madame zenobia's

thought for the day

The Raft Is Not The Shore
Thich Nhat Hanh

One tries to recover, to be once more in good shape, to become whole again...And I think that is the beginning of awakening. People speak about sudden enlightenment. It is not something very difficult to understand; each of us has undergone that kind of experience in our own life. The distance separating forgetfulness, ignorance, and enlightenment--that distance is short; it is so short it is no distance at all. One may be ignorant now, but he can be enlightened in the next second. The recovering of oneself can be realized in just one portion of one second. And to be aware of who we are, what we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking, seems to be a very easy thing to do--and yet it is the most important thing; to remember--the starting point of the salvation of oneself.