A Flower, Mindful Breathing, Beauty, Thich Nhat Hanh* Part 1

“The sunshine is the leaves. The leaves are the sunshine,” from Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh. I had begun writing poetry in my thirties and then in the counseling practice of my fifties I’d found a new appreciation of poetry. Certain poems could bring new meaning to clients for life situations and their solutions. This is how I met Thich Nhat Hanh in poetry, searching for poems.

This monsoon season of 2015 has not produced sufficient rain to keep the land green, and it is now November. The fields rustle with tan grasses. The sun heats the day and divides itself into millions of yellow petals in scattered roadside and field bushes. One day taking a photo of a bush, I kept moving closer until in my lens was only a single flower—this was what I wanted.

In 2003, I brought four of Thich Nhat Hanh’s poems to Meherabad. I wanted to live in his world of nature, “A smile is seen on every leaf.” They remained in my cabinet until recently brought out due to a friend.

Now from this friend’s giving me The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh, I am learning the Buddhist teaching behind his poems: “Touch deeply the beauty that is before you. I am breathing in—what happiness! I am breathing out—” It is early in my practice, but for mindfulness I have stopped reading while eating; I have started mindful breathing in walking meditations. I shall go back to the yellow flower and breathe mindfully, looking, this time.

My realization is, “Like a stone thrown to skip over water, certain events of our lives repeat, each taking us further toward truth.”

* Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist, revered around the world for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace. plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/, http://www.coiuk.org/thich-nhat-hanh/

*The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh
*Call Me By My True Names