Một dòng thở nhẹ – Nhật ký Thiền

This morning the weather was gentle, thin clouds drifting slowly across the pale gray sky. I sat on the porch, a warm cup of tea in my hand, and suddenly felt something very clear:
I am not separate from this morning.

The wind touches my face.
Light touches my skin.
Birds call to each other on the roof tiles.
Everything seems to be passing through me.

I asked myself:

“If I am not separate from the world, then who am I?”

That question opened a space wider than the sky.

Wind touches my cheek
I am no longer separate
Morning pours into me

I looked at the cup of tea.

In the tea there is the sun, the rain, the earth, the tea pickers, the transporters, the person who brewed it.

Without those conditions, the tea could not be here.

And I realized:
I am like the tea — made of countless conditions.

Without my parents, I would not be here.
Without air, I cannot breathe.
Without food, I cannot live.
Without others, I cannot be “me.”

I remembered Thầy Nhất Hạnh’s words:

“Interbeing means this is in that.”

And I remembered Jiddu Krishnamurti’s words:
“You are the world.”

Two ways of saying, one truth.

In me there is you
In you there is also me
No one is separate

I closed my eyes and brought attention to my breath.
Breathing in — I receive air from the trees.
Breathing out — I return nourishment to the trees.
A continuous exchange.
An unending interbeing.

I realized:
there is no “my” breath.
There is only the breath of life passing through me.

Breathing in and out
Belongs to no one at all
Only life moving

I remembered a time in the past when I felt lonely.

Back then, I thought I was an island — separate, alone, misunderstood.
But when I looked deeply, I saw:
that loneliness was not because I was separate from the world,
but because I thought I was separate.

Jiddu said:
“Isolation is an illusion.”

Today, I understand that sentence a little more.
No one is truly isolated.
Only the mind imagines isolation.

Loneliness is just
The shadow of separation
Not the real truth

I opened my eyes and looked at the starfruit tree in the yard.
I saw myself in the tree — because I breathe with the tree’s breath.
I saw the tree in me — because I nourish the tree with my breath.

I saw myself in the clouds — because clouds become rain, rain becomes water, water becomes tea, tea becomes me.

I saw myself in others — because every word and action of theirs affects me, and mine affect them.

No one is an island.
No one exists independently.
No one “exists by themselves.”

I in the white clouds
Clouds in the warm tea I drink
Everything is one

A lightness spread through my heart.

Not because I understood something new, but because I saw more clearly:
I don’t need to try to “connect” with the world.
I am already connected.

Interbeing is not a philosophy.
Interbeing is the truth of life.

Haiku 6

No need to search more
Interbeing is already
In each breath we take

Ending today’s meditation journal, I wrote a small question to carry with me:

“Today, how can I see myself in others — and others in myself?”

Perhaps just by keeping that question in my heart, I will see that no one is truly lonely —
because we are all breathing the same sky.