Thich Nhat Hanh: Looking Deeply

Don't think that without compost you can have flowers.
That is an illusion.
You can only have flowers with compost.
That is the insight of interbeing - 
look into the flower and you will see the compost.
If you remove the compost that became the flower, 
the flower will disappear also.

What you are looking for, freedom, joy, stability, you know
that suffering plays a very important role in it.
So be aware that we cannot just run away from our problems.
In fact, we have to go back to our problems.

The practice of calming, of concentrating, of embracing, of looking deeply
into the nature of our pain, is absolutely necessary for us to get 
the transformation, the healing that we need so much.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh


from  Thich Nhat Hanh gems