The River (part 2 of 2)

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Our river thought that life was not worth living, for there were no longer any clouds to chase after. She wanted to die. “If there are no clouds, why should I be alive?” But how can a river take her own life? That night the river had the opportunity to go back to herself for the first time. She had been running for so long after something outside of herself that she had never seen herself. That night was the first opportunity for her to hear her own crying, the sounds of water crashing against the banks of the river. Because she was able to listen to her own voice, she discovered something quite important. She realized that what she had been looking for was already in herself. She found out that clouds are nothing but water. Clouds are born from water and will return to water. And she found out that she herself is also water.

The next morning when the sun was in the sky, she discovered something beautiful. She saw the blue sky for the first time. She had never noticed it before. She had only been interested in clouds, and she had missed seeing the sky, which is the home of all the clouds. Clouds are impermanent, but the sky is stable. She realized that the immense sky had been within her heart since the very beginning. This great insight brought her peace and happiness. As she saw the vast wonderful blue sky, she knew that her peace and stability would never be lost again. That afternoon the clouds returned, but this time she did not want to possess any of them. She could see the beauty of each cloud, and she was able to welcome all of them. When a cloud came by, she would greet him or her with loving kindness. When that cloud wanted to go away, she would wave to him or her happily and with loving kindness. She realized that all clouds are her. She didn’t have to choose between the clouds and herself. Peace and harmony existed between her and the clouds. 

That evening something wonderful happened. When she opened her heart completely to the evening sky she received the image of the full moon—beautiful, round, like a jewel within herself. She had never imagined that she could receive such a beautiful image. There is a very beautiful poem in Chinese: “The fresh and beautiful moon is travelling in the utmost empty sky. When the mind-rivers of living beings are free, that image of the beautiful moon will reflect in each of us.”

This was the mind of the river at that moment. She received the image of that beautiful moon within her heart, and water, clouds, and moon took each other’s hands and practiced walking meditation slowly, slowly to the ocean. There is nothing to chase after. We can go back to ourselves, enjoy our breathing, our smiling, ourselves, and our beautiful environment.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

The River (part 1 of 2)

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Once upon a time there was a beautiful river finding her way among the hills, forests, and meadows. She began by being a joyful stream of water, a spring always dancing and singing as she ran down from the top of the mountain. She was very young at the time, and as she came to the lowland she slowed down. She was thinking about going to the ocean. As she grew up, she learned to look beautiful, winding gracefully among the hills and meadows.

One day she noticed the clouds within herself. Clouds of all sorts of colors and forms. She did nothing during these days but chase after clouds. She wanted to possess a cloud, to have one for herself. But clouds float and travel in the sky, and they are always changing their form. Sometimes they look like an overcoat, sometimes like a horse. Because of the nature of impermanence within the clouds, the river suffered very much. Her pleasure, her joy had become just chasing after clouds, one after another, but despair, anger, and hatred became her life. Then one day a strong wind came and blew away all the clouds in the sky. The sky became completely empty.

(to be continued)

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Live Like This, Things Like That

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I asked the question, how could people live like this when things are like that?

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

The Art of Mindful Living

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If we live our present moment mindfully, we will know what to do and what not to do, and we will try to do things in the direction of peace.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Mindful Living

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Practicing breathing and contemplating our body, feelings, mind, and objects of mind, we practice peace in the present moment. This is living mindfully.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Walking Meditation

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Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking --walking not in order to arrive, but just to walk. The purpose is to be in the present moment and, aware of our breathing and our walking, to enjoy each step. Therefore we have to shake off all worries and anxieties, not thinking of the future, not thinking of the past, just enjoying the present moment. We can take the hand of a child as we do it. We walk, we make steps as if we are the happiest person on Earth.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Understanding

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To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion. When you understand, you cannot help but love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Blaming Never Helps

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When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it is

not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.

Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Nourishing Healthy Seeds

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Every time we practice mindful living, we plant healthy seeds and strengthen the healthy seeds already in us.

Healthy seeds function similarly to antibodies. When a virus enters our bloodstream, our body reacts and antibodies come and surround it, take care of it, and transform it.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Internal Formations

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If we practice full awareness, we will be able to recognize internal formations as soon as they are formed, and we will find ways to transform them.


(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

The Roots of Anger

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Anger is rooted in our lack of understanding of ourselves and of the causes, deep-seated as well as immediate, that brought about this unpleasant state of affairs. Anger is also rooted in desire, pride, agitation,

and suspicion.

Meditation helps us look deeply into things in order to see their nature. If we look into our anger, we can see its roots, such as misunderstanding, clumsiness, injustice, resentment, or conditioning.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace is Every Step")

Mindfulness just as the sunshine

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Our mindfulness will take care of everything, as the sunshine takes care of the vegetation. 

The sunshine does not seem to do much, it just shines on the vegetation, but it transforms everything.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace is Every Step")

Mindfulness of Anger

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When we are angry, our anger is our very self. To suppress or chase it away is to suppress or chase away our self. When we are joyful, we are the joy. When we are angry, we are the anger.

When we are angry, we are not usually inclined to return to ourselves. We want to think about the person who is making us angry, to think about his hateful aspects—his rudeness, dishonesty, cruelty, maliciousness, and so on. The more we think about him, listen to him, or look at him, the more our anger flares.

We need anger in the way the organic gardener needs compost. If we know how to accept our anger, we already have some peace and joy. Gradually we can transform anger completely into peace, love, and understanding. 

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace is Every Step")

Transforming Feelings

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The first step in dealing with feelings is to recognize each feeling as it arises. The agent that does this is mindfulness. In the case of fear, for example, you bring out your mindfulness, look at your fear, and recognize it as fear. You know that fear springs from yourself and that mindfulness also springs from yourself. They are both in you, not fighting, but one taking care of the other.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

The River of Feelings

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Our feelings play a very important part in directing all of our thoughts and actions. In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Aimlessness

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There is a word in Buddhism that means “wishlessness” or “aimlessness.” 
The idea is that you do not put something in front of you and run after it, because everything is already here, in yourself. While we practice walking meditation, we do not try to arrive anywhere. We only make peaceful, happy steps. If we keep thinking of the future, of what we want to realize, we will lose our steps.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

What’s Not Wrong?

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We often ask, “What’s wrong?” 

Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest. We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. 

We should learn to ask, “What’s not wrong?” and be in touch with that. 

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Mindful eating

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In order to aid mindfulness during meals, you may like to eat silently from time to time. Your first silent meal may cause you to feel a little uncomfortable, but once you become used to it, you will realize that meals in silence bring much peace and happiness.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace is Every Step")

Eating Mindfully

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A few years ago, I asked some children, “What is the purpose of eating breakfast?”
One boy replied, “To get energy for the day.” 
Another said, “The purpose of eating breakfast is to eat breakfast.” 
I think the second child is more correct. The purpose of eating is to eat.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")

Peace is Every Step

Peace is every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy.

(Thich Nhat Hanh, "Peace Is Every Step")