Autumn is Here!

“One autumn day, I was in a park, absorbed in the contemplation of a very small but beautiful leave, in the shape of a heart. Its color was almost red, and it was barely hanging on the branch, nearly ready to fall down. I spent a long time with it, and asked the leaf a lot of questions….I asked the leaf whether it was scared because it was autumn and the other leaves were falling. The leaf told me, “No. During the whole Spring and Summer I was very alive. I worked hard and helped nourish the tree, and much of me is in the tree. Please do not say that I am just this form, because the form of leaf is only a tiny part of me. I am the whole tree. I know that I am already inside the tree, and when I go back to the soil, I will continue to nourish the trees. That’s why I do not worry. As I leave this branch and float to the ground, I will wave the tree and tell her, “I will see you again very soon.”……I bowed my head, and I knew that we have a lot to learn from the leaf because it was not afraid-it knew that nothing an be born and nothing can die”

Thich Nhat Hanh
The Heart of Understanding
Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

Parallax Press
Berkeley, California
Edited by Pater Levitt 1988

Thich Nhat Hanh will be speaking at the Warner Theater Tuesday October 25th

image from mi9