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The Daily Dharma – August 11, 2021

Our True Home

Living and working near the San Francisco East Bay offered many memorable scenes, like this one looking westward from César E. Chávez Park toward Tiburon and Sausalito. It is always fascinating to see how the clouds float above the water, often brightly lit by the sunlight from above and reflecting the colors of the water from below. Original oil painting on canvas, framed, ready to hang. Remembering the Bay I, Original oil on canvas, 5.5" x 18.5"
Remembering the Bay I Painting Seamus Berkeley

When you practice the bell of mindfulness, you breath in, and you listen deeply to the sound of the bell, and you say, “Listen, listen.” Then you breathe out and you say, “This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.” Our true home is something we all want to go back to. Some of us feel we don’t have a home.

What is the meaning of “true home”?  In the last Dharma talk, we talked about a wave. Does a wave have a home? When a wave looks deeply into herself, she will realize the presence of all the other waves. When we are mindful, fully living each moment of our daily lives, we may realize that everyone and everything around us is our home. Isn’t it true that the air we breathe is our home, that the blue sky, the rivers, the mountains, the people around us, the trees, and the animals are our home? A wave looking deeply into herself will see that she is made up of all the other waves and will no longer feel she is cut off from everything around her. She will be able to recognize that the other waves are also her home. When you practice walking meditation, walk in such a way that you recognize your home, in the here and the now. See the trees as your home, the air as your home, the blue sky as your home, and the earth that you tread as your home. This can only be done in the here and now.

Thich Nhat Hanh
from Jesus and Buddha as Brothers