What is a moment?
The moment is now. ‘
Yeah, but how long does a moment last? A second, a minute?
The now lasts as long as you are present.
Thay Thich Nhat Hanh passed away on January 22, 2022 at 00:00. Peace is every step. Mindfulness in every step. Those are his words I vividly remember albeit slightly paraphrased.
The repeating 2’s and the 0’s in the date and time of his passing seems too precise, too symmetrical to be random. Indeed, if i see them as angel numbers, numbers which the spiritual world may use to communicate with the secular, the numbers may signify the beginning of a cycle or the close of one or both happening one after the other. I believe that he left this world with foreknowledge of the timing of his death, an ability that the high lamas of Tibet possessed.
I am a keen albeit sporadic student of Thay. His teachings spoken in his soft kind voice (I can hear it now as I read his words) were thoughtful, spare, and beautiful. Every time, I eat a meal and finish without even remembering what it tastes like, I remember Thay. When I wash my dishes and I wish I was doing something else, I remember Thay. When I become absentminded while my partner is sharing his day, I remember Thay and I breathe. And then take another breath. And another until I recenter myself to the present. Thay taught us that life was here in the now, not in the past where it is dead, and not in the future where it is yet to be. If I continue this stream of logic, I realize that now IS the past, future, and present. Time is fluid and we must flow with it.
His influence in my life was prominent but I was oddly not devastated by the news of his passing. In contrast, when I found out the day before that one of my favorite restaurants in the bay area, Bette’s Diner had closed permanently. I was numb. I hadn’t had a chance to pay homage to Bette’s once more before it closed. I had so many fond memories of eating there with my friends, my family, former partners. I felt like I missed my chance to relive another dining experience at Bette’s.
Yet when people started sending me condolences about Thay’s passing, i realized that I wasn’t grieving. He was after all 95. He had lived a long and full life imbuing the lives of others with meaning, thoughtfulness, and intention. And his books and recorded lectures and his calligraphy are his recorded legacy. His physical body may have passed on but his spirit still thrives in the lives he changed with his words and by his example. I think what we can do now to make his work meaningful is to apply his teachings to live a more virtuous and compassionate life. I hope to do that myself and remember always to breathe and remember that I’m alive now and life must be lived in this moment.