[vn-families] The Compassionate Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh

[binhp at mylinuxisp.com]

Source: http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1201
Home / Winter 2006 / Winter 2006

The Compassionate Heart
by Thich Nhat Hanh

When you understand the difficulties, the suffering, the despair
of the other person, you don’t hate him or her anymore.

......
A world-renowned spiritual thinker and author, Thich Nhat Hanh
forsook monastic isolation in the 1960s during the war in his
native Vietnam to care for the war victims and to work for
reconciliation among the warring parties, a process he called
"engaged Buddhism." He led the Buddhist delegation to the 1969
Paris Peace Talks, and Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated him
for the Nobel Peace Prize. He later settled in France, where
he founded Plum Village, a Buddhist community dedicated to
peace, practice, and service, which is now bringing Israelis
and Palestinians together.
......

This article is adapted from his March 2, 2006 interview
with Krista Tippet for the weekly radio program Speaking
of Faith, produced by American Public Media, on the web at
www.speakingoffaith.org.

Violence cannot end violence. Only understanding, compassion,
and communication can neutralize violence.

We live in a time when we have a very sophisticated means for
communication, but communication has become very difficult
among individuals and groups. A father cannot talk to a son,
a mother cannot talk to a daughter, and maybe a husband cannot
talk to a wife. Israelis cannot talk to Palestinians. Hindus
cannot talk to Muslims. That is why we have war. That is why we
have violence. If people cannot communicate among themselves,
if they cannot communicate with members of their family, if they
cannot communicate with people in their own country, they have
no understanding that will serve as a basis for right action,
and they will make a lot of mistakes. That is why restoring
communication is the basic work for peace, and our political
and our spiritual leaders have to focus all their energy on
this matter.

The terrorists are victims of their wrong perceptions. They
have wrong perceptions of themselves, and wrong perceptions
of us. These wrong perceptions are at the foundation of their
anger, fear, violence, and hate. The practice of loving speech,
compassionate listening, and peaceful communication might
help them remove their wrong perceptions of us and our wrong
perceptions of them. This is the basic practice to remove
terrorism and war. It cannot be done with bombs and guns. I
hope that our political leaders understand this and take action
right away to help us. We as citizens have to voice our concern
very strongly. We should support our political leaders because
we have elected them, but we should not leave everything to
them. We should live out daily in such a way that we have
the time and energy in order to bring our light, our support,
to our political leaders. We should not hate our leaders. We
should not be angry at our leaders. We should only support them
and help them to see right in order to act right.

We have to remain human in order to be able to understand and
to be compassionate. You have the right to be angry, but you
don't have the right not to practice in order to transform your
anger. You have the right to make mistakes, but you don't have
the right to continue making mistakes. You have to learn from
the mistakes.

When you feel anger, practice mindful breathing in order
to generate the energy of mindfulness. Breathe in and out,
mindfully, fully present. When you are mindful, you can
recognize, embrace, and handle the pain, the sorrow, in you
and around you. And if you continue with concentration and
insight, you'll be able to transform the suffering inside
and help transform the suffering outside. Embracing your anger
tenderly can bring you relief and stop you from doing and saying
things that can be destructive. Through the practice of mindful
breathing, you can look deeply into the nature of the anger and
know where it has come from. And that is a miracle because you
understand the nature of the suffering, you are not trying to
run away from suffering anymore, and you know how to make use
of suffering in order to build peace and happiness.

It's like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers
on marble. You have to grow them in mud. Without mud, you cannot
have a lotus flower. Without suffering, you have no ways in
order to learn how to be understanding and compassionate.

Compassion is possible only when you have
understanding. Understanding brings compassion. Understanding
is compassion itself. When you understand the difficulties, the
suffering, the despair of the other person, you don't hate him,
you don't hate her anymore. This practice helps us realize that
not only Vietnamese civilians and military were victims of the
war. American men and women who came to Vietnam to kill and to
be killed were also victims of the war.

When you practice looking at people with the eyes of compassion,
that kind of practice will become your habit. You are capable of
looking at people in such a way that you can see the suffering,
the difficulties. And if you can see, then compassion will
naturally flow from your heart. It's for your sake, and for
their sake also. When you have compassion in your heart, you
suffer much less, and can do something to help others to suffer
less. So to practice in such a way that brings compassion into
your heart is very important. A person without compassion cannot
be a happy person.

I wrote this poem after I heard the news that the [Vietnamese]
city of Ben Tre was bombed and an American army officer declared
that he had to destroy the town in order to save the town. It
was so very shocking for us. In fact, there were a number of
guerillas who came to the town. We used anti-aircraft gun to
shoot, and, because of that, they bombarded the town and killed
so many civilians.


I hold my face between my hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face between my hands to keep my loneliness warm,
two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands
to prevent my soul from leaving me in anger.