Beautiful words from Thich Nhat Hanh

This is a very compassionate and wise piece of writing taken from Thich’s book How to Fight on how we can skillfully help others rather than harm them even further under the illusion of ‘caring.’

Learn to nourish yourself and your loved ones with joy. To love someone means to understand them. It means knowing how to bring them joy and happiness in concrete ways. If you act skillfully your words and actions will make the other person feel fresh and light. Sometimes a kind word or two are enough to help them blossom like a flower.

We have to learn the art of creating happiness. If during our childhood we saw our mother or father do things that created happiness in the family, we will already know how to do it. But if our parents did not know how to create happiness, we may not know how to do it either. The problem is not one of wrong or right. But of being more or less skillful.

Creating happiness is an art. Even with a lot of goodwill, you can still make another person very unhappy. Goodwill is not enough. We need to know the art of making the other person happy. Art is the essence of life..

Try to be artful in your speech and actions. The substance of art is mindfulness. When you are mindful you are more artful.