Good morning everyone. So today I wanted to talk about
a concept that's very near and dear to my heart.
You won't find it in any or most texts on Buddhism, but it did
brew out of Zen Buddhism. It's a phrase in Japanese.
That goes. Ichigo Ichi A.
And it means one moment, one meeting.
And it's. Kind of the aspirational way
that Japanese approach. Each thing that they're doing
it, it does, as I said, come from.
Zen Buddhism? Nobody knows.
Exactly who? Came up.
With the phrase some people. Attribute it to Sidna Ryoko who
came up with the tea ceremony, but there's no evidence that he
said it. This just sounds it sounds like
something he would say, so people attribute it to it.
So what does it really mean? Seems pretty.
Simple. One moment, one meeting,
especially when you apply it to the tea ceremony or just having
a cup of tea with somebody. When you're in that moment,
that's all that exists. That moment.
That meeting, that is what is important, but it kind of goes
beyond that. Even as we break it down.
Ichigo. One moment.
This moment is all that we have. The past is gone.
The future is a period. This moment is where we live.
This moment is what's. Important.
Each EA. One meeting, 1 encounter
doesn't. Necessarily have.
To be an encounter with another person.
Can I actually be? The encounter with the spoke.
So if we keep in mind this one moment, one encounter is what's
important, then we begin to pay more attention.
To it. Invest it with the importance
that it's due. Years ago when I did my first
wedding and I feel even before then because I used to help a
friend of mine out with floral arrangements for weddings and I
constantly. Hear the.
Phrase from the wedding planners, the species of person
that I don't particularly like by the.
Way, but they constantly use the phrase be in this moment.
It's never going to come again. Really enjoy this moment.
When speaking to the bride. I like, yeah, no moment is ever
going to come again. It's not just this one.
All of them. That's what the Ichigo HEA.
Is said every moment is unique and special and is never going
to come again. And only we get to treating it
that way. It's so much.
Easier to drop. Pettiness and.
Anger and. Upsets and being pissed at
something the other person said. 60 years ago and.
All of those things that we carry around with us if we live
in this concept. Of Ichi go Ichi A.
We're just living now. The person we're encountering
now is was the person who pissed us off at college.
We're totally new. They are too.
This will be a fairly short. Talk.
But that's because I think it it's really a very clear
concept. And maybe.
It's just me, but. It's amazing how much.
You can see your life changing as you begin to embrace.
This concept and even even. Once you're in a moment and you
find yourself dredging up the past, or worrying about the
future, or checking your. Phone while you're.
Having tea with a friend if you just mentally slapped yourself
and say. Ichigo Ichi.
A. Come back.
To that. Moment.
We'll begin to transform your entire life because that's all
our life is. Made-up of these moments that.
Flow from one to another. So the better you will than each
fauna, the better you're going to live in.
The next and the next and the next, you'll give.
It a. Try.
Think about the phrase if you're all.
Think about it in. English this time.
One moment, one meeting, 1 moment.
Want to call her? Quite honestly spelled the
better that way. Actually flipping the Japanese
for some reason. I was searching this morning
that kept searching Ichi A Ichigo and Google's going.
Did you mean Ichigo Ichi? A Oh yeah, that's what happens.
Say it in English. 1. Moment one and count.