we are our ancestors

 

.

When we hear the sound of the bell, we should open ourselves up 
to allow all the generations of ancestors in us to hear the bell 
at the same time as we do. 

It means we shouldn’t imprison ourselves in a shell of self – 
we should allow our ancestors to listen to the bell at the same time. 

That is our practice at that moment, because all the generations of ancestors,
including our father and our mother are in us in a very concrete way – 
in every cell of our body. 

The body contains the mind – the soma contains the psyche,
and we could say that the mind also contains the body. 

That means that the psyche contains the soma and that psyche includes 
feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness
and we should learn to see our mental formations are made out of cells, 
just as the body is made out of cells. 

The cells of the body contain the cells of the consciousness
and the cells of the consciousness contain the cells of the body.

—Thich Nhat Hanh

.