Happy Continuation Day

Yesterday marked the 91st birthday of the spiritualist, Thich Nhat Hahn (“Thay”), which his followers call Continuation Day (what a lovely term!). Since discovering the writings of Thay during a trip to Ho Chi Minh City last year, my partner and I have been studying his work.  Yesterday, I searched for something significant that Thay had wrote, that I painstakingly write in my notebook from Vietnam, and here is one that I would like to share with you:

This body is not me.
I am not limited by this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born,
and I have never died.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
manifestations from my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,
sacred thresholds on our journey.
Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say good-bye,
say good-bye, to meet again soon.
We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.
– Thich Nhat Hanh