i am this

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I see that this body made of the four elements is not really me and I am not limited by this body. I am the whole of the river of life of blood and spiritual ancestors that has been continuously flowing for thousands of years and flows on for thousands of years into the future. I am one with my ancestors and my descendants. I am life that is manifest in countless different forms. I am one with all species whether they are peaceful and joyful or suffering and afraid.

I am present everywhere in this world. I have been present in the past and will be there in the future. The disintegration of this body does not touch me, just as when the petals of the plum blossom fall it does not mean the end of the plum tree.

—Thich Nhat Hanh

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buffleheadcabin

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Can we communicate with the ones who have passed away?

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plumvillagememorial

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Contemplation on No Coming, No Going

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This body is not me. I am not limited by this body. 

I am life without boundaries. 

I have never been born, and I have never died. 

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars, manifestations from my wondrous true mind. Since before time, I have been free. 

Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek. 

So laugh with me, hold my hand, let us say good-bye,

say good-bye, to meet again soon. 

We meet today. We will meet again tomorrow.

We will meet at the source every moment.

We meet each other in all forms of life. 

—Thich Nhat Hanh

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we are our ancestors

 

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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

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contemplate

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Sit in a dark room by yourself, or alone by a river at night, or anywhere else where there is solitude. Begin to take hold of your breath. Give rise to the thought, “I will use my finger to point at myself,” and then instead of pointing at your body, point away in the opposite direction.

Contemplate seeing yourself outside of your bodily form. Contemplate seeing your bodily form present before you in the trees, the grass and leaves, the river. Be mindful that you are in the universe and the universe is in you: if the universe is, you are; if you are, the universe is. 

There is no birth. There is no death. There is no coming. There is no going. Maintain the half smile. Take hold of your breath. Contemplate for 10 to 20 minutes.

—Thich Nhat Hanh

The Miracle of Mindfulness

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wait - what ?

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learning to die

 

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A person who does not know how to die does not know how to live, and vice versa. You should learn to die—to die immediately. This is a practice.

Are your ready to die now? Are you ready to arrange your schedule in such a way that you could die in peace tonight? That may be a challenge, but that’s the practice. If you don’t do this, you will always be tormented by regret.

… We should never forget that dying is as important as living.


—Thich Nhat Hanh 
You Are Here (2009, pp. 116, 131)

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No Death, No Fear, excerpt

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The day my mother died I wrote in my journal, “A serious misfortune of my life has arrived.” I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.

I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet… wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. Those feet that I saw as “my” feet were actually “our” feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.

From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.


–Thich Nhat Hanh

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quidnunc
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the slender sadness

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The Japanese have an expression that seems to capture the sense of pathos that is at the heart of our all too human dilemma: mono no aware, “the slender sadness”. 

Simply by living we take life. 

Leather shoes and belts, breathing in and out, a cup of water, a flushing toilet, a stroll in the forest, raising mustard greens, flying here and there, the daily newspaper: in each, a thousand things are dying and being born.


–Thich Nhat Hanh

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...when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.


–Sogyal Rinpoche

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the end of suffering

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Hearing the bell
I let go of all my afflictions
My heart is calm
my sorrow ended

No longer bound to anything
I learn to listen to my suffering
And to the suffering of others

When understanding is born in me
Compassion is also born

–Thich Nhat Hanh

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nirvana

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via the lifting of the veil


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Children's Talk from Plum Village Online Monastery on Vimeo.

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