QuoteProject
So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person. [True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.]
Nhat Hanh
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Listening with compassion is essential to loving someone.

This quote emphasizes the importance of listening in relationships. By cultivating calm and understanding while listening, we can significantly alleviate another person's pain and demonstrate our love for them through our presence and empathy.

Themes

LoveListeningCompassionUnderstandingEmpathy

In practice

Example use cases

In a relationship seminar, to emphasize the importance of listening in love.

More from Nhat Hanh

Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.
Nhat HanhRead
I have lost my smile, but don't worry. The dandelion has it.
Nhat HanhRead
I realize that many elements of the Buddhist teaching can be found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam. I think if Buddhism can help, it is the concrete methods of practice.
Nhat HanhRead
Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.
Nhat HanhRead
The therapist does not treat patients by simply giving them another set of beliefs. He or she tries to help them see which kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to their suffering. Many patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints that are the very roots of their feelings.
Nhat HanhRead
Scientists tell us that we have enough technology to save our planet. . . . Yet we don't take advantage of this new technology. . . . The technological has to work hand-in-hand with the spiritual. Our spiritual life is the element that can bring about the energies of peace, calm, brotherhood, understanding, and compassion. Without that, our planet doesn't stand a chance.
Nhat HanhRead

Similar quotes

My blood is a miracle that, from my veins, crosses the air in my heart into yours.
Frida KahloRead
When routine bites hard, and ambitions are low. When resentment rides high, but emotion won't grow...and we're changing our ways, taking different roads. Love will tear us apart.
Ian CurtisRead
If you want to fall in love, you can't hold everything in. You have to open up, take that risk. You'll be hurt sometimes, but if you don't, you'll never be happy. The one you find may not be the kind of woman you expected to fall in love with, but it wont matter, you'll love her for exactly what she is.
Jean M. AuelRead
Being in love doesn't mean loving.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
It’s all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self love deficit.
Eartha KittRead
In the very depths of Hell, do not demons love one another?
Anne RiceRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.