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Touching Our Ancestors with Each Breath

Thich Nhat Hanh · May 25, 1999 · Gao Min temple, China

Looking deeply into the palm of the hand reveals the presence of mother, father, and all generations of ancestors. When the hand touches the forehead during a fever, it is the touch of millions of ancestors bringing comfort. This insight from the Avatamsaka Sutra reveals that every mindful step, breath, and smile is taken simultaneously with blood and spiritual ancestors, including the Buddha and Master Linji. The question “Who is invoking the Buddha’s name?” is a door unlocked by the teaching of dependent co-arising. A flower contains clouds, sunshine, earth, the gardener, and the cosmos, possessing everything except a separate self.

Daily activities such as drinking tea, cooking, and cleaning are opportunities to act with the solidity and compassion of a Buddha in the present moment. The habit of running is replaced by dwelling in the here and the now. In meditation, mind consciousness acts as the gardener while store consciousness (alaya vijnana) is the garden soil. A huàtóu or kōan is entrusted to the store consciousness, nurtured continuously like a baby within a pregnant mother. Enlightenment is not a destination but the way itself; the means and the end are one.

The past and future are available only in the present; by handling the present with mindfulness, the past can be transformed and the future assured. Eating an orange becomes a meditation on the cosmos, revealing that both the fruit and the eater are miracles without a separate self. Joy and happiness are generated through two specific practices:

  1. Releasing: Letting go of regrets concerning the past and anxiety regarding the future.
  2. Concentration: Living every moment in samadhi, born from mindfulness.

Mindfulness, concentration, and insight arise together, allowing the practitioner to teach the Dharma through their daily life and way of being.

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