You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Isolation is suffering, like being the object of discrimination. A separate existence is something I would never want.

“Interbeing” is a much better verb to use than “being,” because I am in you and you are in me. This is the teaching of the Christian Gospels as well. The Father is in the Son, the Son is in you, and you are in the Son. You are in the Father, I am in you, and you are in me. That is interbeing.

We should get rid of these pairs of opposites. Doing that is realizing the Middle Way, which is what Buddhism teaches. The Middle Way means going beyond all these pairs of opposites. It’s

When you want to start a fire, you light a match, and then the fire consumes the match. The teachings of impermanence and non-self are like the match.

Buddhism has no need for martyrs.

Dharma is the sickle we use to do that. If somebody gives you a sickle to cut the grass with, you use it. You don’t put it on a shrine or in a special box.

We must also go beyond the concept of nirvana. The word “nirvana” is like the word “God”—it can become a concept for you to get caught in.

You can live every moment of every day deeply, in touch with the wonders of life. Then you will learn to live, and, at the same time, learn to die. A person who does not know how to die does not know how to live, and vice versa.

Maybe we too are living like dead people. We move about life in our own corpse because we are not touching life in depth. We live a kind of artificial life, with lots of plans, lots of worries and anger. Never are we able to establish ourselves in the here and now and live our lives deeply. We have to wake up! We have to make it possible for the moment of awareness to manifest.

You think the other person in your life is going to be there forever, but that is not true. That person is impermanent, just like you. So if you can do something to make that person happy, you should do it right away. Anything you can do or say to make him or her happy—say it or do it now. It’s now or never.

Living is a joy. Dying in order to begin again is also a joy. Starting over is a wonderful thing, and we are starting over constantly. Beginning anew is one of our main practices at Plum Village, and we must die every day in order to renew ourselves, in order to make a fresh start. Learning to die is a very profound practice.

Birth and death are just a game of hide and seek.

began the practice of watering the seeds of happiness in him.

Sister Chan Khong practiced watering the positive seeds in him because she knew that Alfred had a great deal of suffering in him.