Every Act Is a Rite

Reading a book slowly — above all the books we think can hold nothing new for us any more — turns out to be where the most new ideas come from.

In Thích Nhất Hạnh’s book “Từng bước nở hoa sen” (A Lotus Blooms at Every Step), in the section on going to the lavatory, he writes that if we do everything in awareness, then the two rites of lighting a stick of incense and going to the lavatory are equally important and equally pure. Do the act of this moment well, as a rite, and you will not regret a single moment that passes in your life.

A passage from his book “Phép lạ của sự tỉnh thức” (The Miracle of Mindfulness):

“In Paris I led a sitting-meditation class for foreigners. Many of them were young. I told them that to sit for an hour a day is very good, but that it is not enough. One has to practise meditation while walking, standing, sitting, lying down and working. I showed them how to keep awareness while washing their hands, washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, talking. I said that while we are washing the dishes we may be thinking of the cup of tea, and want to wash quickly so that we can go and sit and drink it. But then we are not seeing life while we wash the dishes. While we are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in our life. While we are going to the lavatory, going to the lavatory is the most important thing in our life. Seen in this way, splitting firewood is meditation and carrying water is meditation. The practitioner practises 24 hours a day, not only during the hours of chanting and sitting. Every act is gathered up into mindfulness. Every act is a rite. The word rite is a little heavy, but I have to use it this once so that you, Thiều, will see that awareness is a matter of life and death.”