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Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist and the father of the mindfulness movement, stresses that if we want to find happiness we must be present now.
This means being fully here and now even in the midst of our suffering.
And he’s right.
We must learn to sit quietly with our suffering, like a parent beside a toddler in the throes of a tantrum.
We don’t judge it. We don’t ignore it. We don’t abandon it. Instead, we allow ourselves to feel the full depth of our pain—the loss of a child, the death of a parent, the ache of a friendship faded, the end of a career we poured 30 years into, the knowledge of a terminal illness slowly taking hold, the emptiness of a house that was once full.
We let each of these sorrows pass through us, allowing them space without judgment and without letting them overwhelm us.
Because only by expanding our awareness of our suffering can we overcome it and find happiness. The obvious truth is only this moment exists.
Where is yesterday? Where is tomorrow? They are nowhere to be found. Yesterday only exists in our minds. Tomorrow fills us with anxiety. And most of our suffering stems from our own minds.
But some people criticise this idea.
This morning, I read an essay where the author ridicules the idea of “being in the moment” by arguing that our past is not an illusion. And that we’ll never grow as individuals if we’re always present-focused like Hanh and others.
If there was an award for ‘Most Asleep Human’, that author would win. Because being in this moment, here and now, fully aware, fully alive, is not an escape from the past. It’s the fullest embrace of everything that has shaped us. True growth happens not by reliving our past mistakes like a broken record but by embodying its lessons as we live this present moment.
This is where happiness is found. And this is what Hanh teaches us.
Lessons from Thich Nhat Hanh
Breathing in, I know I’m alive.
Understanding our own hurt allows us to see and understand the suffering of others. Looking without judgment, we can understand, and compassion is born. Transformation is possible.
It is possible of course to get stuck in the mud of life. It’s easy enough to notice mud all over you at times. The hardest thing to practice is not allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by despair.
You think that you will die in a few years, or twenty years, or thirty years. That’s not true. You are dying now. You have been dying all the time. It’s actually very pleasant to die, which is also to live
A human being without understanding is a human being without compassion, utterly alone, cut off, and isolated.
Many people suffer due to the fear of dying. We want to live forever. We fear annihilation. We don’t want to pass from being into non-being. This is understandable. If you believe that one day you will cease to exist altogether, it can be very scary. But if you take the time to still the activities of your body and look deeply, you may see that you are dying, right this very moment.
To connect with others, however, we first have to be willing to be deeply into ourselves.
Till next week,
Peace!
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