Beloved Vietnamese monk and Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh shares his profound wisdom in talk he gave called "Being Peace." In this excellent excerpt, Thay - as his followers call him -- remind us that our spiritual practice is not just about suffering. It's also about fully experiencing the beauty of life.
When you look at the blue sky, you see the beauty of the sky. Do you have to make a special effort in order to enjoy it? That is the hard question. That is the question of the practice also. Because to practice hard, we have to make a lot of efforts in order to practice. To us who have one to four days of practice, we think that practicing is a very pleasant thing and each second of the practice, each minute of the practice should be a second of joy, a minute of joy. Do you have to practice enjoying the blue sky? No, I guess not. You just enjoy it.
This morning during the question and answer period, I said something like this, “Life is full of suffering but it is also full of wonderful things like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby, and to suffer is not enough.” We should be in touch with the wonder of life. It is all around us anytime and anywhere. We do not need to go to China in order to enjoy the blue sky. We do not have to travel into the future in order to enjoy the air we are breathing here. So please be in touch with the wonderful aspects of life because it would be a pity if we are only in touch with the suffering.
