Returning to the Ancient Garden to Meet the World-Honored One

Thich Nhat Hanh · September 8, 1997 · United States · Audio Only

The journey to seek the World Honored One began in childhood, passing through dangerous paths of life, the wild, and barren deserts. Despite enduring hunger and cold or suffering in the Avici Hell, a miraculous faith remained in the heart that the World Honored One is always present and the distance between the two is not more than a thousand heartbeats. After the storms of heaven and earth, the late moon appears bringing peace, reflecting oneself in the moon mirror to see the undying smile of the World Honored One, who sits there solid as Mount Sumeru. The World Honored One is the pristine first love, the ever-fresh stream of spiritual life, the substance of peace, solidity, and freedom that needs to be nourished and transmitted to all species.

The poem “Butterflies over the Golden Mustard Fields” evokes the image of a mother calling her child back to the warm hearth, where time—ten years, twenty years, or thirty years—does not take away the fluttering butterfly in the ancient garden. Happiness is not built with mortar and bricks but comes from becoming a flower and a smile, being part of the miraculous existence. We have been present together since ancient times, drinking from the same clear fragrant well, and there is no need to depart for anywhere because the homeland of childhood is still beautiful and present right today. Please let no one violate it so that the singing still resounds like the murmuring stream and the bright moon.