Every encounter is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Just like the Japanese philosophy teaches:
ichi-go ichi-e
“One time, one meeting”
Every meeting, whether it spans a moment, an hour, a day, or a life-time, is a unique, unrepeatable experience.
What has passed is gone, and what comes to us in the present is always an entirely fresh and new experience that we can learn to embrace with a beginner’s mind.
Staying curious and observant about how each moment unfolds, and knowing it will soon pass, allows us to remain open-hearted even in the most difficult situations.
With this awareness, every encounter becomes ever more precious. We can meet every moment with more presence, curiosity, joy, and gratitude.
In this Take A Pause session recorded on 9 February 2025, the TAP community explored the practice of witnessing each breath as a “one-time, one-meeting” experience.
Together, we listened mindfully to the poem A Journey by Dr. M. Coleman Harris, and closed the session by offering thoughts of loving kindness to our the community of practitioners who gather every week to share moments of stillness and wisdom. It deepened our appreciation of each Take A Pause gathering as an ichi-go ichi-e experience.
Meditation begins: 06:07
Reading begins: 20:45
Meditation duration: 21 minutes
A Journey
— Dr. M. Coleman Harris
Life is like a journey
Taken on a train,
With a pair of travelers
At each window pane.
I may sit beside you
All the journey through,
Or I may sit elsewhere
Never knowing you.
But if fate should mark me
To sit by your side,
Let's be pleasant travelers;
It's so short a ride.
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