ICHIGO ICHIE (一期一会 ) – “Once in a lifetime”

Have you ever thought about someone and have they suddenly called or texted you at that exact moment?

How about meeting a complete stranger who happens to have the same taste in music as you do?

Ever experienced a random act of kindness from someone when you were feeling down?

Or have you ever craved to eat your favourite home-made dish only to find your mother preparing it for you?

This is called ‘ichigo ichie’ in Japanese, which means “once in a lifetime” when translated into English. In other words, the message conveyed by this phrase is that “what we are experiencing right now will never happen again, therefore, we must value each moment like a beautiful treasure.” In simple words, ichigo ichie can also mean “now or never.”

It is of no surprise that human life is becoming busier and busier with the advancement of the world. However, that is more than enough reason as to why people should pay more attention to the little things that happen around them or to the little moments that they happen to become part of. You can be the source of happiness in someone’s moment or they can be the source of happiness in your moment! The small moments that take place in a lifetime tend to be the ones that are quickly forgotten, however these are the same moments that can sometimes leave the biggest impact in one’s life. Therefore, it is of higher importance for us to secure these moments before they leave our grasp.

You cannot expect for tomorrow to be the same as today; what happens now will never happen again in the same way. For example, the feeling you get when you are trying food from a new restaurant, for the first time, will not be the same the next time you eat from it. This is why you should always look to “seize the moment.”

It is important to be present in the moment. There are events or situations that might regularly take place in our lives. Since these moments tend to repeat themselves, we often fail to see the importance of these mundane moments altogether. For example – having a family dinner: it might happen once or twice a week (or more) and hence, you and I might fail to see how important that moment is. In reality ‘being present’ in the moment is really important. This is because the atmosphere that is there in that family dinner today and the conversations that take place along with it might not take place the next day, the same way again.

The same applies to the people you meet in life. In this busy world, with people constantly moving from here to there, meeting new people is inevitable. All these encounters are new ‘once in a lifetime encounters’ although, yes, there is the possibility of meeting these people again somewhere. However, the real focus lies in the impact that meeting new people can have in your life.

Garcia and Miralles explain in their book, ‘The Book of ICHIGO ICHIE’ (2019), how “every meeting has a unique essence and will never be repeated.”

Here are a few things to remember according to Garcia and Miralles:

1. “Don’t postpone special moments.”

2. “Live as if this were going to happen only once in your life.”

3. “Dwell in the present.”

4. “Do something you’ve never done before.”

5. “Notice coincidences.”

6. “Make every gathering a party.”

7. “If you don’t like what there is, make something different.”

8. “Be a hunter of special moments.”

So, go and buy your favourite book! Tell that one person how much he or she means to you. Go on that trip. Eat that dish you have been waiting to try out. Get that dream job that you have been dreaming of since you were in school. Most importantly, tell your parents how much you love them, because at the end of the day all these moments only happen “once in a lifetime” and that is what is called "ichigo ichie".

As Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Content by Rtr. M. Michell Ross

Edited by Rtr. Binuri Weerasinghe