"I've arrived and I am home,
In the here and now.
I am solid, I am free;
In the Ultimate I dwell."
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* * *
This is a gatha written by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn. The little four-line poem never grows old for me. I’m inspired by the idea that we “arrive” in each consecutive moment; that we can nurture a sense of “coming home” anywhere and anytime, simply through awareness of our breath. Our “home,” Nhat Hahn tells us, is the here and now—in the present moment, wherever we happen to be.
The line about being “solid” and “free” refer to his teaching on deep awareness of breathing (a contemporary elucidation of an ancient Buddhist text). When our minds are scattered and our thoughts diffuse, we are like the small branches at the top of a tree in a storm: we are blown every which way and feel as if we might be dislodged from our source of nourishment at any moment. But when we bring our minds and bodies together through conscious breathing, we are like the base of a tree: strong, solid and unmoved, our roots safe in the deep earth. Seeing ourselves as one with infinite space, we experience a transcendent sense of freedom.
The line about being “solid” and “free” refer to his teaching on deep awareness of breathing (a contemporary elucidation of an ancient Buddhist text). When our minds are scattered and our thoughts diffuse, we are like the small branches at the top of a tree in a storm: we are blown every which way and feel as if we might be dislodged from our source of nourishment at any moment. But when we bring our minds and bodies together through conscious breathing, we are like the base of a tree: strong, solid and unmoved, our roots safe in the deep earth. Seeing ourselves as one with infinite space, we experience a transcendent sense of freedom.
The last line is about nurturing a sense of oneness with the sacred or transcendent. Nhat Hahn speaks of “the ultimate” and “the ultimate dimension” in the same way that a monotheist speaks of God. In fact, he equates mindfulness with the Holy Spirit—a concept some Christians and Buddhists would find shocking—but which resonates perfectly with me. To mindfully “dwell in the Ultimate” is a spiritual exercise not unlike the Centering Prayer endorsed by the Catholic Benedictine order in ancient times and re-popularized in the 1970s by Abbott Thomas Keating.
To use this gatha in meditation, inwardly say one line during your in-breath and the next on your out-breath. After ten to twenty minutes of mindful repetition of the gatha, you’ll find yourself opening to the sacred, centered in the ultimate, and deeply calmed.
Copyright 2012 by William K.
Ferro
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