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
You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person. The seed is already there. A good teacher touches the seed, allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wisdom cannot be directly given; it must be nurtured within each individual.
This quote emphasizes that the potential for wisdom and insight exists within each person; a good teacher's role is not to transfer knowledge outright but to facilitate and awaken this inherent potential. By guiding and nurturing students, teachers help them discover their own understanding, allowing personal growth and development.
Themes
WisdomEducationTeacherGrowthLearning
In practice
Example use cases
During a teacher appreciation event to emphasize the impact of good teaching.
More from Nhat Hanh
All quotes βI 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
There are all kinds of monuments to adults - usually dead and usually white. But we don't often lift up the extraordinary work of children.
Ruby BridgesRead
I could not think without writing.
Jean PiagetRead
Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovators...not conformists
Jean PiagetRead
Educate a woman and you educate her family. Educate a girl and you change the future.
Queen Rania Of JordanRead
This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade
Paulo FreireRead
Communication of science as subject-matter has so far outrun in education the construction of a scientific habit of mind that to some extent the natural common sense of mankind has been interfered with to its detriment.
John DeweyRead