Quotes (Page 1 of 7)

The Dharma Seal of Plum Village is “I have arrived, I am home.” It means happiness is possible. Freedom is possible. Right now. Right here.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Freed from predation pressure, abalone had become plentiful in California’s coastal waters. Native Americans had been decimated by infectious diseases and the economies of coastal (and other) tribes had been severely disrupted. Sea otters, which devour abalone, were on the brink of extinction thanks to the global fur trade, as otter pelts fetched exorbitant prices in high fashion circles.

In the hospital ward, we were not allowed visitors because of Covid restrictions so on each of the five days, I revisited a different decade of my past, dwelling at length on close relationships, wondrous journeys and joyful moments. Five months on, I still get great pleasure from doing this.

A stern insistence upon courtesy to the living creatures that share our world with us in common to the most diverse religious traditions.

True development is in harmony with the needs of people and the rhythms of the natural world. Humans are part of the universe, not its masters. This awareness of the interrelatedness of all things, as expressed in Buddhism, is also lived in the traditions of indigenous peoples throughout the world.

The frontline communities that I worked in in Detroit, they can’t go outside because the fumes are too strong. But that same neighborhood, a cop could run up and shoot them. They’re not experiencing these problems separately. And so when you think about it in that way, police violence is another environmental factor that makes the places, the physical environment that Black and Brown communities live in, unsafe and unjust.

Those who pursue the truth are members of the community of truth-seekers and reformers throughout time and space. They do not resign themselves to a collective fate that offers no laurels.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves

I believe that in most circumstances, doing race work in an integrated setting is harmful. This is not a popular belief, especially among white people. I have been challenged on this time and again, and I keep showing up for these conversations in mixed-race settings and breaking down from the pain of it all.

In the meantime, I leave anyone who has the bad luck to be in public life at this moment with a final thought from Władysław Bartoszewski, who was a member of the wartime Polish underground, a prisoner of both the Nazis and the Stalinists, and then, finally, the foreign minister in two Polish democratic governments.