…we have all kinds of seeds in us, positive and negative. We have the seed of perfect enlightenment in us that is the Buddha-to-be in us. We have the seed of Mara in us. We have the seed of holiness in us, and we have the seed of un-holiness in us. So sometimes we may be called “His Holiness,” sometimes “His Un-holiness.” The mind is a screen upon which every mental formation can be revealed. A good practitioner knows how to keep the negative seeds here [in the storehouse consciousness], and tries by his or her practice to help the positive seeds to manifest. If the positive seeds continue to manifest here, the negative seeds become smaller, smaller, less important. When they are tiny, not important, it is difficult for them to manifest. I don’t get angry very often. Even when I get angry, you might not see it. You may say, “I have never seen Thây angry,” and you believe anger is not in me. That is not true. The seed of anger is always in me, but since I practice I don’t give it a lot of chance.

From a Dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh

One step is very much, because if you able to make one step, you will be to be able to make two, and so on. I walk for you. I walk for my parents, my ancestors….

There are many, many pleasant ways of doing it. There are several gathas like the one we sang here this morning. There are many wonderful gathas in Plum Village. Please learn them from your dharma teachers, from your brothers and sisters in the dharma. And practice with several gathas instead of just one. Like when you breathe in, you make two steps, “flower, flower”; and when you breathe out, you make another two steps, “fresh, fresh.” Or if you want to go faster, you make three steps: “flower, flower, flower; fresh, fresh, fresh.” But don’t do it mechanically. Don’t say the word—practice it. When you say, “flower, flower, flower,” you have to be a flower. When you say “fresh, fresh, fresh,” you have to make freshness into a reality. Otherwise, what are you doing?

After a few minutes, you may change to “mountain, solid.” Breathing in, you say, “mountain, mountain,” and you transform yourself into a mountain. You are walking with dignity. Each step is stability. You are not running. There are animals who walk like that, very majestically. The Buddha, also, he walked like that. The monks and the nuns during the time of the Buddha used to hold a begging bowl and they walked like that. They radiate peace. People who saw them, many of them knelt down on the sidewalk, because people need this kind of stability and peace. So when you walk like this, you generate the energy of peace and stability within you and you inspire all of us. If it happens that I lose my awareness and I get into a hurry and I see you walking like that, your sight will be a bell of mindfulness bringing me back to myself and there I am walking beautifully again. That is why every one of us should make a contribution to the Sangha by his way or her way of walking and listening to the bell. Together we generate a powerful source of mindfulness that will penetrate into every one of us.

From a Dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh

“Together we generate a powerful source of mindfulness that will penetrate into every one of us.”

The spring rain is falling gently

and the earth and the soil of my consciousness

is penetrated by the rain.

And the seed deep within me

now has a chance to be penetrated by the rain and to smile, sprouting.

From a Dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh

…you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

– Steve Jobs, from his commencement address at Stanford