precious gift

No, I was not busy when you came!

I was not preparing to be busy.

That's the armour everyone puts on

to pretend they had a purpose in the world. 

Naomi Shihab Nye

excerpt: Red Brocade

The most precious gift you can give

to the one you love is your true presence. 

Do you have enough time to love?

My dear, I am here for you.  

Thich Nhat Hanh

True Love 

... Why not become the one who lives

with the full moon in each eye

that is always saying

with that sweet moon language 

what every other eye in this

world is dying to hear.

Hafiz

Photo:  Peter Bowers

interbeing

The sun has entered me.

The sun has entered me together with the cloud

and the river.

I myself have entered the river,

and I have entered the sun

with the cloud and the river.

There has not been a moment

when we do not interpenetrate.

But before the sun entered me,

the sun was in me -

also the cloud and the river.

Before I entered the river,

I was already in it. 

There has not been a moment

When we have not inter-been.

Therefore you know

that as long as you continue to breathe,

I continue to be in you.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo:  Peter Morgan

sweetness

You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea.

Only in the awareness of the present, 

can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup.

Only in the present, 

can you savor the aroma, 

taste the sweetness, 

appreciate the delicacy.

If you are ruminating about the past, 

or worrying about the future, 

you will completely miss the experience 

of enjoying the cup of tea.

You will look down at the cup, 

and the tea will be gone.

Life is like that.

If you are not fully present, 

you will look around and it will be gone.

You will have missed the feel, the aroma, 

the delicacy and beauty of life.

It will seem to be speeding past you. 

The past is finished.

Learn from it and let it go.

The future is not even here yet. 

Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it.

Worrying is worthless.

When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, 

when you stop worrying about what might never happen, 

then you will be in the present moment.

Then you will begin to experience joy in life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo:  Peter Bowers

.

Interbeing

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper.  Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper.  The cloud is essential for the paper to exist.  If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either.  So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.  "Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter-" with the verb "to be," we have a new verb, inter-be.

If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it.  If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow.  In fact, nothing can grow.  Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper.  The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper.  And we see the wheat.  We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper.  And the logger's father and mother are in it too.  When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.

Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too.  This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception.  Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here in this sheet of paper.  You cannot point out one thing that is not here - time, space, the earth, the rain, the heat.  Everything coexists with this sheet of paper.  That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary.  To be is to inter-be.  You cannot just be by yourself alone.  You have to inter-be with every other thing.  This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source.  Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun.  Do you think that this sheet of paper would be possible?  No, without sunshine nothing can be.  And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either.  The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up of only 'non-paper elements.'  And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all.  Without non-paper elements, like mind, logger, sunshine, and so on, there will be no paper.  As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.  

  

Thich Nhat Hanh

From:  The Heart of Understanding

Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

Photo:  Peter Bowers

aimlessness

In Buddhism, "aimlessness" is taught as a way to help the practitioner stop pursuing the future and return wholly to the present. 

To be able to stop pursuing the future allows us to realize that all the wonderful things we seek are present in us, in the present moment. 

Life is not a particular place or a destination.  

Life is a path.

To practice walking meditation is to go without needing to arrive. 

Every step can bring us peace, joy, and liberation.

That is why we walk in the spirit of aimlessness.

There is no way to liberation, peace, and joy; peace and joy are themselves the way.

Our appointment with the Buddha, with liberation, and with happiness is here and now. 

We should not miss this appointment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Our Appointment with Life

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Interbeing

The sun has entered me.

The sun has entered me together with the cloud

and the river.

I myself have entered the river,

and I have entered the sun

with the cloud and the river.

There has not been a moment

when we do not interpenetrate.

But before the sun entered me,

the sun was in me -

also the cloud and the river.

Before I entered the river,

I was already in it. 

There has not been a moment

When we have not inter-been.

Therefore you know

that as long as you continue to breathe,

I continue to be in you.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Please call me by my true names

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow --
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo:  Peter Bowers