About Happiness
"If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. but if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform.
when our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. we can't accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. but when our hearts expand, these same things don't make us suffer anymore. we have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform."
"When we feed and support our happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love. That's why to love means to learn the art of nourishing our happiness."
"understand someone's suffering is the best gift you can give another person. understanding is love's other name. if you don't understand, you can't love."
"Often, we get crushes on others not because we truly love and understand them, but to distract ourselves from our suffering. when we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person."
"The essence of loving kindness is being able to offer happiness. you can be sunshine for another person. you can't offer happiness until you have it for yourself. So build a home inside by accepting yourself and learning to love and heal yourself. Learning how to practice mindfulness in such a way that you can create moments of happiness and joy for your own nourishment. then you have something to offer the other person."
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"If you have enough understanding and love, then every moment - whether it's spent making breakfast, driving the car, watering the garden, or doing anything else in your day - can be a moment of joy."
"in a deep relationship, there's no longer a boundary between you and the other person. You are her and she is you. your suffering is her suffering. you understanding of your own suffering helps your loved one to suffer less. Suffering and happiness are no longer individual matters. What happens to your loved one happens to you. What happens to you happens to your loved one."
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"In true love, there's no more separation or discrimination. His happiness is your happiness. Your suffering is his suffering. you can no longer say, "That's your problem.""
- 'How to Love' : Thich Nhat Hanh on Mastering the Art of "interbeing" (copied from brain pickings.org)