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Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh
This week marked the three-year anniversary of the passing of the
Vietnamese Buddhist monk and founder of the Engaged Buddhism movement,
Thich Nhat Hanh, who passed away on January 22, 2022 in Vietnam.
Affectionately referred to as “Thay” by his students, Thich Nhat Hanh is
widely considered one of the most important spiritual leaders of our
time. In his 95 years, he made a global impact as a teacher, author, and
activist. His simple yet deeply profound teachings led countless people
toward a life of mindfulness, joy, and peace and helped define Buddhism
for the modern world.
This weekend, we invite you to honor his legacy by exploring three of
his teachings, each embodying the timeless wisdom and love he shared
with the world.
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Water and wave, being and nonbeing, beginning and ending — liberation
from all duality, teaches Thich Nhat Hanh, is the key to enlightenment.
We do not have to die to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact we have to
be fully alive. When we breathe in and out and hug a beautiful tree, we
are in Heaven. When we take one conscious breath, aware of our eyes,
our heart, our liver, and our non-toothache, we are transported to
Paradise right away. Peace is available. We only have to touch it. When
we are truly alive, we can see that the tree is part of Heaven, and we
are also part of Heaven. The whole universe is conspiring to reveal this
to us, but we are so out of touch that we invest our resources in
cutting down the trees. If we want to enter Heaven on Earth, we need
only one conscious step and one conscious breath. When we touch peace,
everything becomes real. We become ourselves, fully alive in the present
moment, and the tree, our child, and everything else reveal themselves
to us in their full splendor.
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Healing the pain of our wounded child within, says Thich Nhat Hanh, is key.
We suffer because we have not been touched by compassion and
understanding. If we generate the energy of mindfulness, understanding,
and compassion for our wounded child, we will suffer much less. When we
generate mindfulness, compassion and understanding become possible, and
we can allow people to love us. Before, we may have been suspicious of
everything and everyone. Compassion helps us relate to others and
restore communication. The people around us, our family and friends, may
also have a severely wounded child inside. If we’ve managed to help
ourselves, we can also help them. When we’ve healed ourselves, our
relationships with others become much easier. There’s more peace and
more love in us.
Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings
need you, your perceptions need you. The wounded child in you needs you.
Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for
all these things. Practice mindful walking and mindful breathing. Do
everything in mindfulness so you can really be there, so you can love.
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A
teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh on allowing ourselves to rest like a stone
thrown into a river. On the bottom of the river, it allows the water to
pass by.
The Buddha said that the past is gone and the future is not yet here.
Let us not regret the past. Let us not worry about the future. Go back
to the present moment and live deeply the present moment. Because the
present moment is the only moment where you can touch life. Life is
available only in the present moment. That is why walking meditation is
to go back to the present moment, in order to be alive again and to
touch life deeply in that moment. In order to be able to touch the earth
with our feet and enjoy walking, we have to establish ourselves firmly
in the present moment, in the here and the now.
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