Good Morning!

Happy Thursday, everyone. Today will feel a little different. Along this path, we’ve gotten into a Western-heavy line of existential philosophy. For the sake of variety, we’re going to travel east today.

For our main course, we’re going to hear from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh about presence, attention, and meaning. Burning that off, we’re going to do a little Zen exercise. Wrapping it up, we’re just going to grab a short quote from Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ.

Have a seat. Thought Breakfast is served!

Everything we’ve touched on so far about meaning has gotten a little heavy. We’ve talked about responsibility, suffering, defiance, etc., but Thich Nhat Hanh offers a much lighter insight on the matter.

He says that meaning is not always something we construct through struggle, but sometimes it just appears when we stop resisting the present moment.

Western approaches to thinking tend to frame meaning as purpose, or achieving some type of moral effort. Zen Buddhism, however, reframes meaning as presence. Attention is not perceived as control or analysis, but is simply being fully here and now.

Meaning, then, emerges through your connection with the present moment. When we’re attentive, we see interdependence, feel less isolated, and ordinary moments regain a significant depth. Meaning isn’t hidden behind life, as the Western thinkers tend to portray it. It’s revealed to us through how we inhabit it.

Thich Nhat Hanh often treats attention as compassion. To truly attend to someone or something, without trying to fix or control, is already an act of love. This makes meaning become relational, not individualistic.

Summing it all up, Zen shows us that meaning is found in presence. Like everything else, when we hold our suffering differently instead of trying to escape it, meaning can become clear.

Even Viktor Frankl said: "The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day, from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.”

Do a little micro-meditation (for however long you’d like)

Keep your attention on the breath. If your mind wanders, let it. Just try to focus on the breath. Do this a few times, and feel the inner clarity that Zen breathing has to give.

“Because you are alive, everything is possible.“
— Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Munch on that for today. Remember that presence is one of the most important things in a thoughtful life. Come on back tomorrow while we wrap up this week of Thought Breakfast!

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Thank you for reading along with us today! If you enjoy this content, and want to start your days grounded in thought and mindfulness, I suggest you have a seat at our table! Smash that button below to check out more editions and subscribe!

Remember to stay mindful, smell the flowers, and take it easy.

Chef Ricky - Thought Breakfast