Thich Nhat Hahn

[Lou Gold]

I've been immersed in the memorials for the great zen master, mindfulness teacher and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King.

Here are a few of my favorites among his many youtubes:

The Great Bell Chant (The End Of Suffering)

Please Call Me By My True Names

Chanting Namo Avalokiteshvara

Avalokiteshvara was is the Bodhisattva of great compassion who delivered the famous words ""Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
Here's a further explanation of the practice of the chant:

Avalokiteshvaraya, the Bodhisattva of great compassion, is the most well-known of all the Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist tradition. In Plum Village, her name is invoked as a prayer, continuously repeated for twenty minutes, in order to awaken the energy of compassion in us all and transmit it to all living beings.

When the monastics chant the name Avalokiteshvaraya, for the first time, they go back to themselves to touch the suffering inside of them. And when they chant the name for the second time they become aware of the suffering of the people around them. And when they chant it for the third time, they get in touch with the suffering of the whole world, embracing it tenderly with the energy of compassion.

The Sangha is invited to come back to our breathing, so that our collective energy of mindfulness will bring us together as an organism, going as a river, with no more separation. Let the whole Sangha breathe as one body, chant as one body, listen as one body and transcend the boundaries of a delusive self, liberating from the superiority complex, the inferiority complex, and the equality complex.

[Eugene I.]

Thich himself was a great Bodhisattva

[Lou Gold]

Thich himself was a great Bodhisattva

Indeed ... and he still is.

[Lou Gold]

This body is not me.
I am not limited by this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born,
and I shall never die.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
manifestations from my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,
sacred thresholds on our journey.
Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say good-bye,
say good-bye, to meet again soon.
We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

[Cardenio]

I find myself immensely moved every time I return to this poem; clearly spoken out of the very heart of the world:

Please Call Me by My True Names – Thich Nhat Hanh

Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow —
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his “debt of blood” to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.

All blessings to T.

[Lou Gold]

I find myself immensely moved every time I return to this poem; clearly spoken out of the very heart of the world:

Please Call Me by My True Names – Thich Nhat Hanh
....

One of my favorite poems.