Thich Nhat Hanh

1926-, Vietnamese Buddhist Master, Poet, Writer, Activist

Appearance / Form
A wave on the ocean has a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. But the wave is empty. The wave is full of water, but it is empty of a separate self. A wave is a form which has been made possible thanks to the existence of wind and water. If a wave only sees its form, with its beginning and end, it will be afraid of birth and death. But if the wave sees that it is water, identifies itself with the water, then it will be emancipated from birth and death. Each wave is born and is going to die, but the water is free from birth and death.
The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra , 1988

Attention / Awareness
Mindfulness is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves … it can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.

The river of our perceptions continues to flow, but now, in the sunlight of our awareness, it flows peacefully, and we are serene … when the sun of awareness shines on the river of our perceptions, the mind is transformed.
The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation , Arnold Kotler, ed., 1988