don't know the beginning. The beginning is not when you are born. That is not the beginning. The end is not when you leave your body so-to-speak. Life is a continuum. There was never a beginning and there is no middle and there is no end.

Robert Adams

Over ten years ago, one of my disciples in Vietnam had a stupa - a Buddhist shrine - built for my ashes. I told her that I didn’t need a stupa for my ashes. I don’t want to be stuck in a stupa. I want to be everywhere.

“But,” she protested, “it’s already built!”

“In that case,” I said, “you’ll have to put an inscription on the front, saying, ‘I am not in here.’” It’s true. I won’t be there in the stupa. Even if my body is cremated and the ashes are put in there, they aren’t me. I won’t be in there. Why would I want to be in there when outside it is so beautiful?

But in case some people misunderstand, I told her they might need to add another inscription, saying, “I am not out there either.” People won’t find me inside or outside the stupa. Yet they may still misunderstand. So there may need to be a third inscription that reads, “If I am to be found anywhere, it is in your peaceful way of breathing and walking.” That is my continuation. Even though we may never have met in person, if, when you breathe in, you find peace in your breathing, I am there with you.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, in “The Art of Living”.

Image: © Michael Volpicelli