
2000s and posthumous publications, 90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
Context: I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and future. As I try to survive on 15 hours sleep a day, I have plenty of time to enjoy vivid dreams. Being completely wheel-chaired doesn't stop my mind from roaming the universe — on the contrary!
2000s and posthumous publications, 90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
“He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.”
These Are the Days
Song lyrics, Avalon Sunset (1989)
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh here quotes and interprets the "Ten Penetrations" of the Avatamsaka Sutra
The Sun My Heart (1996)
Context: The tenth penetration is, "All times penetrate one time. One time penetrates all times — past, present, and future. In one second, you can find the past, present, and future." In the past, you can see the present and the future. In the present, you can find the past and future. In the future, you can find the past and present. They "inter-contain" each other. Space contains time, time contains space. In the teaching of interpenetration, one determines the other, the other determines this one. When we realize our nature of interbeing, we will stop blaming and killing, because we know that we inter-are.
“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!”
Letter to John Adams (1 August 1816)
1810s