Inviting You To Go Deeper~ Buddhist Thought for the Day

"I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice

 so that you become someone who has a great capacity for

 being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people 

like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people 

like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

I love this quote because it reminds us that our journey is not just for ourselves

but also for those who look up to us, who follow us, learn from and imitate us.

Children look to us for how best to get along in this world

whether we are their parent, teacher, or friend. 

As Joseph Campbell once said, 

"It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life."

They need to know, as do we, that life is filled with heartaches,

and the best life is not one without heartache or failure

but the one in which we find the treasure in every difficulty. 

(Photo: San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden)

(Copyright: Kirsten Steen)

Touching Life and Deeply Alive~Buddhist Quote

"Only in the present moment can we touch life and be deeply alive." 

~Thich Nhat Hanh

This is the quote for September
in my Thich Nhat Hanh calendar
and on this last day of the month, I'm sharing it with you.

I've been rereading (and listening to) Eckhart Tolle's
'The Power of Now' 
and the exquisite truth to this touching life and being deeply alive quote
is sometimes very hard to grasp.

We spend an inordinate amount of precious time in our lives in the past and the future,
in some way always focused on some conversation, slight, or fun or unhappy experience long since passed.
Or else we linger, dwelling in positive or negative anticipation of some future event.
I even find myself having future conversations in my head,
words I have yet to speak with someone (usually when I'm angry).


I've always wondered why certain childhood memories are so powerful
and why I so strongly feel the need to be with them again through mind or travel.
As I do more meditation and TRY to spend more time in the powerful present moment,
(they don't call it a Practice for nothing)
I think I've realized that those childhood memories are so commanding
exactly because, at that time, I was so alive with the present.
Nothing else mattered but that moment, that beauty, that light-filled meadow
because I was so deeply in the present moment with no other worries.
As adults with so many responsibilities and commitments, vows, pledges and promises,
we learn to function constantly in a multi-tasking frame of mind,
always concerned with what we've done, said or must do.

Meditation allows us, even if just for a few brief moments during the day,
to be free from the overwhelming, manic, monkey-mind that constantly plagues us.
Just for a few minutes today, while you're sitting (or standing- anytime, anywhere),
stop the chatter of what happened or what's to come
and focus on your breath.

"In, I am breathing in...
Out, I am breathing out."

Tomorrow, give the breath just a few more moments of precious time-free time.
Keep extending it just a little longer.
Or do it a few more times.

And watch what happens to your body, your surroundings, the people you come in contact with.
Make this very moment as powerful as your greatest memory.
Like a child,
touching life and deeply alive.

~Photo from Pinterest~

Each Moment is a Gem~ Buddhist Thought for the Day

"Each moment you are alive is a gem. You only need to breathe gently for the miracles to be displayed." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The birthday card my aunt sent this year

had this sentiment on it. Little did she know, the Buddhist calendar The Chef got me for Christmas

had this very sentiment for the month of February. So when I read it, I knew I'd seen it before and I needed to pay attention. 

A friend of ours from Greece survived colon cancer

and his daily motto is:

"Each day is a gift!" 

And each motto reminds me of the other. 

Wishing you the miraculous gift of every single day!

(Photography copyright: Kirsten Steen)