Presence.

Karr, Floating Trees VII, 2011

God is a sound.  The Creator of the cosmos is a sound.  Everything begins with a sound.

The practice of mindfulness is very simple.  You stop, you breathe, and you still your mind.  You come home to yourself so that you can enjoy the here and now in every moment.

Silence is essential.  We need silence, just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light.  If our minds are crowded with words and thoughts, there is no space for us.

We are what we feel and perceive.  If we are angry, we are the anger.  If we are in love, we are the love.  If we look at a snowy mountain peak, we are the mountain.  While dreaming we are the dream.

To fully experience this life as a human being, we all need to connect with our desire to realize something larger than our individual selves.  This can be motivation enough to change our ways so we can find relief from the noise that fills our heads.

We are continued by our views and our thinking.  Those are the children we give birth to in every moment.

Take a just few minutes for yourself to calm your body, your feelings, and your perceptions.  In this way, joy becomes possible.  The joy of true quiet becomes a daily healing food.

Realize that silence comes from your heart and not from the absence of talk.

In order to practice right speech, we need to first take time to look deeply into ourselves and into whoever is in front of us so that our words will be able to create mutual understanding and relieve suffering on both sides.

If we listen from the mind of silence, every birdsong and every whispering of the pine branches in the wind will speak to us.

With the act of breathing in mindfully, you go inside.  Your body breathing; and your body is your home.  In each breath you can come home to yourself.

You are released; you gain freedom.  And with that freedom, with that kind of release, healing becomes possible.  Life becomes possible.  Joy becomes possible.

If we never suffer, there is no basis or impetus for developing understanding and compassion.  Suffering is very important.  We have to learn to recognize and even embrace suffering, as our awareness of it helps us grow.

Our true home is the island of self, the peaceful place inside us.  Oftentimes we don’t notice it’s there, we don’t even really know where we are, because our outer or inner environment is filled with noise.  We need some quietness to find that island of the self.

Being able to stop and be aware of the present moment is part of the definition of happiness.  It is not possible to be happy in the future.  This is not a matter of belief; this is a matter of experience.

Real solitude comes from a stable heart that does not get carried away by the pull of the crowd, nor by sorrows about the past, worries about the future, or excitement or stress about the present.

The most precious thing we can give to one another is our presence, which contributes to the collective energy of mindfulness and peace.  We can sit for those who can’t sit, walk for those who can’t walk, and create stillness and peace within us for people who have no stillness or peace.

It’s okay to make a wish, to have an aim.  But we shouldn’t allow it to become something that prevents us from living happily in the here and now.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you, Jessica.