I Have Arrived, I am Home | Thich Nhat Hanh, 2014 07 20

I have arrived, I am home.

It's very simple,
but that is the practice.

And walk in such a way that you arrive,
and you feel like home.

You do not walk
like a sleepwalker anymore,

you are walking as a free person,
you are walking like a Buddha.

To be a Buddha and walking
on earth is possible.

A Buddha is a man who is awake,
who can be in the here and the now,

who can enjoy the present moment.

You can be a Buddha,
walking on this beautiful planet.

Is very important that you feel at home
in the here and the now,

only when you feel at home
in the here and the now

that you really have peace.

Without peace,
there's no happiness and joy.

Peace is the absence of conflict.

When you deny the here and the now,
when you are not satisfied with yourself,

what is there when you are
searching for something else,

you are not at peace with yourself.

When you breathe in and bring
your mind home to your body,

you make peace between mind and body.

Very often, in your daily life,
you left your body alone.

When you spend two hours
with your computer,

you forget completely
that you have a body.

In that moment, body and mind
are not together,

you are not truly alive,

when body and mind
are away from each other.

So, breathing in mindfully
you ride on your inbreath

and go home to yourself.

You bring your mind home
to your body,

eternally, you are fully present
in the here and the now.

And that's only two seconds,
three seconds of breathing in,

to bring the mind home to your body.

And there, mind and body together,

you are established
in the here and the now

and you get in touch
with the wonders of life.

That's simple enough.

So, every breath you take,
every step you make,

should be able to bring you home
to the here and the now,

that is the basic practice.

And you don't have to struggle,
to force yourself to do that,

because breathing in like that
can be very pleasant,

and making a step like that
can be very pleasant also,

there is no violence, there is no forcing,
just awakening,

to wake up from a long dream,
from a long sleep.

You wake up to the fact that life
is available in the here and the now,

that you are alive, that the wonders
of life in you and around you,

and you can enjoy being alive,
right here and right now.

And you have more than enough
conditions in order to be happy,

so that is insight, that is mindfulness
and concentration.

That back the value of your breath
and your step;

a breath made like that,
a step made like that can bring you

a lot of freedom and happiness.

I have arrived, I am home.

You feel comfortable in your home,
your true home is not in Germany,

in Holland, in Singapore, your true home
is the here and the now,

where you can touch the wonders of life,
your ancestors are available

in the here and the now.

I have arrived, I am home,
in the here and the now.

The here and the now is where I arrive,

is my true home.

I am solid, I am free.

This is not wishful thinking,
solidity is what you cultivate by walking.

Every step helps you cultivate
more solidity.

To be solid means to be established
truly in the here and the now.

The past cannot pull you away,
the future cannot pull you away,

you are well established
in the here and the now,

you are solidly established
in the here and the now.

And with one step, breathing in,
you can contemplate that solidity,

and you are free, I am solid, I am free,

you are free because the past
and the future,

your projects, your sorrows
cannot pull you away anymore.

So, while walking you cultivate
more solidity and freedom,

and that has the power to heal you,

and to bring you happiness.

So there's a song everyone may like
to memorize

in order to practice walking or breathing,

"I have arrived, I am home,
in the here, in the now.

I am solid, I am free,
in the ultimate, I dwell".

In the ultimate means that you see that

this physical body of yours
is not the only body you have.

You have a cosmic body,

and you have to recognize
your cosmic body,

if you look into your physical body,
you see your cosmic body,

the air, the water, the heat, the soil,

and you are made of stars.

We know very well that
without the sunshine,

there would be no life on Earth.

So you are made of sunshine.

And the sun is a star,

is one of the biggest stars
in the whole galaxy,

and that star is very close,

and because the sun is there,
life on earth is possible.

So you are a son of the sun,
you are a daughter of the sun,

you can call that star "Father Sun",

and you are a daughter of Mother Earth,

a son of Mother Earth,
you are made of stars.

And you have, if you look deeply
you know that,

this physical body is not the only body
you have,

you still have a cosmic body.

Suppose you contemplate a wave
that is born on the ocean,

that wave has come from the ocean,

and she will go home to the ocean
in order to be reborn again

as another wave.

So the wave has a wave body
and also an ocean body,

and the moment when she realizes
that she has an ocean body,

she'll lose all her fear,

fear of birth and of death.

Look at the clouds in the sky,

they also come from the ocean,

and if they meditate well enough,

they'll see that,
although they have a cloud body,

they have also an ocean body.

Is very important for the cloud
to realize that he has an ocean body,

so when he's no longer a cloud,
he still has his ocean body.

So the ultimate is that,

God is the ultimate,

nirvana is the ultimate.

Nirvana is the true nature of reality,
the nature of no birth and no death,

no coming and going,

God is the ultimate, God is nirvana.

So you have a nirvana body,
you have a God body,

you have a cosmic body,
and if you walk deeply in mindfulness

you can touch our cosmic body,
we can touch the ultimate,

we touch our nature of no birth
and no death.

So walking meditation can bring
very deep insight

and dissipate all kind of fear.

Is a simple practice,

and practicing walking not only
you can get in touch with the wonders

of life that can be nourishing
and healing,

but you can touch also the ultimate,
in order to be liberated

from all fear and anxiety.