Thich Nhat Hanh: Touching the Earth

1000-Year-Old Yew Tree, Wales

 Touching the Earth I let go of my idea that I am this body and my life span is limited. I see that this body, made up of the four elements, is not really me and I am not limited by this body. I am part of the stream of life of spiritual blood ancestors that for thousands of years has been flowing into the present and flows on for thousands of years into the future. I am one with my ancestors, I am one with all people and all species whether they are peaceful and fearless, or suffering and afraid. At this very moment I am present everywhere on this planet. I am also present in the past and in the future. The disintegration of this body does not touch me, just as when the plum blossom falls it does not mean the end of the plum tree. I see myself as a wave on the surface of the ocean, my nature is the ocean water. I see myself in all other waves, and all the other waves in me… I see how I exist elsewhere than in this body. Seventy or eighty years is not my life span. My life span, like the leaf or the Buddha, is limitless. 

 ~Thich Nhat Hanh