mb49-pt1

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

1/27

History of EngagedBuddhism

A Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh

Be Still:The Mindful

Christian

Joyful Artof the Heart

Autumn 2008 A Publication of Plum Village Issue 49 $8/ 8/6

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

2/27

uuu ppp ccc ooo mmm iiinnn ggg rrreee tttrrreee aaa tttsss 222000000888--- 222000000999upcoming retreats 2008-2009Nov 7 9C O L L E G ERE T R E AT ST U D Y, RE F L E C T& PR A C T I C Ef o r s t u d e n t s a n d t e a c h e r s

Nov 15 Feb 15WI N T E RRE T R E AT9 0 d a y s o f p r a c t i c e f o r m o n a s t i c a n d l a y

End of DecPR E PA R I N G F O R A N DC E L E B R AT I N G T H EHO L I D AY S

Jan 22 26P R E PA R I N G F O R A N D C E L E B R AT I N G T T - L U N A R N E W Y E A R O F T H E O X

F O R U P D A T E S A N D F U R T H E R I N F O R M A T I O N :

NEW Web: www.deerparkmonas te ry.org - E-mai l : deerpark@dpmai l .ne t - Phone: (760) 291-1003 x100

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

3/27

Dharma Talk4 History of Engaged Buddhism

Hanoi, Vietnam May 6-7, 2008By Thich Nhat Hanh

Vesak in Vietnam

10 Report of the United NationsDay of Vesak 200813 Practice in Vietnam: An Inside Look -

Interview with Thay Phap KhamBy Barbara Casey

16 Rejoicing with the Sangha in HanoiBy Sister Hanh Nghiem

17 The Long Walk from War to PeaceBy Larry Calloway

19 The Eight Practices of Respect(Gurudharmas)By Thich Nhat Hanh with commentary by Sister Annabel

33 Sending the Buddha to PrisonBy Carole Baker

36 Miracle within a MiracleBy Susanne Olbrich

37 Ko Un or What?Poetry by Ko UnCommentary by Gary Gach and Brother Anthony of Taiz

Sangha News41 Dharma Teachers Travel to South Africa;

Wake Up! Young Buddhists andnon-Buddhists for a Healthy and Compas-sionate Society; About DP PodCast;Announcing a New Blog: Mindful Kids

Book Reviews44 Mindful Movements: Ten

Exercises for Well-BeingThich Nhat Hanh and Wietske Vriezen

44 Hello at Last: Embracing the Koan of Friendship and MeditationSara Jenkins

45 Loves Garden: A Guide toMindful RelationshipsPeggy Rowe Ward and Larry Ward

ISSUE NO. 49 - Autumn 2008

Christian Roots22 A Day in the Life of a Catholic Zen

Monk in Plum VillageBy Brother Phap De

24 Be Still: The Mindful ChristianBy Diane Strausser

26 Singing in the Inspiration Choir By Mary Zinkin

27 Hear the Angels SingBy Janelle Combelic

Dharma & Art30 Joyful Art of the Heart

By Brother Phap Ho

31 Dharma Rain: Practice asInspiration for ArtistsBy Denys Candy

Retreats & Events45 2008-2009 retreats and

schedule for Thays2009 US tour

From Sr. Chan Khong46 Join Thay in India,

October 2008

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

4/27

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

5/27

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

6/274 Autumn 2008

Thich Nhat Hanh in Hanoi photo by Azriel Cohen

History of Engaged BuddhismHanoi, Vietnam May 6 -7, 2008

Dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh

dharma TALK

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

7/27the Mindfulness Bell 5

D

The Order of Interbeing

was born as a spiritual

resistance movement.

At the beginning of the seven-day English-language retreat in Hanoi, ThichNhat Hanh gave a rare glimpse into his early career. This excerpt from twoDharma talks reveals Thay as a teacher, social activist, and prolifc writer

and revolutionary advocate of Engaged Buddhism, also called Applied Buddhism.

In 1949 I was one o the ounders o the An Quang BuddhistInstitute in Ho Chi Minh City, and I taught the rst class o nov-ices. The temple was very simple, built o bamboo and thatch. Thename o the temple was actually Ung Quang. A Dharma teacher came rom Danang, the Venerable Tri Huu, and we both built UngQuang temple. The war was going on between the French and theVietnamese resistance movement.

Five years later, in 1954, the Geneva Accord was signed and the country was divided into two parts: the North was communist,and the South was anti-communist. Over one million people mi-grated rom the North to the South, among them many Catholics.There was a lot o con usion in the country.

At the Ung Quang temple rom time to time we received French soldiers who came to visit us. A ter Dien Bien Phu the war with the French ended, and it was agreed that the country should be divided and the French would withdraw rom the country. Iremember talking to the French soldiers. Many o them came toVietnam and died in Vietnam.

A Fresh Look at BuddhismIn 1954 there was great con usion in the minds o people in

Vietnam, especially the young people monks, nuns, lay practitio-ners. The North was inspired by the Marxist-Leninist ideology. Inthe South, president Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic, was trying to runthe country with another kind o ideology called personalism.It seemed that the ideological war had begun.

Buddhism is a very ancient tradition in Vietnam, and mosto the people have a Buddhist seed in them. Mr. Vu Ngoc Cac,

manager o a daily newspaper, asked me to write a series o articlesabout Buddhism. He wanted me to o er insight as to the spiritualdirection we should take in order to deal with the great con usionin the country. So I wrote a series o ten articles with the title, AFresh Look at Buddhism.

It is in this series o ten articles that I proposed the idea o Engaged Buddhism Buddhism in the realm o education,economics, politics, and so on. So Engaged Buddhism dates

rom 1954.

At that time I did not use a typewriter, I just wrote in the old-ashioned way. And they came and they took the article, and the

article was always printed on the ront page with a big red title. The

newspaper sold very, very well because people were very thirsty.They wanted spiritual direction because con usion was so huge.

Rose Tea and Fresh CornThat series o articles was published as a book later on. Not

long a ter, I visited Hue. Duc Tam, who had been in the sameclass as me at the Buddhist Institute, was the editor o another Buddhist magazine. His temple was on a small island in thePer ume River, Huong Giang, where they grow a very tasty kind o corn. He invited me to stay a ew weeks in his temple. Everymorning he o ered me tea with a kind o rose its a very tinyfower, but it smells nice when you put it in the tea. Every day wedid walking meditation through the neighborhood, and we boughtsome resh corn. He nourished me with rose tea and resh corn,and he wanted me to write another series o articles on Engaged Buddhism! [laughs]

In act, I wrote another series o ten articles with the titleBuddhism Today, which was also on the theme o Engaged Buddhism. This series was translated into French by Le VinhHao, a scholar who lives in Paris. The title he took or the book isAujourdhui le Boudhisme.

In 1964 when I visited America to give a series o lectures,I met Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, and I gave him a copyo Aujourdhui le Boudhisme; he wrote a review.

Buddhism That Enters Into Li eIn 1963-64, I was lecturing on Buddhism at Columbia Uni-

versity. The struggle led by the Buddhists or human rights ended the regime o President Diem. Maybe you have heard about theVenerable Thich Quang Duc, who immolated himsel with re,and who drew the attention o the whole world to the violationo human rights in Vietnam. That was a completely nonviolentmovement or human rights. When the Diem regime ell, I wasasked by my colleagues to come home and help.

So I went home. I ounded Van Hanh University, and I pub-lished a book called Engaged Buddhism, a collection o manyarticles I had written be ore.

I think this is the irst time you have this in ormation.[laughs]

This is the beginning o 1964. I had written these articlesbe ore that, but I put them together and published under the titleEngaged Buddhism, or Dao society. Di vao cuoc doi. Cuoc doi here is li e or society.Di vao means to enter. So these were

the words that were used or Engaged Buddhism in Vietnam:d ivao cuoc doi, entering into li e, social li e.

Six months later I produced another book, Dao Phat hiendai hoa, Buddhism updated, Buddhism renewed. This is theChinese Buddhism made actual, the actualization o Buddhism.So all these terms, all these documents, have to do with what wecall Engaged Buddhism. And a ter that I wrote many other books Buddhism of Tomorrow. [laughs]

But at that time already, my name was banned by the govern-ment o the South, the anti-communist government, because o my activities or peace, calling or reconciliation between North

dharma TALK

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

8/276 Autumn 2008

photo by Paul Davis

Buddhism. Engaged Buddhism is the kind o Buddhism that responds to what is happening in the here and the now.

A Fresh Take on theFour Noble Truths

We can speak about Engaged Buddhism in terms o the FouNoble Truths. The First Noble Truth is dukkha , ill-being. Traditionally Buddhist teachers have spoken o the First Noble Trutin this way: old age is su ering, sickness is su ering, deatsu ering, separation rom those you love is su ering. Leavinthose you love; wishing or something but never obtaining it. Buthese are old ways o describing the First Noble Truth. Now awe practice mind ulness we have to identi y the kind o ill-bethat is actually present. First o all we know there is a kind o te

sion in the body, a lot o stress. We can say that su ering todinvolves tension, stress, anxiety, ear, violence, broken amiliesuicide, war, confict, terrorism, destruction o the ecosystemglobal warming, etc.

We should be ully present in the here and the now and recognize the true ace o ill-being.

The natural tendency is to run away rom su ering, rill-being. We dont want to con ront it so we try to escape. Buthe Buddha advises us not to do so. In act he encourages us tlook deeply into the nature o the su ering in order to learn. Hteaching is that i you do not understand the su ering you cansee the path o trans ormation, the path leading to the cessatio su ering.

All o us know that the First Noble Truth is ill-being and thFourth Noble Truth is the path leading to the cessation o ill-bein

Without understanding the First you never have the opportunityto see the path leading to the cessation o ill-being.

You should learn to come home to the present moment in ordeto recognize ill-being as it is; and as we practice looking deeplinto the First Noble Truth, ill-being, we will discover the SeconNoble Truth, the roots or the making o ill-being.

Each o us has to discover or himsel or hersel the causill-being. Suppose we speak about our hectic li e we have somuch to do, so much to achieve. As a politician, a businessmaneven an artist, we want to do more and more and more. We crav

We should be fully present in the

here and the now and recognize

the true face of ill-being.

and South. I became persona non grata. I could not go homeanymore, and I was in exile.

So my book, Buddhism of Tomorrow, could not be published in Vietnam under my name. I used a montagnards name BsuDanlu. You may wonder where that name came rom. In 1956we ounded a practice center in the highland o Vietnam called Fragrant Palm Leaves Monastery, Phuong Boi. We bought theland rom two montagnards, KBriu and KBroi. The name o the

village where the Fragrant Palm Leaves Monastery was situated is Bsu Danlu.

Wisdom in the Here and NowI continued to publish my books in Vietnam with many other

names. I wrote a history o Vietnamese Buddhism in three thick volumes and I signed the name Nguyen Lang. So although I wasaway rom the country thirty-nine years, I continued to writebooks and some o them were published in Vietnam under di -

erent names.

As we have said, the rst meaning o Engaged Buddhismis the kind o Buddhism that is present in every moment o our daily li e. While you brush your teeth, Buddhism should be there.While you drive your car, Buddhism should be there. While youare walking in the supermarket, Buddhism should be there sothat you know what to buy and what not to buy!

Also, Engaged Buddhism is the kind o wisdom that respondsto anything that happens in the here and the now global warm-ing, climate change, the destruction o the ecosystem, the lack o communication, war, confict, suicide, divorce. As a mind ulnesspractitioner, we have to be aware o what is going on in our body,our eelings, our emotions, and our environment. That is Engaged

dharma TALK

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


success. We do not have the capacity to live deeply each momento our daily li e. We dont give our body a chance to relax and to heal.

I we know how to live like a Buddha, dwelling in the pres-ent moment, allowing the re reshing and healing elements topenetrate, then we will not become victims o stress, tension, and many kinds o disease.

You can say that one o the roots o ill-being is our incapacityto live our li e deeply in each moment.

When we have a lot o tension and irritation in us we cannotlisten to the other person. We cannot use loving speech. We cannotremove wrong perceptions. There ore wrong perceptions give riseto ear, hate, violence, and so on. We have to identi y the causeso our ill-being. This is very important work.

Suppose we speak o suicide, o broken amilies. We knowthat when communication becomes di cult between husband and wi e, ather and son, mother and daughter, people are no longer

happy. Many young people all into despair and want to committo suicide. They dont know how to handle despair or their emo-tions, and they think that the only way to stop su ering is to killonesel . In France every year about 12,000 young people commitsuicide, just because they cant handle their emotions like despair.And their parents dont know how to do it. They dont teach their children how to deal with their eelings, and even school teach-ers dont how to help their students to recognize and hold their emotions tenderly.

When people cannot communicate they dont understand eachother or see the others su ering and there is no love, no happi-ness. War and terrorism are also born rom wrong perceptions.

Terrorists think that the other side is trying to destroy them as areligion, as a way o li e, as a nation. I we believe that the other person is trying to kill us then we will seek ways to kill the other person rst in order not to be killed.

Fear, misunderstanding, and wrong perceptions are the oun-dation o all these violent acts. The war in Iraq, which is called anti-terrorist, has not helped to reduce the number o terrorists. In

act the number o terrorists is increasing all the time because o the war. In order to remove terrorism you have to remove wrongperceptions. We know very well that airplanes, guns, and bombscannot remove wrong perceptions. Only loving speech and com-passionate listening can help people correct wrong perceptions.But our leaders are not trained in that discipline and they rely onthe armed orces to remove terrorism.

So looking deeply we can see the making o ill-being, theroots o ill-being, by recognizing ill-being as the truth and lookingdeeply into its nature.

The Third Noble Truth is the cessation o ill-being, whichmeans the presence o well-being just as the absence o darknessmeans the presence o light. When ignorance is no longer present,there is wisdom. When you remove darkness, there is light. So thecessation o ill-being means the presence o well-being, which isthe opposite o the First Noble Truth.

The teaching o the Buddha con rms the truth that well-beingis possible. Because there is ill-being, well-being is possible. I ill-being is described rst in terms o tension, stress, heaviness,then well-being is described as lightness, peace, relaxation ladtente. With your body, breath, eet, and mind ulness you canreduce tension and bring about relaxation, lightness, peace.

We can speak o the Fourth Noble Truth in very concreteterms. The methods o practice enable us to reduce tension, stress,unhappiness, as seen in the Fourth Noble Truth, the path. TodaysDharma teachers may want to call it the path o well-being. Thecessation o ill-being means the beginning o well-being itsso simple!

From Many Gods to No GodI would like to go back a little bit to the history o Engaged

Buddhism.

In the nineteen- ties I began to write because people needed to have spiritual direction to help them overcome their con usion.One day I wrote about the relationship between religious belie and the ways we organize our society. I described the history o the evolution o society.

First, our society was organized in groups o people called tribes. Over time, several tribes would come together and nallywe set up kingdoms, with a king. Then the time came when wehad enough o kings and we wanted to create democracies or republics.

Our religious belie s had been changing along the way. Firsto all, we had something parallel to the establishment o tribes polytheism, the belie that there are many gods and each god hasa power. You are ree to choose one god to worship, and that god will protect you against the other gods and the other tribes.

When we orm kingdoms, then our way o belie changes also monotheism. Theres only one God, the most power ul God, and

we should worship only one God and not many gods.

When we come to democracies, theres no king anymore.Everyone is equal to everyone else, and we rely on each other tolive. That is why monotheism is changing to the belie in inter-dependence interbeing where there is no longer God. Weare ully responsible or our li e, or our world, or our planet.I wrote things like that during the time I was trying to build upEngaged Buddhism.

Birth o the Order o InterbeingIn 1964, we established the Order o Interbeing. The birth o

the Order o Interbeing is very meaning ul. We need only to studythe Fourteen Precepts or Mind ulness Trainings in order to under-stand why and how the Order o Interbeing was established.

At that time the war was going on very ercely. It was a con-fict between ideologies. The North and South each had their ownideology; one side was Marxism-Leninism, the other, personalismand capitalism. Not only did we ght with ideologies imported

dharma TALK

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

10/278 Autumn 2008

photo by Paul Davis

rom the outside, but we also ought with weapons imported romthe outside guns and bombs rom Russia, China, and America.As Buddhists who practice peace and reconciliation, brotherhood and sisterhood, we did not want to accept such a war. You cannotaccept a war where brothers are killing brothers with ideologiesand weapons imported rom the outside.

The Order o Interbeing was born as a spiritual resistancemovement. Its based completely on the teachings o the Bud-dha. The First Mind ulness Training non-attachment to views,

reedom rom all ideologies was a direct answer to the war.Everyone was ready to die and to kill or their belie s.

The First Mind ulness Training: Aware o the su eringcreated by anaticism and intolerance, we are determined not tobe idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology,even Buddhist ones

This is the lions roar!

Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to

look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion.They are not doctrines to ght, kill, or die or.

The teaching o the Buddha rom theNipata Sutra concerningviews is very clear. We should not be attached to any view; wehave to transcend all views.

Right View, rst o all, means the absence o all views. At-tachment to views is the source o su ering. Suppose you climbon a ladder, and on the ourth step you think you are already at thehighest level. Then you are stuck! You have to release the ourthstep in order to be able to get up to the th step. To be scienti c,scientists have to release what they have ound in order to cometo a higher truth. This is the teaching o the Buddha: When you

consider something to be the truth and you are attached to it, yomust release it in order to go higher.

The basic spirit o Buddhism is non-attachment to viewWisdom is not views. Insight is not views. We should be readyto release our ideas or true insight to be possible. Suppose yohave notions about impermanence, non-sel , interbeing, the FouNoble Truths. That may be dangerous, because these are onlyviews. You are very proud that you know something about the FouNoble Truths, about interbeing, about interdependent originationabout mind ulness, concentration, and insight. But that teachinis only a means or you to get insight. I you are attached to theteachings, you are lost. The teaching about impermanence, nonsel , interbeing, is to help you to get theinsight o impermanencenon-sel , and interbeing.

The Buddha said, My teaching is like the nger pointing tthe moon. You should be skill ul. You look in the direction o m

nger, and you can see the moon. I you take my nger to be thmoon, you will never see the moon. So even the Buddhadharm

is not the truth, its only an instrument or you to get the truthThis is very basic in Buddhism.

War is the outcome o attachment to views, o anaticisI we look deeply into the nature o the war in Iraq, we can sthat it is also a religious war. People are using religious belie tback up the war. Mr. Bush was supported by many [right-wingChristian] evangelists. The resistance ghters and the terroristin Iraq are backed up by their Muslim belie . So this is somehoa religious war. Peace cannot exist i we maintain our anaticisconcerning our views.

Lotus in a Sea o FireIn 1965 I wrote a small book on the war in Vietnam,Vietnam:

Lotus in a Sea of Fire, published by Hill and Wong in AmericaThe war in Vietnam was raging, it was an ocean o re. We wekilling each other; we allowed American bombers to come anddestroy our orests, our people. We allowed weapons rom Chiand Russia to come. But Buddhism was trying to do somethingThose o us who did not accept the war wanted to do somethinto resist the war.

Buddhists did not have radio or television stations. There wano way or them to express themselves.

Whoever is listening, be my witness:I do not accept this war,let me say this one more time before I die.

These are lines in my poems.

Our enemies are not men.

Our enemies are hate, anaticism, violence. Our enemies arnot men. I we kill men, with whom shall we live?

The peace movement in Vietnam badly needed internationasupport, but you could not hear us over there. So sometimes wehad to burn ourselves alive to tell you that we didnt want thiwar. Please help stop this war, this killing o brothers by brother

The Four Noble Truthsfor Today

1. Ill-being: tension, stress, anxiety, fear,violence, broken families, suicide, war,con ict, terrorism, destruction of the eco-

system, global warming, etc.

2. Roots of ill-being (the making of ill-being):craving, hate, wrong perceptions, lack of communication, hectic life, deadlines

3. Cessation of ill-being = well-being:relaxation, lightness, peace, reconcilia-tion, compassion, communication, insight

4. Path of well-being: the NobleEightfold Path

dharma TALK

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


Buddhism was like a lotus fower trying to survive in an oceano re.

I translated the book into Vietnamese, and an American riend in the peace movement helped bring that book to Vietnam. Thebook was printed underground and many young people tried tocirculate that book as an act o resistance.

Sister Chan Khong, who was a pro essor o biology in HueUniversity, brought a copy to Hue or a riend. She was arrested and put into prison because she owned one copy o that book.Later on she was trans erred to a prison in Saigon.

The School o Youth or Social ServiceYoung riends came to me and asked me to publish my poems

about peace. They called it anti-war poetry. I said okay, i you wantto do it, please do. They collected about ty or sixty poems o mine on this topic and submitted them to the government o SouthVietnam. Fi ty- ve o the poems were censored. Only a ew werele t. But our riends were not discouraged and they printed thepoems underground. The book o poetry sold very, very quickly.Even some secret police liked it, because they also su ered romthe war. They would go to the bookstore and say, You shouldntdisplay them like this! You should hide them behind the counter![laughs]

Radio stations in Saigon, Hanoi, and Beijing began to attack the poems because they called or peace. No one wanted peace.They wanted to ght to the end.

In 1964 we also established the School o Youth or SocialService. We trained thousands o young people, including monksand nuns, to go to the countryside and help the peasants rebuild their villages. We helped them in our aspects: educat ion, health,economics, and organization. Our social workers went to a vil-lage and played with the children and taught them how to read and write and sing. When the people in the village liked us, wesuggested building a school or the children. One amily gavea ew bamboo trees. Another amily brought coconut leaves tomake a roo . Then we began to have a school. Our workers did notreceive a salary. A ter setting up a school in the village, we set upa dispensary where we could dispense rudimentary medicines tohelp the people. We brought into the village students o medicineor a doctor and tried to help one or two days. We also organized cooperatives and tried to teach people the kind o handicra ts theycould do in order to increase the income o the amily.

We have to begin with ourselves, rom the grassroots. TheSchool o Youth or Social Service was ounded on the spirit thatwe dont need to wait or the government.

A New Youth Organization in EuropeWe trained many young people, including young monks and

nuns. Finally we had more than ten thousand workers workingrom Quang Tri to the south. During the war we helped sponsor

more than ten thousand orphans. That is part o Engaged Bud-dhism the young people.

This year we intend to set up an organization o young Bud-dhists in Europe: Young Buddhists or a Healthy and Compassion-ate Society. So many young people have come to us, to our retreatsin Europe, America, and Asia. Now we want to organize them.They will use the Five Mind ulness Trainings as their practice,and they will engage themselves into society to help produce

a healthier society, one with more compassion.I my riends here are inspired by the idea, then please,

when you go home, invite the young people to set up a group o Young Buddhists or a Healthy and Compassionate Society [seepage 43].

Last month we went to Italy, and we had one day o practicewith the young people in the city o Napoli [Naples]. The vehundred young men and women who came to practice with usloved it! They are ready to engage in the practice o peace, helpingto produce a healthier, more compassionate society.

Our young monks and nuns will also be involved in thatorganization.

Foundation o an Institute o Applied Buddhism

We have also set up a European Institute o Applied Bud-dhism. I hope that during this retreat, Sister Annabel, Chan Duc,will o er a presentation on the Institute o Applied Buddhism. Weshall have campuses in America and Asia also. Everyone who hassuccess ully completed the three-month retreat in Plum Village or Deer Park will be given a certi cate o completion issued by theEuropean Institute o Applied Buddhism.

The Institute o Applied Buddhism will o er many interesting

courses. You might like to help organize a course in your area; wewill send Dharma teachers. One example is the twenty-one-daycourse or young men and women who are preparing to set up a

amily. There they learn how to make their conjugal li e into asuccess.

There will be courses or those who have been diagnosed with AIDS or cancer, so that they can learn how to live with their sickness. I you know how to accept and live with your sickness,then you can live twenty, thirty more years.

There will be courses or businesspeople, or school teach-ers, and so on.

This kind o certi cate will help you to become an o cialDharma teacher. One day you might be inspired to become aDharma teacher, to go out and help people, to be a continuationo the Buddha.

Nowadays we are using the term Applied Buddhism, whichis just another way o re erring to Engaged Buddhism.

Transcribed by Greg Sever. Edited by Janelle Combelic and Sister Annabel.

dharma TALK

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

12/2710 Autumn 2008

all photos by Bruce Nichols

Report of theUnited Nations

Day of Vesak 2008National Convention Center, Hanoi, Vietnam

May 13-17, 2008

In May 2008 Thich Nhat Hanh and the Sanghamade a third voyage to Vietnam, this time or a historicoccasion: the United Nations Day o Vesak. This wasthe frst time this biannual gathering o the worldsBuddhists was held in Vietnam. As the o fcial U.N.report stated, Thich Nhat Hanh and his delegationcontributed an important spiritual energy to theUNDV events with three retreats o ered in Vietnam inthe weeks leading up to the UNDV con erence. Theyheld two retreats or young people, attended by over3500 people with a thousand who took re uge in theThree Jewels and Five Mind ulness Trainings Aretreat or Westerners had over 400 participants rom

orty-one nations. A busy city hotel was trans ormed into a peace ul monastery ... demonstrating the trans-

ormative and healing nature o the Dharma.

Inspired by Thay and his Engaged Buddhism, thethree-day con erence that ollowed the celebrations

ocused on Buddhist Contributions to Building aJust, Democratic and Civilized Society. It eatured presentations by dozens o teachers and practitioners,

including many disciples o Thich Nhat Hanh, whogave the principal keynote address.

In addition to Thays Dharma talk rom theHanoi retreat, we o er a couple o essays about the events, along with an interview o Thay PhapKham, one o Thich Nhat Hanhs senior monks romPlum Village who now lives primarily in Vietnam.The next issue o theMind ulness Bellwill eaturemore articles about the UNDV, including some o thepresentations rom the con erence.

Vesak and More in Vietnam

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


V Vietnam hosted the Fi th United Nations Day o Vesak Celebra-tions 2008 (UNDV 2008) entitled Buddhist Contributions toBuilding a Just, Democratic and Civilized Society, with great joy.Over six hundred Buddhist delegations consisting o about vethousand Buddhist monastics and laypeople rom seventy- our countries came to nd, in the spirit o compassion and wisdom,

the solutions to pressing world issues.Dressed in many-colored Buddhist temple robes brown,

gray, orange, red, and yellow the delegates who assembled toopen the three-day celebration represented many traditions and lineages. They o ered a moment o silent prayer or victims o recent natural disasters in Myanmar and China, ollowed by anopening address by Pro . Le Manh That, Vice President o VietnamBuddhist University and Chairman o the International OrganizingCommittee or UNDV 2008. His Holiness Thich Pho Tue, SupremePatriarch o Vietnam Buddhist Sangha o ered a congratulatorymessage, ollowed by a welcoming address by Mr. Nguyen MinhTriet, President o the Socialist Republic o Vietnam.

Keynote speaker Ven. Mathieu Ricard stressed the importanceo rst trans orming ourselves i we want a wiser and more com-passionate society. He said that cultivating our mind is the bestservice we can do or society. Keynote speaker Most Ven. Pro .Dharmakosajarn shared that the goals o the UN are similar tothe goals o Buddhism in the search to attain peace and securityin the world and establish conditions o respect or internationallaw and human rights.

The important keynote speaker was Zen master, Most Vener-able Thich Nhat Hanh. He urged delegates to commit themselves tonot only support building a just, democratic, and civilized societyin theory, but also in practice. We have to change ourselves be-

ore we can make the change happen in our society. Being peaceis the oundation o making peace. Without trans ormation and healing we are not calm and compassionate enough to use lovingspeech and deep listening, and our e orts will not help changeour society.

Cultural ActivitiesCultural highlights o the UNDV celebrations included a

Buddhist art and photo exhibition, as well as special processionso lights and decorated foats. On May 14 a spectacular candle-litprocession started the evening per ormance, which included aVietnamese an dance, traditional drumming, and musical o -

erings. On the evening o May 15 a rich and moving theatricalper ormance on the li e o Buddha was portrayed in Vietnameseopera style. Cultural activities were organized not only in Hanoibut also in ty- ve cities and provinces.

The nal evening, a ter the closing ceremony, there was acandlelight vigil praying or World Peace with thousands o people.Sanghas throughout the nation o Vietnam and around the world were asked to join in a s imultaneous prayer vigil.

Panel WorkshopsThe heart o the con erence was seven workshops, each o

them with three panels, one in the morning and two in the a ter-noon. Buddhists rom around the world shared their practices,

teachings, experiences and research on the topics related to thecon erence theme, ollowed by question-and-answer periods.

War, Confict and Healing:A Buddhist Perspective

The international gathering investigated the causes o war,confict and disharmony among di erent cultures, nations and religions, and tried through the light o Buddhist doctrines to nd solutions. With twenty-two presenters, many coming themselves

rom recently war-torn areas like Israel and Palestine and NorthernIreland, they concluded that or society to be healthy the individualmust be healthy. To do this, we should practice non-attachment toviews. When we go into regions o confict we see that su eringis experienced on all sides. But we have di culty acknowledgingthat the su ering o the other is the same as our own. Buddhasteachings help us recognize this. We need to look deeply into theroots o our own su ering and develop the capacity to also see thesu ering o others. I we look deeply, hope is possible.

Social JusticeIn the Social Justice Panel, presenters shared that the way to

peace and justice lies in peace ul personal and collective action.We heard examples o the practice o mind ulness applied to thetraining o police o cers and lawyers, as well as in mediating and resolving community disputes, and the negotiations between aninternational corporation and indigenous tribes.

In assuring social justice, we must acknowledge our intercon-nectedness. Buddhist ethics, grounded in this understanding o interconnectedness, play an important role in the development o a just society. On a personal level, the application o mind ul, deeplistening and peace ul, loving speech in a context o social actioncan support and promote the trans ormation o the society.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

14/2712 Autumn 2008

Engaged Buddhism & Development This panel emphasized that development must not only be

de ned as economic growth and material prosperity but also asthe growth o happiness and peace in society. Many societies thatare so-called developed have high rates o crime, depression,suicide, amily breakdown, and deep unhappiness, brought aboutprecisely by the materialism and drive to consume that is themark o our current de nition o developed societies. Speci cexamples o e orts to engage in development work integratingthe Dharma included a plea or suppor t or the e orts o Sangha-building in A rica.

Care or Environment: Buddhist Response toClimate Change

The panel recommended that the Buddhist world prepare itsel or climate change and promote more education about the issue.

It also asked both lay people and monastics to set an example and that Earth Day be recognized and honored in the world.

Family Problems and the Buddhist ResponseMany local Vietnamese delegates attended this panel. Every-

one was very moved and inspired by the concrete, practical sharingo how to resolve conficts, the importance o deep listening and loving speech, and the role o mind ul breathing in creating deeptrans ormation in ourselves, amilies, and society. The centralmessage was the important role o the Five Precepts or Mind ul-ness Trainings in healing amily problems and preventing them inthe rst place. The sharings were personal while remaining veryrelevant, and at times the audience was moved to tears. There wasa real cross-cultural dialogue and experience o deepening under-

standing across many di erent barrieo language, culture, and generations.

Symposium on Buddhist Education: Continuity andProgress

The thirteen presenters at thiworkshop spoke o the important rolthat Buddhist teaching and practicecan play at all levels o learning, rograde school to university, serving as astabilizing and trans ormative orce wisdom or the individual and collectivconsciousness. The continued growthand maintenance o these centers oteaching is critical to the well-being opeople within these societies as welas in relationships with other nationsThere is a growing interest in Westerncountries to integrate Buddhist teachings into the very oundation o eduction in schools, rom primary level tuniversity programs.

Buddhism in the Digital Age: Electronic CulturalAtlas Initiative

The panel presentations discussed many ways that Buddhistexts, art, culture, arti acts and temples can be detected, prserved, and shared using various digital technologies. The panesubjects were divided into three general categories: digitalizationand preservation o historical sites; preservation o texts throudigital media; and the location and mapping (via technology sucas Google Earth) o Buddhist sites.

ConclusionWe would like to thank all Venerables and delegates rom

ninety di erent countries or your participation at this Fi th UNcon erence.

You are invited to attend upcoming international Buddhisevents including the 2nd World Buddhist Forum in August 2008the Fi th World Buddhist Summit in Japan in November 2008General Con erence o the International Association o BuddhUniversities, Bangkok, Thailand, 2008, the activities o the WorlFellowship o Buddhists (WFB) and Inner Trip Reiyukai Interntional (ITRI), and especially we hope you will come join us or thSixth World Buddhist Summit in Vietnam in 2010.

This report, edited here for length, was a collaborativeeffort of Dr. Manpreet Singh, Sr. Thong Niem, Sr. Chau

Nghiem, Sr. Nhu Nghiem, Ven. Thich Nhat Tu, Avi Magidoff,Karen Hilsberg, Loan Phan, Sita Ramamurthy, Sally Tinker,

Carmen Kuchera, Kate Ettinger, David Haskin and other lay practitioners who reported on the different workshops at

the Vesak conference. Also see http://vesakday2008.com.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


D During the retreat in Hanoi, former Mindfulness Bell editor BarbaraCasey sat down with Thay Phap Kham (monks who have received full ordination are addressed as Thay) for an extended chat. This energetic and committed monk has been instrumental in establishing Thich Nhat Hanhs Sangha in Vietnam and Hong Kong. Hes also a longtime friend and supporter of the Mindfulness Bell .

Please tell us your story about being born in Vietnam,about leaving, and then what it was like coming back for the rst time.

I was born in a small village in the country, in the middle o a war zone. In the daytime it was controlled by the South Vietnamgovernment, but at night it was under the control o the guerril-las, and at times they would take people away and terrorize them.When I was ve or six years old, I saw the consequences o war.My neighbors were killed. I saw people being mutilated and burned like charcoal. I saw soldiers on both sides getting killed. Some o the guerrillas who were killed were acquaintances o my amily inthe village. As a small child, witnessing those kinds o things mademe su er. And a deep understanding grew in me, that there should be a better way, that something like this shouldnt happen.

I remember vividly the image o a black GI who came tomy village in a convoy. I wasnt a raid o him; he gave me somecandy. But a soldier rom the South Vietnamese army told me togo home because there was some ghting about to happen. So,even at that young age I had some kind o human connection withthose soldiers.

When I was eleven, my hometown was taken over by theNorth Vietnamese army, so I moved to central Vietnam, and thento Saigon, with my amily. I lived with the communists or threeyears [a ter reuni cation in 1975], and then I le t by boat in 1978.From a re ugee camp in the Philippines I emigrated to the U.S.in 1979.

Those three years under the communists taught me a lot. Ibecame a responsible young man. And then I le t Vietnam withmy mother and my ve brothers and sisters. A ter emigrating,

I attended the university and graduated, and then worked as anengineer or about thirteen years.

Where was this? Near Washington D.C. When I was twenty- ve I discovered

Buddhism through reading Thays book The Miracle o Mind ul-ness. It explained Buddhism to me as a way o practice, not asworship or religion. In 1987 I went to Plum Village because Iwanted to come back to my cultural roots. I thought Plum Villagewas a place where many Vietnamese people came and par ticipated in cultural activities, and spoke Vietnamese, and wore traditionalclothes, and elt nostalgia or their homeland.

But as Plum Village developed into more o a Buddhist medi-tation center, I grew with that. Ten years later, in 1997, I came to

practice as an aspirant. In 1998 I became a monk, so I have beena monk or about ten years. People who knew me at that timewere very surprised to see me as a monk, because they saw thatI was already very happy. For ten years I had been a communityactivist working with Vietnamese youth, teaching them aboutVietnamese culture, language, and traditions. I taught Vietnameselanguage to the children almost every weekend. It was a way or me to serve.

But being a monk I can serve more people all over the world.So I told those people that being a monk makes me happier!

I see that the direction o my li e was determined when I wasvery young. I was sent to a boarding school, and this had a big

impact on my li e. Almost every month I was allowed to go homerom the school in Hue to Quang Tri where my amily lived. Myather would come pick me up. One day the bridge on the road

was broken, because o the foods and the ghting, and my parentswere on the other side and I on this side. Its something I consider very heroic or me, an eight-year-old boy! So I crossed that brokenbridge alone, and when I saw my parents, they hugged me and gave me popcorn; I elt a lot o joy!

A ter that trip, every night be ore going to bed at the board-ing school I dressed up in nice clothes, and I prayed. I would pray, Dear God, dear Buddha, and dear Jesus Christ, let me bewith my amily. I did not know who had the supreme power, so I

Practice in Vietnam:

An Inside LookInterview with Thay Phap KhamBy Barbara Casey in Hanoi, Vietnam

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

16/2714 Autumn 2008

prayed to them all. But I didnt want to be sel sh, so I said, Letall the people have a chance to be with their amilies also, and let the war end.

I did that or one year. But o course it didnt happen. Thewar still went on, so I stopped praying.

So you live in Vietnam again.Yeah. Returning to Vietnam gave me a lot o experiences. I

was born in Quang Tri, the place that su ered rom the heaviestghting. Just in ront o my house, there was this place called Old

Citadel, where the armies rom the North and the South oughtmany erce battles. During the two months o a last battle therein 1972, tens o thousands o people were killed or wounded.When I returned to Vietnam, I visited that place three times and contemplated they say that every square oot o it is covered with blood. But now it has become a beauti ul park. I see thatpeople have good intentions, and it was a relie to see that localpeople made peace with it.

Im happy to be back in Vietnam, but also disappointed withthe morality and the values o the society now. Be ore we wentto war and during the war, people were taking care o each other.But now, even though we have peace, it seems like people donttake care o each other.

Vietnam has grown and developed, but i you look deeplythere are many poor people, and the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger. This has happened in many developed countries, but it should not have happened that way in Vietnam.

Also, people have lost their amily values. We can see more build-ings, more high rises, but i you look care ully, we see that li e isdi cult or people here. Its congested and polluted. The peopleand the country have a long way to go to become a more developed,a more ordered society.

So Im happy to be back, but I also see a challenge. I think thats why Thay has made three trips back to help, to give ahand in this process.

I have met quite a ew young people at our retreats and I seetheir hope and also their disappointment. Having nothing to look

orward to, it seems like there are no opportunities or them. In Viet-nam I see that Buddhism can o er some hope, some way out.

What is Thays Sangha like in thedifferent parts of Vietnam?

Since the trip in 2005, we have set up the practice in PrajnMonastery (in the highlands) and in Tu Hieu, Thays root templ[in central Vietnam], and we now have about our hundred monknuns, and aspirants who practice in our tradition. The average ag

is about twenty-two, very young, so they are creating a base oBuddhism or the next ty years. Prajna is located in a remoarea, but whatever we do at Prajna, people all over the countrpay attention to it. Prajna is the place that people can think abouand know that there is a group o people practicing or them.gives them hope.

We have plans to expand our practice in the north. The peoplein the north have just returned to Buddhism a ter years o absencand their practice consists mostly o aith and religious rituals. Bthey seem like theyre very open to our way o practice. Its up tus to integrate their worship o Buddha with our practice. I ware skill ul, we can make a big di erence in the north.

There are already many templein the north, and Plum Village doesnneed to own a center in order to teachWe would like to be treated as apartner and be invited to teach in thetemples that already exist. That makepeople more secure and theyre morewilling to help that way. We have tointegrate with them and o er the pratice so that we can spread the teaching. There are eighty- our milliopeople, so ve hundred Plum Villagmonastics cannot do the work aloneWe need to have interbeing with othetraditions, working together as a teamWe cannot be caught within the orm

o Plum Village traditions, o Thays teachings. It is the content the practice love and understanding that counts.

Our presence in Hong Kong is also a support or Vietnam. Thpractice there is attracting quite a ew people. Like everywherelse, people throughout Asia have su ered with the ast pacemodern li e. I the help is there, they come. So we have a vepositive outlook.

However, we need to really be care ul not to over expand. W

need our practice to be strong, to emphasize quality over quantityLooking back, I think we have made quite big leaps.

Whats your relationship with thegovernment at this point?

I think the Vietnamese government is more open, but being communist country, they are a raid o some movement becomitoo popular. They dont want anybody to have so much infuence.But they are airly open to Thays teachings; or example, nomost o Thays books have been published in Vietnam. But tspread more into the mainstream to pro essionals, to people whdont come to temple regularly, we may have di culty. We hav

We are in the business of practice, so as

long as we can do so in a skillful way, we will

continue to express our love and understand-

ing to other peoples throughout the world.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

17/27

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

18/2716 Autumn 2008

T The seven-day retreat on Engaged Buddhism in Hanoi was trulywonder ul. I was touched by the rooted eeling o being a com-munity.

Be ore the orientation, the Order o Interbeing, monks, and nuns were on stage ready to invoke the name o Avalokiteshvarya.Looking out at the audience, I saw a sea o bluish grey robes Iwas totally surrounded by spiritual grandparents, mothers, athers,aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters. I could even eel the presenceo my ancestors coming up to support this event. I could only domind ul breathing during the chanting because my attention wason gratitude to my entire line o spiritual and blood ancestors.My lips could not open to sing the chant but the chant resonated in my heart.

Getting enough avorable conditions or the retreat to takeplace was not an easy task. But with the practice o mind ulnessand keeping to our breathing, our patience and aith worked their magic and the ruit o much hard work ripened to per ect sweetnessand maturity. We managed to turn the Golden Lotus Hotel into theGolden Lotus Monastery. For seven days, three hundred and typeople rom all over the world stayed in closed quarters. We wereable to utilize every inch o space in the Golden Lotus Monasteryto practice walking meditation, gather or Dharma discussion, dochi qong, and even nd space to be with ourselves. Since we had nowhere to go and nothing to do, i t was so easy to dwell joy ullytogether in our Golden Lotus Monastery!

For the rst time, we got to hear Thay share his story aboutEngaged Buddhism. We listened to the history and rise o thistradition. During the guided meditation in the morning, we were

able to come back to ourselves in a very gentle yet power ul wato heal our hearts and to recognize our path to trans orm ousu ering. Tears were shed, leaving our hear ts light and giving a true sense o liberty. The Dharma talks o ered inspirationreach out and help people in the here and now without the need

to worry that we will lose our practice. We learned to see that bbeing mind ul, it is only natural to help those in distress. Whewe help them, we also help ourselves.

The Brothers and Sisters caring or the Dining Meditation Hadid a superb job making the meal time into a period o practice deep looking and trans ormation. They invited the bell to welcomus all to come eat together as a amily. The manager o the hotworried when he saw how simple our meals were; he was a raithat we were su ering! Quite the contrary was true everyonenjoyed the meals. They could eel the goodness and love and carput into preparing the dishes and serving the ood.

The ceremony or transmitting the Fourteen Mind ulneTrainings o the Order o Interbeing was like the Grand Ordintion Ceremony during the winter retreat. Both lay and monastipractitioners received the Trainings. Although we didnt see astatue o the Buddha or any Patriarch, I am sure they were smiing and proud o us.

Surprisingly, there were a number o young people (nineteeto thirty- ve years old) attending the retreat. We had a marveloutime together. We elt so sa e with each other that we could shathings we would never imagine sharing with other people. Wecould recognize our practice was vital to our uture. We even haT-shirts made as a bell o mind ulness to practice wholeheartedand diligently to aid in reducing the su ering in the world. T

We need to welcome the Buddha into our life, trust that this awakened

being knows what to do, and we take the joy ride with the Buddha.

Rejoicing

with theSangha inHanoi

By Sister Hanh Nghiemphoto courtesy of the monastic sangha

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


T Thich Nhat Hanhs return to Vietnam in May or several retreats ollowed by aUnited Nations con erence was a triumph or his engaged Buddhism. Not onlywas his global infuence evident at the con erence, but he and our hundred retreatparticipants (most o us Westerners) were warmly received on a dramatic slow walk in the center o Hanoi.Triumph perhaps is too military a term or the vindication o an eighty-two-

year-old monk who teaches peace is every step, but his young li e was de ned bywar, as was his ancient nation. Not until 2005 was he ree to return a ter thirty-nineyears exiled rst by the anti-communists, then by the communists.

Sponsoring this years UN Vesak Con erence was a signi cant move or the So-cialist Republic o Vietnam, which has been criticized or religious repression but isencouraging tourism and the recovery o ancient cultural traditions. The con erenceat Hanois proud new National Convention Center included ormal workshops on avariety o issues addressed by Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic representatives.But because the world continues to su er rom the scourge o war, and perhapsbecause the con erence was or the rst time in Vietnam, the issues o war, confict,and healing were oremost.

In his opening address, Phra Dharmakosajarn, one o the most prominent monks

in Thailand, made the connection between world peace and Buddhism saying, Nodoubt meditation and moral principles contribute to peace, since war begins in theminds o men. Or, as Thich Nhat Hanh put i t in his keynote address, The roots o war and confict are in us!

Thay proposed the idea o engagement, he told us, in his rst published articlein 1954. It was a time o great con usion in Vietnam. (The French colonialists,de eated at Dien Bien Phu, were exiting and the Americans, covert sponsors o theNgo Dinh Diem regime, were entering.) As war ormed in the minds o McNamara,Rusk, Bundy, the joint chie s, the Kremlin, Mao, and others, the Vietnam Buddhistscountered, in so many words: Leave Vietnam alone!

Perhaps because this was Vietnam, Thays Dharma talks in the eight-day retreatdwellt on the American war, as it is known there. The people o the small nation were

The Long Walk

from War to PeaceBy Larry Calloway

T-shirts said Let the Buddha Breathe.We just need to welcome the Buddha intoour li e and trust that this awakened beingknows what to do and we take the joy ridewith the Buddha.

When the seven days came to an end,the retreat was not over. We continued dwelling in our energy o peace and healingand nourishing it. We did walking medita-tion around Hoan Kiem Lake in the center o Hanoi, seeing the morning li e o theVietnamese. People were jogging, doingaerobics, playing badminton, doing other kinds o exercises, and going to work.We also did sitting meditation in ront o the memorial statue o King Ly Thai To.He o ered the longest period o peacein Vietnamese history two hundred years. The ollowing day we had a Day o Mind ulness. We broke out into a nitygroups according to the panels that would be discussed at the Vesak Con erence thenext day.

At the opening day o the Vesak Con-erence we processed into the convention

center on a red carpet and we mind ullyascended the long wide staircase betweenthe Dharma Protectors into the hall. Wewere the largest group at the con erence.It was nice to be at the con erence as apractitioner and not as a business personwith an agenda.

My happiness rom the con erencecame when I met up with the youngpeoples group at the end o the eveningto refect on the day, to hear other peoplestake on the event. I could see that mySangha was boundless as long as I took thetime and saw the joy in being together withthose around me. The other part o the con-

erence that touched me were the blown-uppictures o the Requiem Ceremonies romlast year. I saw that love was timeless and nothing can stop love rom entering thehearts o people.

Our time together in Hanoi made itsimpression in history and in our hearts. Itwas a very special twenty-one-day retreatcondensed into two weeks o retreat, dayso mind ulness, con erence, and holidaycelebrations. Quite the gi t!

Sister Hanh Nghiem, True Action, now lives at New Hamlet in Plum Village.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

20/2718 Autumn 2008

caught between oreign ideologies. Everyone was willing to dieor ideologies, he said, but Buddhism teaches reedom rom ide-

ology. The ghting was with ideas and weapons rom the outside.How can you ght such a war? Brother against brother?

In the early sixties Thay went o ten to the United States,where he would eventually study at Princeton, lecture at Cornelland teach at Columbia. He was a power ul multilingual anti-war

speaker. But sometimes there was a problem. At a huge anti-war rally in 1966 a young man suddenly yelled, Why are you here? Youshould be in Vietnam ghting the American imperialists! In other words, Thay said, the man wanted him to ght, to kill Americans.He answered, Well, I thought the root o the war was here inWashington and thats why I have come.

No Ordinary Protester In Hanoi I met Paul Davis, who had a similar thought at an

anti-war march in New York in the sixties. People started yelling,Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh, youre the one whos gonna win.That was never the point.

Paul was no ordinary protester. He had joined the United States Marines two weeks a ter his high school graduation in ruralOhio and landed at Da Nang in 1965, when the U.S. under PresidentJohnson began direct combat operations. Davis was wounded in1966, and while recovering in the U.S. appeared as a Marine on apanel at a college. Someone asked him i the Vietnamese wanted us there. He spun out a long response, and his interlocutor said,You have not answered the question. In a Zen-like, koan-likemoment, Pauls whole mental being suddenly dissolved. He held back tears. Somehow his li e had changed orever.

More than ten years ago, a ter his son died in a car crash, Paulbegan attending Thich Nhat Hanh retreats. He now counsels Iraq war veterans and their amilies. In 2003, Paul obtained his Marinecasualty report and ollowed the coordinates to the point where hewas wounded. He recognized the distant horizon that he saw ashe waited or evacuation. This was on Marble Mountain, near DaNang, named or a pure white quarry. In the village below, dozenso shops now sell sculptures to tourists.

The War RememberedThe rst morning in Hanoi I went walking around the lake

(not the one John McCain dropped into) near the big government-built Kim Lien hotel that Plum Village had booked. I took photoso people walking, shing, or just sitting by the pretty lake. Therewere young lovers. I was generally ignored except that some

children were delighted to see their digital pictures and some old men stared at me coldly.

Later I told my discussion group that I elt the Vietnamesehad orgotten the war, had moved on. Two Americans disagreed.But an expatriate Vietnamese man said the Vietnamese had not

orgotten but they were used to war. The Americans were justanother invader in a long history o war are to which the nationis inured. This is a sentiment o ten heard in Vietnam.

One day I went to the National Fine Arts Museum and sawthe artistic record o the war. There were a dozen impressions o Viet Cong guerrillas set in villages with women and o ten children

looking on. The pictures carried a mood o grim determinatioand su ering. Americans were depicted as large and authoritativincluding a captive pilot who was being beaten.

Hanoi also has a war museum that displays wreckage oAmerican planes shot down, although it is not promoted otourists. Near Saigon, however, a park called the Cu Chi Tunnelis on the tourist circuit. Here you can crawl orty eet in a dar

claustrophobic representation o the hundred miles o tunnerom which the Viet Cong attacked and vanished, una ected constant B52 bombardment and undiscovered by ground patrolsThere are displays with mannequins representing the ingenioutricks o camoufage and cruel demonstrations o pit alls and tramade rom sharpened bamboo.

Once, our bus went through a crowded slum near the centeo Hanoi and a Vietnamese woman who worked as a tour guidsaid, I hate this neighborhood. It was destroyed in the Christmabombing. There is a monument here to the dead. The NixonKissinger bombing o Hanoi and Haiphong rom December to 30, 1972 was described by the Washington Post as the mossavage and senseless act o war ever visited ... by one sovereigpeople over another. Senate Leader Mike Mans eld called it stone age tactic. Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese negotiator athe Paris peace talks, called it barbarous and inhumane. It wathe last desperate U.S. air o ensive in a war that had already belost. Sixteen o the one hundred B-52s were shot down. The ParPeace Accords would be signed January 27, 1973.

Morning at the LakeEarly one morning during the retreat, we boarded buses and

took a walk along the shore o the central lake, Hoan Kiem, idowntown Hanoi. People were already out doing their morninjogging and aerobics. We le t the buses and gathered at the ta

statue o Ly Thai To, who moved the capital to Hanoi. There wethe our hundred o us in gray robes, plus thirty or so monks anuns in brown robes with conical reed hats. We walked along thold section o Hanoi and past the historic water puppet theatand turned around near the rock pile monument with the Chinescharacter or heaven and passed the red bow bridge that goes tan island shrine.

Funny thing, I thought. No police. No wise guys makinnervous comments. No angry motorcycle drivers urging ouslow-walking meditative line to clear an intersection. Just peoplwatching, curious. Then, about hal way through the demonstration, I noticed some o them were lining up along our way. An

they were standing respect ully with their palms together at thehearts.

Back at the oot o Ly Thai To sat Thich Nhat Hanh, dimintive and smiling. Many o us sat around him, as i waiting olesson. Without comment, he took in the air and the morning sunand the trees and the birds and the lake, which was at our backsHe suggested that we all turn around, that the view was mucbetter that way. He smiled. He was home.

Larry Calloway lives in the high mountains near Crestone,Colorado. A retired journalist, he recently received a Masters

degree in Eastern classics from St. Johns College of Santa Fe.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


photo by Paul Davis

1. A bhikshu should join his palms in greeting when he sees a bhikshunijoin her palms to him, even though that bhikshuni has only been or-dained as bhikshuni for a short time. A bhikshuni, no matter how longshe has been ordained, represents the whole bhikshuni Sangha, whichhas been a partner of the bhikshu Sangha from the time it began toexist and will continue to be so in the future.

2. A bhikshu does not think or say that the karmic retribution of a nun isless favourable than that of a monk and for that reason a bhikshunisstudies, practice, realizations and service to the Buddhadharmacannot equal that of the bhikshu. A bhikshu is aware that the reasonwhy the Pratimoksha for bhikshunis has more precepts than that for bhikshus is not because bhikshunis have a less favourable karmicretribution: it is because the nuns themselves established more pre-cepts for self-protection and the protection of monks and laymen.

3. When a bhikshu sees a bhikshuni he should be aware of whether she is of the same age as his mother, elder sister, younger sister,or daughter might be. He should feel respect for and want to protect

and assist in the practice any bhikshuni who is older than him as hewould feel respect for and want to protect his mother and elder sister.If the bhikshuni is younger than him he should feel care and concernfor her and want to protect and assist her in the practice as he wouldfeel concern for his younger s ister or daughter.

4. A bhikshu never maligns a bhikshuni, even in a roundabout way. Henever hits a bhikshuni even with a ower. It is courteous of a bhik -shu of the twenty- rst century to offer a cup of tea to a bhikshuni. Abhikshu knows that just as the bodhisattva Samantabhadra is foundin the person of the true bhikshu, so the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvarais found in the person of the true bhikshuni. This knowledge fostersmutual respect.

5. When organizing the three-month Rains Retreat, bhikshus shouldmake sure that it is in a place where there is a bhikshuni Sangha, sothat the bhikshus have an opportunity to be near to, offer teachingto, and receive the support of the bhikshuni Sangha, because thebhikshuni Sangha always has and will be a partner of the bhikshuSangha.

6. When the bhikshus hear about a bhikshuni who is learned in theDharma, is skilled in sharing the Dharma, and practices well the pre-cepts and all other aspects of the path, they can contact the bhikshuniSangha and invite that bhikshuni to come and give teachings andshare her understanding and experience of the practice with them.

7. When bhikshunis volunteer to come to the bhikshu monastery in order to help cook and lay out a celebratory meal at a memorial service or other important ceremony, the bhikshus should nd ways to help outand work alongside the bhikshunis, especially in lifting heavy items.

8. When bhikshus hear that a bhikshuni is in ill-health or has had anaccident they should express feelings of sympathy and they candelegate bhikshus to visit her, ask after her health and nd other ways to offer support.

The Eight Practices of RespectGurudharmasFor a bhikshu to practicewith regard to a bhikshuni

By Thich Nhat Hanh

The sixth is perhaps

the most revolutionary.

Many monks still hesi-

tate to listen to a nun

teaching, let alone invite

her to teach them.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

22/2720 Autumn 2008

T

photo by Paul Davis

Before the Sangha traveled to Vietnam, Thay wrote a code of conduct for monks with regards to nuns, to update the ancient code of conduct for nuns with regards to monks. Sister Annabel graciously wrote thiscommentary for the Mindfulness Bell .

The Sangha o the Buddha is known as the Four old Sangha.It comprises bhikshus ( ully-ordained monks),bhikshunis ( ully-ordained nuns), laymen, and laywomen. The bhikshuni componento the Sangha was added last o all.

Tradition has it that it was not an easy matter or womento be accepted as monastic members o the Sangha. I the tradi-tion, which says that the Buddha hesitated in receiving womenas monastic disciples, is true, it is not something di cult tounderstand.

Surely the Buddha must have been taken by surprise when hisdear aunt and a large number o Sakyan ladies arrived in Vaishaliwith swollen and bleeding eet a ter walking hundreds o milesbare oot to prove that women too could lead the li e o wanderingmonks? No doubt he was also moved. His aunt Mahagotami had previously asked permission to ordain as a nun when the Buddhawas in Kapilavastu and had been told that the time was not yetright or women to ordain.

It was not that the Buddha saw women as o in erior intel-lectual or spiritual properties that he hesitated to allow them to

ollow the monastic vocation. The reservations o the Buddha had

to do with the cultural and social situation in which the Sangho his time ound itsel .

Concerns o the BuddhaFirst o all the Buddha wanted his disciples to have the be

conditions to realise the practice. His monk disciples spent thnight at the oot o trees and begged or alms in the towns avillages. This could have been very dangerous or women to dAccording to the Indian custom o that time women were alwato stay in a house where they were under the protection o the

ather, husband, elder brother, or son. The only women who dnot have that protection were courtesans and loose women. ThBuddha eared that his nun disciples would be branded as sucand in act this o ten happened. It also happened that on a coupo occasions when nuns unusually stepped out o the monastealone they were sexually assaulted.

The second question the Buddha must have asked himselwas how the monks he had already ordained would accept nunas ellow members o the same spiritual amily. Were the monsu ciently ree o their cultural and social prejudice to oprotection to nuns and support them in their practice?

The third question or the Buddha concerned the relationsho the nun Sangha to the monk Sangha. The Buddha taught that threcognition o seniority was essential or harmony in the Sang(Culavagga VI, 6). Westerners should remember that seniority inot hierarchy. Seniority is a matter o protocol and mutual respebut the ways juniors have o showing respect to seniors di er

The New Gurudharmas for MonksBy Sister Annabel, Chan Duc

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1


the ways seniors have o showing respect to juniors. The Buddhamade it clear that the nuns were juniors. The nuns a ter all had had no education. They joined the Sangha a ter the monks had already been practicing or many years. The monks had alreadymemorized the precepts and discourses o the Buddha. Many had become teachers in their own right. It was only natural that the

nuns should show respect to the monks as their seniors.

The Original GurudharmasThese acts are the basis or the eight originalgurudharmas

(practices o respect) to be practiced by nuns. They were as ol-lows:

1. A bhikshuni should always greet a bhikshu withrespect even though she is senior in years o ordination to the bhikshu.

2. Bhikshunis should practice the annual three-monthRains Retreat in a place where there is a bhikshuSangha or them to take re uge in and learn rom.

3. Twice a month the nuns should send a nun (with asecond body) to invite the monk Sangha to let themknow on what day they should recite the precepts 1 and to send them a monk to give them teachings and exhortations concerning their practice.

4. At the end o the Rains Retreat the nuns have torequest shining light rom the monks as well as romthe other nuns. (This meant that i the monks had seen, heard, and suspected anything untoward in thenuns practice they could let the nuns know and givesuggestions or the nuns practice.)

5. I a bhikshuni breaks a Sanghavasesa precept, she hasto con ess the o ense to and be purifed o the o enseby the bhikshu as well as the bhikshuni Sangha.

6. A nun can only receive the ull ordination rom monksas well as nuns.

7. A nun cannot malign or criticize a monk.

8. A nun cannot admonish a monk or improper conduct. 2

These eight practices o respect have sometimes led people tothink that Buddhism discriminates against women. Although thereis no small number o individual monks, nuns, and laypeople whobelieve that to be a woman is a disadvantage or progress on thespiritual path, this is certainly not what the Buddha taught. A ter the Buddhas parinirvana , some monks took the opportunity topromulgate their culturally ingrained prejudices. The Buddha said clearly that the ruits o the practice that can be realised by womenare no less than those realised by men. In accepting women asnuns the Buddha has opened up a way or hundreds o thousandso women to realise the ruits o the monastic path.

What is needed now is to continue the career o the Bud-dha by making it clear to Buddhists and non-Buddhists that thebhikshuni Sangha is an equal partner o the bhikshu Sangha inthe Buddhist community. The eight gurudharmas or monks that

Thay has given us have already been practiced in many Buddhistcommunities or years. We only need to acknowledge that this isour practice and will continue to be so, so that people no longer have doubts about the status o Buddhist nuns.

Interpreting the New PracticesThe rst gurudharma or bhikshus is equivalent to that or

bhikshunis. Thay has added the act that each bhikshuni is a rep-resentative o the whole bhikshuni Sangha. In bowing to her one isbowing to the whole bhikshuni Sangha. The concept o partnershipis also mentioned. It means a spirit o cooperation between monksand nuns in continuing the career o the Buddha.

The second gurudharma or bhikshus is to clari y that it isnot a handicap to be a woman. This is an illusion to which womenas well as men are subject. Women themselves sometimes alsobelieve that they have been born women because they have notlaid down su cient wholesome roots in past lives.

The third gurudharma or bhikshus is a re-wording o a teach-ing given by the Buddha (SN IV,3,127). It means that our practicecommunity needs to be a amily. Here Thay makes it clear howwe can support the members o our spiritual amily. Just as themonk practices to see the nun as his mother and so on, so the nunpractices to see the monk as her ather, brother, or son dependingon his age.

The ourth gurudharma or monks is equivalent to the seventhgurudharma or nuns. Thay has added the practice o looking atonesel and at the nun as a bodhisattva. This helps us to recognizethe enlightened nature in each other and support wholeheartedlyeach others practice.

The th is equivalent to the second gurudharma or nuns.There are mutual advantages or both the bhikshu and bhikshuniSangha when they practice in proximity to each other.

The sixth is perhaps the most revolutionary. Many monksstill hesitate to listen to a nun teaching, let alone invite her toteach them.

The seventh is a continuation o what the Buddha wanted. Inthe pratimoksha3 there are already precepts orbidding nuns to actas servants to monks. Here we see that in physical work as well asin spiritual practice, the monks are to give the nuns a hand.

The eighth new gurudharma reiterates the need or mutualcare and concern i the Sangha is to unction as a amily.

Sister Annabel, Chan Duc, was abbess of Green Mountain

Dharma Center in Vermont. She is currently assisting Thay toestablish the European Institute of Applied Buddhism.

1 The precepts had to be recited at the full and new moon. There were nocalendars and the educated monks knew how to calculate when the full and new moon days fell.2 We should know that lay women who were strong in their practice did sometimes admonish monks with the concurrence of the Buddha who alsomade some precepts for monks at the suggestion of the lady Visakha. Thisgurudharma is to keep harmony between monks and nuns.3 The pratimoksha is the disciplinary code of fully-ordained monks and nuns.

vesak in VIETNAM

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

24/2722 Autumn 2008

photo by Robert Sorrel

T This morning, I awaken and smile, saying Twenty- our brand newhours are be ore me! I vow to live each moment ully, mind ully,and to look at all beings with eyes o compassion.

Then, I light a candle and a stick o incense be ore a pictureo Mom, Dad, and my brothers and sisters, saying, In gratitude,I o er this incense to you and all my ancestors. May it be ragrantas owers, re ecting my loving reverence and gratitude. May weall be companions o the saints, especially Mary, our Mother o Compassion, on this Feast o the Immaculate Conception.

Thanks to Thay and to the Vietnamese practice o ancestor worship, this Catholic now eels connected to his ancestors and isnourished by reverential gratitude to his parents and other ancestors

a practice that the misguided Catholic bishops and priests tried to stop in Vietnam. When I light a candle and make the incenseo ering in ront o their picture, I know that they are not actuallyin the picture. Rather, I know that they are actually in me. I knowthat the real altar o my ancestors is my body/mind on which I

A Day in

the Life of a CatholicZen Monk inPlum Village

December 8, 2007 Feast of theImmaculate Conception

By Brother Phap De

honor them by the way I live, particularly as expressed in the Fi thMind ulness Training, mind ul consumption. This living connec-tion to my ancestors is helping me let go o my attachment to myego, my notion o being a separate sel and somebody special.

Only Zen Monks StopAt 4:45 a.m., I quietly brew a cup o tea, without waking

up my roommate. Drinking my tea, I grate ully remember that itwas Mom who frst taught me the devotion to Mary. As a boy, Iprayed to Mary or many di erent things even or assistance inwinning basketball games.

A ter this, our ordinary day begins with sitting meditation(Holy Hour) at 5:30 a.m.

At 7:00 a.m., the centuries-old church bells sound the An-gelus, calling us to stop and remember that Mary said Let it be

to the Angel, and became the mother o Jesus. In the old days,everyone stopped at the sound o the bells and recited three AveMarias. Nowadays, only the Zen monks stop. I love the sound and recite an Ave . Hearing the Angelus bells is like hearing thevoice o Christ, calling me back to my true sel and inviting meto be like Mary: with the energy o the Holy Spirit, to give birthto Christ in my own li e, in my own soul and body. I know thati I dont, then what she did will have been wasted as ar as myli e is concerned.

As the Angelus bells continue, I remember the Gospel storyo how the newly pregnant Mary set out and walked with haste(she had not yet learned slow walking meditation) to the home

Thay told me I would have to give up

my stock portfolio, property, bank

accounts, and cars.

c h r i s t i a n ROOTS

8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

25/27the Mind ulness Bell 23

o her cousin, Elizabeth, who greeted her with: Blessed are youamong women. (Luke 1:39 and 42) The sound o the Angelusbells wakes me up to the realization that like Mary, my brothersand sisters embody Christ-consciousness here and now. Thus,like Elizabeth, I say to my sisters and brothers: Blessed are you.How lucky we are!

Then, break ast at 7:30. We sit, in a circle, on cushions on theoor twenty monks and six laypersons, breaking bread together.

I am surrounded by my companions. I remember that the word companion comes rom com (together) and pan (bread), that is,breaking bread together. I remember Jesus breaking bread with his

disciples. This morning I see the abbots mother sitting and eatingwith us like Mary did with Jesus and his companions. I look grate ully at the two cooks, a New Zealander and a Vietnamese,who prepared the ood, even though they understand very littleo each others language. This is the Holy Thursday brotherhood meal and Pentecost (enlightenment) in the here and now.

Walking with Mother MaryWe study rom 9:15 a.m. until we gather or walking medita-

tion at 11:00. I usually invite Dad and Mom to walk with me. Howcan they not, or they are in me. Dad is learning how to walk moreslowly, keeping his attention on the owers and surroundings, noton the destination or job waiting ahead.

Today, I also invite Mother Mary to walk with me. A ter all,she is my spiritual ancestor and I am blessed with her spiritualDNA the Christ-consciousness in me. Today, holding my hand,Mother Mary no longer walks with haste.

The divine eminine energy o Mary is very much with me inthis Zen Buddhist monastery. (Buddhists know Mother Mary asAvalokita or Quan The Am or Kwan Yin.) Many o us can experi-ence Marys spiritual DNA through our practice o touching theearth, when we lie on Mother Earth and re ect on the presence o her healing energy in each o us and in the body o our community.We chant Namo Bo Tat Quan The Am and send her healing energyto people around the world. This chant o ten brings tears o joyand gratitude to the listeners. To me, it eels like it generates thesame energy thats ound in Lourdes and Fatima, energy that onceseemed lost to me.

Now, it is 4:00 p.m. and time to do my working meditation:clean the meditation hall be ore the community arrives or theevening sitting meditation and chanting. When I was a priest ortyyears ago, lay persons cleaned the church a ter I celebrated Mass.Now, its my turn. I am learning humility like Mary. They used to call me Father Adrian, now I am called Phap De, Young Brother.Five years ago, Thay told me that to become a monk I would haveto give up my stock port olio, property, bank accounts, and cars,

and he said, You will learn humility. It has been surprisinglyeasy. Phap De is living joy ully and peace ully.

Her Wondrous Light 6:00 p.m. Tonight, on this Feast o the Immaculate Con-

ception, I was delighted when my Vietnamese brother led us ina chant o praise to the Great Saint o Compassion, Mary. Hereare the lyrics:

From the depths o understanding, the fower o great eloquence blooms:

The bodhisattva stands majestically upon the waves o

birth and death,ree rom all a fictions.

Her great compassion eliminates all sickness,even that once thought o as incurable.Her wondrous light sweeps away all obstacles and

dangers.Her willow branch, once waved, reveals countless

heavens,Her lotus fower blossoms a multitude o practice centers.We bow to her. We see her true presence in the here and

now.We o er her the incense o our heart.May the Bodhisattva o Deep Listening embrace us all with great compassion.Praise to thee, Mary, Our Mother o Compassion.

9:00 p.m. I am aware that I have come a long way and have let go o some old theological notions about Original Sinand the Fall/Redemption paradigm. We have entered a brokenand torn and sin ul world thats or sure, writes theologianMatthew Fox. But we do not enter as blotches on existence, assin ul creatures. We burst into the world as original blessings.Now I can see the dogma o the Immaculate Conception (Marywas conceived without original sin) as an e ort to help us wakeup to the magnifcence o Mary.

The Buddhas gi t o the communal practice o the mind ul-ness trainings helps this Catholic to live up to the example o Maryand the teachings o Jesus. We may be ordinary persons, but, likeMary, we are all Immaculate Conceptions. The joy ul Angelus Bellsrepeatedly invite us to wake up to this Good News!

Brother Phap De (Brother Adrian) lives in Son Haat Plum Village. Once upon a time, he worked as

a Roman Catholic parish priest and teacher.

Hearing the Angelus bells is like hearing the voice

of Christ, calling me back to my true self.


8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

26/2724 Autumn 2008

photo by Emily Whittle

W

I smiled to myself knowing that

what I taught is more than two

thousand years old.

We all know the importance o words. Relationships are built withthem. Our important teachers use words that help us structure our lives and we carry those words in our minds as we go about thebusiness o living.

Despite the act that I had been irting with Buddhist practice

or over twenty years, I had not devoted mysel with any consis-tency. My practice fnally began on a spring morning several yearsago. I sat in a room o three hundred strangers who had gathered

rom all parts o the country to experience a day o mind ulness. Adiminutive woman gazed out at us rom the elevated stage with avery gentle smile on her ace. She took her sweet time looking at usand eventually uttered the words, Welcome, my dear riends.

The world changed or me with those our simple words. Ithought about the possibilities that existed as I considered thestrangers in this room to be dear riends. What i I went homeand thought about my neighbors as dear riends? And the grocerystore clerk. And people I ran into in my small town. The casual

people in my li e. Extended amily. What i I included the peoplewho had disappointed me to also be dear riends? I thought aboutall o this in the ash o an instant a ter Anh-Huong Nguyen uttered those words. It was her frst Dharma teaching to me. Im not surethere will ever be a more power ul teaching in my li e. I ell in lovethat morning with the practice o Applied Buddhism.

Teaching Not-Buddhism in aCatholic Church

I took that rame o re erence with me when I gave my yearlyLenten presentation to a rural Ohio Catholic church. I am invited each year to speak about creating sacred relationships. My role asa relationship coach and therapist takes me to venues both secular and religious. As I considered what topics I might cover, I struggled with the potential di fculty in sharing the joy o my Buddhistpractice with a conservative, Catholic population. My practice ismy li e and keeping it in the closet is not possible.

Once again, I heard the words o Anh-Huong. In teaching usabout community building she reminded us about the importanceo compassion. I people are uncom ortable with a statue o theBuddha, take the statue away. So, I took the statue away.

Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10) becamethe basis o my presentation to my seriously Catholic riends. Ire ramed my practice and used their Christian language to teachthem how to create peace in their lives so that they could o er it to the world just as we practice in Applied Buddhism. My

ocus that night would be as it always is: stopping, calming, and resting which lead to healing and trans ormation, the principleso the Buddhas teachings.

That evening I sat in the sanctuary on a step just below thealtar. Behind me was a wall o stained glass so tly illuminated by

the setting sun. Christ hung on a huge cross above me. The parishpriest sat with his congregation in the pews acing me, and I beganwith the words, Welcome, my dear riends.

I picked up my singing bell, held it high on my fngertips and let it ring three times. I simply closed my eyes, breathed in and out three times and consciously set the tone or my presentation.My riends looked at me. Con usion flled their aces and I justsmiled.

The frst thing I taught that night was breath awareness.

Shhhhh, I told them. I rang the bell.Hear the bell o God calling...

Now, pay attention to your breath, and as you breathe, think o these words

Breathing in, I am aware o God calling.Breathing out, I give love.

We talked about the importance o being still enough to hear the voice o God.

Can you hear Gods voice as you wash the dishes?

How about when youre driving, or waiting in line?

Can you hear Gods voice when somebody disappointsyou and you struggle with a response?

Be StillThe Mindful Christian

By Diane Strausser


8/7/2019 mb49-pt1

27/27

The Gift of a SmileWe moved on to giving the gi t o a smile.

One o the best ways to relax is to smile. When we smile, it is impossible to be upset. When we smile, our throat relaxes, ourcheeks rise and our eyes li t. The muscles o our ace send messagesto the nerves at the base o our skull. Those nerves send relaxationmessages to our brain. Our brain is happy because the signal issent that communicates, all-is-well to the fght-or- ight cen-ters. Oxytocin is released in our brain because we are wearing asmile. Oxytocin is the chemical released when a parent cuddlesan in ant or when lovers hold each other. Oxytocin is the medicinethat God gave us to help create compassion and love.

Your smile is a miracle. Your smile has no negative side e -ects. Your smile is absolutely ree. Your smile is a sacred gi t to

yoursel and to others because that one little gesture helps you tomake space or the presence o God.

Hear the bell o God calling.Breathing in, I smile to God.

Breathing out, I smile to my sisters and brothers.We sat there, looking at each ot

Documents

mb49-pt1