The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now

By Thich Nhat Hanh

We’re so close to Earth that sometimes we forget how beautiful it is.

Spirituality is not religion. It is a path for us to generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply each moment of our life. Having a spiritual dimension in our lives does not mean escaping life or dwelling in a place of bliss outside this world but discovering ways to handle life’s difficulties and generate peace, joy, and happiness right where we are, on this beautiful planet.

1. The first wrong view we need to liberate ourselves from is the idea that we are a separate self cut off from the rest of the world. We have a tendency to think we have a separate self that is born at one moment and must die at another, and that is permanent during the time we are alive. As long as we have this wrong view, we will suffer; we will create suffering for those around us, and we will cause harm to other species and to our precious planet.
2. The second wrong view that many of us hold is the view that we are only this body, and that when we die we cease to exist. This wrong view blinds us to all the ways in which we are interconnected with the world around us and the ways in which we continue after death.
3. The third wrong view that many of us have is the idea that what we are looking for—whether it be happiness, heaven, or love—can be found only outside us in a distant future. We may spend our lives chasing after and waiting for these things, not realizing that they can be found within us, right in the present moment. 

 

• With the insights of science and spirituality, we have an opportunity in the twenty-first century to conquer the root causes of suffering in human beings. If the twentieth century was characterized by individualism and consumption, the twenty-first century can be characterized by the insight of interconnectedness, and by efforts to explore new forms of solidarity and togetherness.
• Bringing the mind to stillness is easy. You need only to pay attention to one thing. As long as your mind is listening to the rain it is not thinking about anything else. You don’t need to try to still your mind. You need only to relax and continue listening to the rain. The longer you are able to do so, the more still your mind becomes.

 

CHAPTER 1 EMPTINESS THE WONDER OF INTERBEING 

Emptiness means to be full of everything but empty of separate existence.

• We too are full of so many things and yet empty of a separate self. Like flower, we contain earth, water, air, sunlight, and warmth. We contain space and consciousness. We contain our ancestors, our parents and grandparents, education, food, and culture. The whole cosmos has come together to create the wonderful manifestation that we are. If we remove any of these “non-us” elements, we will find there is no “us” left.
• When we say a cup is empty, the cup must be there in order to be empty. When we say that we are empty, it means that we must be there in order to be empty of a permanent, separate self.
• There is a biologist named Lewis Thomas, whose work I appreciate very much. He describes how our human bodies are “shared, rented, and occupied” by countless other tiny organisms, without whom we couldn’t “move a muscle, drum a finger, or think a thought.” Our body is a community, and the trillions of non-human cells in our body are even more numerous than the human cells. Without them, we could not be here in this moment. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to think, to feel, or to speak. There are, he says, no solitary beings. The whole planet is one giant, living, breathing cell, with all its working parts linked in symbiosis.
• At times we cannot understand why the child is acting a certain way, it is helpful to remember that she is not a separate self-entity. She is a continuation. Her parents and ancestors are inside her. When she walks and talks, they walk and talk as well. Looking into the child, we can be in touch with her parents and ancestors, but equally, looking into the parent, we can see the child. We do not exist independently. We inter-are. Everything relies on everything else in the cosmos in order to manifest—whether a star, a cloud, a flower, a tree, or you and me.
• I do not do this as an individual self but as a whole lineage. Whenever I walk, sit, eat, or practice calligraphy, I do so with the awareness that all my ancestors are within me in that moment. I am their continuation. Whatever I am doing, the energy of mindfulness enables me to do it as “us,” not as “me.”

Impermanence

• Impermanence means that nothing remains the same thing in two consecutive moments. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus said, “You can never bathe in the same river twice.” The river is always flowing, so as soon as we climb out onto the bank and then return again to bathe, the water has already changed. And even in that short space of time we too have changed. In our body, cells are dying and being born every second. Our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and state of mind are also changing from one moment to the next. So we cannot swim twice in the same river; nor can the river receive the same person twice. Our body and mind are an ever-changing continuum. Although we seem to look the same, and we are still called the same name, we are different. No matter how sophisticated our scientific instruments, we cannot find anything in our person that remains the same and that we can call a soul or a self. Once we accept the reality of impermanence, we have to also accept the truth of no self.

 

The most accurate way to describe the process of thinking is not that there is “someone” thinking but that thinking is manifesting, as the result of a remarkable, wondrous coming together of conditions. We do not need to have a self in order to think; there is thinking and only thinking. There is not an additional separate entity doing the thinking. Insofar as there is a thinker, the thinker comes into existence at the same time as the thinking. It is like the left and the right. You cannot have the one without the other, but you also cannot have the one before the other; they manifest at the same time. As soon as there is a left, there is also a right. As soon as there’s a thought, there’s a thinker. The thinker is the thinking.

• The same is true with the body and action. Millions of neurons work together in our brain, in constant communication. They act in concert, producing a movement, a feeling, a thought, or a perception. Yet there is no conductor of the orchestra. There is no boss making all the decisions. We cannot locate a place in the brain or anywhere else in the body that is controlling everything. There are the actions of thinking, feeling, and perceiving, but there is no actor or separate self-entity doing the thinking, feeling, and perceiving.
• I saw very clearly that if a cloud is not floating, it is not a cloud. If a flower is not blooming, it is not a flower. Without floating, there is no cloud. Without blooming, there is no flower. We cannot separate the two. You cannot take the mind out of the body, and you cannot take the body out of the mind. They inter-are. Just as we find the flower in the blooming, we find a human being in the energy of action. If there’s no energy of action, there’s no human being. As the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre famously said, “Man is the sum of his actions.” We are the sum of everything we think, say, and do. Just as an orange tree produces beautiful blossoms, leaves, and fruit, so do we produce thinking, speech, and action. And just like the orange tree, our actions are always ripening over time. We can find ourselves only in our actions of body, speech, and mind, continuing as energy across space and time.

 

HOW OLD WILL YOU BE IN HEAVEN? 

• In our Buddhist Peace Delegation office in Paris in the 1970s there was an English woman who volunteered to help us in our work. Although she was over seventy years old, she was in very good health, and every morning she would climb up the five flights of stairs to our office. She was Anglican and had a very strong faith. She firmly believed that after she died she would go to heaven, where she would be reunited with her very kind and handsome husband, who had died when he was thirty-three. One day I asked her, “After you die and go to heaven and meet your husband again, will he be thirty-three or seventy or eighty? And how old will you be? It would be strange for you, over seventy, to meet him at thirty-three.” Sometimes our faith is very simple. She was confused, because she had never asked herself that question. She had just assumed that they would meet again. With the insight of interbeing—the insight that we inter-are with one another and with all life—we don’t need to wait to meet our beloved ones again in heaven. They are still right here with us.
• There are those who believe that an eternal self continues to exist after the body disintegrates. We could call this belief a kind of “eternalism.” Others believe that after death there is nothing. This is a kind of “nihilism.” We need to avoid both these extremes. The insight of impermanence and interbeing tells us there cannot be an eternal, separate self, and the first law of thermodynamics—the law of conservation of energy—tells us that nothing can be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed. So it’s not scientific to believe that after our body decomposes we become nothing. While we are alive, our life is energy, and after death, we continue to be energy. That energy is continually changing and transforming. It can never be lost.
• We cannot assert that after death there is nothing. Something can never become nothing. If we have lost someone who is very close to us and we are grieving, the concentrations on emptiness and signlessness help us look deeply and see the ways in which they still continue. Our loved one is still alive within us and around us. They are very real. We have not lost them.
• We have a tendency to distinguish between animate and inanimate life-forms. But observation shows there is life force even in the objects we call inanimate. Life force and consciousness are in a stem of ginger or in an acorn. The ginger knows how to become a plant, and the acorn knows how to become an oak tree. We cannot call these things inanimate, because they know what to do. Even a subatomic particle or a speck of dust has vitality. There is no absolute dividing line between animate and inanimate, between living matter and inert matter. In so-called inert matter there is life, and living beings are dependent on so-called inert matter. If we took the so-called inanimate elements out of you and me, we would not be able to live. We are made of non-human elements. This is what is taught in the Diamond Sutra, an ancient Buddhist text that could be considered the world’s first treatise on deep ecology. We cannot draw a hard distinction between human beings and other living beings, or between living beings and inert matter. There is vitality in everything. The entire cosmos is radiant with vitality.

 

One day a group of young people came to ask the Buddha, “Of all these teachers, whom should we believe?” “Don’t believe anything, not even what I tell you!” replied the Buddha. “Even if it’s an ancient teaching, even if it’s taught by a highly revered teacher. You should use your intelligence and critical mind to carefully examine everything you see or hear. And then put the teaching into practice to see if it helps liberate you from your suffering and your difficulties. If it does, you can believe in it.” If we want to be a soulmate of the Buddha, we need to have a discriminating, critical mind like this.

• If we want to climb a ladder, we have to let go of one rung in order to reach the next one. If we cling to the views we presently hold, we cannot progress.
• According to the Buddha’s core teachings on no self, impermanence, and interbeing, the mind is not a separate entity. The mind cannot leave the body and reincarnate somewhere else. If the mind or spirit is taken from the body, the spirit no longer exists. Body and mind depend on each other in order to exist. Whatever happens in the body influences the mind, and whatever happens in the mind influences the body. Consciousness relies on the body to manifest. Our feelings need to have a body in order to be felt. Without a body, how could we feel? But this doesn’t mean that when the body is dead, we disappear. Our body and mind are a source of energy, and when that energy is no longer manifesting in the forms of body and mind, it manifests in other forms: in our actions of body, speech, and mind.
• In Buddhism, if you touch the reality of interbeing, impermanence, and no self, you understand reincarnation in quite a different way. You see that rebirth is possible without a self. Karma is possible without a self, and retribution is possible without a self. We are all dying and being reborn at every moment. This manifestation of life gives way to another manifestation of life.
• We are continued in our children, in our students, in everyone whose lives we have touched.

 

“Rebirth” is a better description than “reincarnation.” When a cloud turns to rain, we cannot say that a cloud is “reincarnated” in the rain. “Continuation,” “transformation,” and “manifestation” are all good words, but perhaps the best word is “remanifestation.” The rain is a remanifestation of the cloud. Our actions of body, speech, and mind are a kind of energy we are always transmitting, and that energy manifests itself in different forms again and again. Once a young child asked me, “How does it feel to be dead?” This is a very good, very deep question. I used the example of a cloud to explain to her about birth, death, and continuation. I explained that a cloud can never die. A cloud can only become something else, like rain or snow or hail. When you are a cloud, you feel like a cloud. And when you become rain, you feel like the rain. And when you become snow, you feel like the snow. Remanifestation is wonderful. 

 

CHAPTER 2 SIGNLESSNESS A CLOUD NEVER DIES 

Death is essential to making life possible. Death is transformation. Death is continuation.

• The cloud that was in the sky earlier may seem to have disappeared. But if we look deeply, we see that the same elements that made up the cloud have now become rain, mist, or even snow. The true nature of the cloud, H2O, is still there, existing in new forms. It is impossible for H2O to pass from something into nothing, from being into nonbeing. Although we can no longer see it, the cloud has not died. Perhaps it turned into rain, which then became the water that flowed out of the faucet and into my kettle, filling my cup with tea. The cloud that was in the sky yesterday has not disappeared; it has become tea. It has not died; it is just playing hide-and-seek!
• You too are always changing form. You browse through a family photo album and come across a photo of yourself as a young child. Where is that little child now? You know that it is you. You have the same name, and yet it doesn’t look like you. Are you still that child or are you someone else? This is a practice of contemplating your own signlessness. Today you look, speak, act, and think differently. Your form, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness are all very different. You are not fixed or permanent. So you are not the same person, but you are not a totally different person either. When you are no longer caught in specific images or appearances, you can see things more clearly. You can see that the little child is still alive in every cell of your body. It is possible to listen to and take care of the little boy or little girl in you at any time. You can invite that child to breathe with you, walk with you, and enjoy nature with you.
• In this very moment all of us are dying. Some of us are dying more slowly and some of us more quickly. If we can be alive now, it is because we’re dying at every moment. We might think that someone else is dying and we’re not. But we shouldn’t be fooled by appearances.
• Looking more deeply, you can see that the moment you were officially born is not really the moment of your birth. It is only a moment of continuation. Before that, you already existed. You were in the womb for eight or nine months. At what moment did you become you? Some people might say you should move your date of birth to the day you were conceived. But that would not be entirely accurate either. Long before the moment of your conception, the elements you are composed of were already present in the sperm and egg that came together to help you manifest. You also existed in all the conditions that supported and nourished your mother as she was pregnant. And long before that, you were in your grandparents. In fact, you could keep pushing your date of birth back infinitely. There is no moment when you did not exist. This is why in the Zen tradition we ask questions like “What did you look like before your grandmother was born?”

Every day you transform

• Some part of you is being born and some part is dying. There is an intimate connection between birth and death. Without the one, we cannot have the other. As it says in the gospel, unless the seed dies, it could never bear fruit. We have a tendency to think of death as something very negative, dark, and painful. But it’s not like that. Death is essential to making life possible. Death is transformation. Death is the continuation. When we die, something else is born, even if it takes time to reveal itself or for us to be able to recognize it. There may be some pain at the moment of dying, just as there is pain at the moment of birth, or when the first bud bursts through the bark of a tree in spring. But once we know that death is not possible without the birth of something else, we are able to bear the pain. We need to look deeply to recognize the new that manifests when something else dies.
• When we speak about a “date of birth” or “time of death,” these are really just notions. To say we have a “life span” is also just a notion. These labels and signs are conventional designations that are useful at the level of relative truth, but they’re not the ultimate truth. They’re not the reality. If we’re afraid of or angry or sad about death, it’s because we’re still caught up in our incorrect notions of birth and death. We think death means that from something we will become nothing. But if we see all the ways in which we exist beyond our body, constantly changing forms, we realize nothing is lost. And we no longer feel so angry or afraid.
• We don’t need to wait until the water of our own life is nearing one hundred degrees Celsius to see this—by then it may be too late. We should take the time now, while we’re still alive, to understand living and dying, in order to free ourselves from anxiety, fear, and sorrow. Whether we’re dying quickly or slowly, it’s all the same. With this insight, the quality of our life becomes richer, and we appreciate every moment. One day lived deeply with this insight may be worth more than a thousand days without it. It’s the quality of our life that is important, not how long we live.

Your body is not your self; you are much more than this body. You are life without boundaries.

• Looking deeply, understanding the nature of emptiness and signlessness and the insight of interbeing, we can identify at least eight different bodies. When we are able to recognize and experience all our bodies, we live our life more fully and face the disintegration of our physical body without fear.

FIRST BODY: THE HUMAN BODY 

• Thanks to our human body, we can feel, we can heal, and we can transform. We can experience life in all its wonders. We can reach out to take care of someone we love. We can reconcile with a family member. We can speak up for others. We can see something beautiful. We can hear the song of the birds and the voice of the rising tide. And we can act to make our world a healthier, more peaceful, and more compassionate place. Thanks to our body, everything is possible.
• Breathing mindfully, you simply enjoy your in-breath and out-breath. You bring the mind home to the body, and you realize that you are alive, still alive, and this is a wonder. To be alive is the greatest of all miracles.
• Our body is a masterpiece of the cosmos. Our body carries within it the stars, the moon, the universe, and the presence of all our ancestors. How many millions of years of evolution has it taken to give rise to these wondrous two eyes, legs, feet, and hands? Countless life-forms are supporting our existence in this moment.
• When we see clearly that our physical body is a miraculous wonder of life, a gift of the cosmos, it is a flash of insight. Once we have that insight, we must sustain it. If not, restlessness and agitation will take over, and we’ll forget. We’ll no longer cherish the miracle of being alive. So we need to sustain and nurture this insight in every moment. It takes concentration. But it’s not hard to do. While we walk, while we work, while we eat, we bring our awareness to our human body, simply enjoying the feel of our body’s position and movements, and the wonder of being alive.

SECOND BODY: THE BUDDHA BODY 

• Having a human body means you also have a buddha body. The word “buddha” means someone who is awakened and who is working for the awakening of other beings. “Buddha body” is just a shorthand way of describing our capacity to be awake and fully present, to be understanding, compassionate, and loving. You don’t need to know or use the word “buddha” to have a buddha body. You don’t have to believe in anything, not even the Buddha. The Buddha Shakyamuni was not a god. He was a human being with a human body, and he lived in such a way that his buddha body could grow.
• Allowing the buddha in you to grow doesn’t require special effort. If you wake up to the beauties of nature, you are already a buddha. And if you know how to maintain that spirit of being awake all day, you are a full-time buddha. It’s not so difficult to be a buddha; just keep your awakening alive all day long. We’re all capable of drinking our tea in mindfulness.
• To be a buddha—to wake up—also means to wake up to the suffering in the world and find ways to bring relief and transformation. This requires a tremendous source of energy. Your strong aspiration—your mind of love—is that immense source of energy that helps wake you up to the nourishing and healing beauties of nature and to the suffering of the world. It gives you a lot of energy to help. This is the career of a buddha. And if you have that source of strength in you, if you have the mind of love, you are a buddha in action.

THIRD BODY: THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE BODY 

• Our spiritual practice body grows from our buddha body. Spiritual practice is the art of knowing how to generate happiness and handle suffering, just as a gardener knows how to make good use of mud in order to grow lotus flowers. Spiritual practice is what helps us to overcome challenging and difficult moments. It is the art of stopping and looking deeply to gain deeper insight. It is very concrete. We cultivate our spiritual practice body—which we can also call our “Dharma body”—by cultivating the seeds of awakening and mindfulness in our daily life. The more solid our spiritual body becomes, the happier we will be and the more we are able to help those around us be happier and suffer less.
• What we have learned from our teachers is far more important than their physical presence. Our teachers have transmitted to us the fruit of all their wisdom and experience. The Buddha was trying to tell Vaikali that he should look for the teacher within, not the teacher outside. Our teachers are there within us. What more could we want?

FOURTH BODY: THE COMMUNITY BODY

• If we want to grow on our spiritual path, we need a community and spiritual friends to support and nourish us. And in return, we support and nourish them, like cells in the same body. On our own, without a community, we cannot do much. We need a community of like-minded friends and colleagues to help us realize our deepest dreams.

FIFTH BODY: THE BODY OUTSIDE THE BODY 

• Each one of us can be present in many places in the world. We can be here and at the same time in a prison. We can be here and also in a distant country where the children suffer from malnutrition. We don’t have to be present with our physical body. When I write a book, I transform myself into thousands of me that can go a little bit everywhere. Every book becomes my body outside the body.

SIXTH BODY: THE CONTINUATION BODY 

• Throughout our life we produce energy. We say things and do things, and every thought, every word, and every act carries our signature. What we produce as thoughts, as speech, as action, continues to influence the world, and that is our continuation body. Our actions carry us into the future. We are like stars whose light energy continues to radiate across the cosmos millions of years after they become extinct.
• Use your time wisely. Every moment it is possible to think, say, or do something that inspires hope, forgiveness, and compassion. You can do something to protect and help others and our world.
• smiled and explained that teaching is given not by talking alone but by the way we live our life. Our life is the teaching. Our life is the message.
• When you look at your son, your daughter, or your grandchildren, you can see that they are your continuation. When a schoolteacher looks at their class, they can see their students as their continuation. If they are a happy schoolteacher, if they have a lot of freedom, compassion, and understanding, their students will also be happy and feel understood. It is possible for each of us to see our continuation right away. This is something we have to remind ourselves to do every day.
• Each one of us should train ourselves to see our continuation body in the present moment. If we can see our continuation body while we’re still alive, we’ll know how to cultivate it to ensure a beautiful continuation in the future. This is the true art of living. Then, when the time comes for the dissolution of our physical body, we will be able to release it easily.
• sometimes liken my body to the water being boiled in a kettle that eventually turns to steam. When my body disintegrates, you may say “Thich Nhat Hanh has died.” But this is not true. I will never die.

SEVENTH BODY: THE COSMIC BODY 

• Our cosmic body encompasses the entire phenomenal world. The wonder that is our human body will disintegrate one day, but we are much more than this human body. We are also the cosmos, which is the foundation of our body. Without the cosmos, the body could not be here. With the insight of interbeing we can see that there are clouds inside us. There are mountains and rivers, fields and trees. There is sunshine. We are children of light. We are sons and daughters of the sun and stars. The whole cosmos is coming together to support our body in this very moment. Our little human body contains the entire realm of all phenomena.
• We are already inside the earth, and the earth is inside us. Our human body is a masterpiece of the cosmos, and when we treasure, respect, and cherish our body, we are treasuring, respecting, and cherishing our cosmic body. When we live in such a way that we take good care of our body, we are taking care of our ancestors and we are taking care of our cosmic body.

EIGHTH BODY: THE ULTIMATE BODY 

• Our eighth body is the deepest level of the cosmic: the nature of reality itself, beyond all perceptions, forms, signs, and ideas. This is our “true nature of the cosmos” body. When we get in touch with everything that is—whether it is a wave, sunshine, forests, air, water, or stars—we perceive the phenomenal world of appearances and signs. At this level of relative truth, everything is changing. Everything is subject to birth and death, to being and nonbeing. But when we touch the phenomenal world deeply enough, we go beyond appearances and signs to touch the ultimate truth, the true nature of the cosmos, which cannot be described in notions, words, or signs like “birth” and “death” or “coming” and “going.”

 

At first it seems as though things exist outside one another. The sun is not the moon. This galaxy is not another galaxy. You are outside me. The father is outside the son. But looking deeply, we see that things are interwoven. We cannot take the rain out of the flower or the oxygen out of the tree. We cannot take the father out of the son or the son out of the father. We cannot take anything out of anything else. We are the mountains and rivers; we are the sun and stars. Everything inter-is. This is what the physicist David Bohm called “the implicate order.” At first we see only “the explicate order,” but as soon as we realize that things do not exist outside one another, we touch the deepest level of the cosmic. We realize that we cannot take the water out of the wave. And we cannot take the wave out of the water. Just as the wave is the water itself, we are the ultimate.

 

• When we practice mindfulness, we can get many kinds of relief. But the greatest relief and peace comes when we are able to touch our nature of no birth and no death. This is something doable. It’s something possible. And it gives us a lot of freedom. If we are in touch with our cosmic body, our God body, our nirvana body, then we are no longer afraid of dying. This is the cream of the Buddha’s teaching and practice. There are those who can die happily, in peace, because they have touched this insight.

 

You already are what you want to become. You are a marvel. You are a wonder.

• Where is your father, your mother, your grandfather or grandmother? Right here in the present moment. Where are your children, grandchildren, and future generations? Where are Jesus Christ and the Buddha? Where are love and compassion? They are here. They are not realities independent from our consciousness, from our being, from our life. They are not objects of hope or pursuit outside of us. And where is heaven, the Kingdom of God? Also right here. Everything we are looking for, everything we want to experience, has to happen right here in the present moment. The future is merely an idea, an abstract notion.
• To lose the present moment is to lose our only chance to encounter life.

 

Each one of us has to be our true self: fresh, solid, at ease, loving, and compassionate. When we are our true selves, not only do we benefit, but everyone around us profits from our presence.

• Nothing was brought from the outside to make those caves. The temples were simply dug out of the rock. The more rock they removed, the larger the caves became. Touching our true self, our true nature, is like that. All the things we think we’ve got to find on the outside are already there inside us. Loving-kindness, understanding, and compassion are there within us. We need only to clear some of the rock obstructing the way in order to reveal them. There is no essence of holiness we need to seek outside. And there is no essence of the ordinary we have to destroy. We already are what we want to become. Even in our most difficult moments, everything that is good, true, and beautiful is already there, within us and around us. We just have to live in such a way that allows it to be revealed.

 

My name, Nhat Hanh, means “one action.” I spent a long time trying to find out which action this was. Then I discovered that my one action is to be peace and to bring peace to others.

• We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we’re not doing anything, we’re wasting our time. But that’s not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And this is what the world needs the most. We all need to train ourselves in our way of being, and that is the ground for all action. Our quality of being determines our quality of doing.
• We can live a life of action in a relaxed and joyful way, free from fear, stress, and despair. We can still be very active but do everything from a place of peace and joy. This is the kind of action that is most needed. When we can do this, the work we do will be of great help to ourselves and the world.
• Once there is understanding, releasing fear and anger becomes possible. Restoring communication is the most basic practice for peace.
• Peace is not something to hope for in the future. Peace is something that we can be in every moment. If we want peace, we have to be peace. Peace is a practice and not a hope.
• Our dream gives us vitality. It gives our life meaning. Everyone has a dream. You need to take the time to be still, to look deeply, and to listen to your heart to find out what your deepest desire is. Is it to have a lot of money, power, fame, or sex, or is it something else? What do you really want to do with your life? You should not wait until you are already old to ask yourself these questions. Once you can identify your deepest intention, you have a chance to be true to yourself, to live the kind of life you’d like to live, and to be the kind of person you’d like to be.
• You can also ask your parents about their dreams. “Did you ever have a dream when you were young? Were you able to realize it?” If you can ask questions like this, your relationship with your parents will become real and deep. It’s a way to discover who your parents really are. It will enable them to open their hearts, and you will feel as close to them as a good friend. And if your parents have not yet been able to realize their dream, you may be able to realize it for them, because you are their continuation.

 

There were over a thousand steps leading up the mountain, but our aim was not to get to the top. Our aim was to touch peace and joy with every step.

• I remember the walk very clearly. I breathed in as I took one step up, and breathed out as I took the next step. Many people were huffing and puffing as they overtook us, and they turned around to look back and see who was going so slowly. We enjoyed every single step. And from time to time we stopped to enjoy the view. When we arrived at the top of the mountain we were not tired at all. We were full of energy, completely refreshed and nourished by the climb.
• When human beings first developed the capacity to walk and run it was either to chase after something or to escape something. That energy of chasing and running is deeply ingrained in every cell of our body. But today there is no longer the same need to hunt, fight, or escape from danger, and yet we still walk with that kind of energy.
• We have developed from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens, and now we have a chance to become Homo conscius—a mindful, awakened species. This species will learn to walk in freedom. Walking in peace and freedom is a wonderful way to bring the ultimate dimension into the historical dimension. It’s a way to train ourselves not to run.
• Walking meditation is linked to the practice of mindful breathing. When you walk, you coordinate your breathing and your steps. Relax your body and let go of any thinking about the past and the future, and bring your mind back to the present moment. Feel the contact with the ground. As you breathe in, notice the number of steps you are making while breathing in. As you breathe out, notice the number of steps that you are making while breathing out. Allow your breathing to be natural, and simply pay attention to how many steps you take as you breathe in and out. After a while, you notice there is a rhythm, a coordination, between your breathing and your steps. It’s like music. With every step you have sovereignty, you have freedom, you are your true self. You don’t need to get to your destination in order to arrive. You arrive at every step. You realize that you are alive and that your body is a masterpiece of the cosmos. As you touch peace and freedom in every step, you are touching nirvana, your cosmic body, your God body. Don’t think that nirvana is something far away. You can touch nirvana at every step.

 

Impermanence is just as capable of bringing about happiness as it is of bringing about suffering. Impermanence is not bad news. Because of impermanence, despotic regimes are subject to fall. Because of impermanence, illness can be cured. Thanks to impermanence, we can enjoy the wonder of the four beautiful seasons. Thanks to impermanence, anything can change and transform in a more positive direction.

• We may agree with the truth of impermanence, and yet we still behave as though everything is permanent, and that is the problem. This is what prevents us from taking the opportunities available to us right now to act to change a situation, or to bring happiness to ourselves and others. With the insight of impermanence, you won’t wait. You’ll do everything you can to make a difference, to make the person you love happy, and to live the kind of life you would like to live.
• We can make the insight of impermanence into a living insight that is with us in every moment. The insight of impermanence has the power to liberate us. Suppose someone you love has just said something that has made you angry, and you want to punish them by saying something unkind back. He has dared to make you suffer, and you want to lash back and make him suffer too. You are about to start an argument. But then you remember to close your eyes and contemplate impermanence. You imagine your beloved three hundred years from now. He will be nothing but ash. It may not take three hundred years; perhaps within thirty or fifty years you will both be ash. You suddenly realize how foolish it is to be angry and to argue with each other. Life is so precious. It takes only a few seconds of concentration to recognize and touch your nature of impermanence. The insight of impermanence burns away the anger. And when you open your eyes, you don’t want to argue anymore. You just want to hold him in your arms. Your anger has transformed into love.

I don’t exercise to get fit or be healthier; I do it to enjoy being alive.

BREATHE—YOU ARE ALIVE I treasure the days and hours I have left to live. They are so precious, I vow not to waste a single one.

I have been practicing not wasting a single moment. Whether I’m walking or working, teaching or reading, drinking tea or eating a meal with my community, I treasure every moment. I have been living every breath, every step, and every action, deeply. Wherever I walk, I combine these words with each step. As I breathe in I say, “Breathing legendary breaths,” and as I breathe out I say, “Living legendary moments, wonderful moments.” Happiness is there at every step, and I know that tomorrow I will have no regrets.

 

• You may like to take a moment to read these lines very slowly, with a pause to follow your breathing and relax between each remembrance. I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old. I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health. I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death. All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. They are the ground upon which I stand.