Thich (Thay) Nhat Hanh may be the most important figure of the last two centuries and the most Christ like, though he is a zen Buddhist. My love and admiration for this man cannot be explained save by faith, God, spiritual intuition --The Holy Spirit. I have never met this man. I have read few of his books and yet I can say that I love him.
I highly recommend that every Christian read his book "Peace Is Every Step."
Being Catholic I have refrained from mention him. His status if that is the right word is pn a par with the Pope and the Dali Lama, but one would never know this. He has managed to be famous, but really almost unnoticed and untouched by the corruption that is the mainstream media.
Perhaps his greatest contribution to spirituality to region to Christians and non-christians yes even to atheists is the concept of inter-being. In modern secular cynical terms inter-being can be thought of as co dependence that which the pop-psycholgists eschew, Thay promotes. That which the Pop_psychologists say does harm, Thay says does good. that which the pop-psychologists say will destroy us, Thay says is our saving grace.
We inter-be we are and are meant to be co-dependent. Thay expresses inter-being in such simple terms that it is transcendent it applies not just to spirituality nor human relationships but also the relationship with our planet. In the simplicity and this is paradoxical with zen and one of the aspects of zen that so attracts me in it's simplicity it is profound and transcendent. He describes the simple fact of writing on a piece of paper. The ink is not my own it was produced by others perhaps on the other side of the world the paper was once a tree if not for others it would not be absorbing the ink I place on it now the desk the chair the lamp the very electricity all are from others all are interdependent and in fact all will hold this form this meaning the words I write on it only for a short time and even the act of distributing the words that translate into ideas in the minds of others is inter-being. We do, we are nothing alone.
What I have taken from Thay's words and the idea of inter-being as a christian is that we are all here on this planet at this point in time with each other by divine appointment each and every single one of us could be or not be here at this time could have been born at and earlier time or later time but no God has put each and everyone of us who is here now ... well ... here now. We need to act and treat each other and the planet in this manner we inter-are.
So as Christians when we speak of ourselves as brothers and sisters, what is it we are saying we are here on this planet with each other at this time by divine appointment we inter -are.
In Matt 22:36-39 Jesus says “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, g“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And ha second is like it: iYou shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 jOn these two commandments depend kall the Law and the Prophets.”
Thay Calls it inter-being. And who are our neighbors if not those people with whom we share this planet at this time by divine appointment.
When Jesus tells us in Matt 25:31-46 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, jthen he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him kwill be gathered lall the nations, and mhe will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates nthe sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then othe King will say to pthose on his right, ‘Come, you qwho are blessed by my Father,rinherit sthe kingdom tprepared for you ufrom the foundation of the world. 35 For vI was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and youwgave me drink, xI was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 vI was naked and you clothed me, yI was sick and you zvisited me, aI was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And bthe King will answer them, c‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these dmy brothers,6 you did it to me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, e‘Depart from me, youfcursed, into gthe eternal fire prepared for hthe devil and his angels.42 For iI was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, jyou did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away kinto eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Thay says we inter are we inter-be. We are all here on this planet at this point in history with each other by divine appointment and we should treat each other as codependent as if we depend on each other because we do. The hungry depend on the fed for food, and the corollary is also true this is inter-being the fed depend on the hungry for food, if we ate to take Matt 25:31-46 seriously which as Chrsitians we had better.
During the war in Vietnam Thay was a zen master -- the head of a monastery --- in protest against the violence although against Thay's specific commands to the contrary more than one monk sat in the middle of the street dowsed himself with gasoline and set himself afire to protest the killing.
To Thay and the other monks the sides did not matter the killing the destruction of this beautiful country the heart of every Vietnamese must stop there is no reason to support such violence. That is the essence of inter-being as well as love thy neighbor. There is no cause worthy of such violence on another with whom we share this time on this planet by divine appointment. That is not why we are here. That is not why we be.
Certain things, injustices evoke anger a normal human emotion and perfectly valid as long as expressed appropriately. To deny our emotions to repress them is mental illness not mental health how can this be spiritual?
All human emotions are neither good not bad the just are. They are part of our humanity. To repress our anger or any other human emotion is mental illness not mental health. It is their expression that can get nasty and that includes the expression of compassion. Compassion is putting oneself with the other, not leading not directing but co-passionate feeling the feeling as another human this is compassion
For example when Thay describes his war experience in Vietnam this beautiful and peaceful land that is home to him with all that that word home means. I can sit with him and be co-passionate. Human to human.
I can share the experience of the emotions including anger and frustration at the destruction of home. I do not have to give advice, assuage his frustration, his anger. I can just sit and feel. I can experience the emotions he experiences. We are inter-being..
For me to deny and repress even through meditation the reality of the emotion of anger I would not be able to sit with him, which from reading his words I have. I have sat with Thay in co-passion many times. He has given me that gift. Even though I have never met him personally. Yet he is everywhere. Not as God, but as humanity. And I thank him for being. Pax Ghristi. Thich Nhat Hanh means a great deal to me and his being has influenced my life.
I will not mediate away my humanity. I used to give away copies of "Peace Is Every Step" to my friends. I never knew if they quite got from it what I did, but I would write on the inside cover -- "This Book Changes Lives"
Pax Christi means Peace of Christ. my brothers and sisters. I can feel Thay now, what a great joy to share in his humanity all of it the fullness of the gift of humanity. Who is the teacher and who is the student? I do not know. Does it matter? I wish I could take his pain away as we Americans delivered it and rebuild his country as he sees it for us all to enjoy. I hear it is very beautiful.
We he and I are loving each other s Christ commanded as neighbors, as inter beings, ,even though we have never met. This is inter-being. There is a reason we all share this planet at this particular time we are here for each other we inter-be,. We are here to love and be loved.
For me to deny our humanity even those emotions which some consider to be unpleasant is to set up barriers to inter-being to loving my neighbor. For how can I love my neighbor, how can I inter-be with him how can I be co-passionate, if I deny his humanity, his human emotions.
As an incest survivor some evil people tried to steal my humanity. They only succeed in corrupting the outer layers of me. These outer layers of pain and betraylk unspeakable hoooror and terror are very difficult to break through to my inner self. But that inner self remains as it al;ways has. They could not corrupt my soul my humanity.
War trauma as Thay has experienced and many others even our own veterans is from the outside in but still can corrupt the self in a fashion similar to the trauma of childhood Sexual abuse.
The trauma of childhood sexual abuse this violent raping of me over and over again by all the adults in my life all of them, the only ones I had to turn to, at such an early age between 4 and 9 on a continuous basis corrupts from the inside out. It left me unwhole, I did not have a chance to develop wholeness. That is what I work on becoming whole from the inside out.. From my perspective the perspective of the inner uncorrupted self with the EGO, the seat of my hopes, dreams and aspirations intact, I can see the importance of emotion and processing them. As Thay called it in one of his books "cooking my potatoes," Cooking my potatoes means processing my emotions the parts of me that were corrupted until they are cooked/processed and I am whole.
Emotions are part of the fabric of our lives and are neither good or bad they just are. Emotions are a part of all of us woven into our inter-being. I must learn to be inner to love myself as I love my neighbor. To love myself as I love Thay.
I am in deep pain right now. recent events have hurt me deeply,. I am learning to break through this pain. It is real and the events the evoked the pain are real, but it is also from those who attempted to corrupt me the real me the true me the inner me the very me of me. This inner being remains intact and will emerge at that time I will be whole again. I wil have cooked my potatoes.
I hope the same for Thay and for Vietnam.
Pax Christi Thay..
John Paul II spoke en cathedra of anonymous Christians. Thich Nhat Hanh is certainly one of these. He may in his humility and love be even greater than John Paul the Great.
The read more about Thay click here http://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/
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