Thich Nhat Hanh Healing in Vietnam The Wonderful World of Gathas

peaceful HEARTSister Lang Nghiem —A Ghost in a HammockWhen I was about to move from Lower Hamlet to Deep Park — LowerHamlet is in Plum Village in France, and Deer Park is in California — I wantedto write a letter to my sisters and to express my gratitude for each of them in aconcrete way, recollecting a positive experience I had with each of them. Thiswould nourish those seeds in myself and also in my sisters. Everyone got areally good paragraph, and when I got to this sister, absolutely nothing came up![laughter] I tried. I picked up my pen and said, Okay, Dear Sister — and then Iwould wait, and nothing came up. But I continued to try, and several days latersuddenly I remembered an experience that I’d had with her.One night I couldn’t sleep, there was a storm raging in me, so I went out andsat in the hammock. In Lower Hamlet there’s a hammock next to the bookshop ina cluster of trees, and you can overlook the lotus pond and see the plum orchard.That night it was a full moon, and I could see the path like sand around the lotuspond, and the plum orchard, and the shadows of the trees. I sat there for a whileand inside the storm was still raging. I was just trying to calm it down.Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me and someone asked, “Who is it?” Ididn’t want to answer, I was focused on me, and I just sat still, swinging in myhammock. So I guess I was moving in and out of light and darkness, between theshadows from the tree and the moonlight. She asked, “Who is it?” several times.And I didn’t answer. Suddenly I felt pebbles at my feet, I was continuously beingpelted with things. I realized what she was thinking and I just started smiling tomyself. In Vietnam and in many cultures, ghosts don’t have feet.I knew she thought I was a ghost or something. At one point I just turnedaround and stared at her as she continued to throws things at me. Then shecame up and she recognized that it was me. “Oh, it’s you.” She sat next to meand asked, “What’s wrong?” I was really closed so I said nothing. So that nightshe just sat there, and she said she was determined to sit there, too, and I waswishing she’d go away! I kept telling her I was fine but finally it was too muchfor me so I got up and said, “Okay, we’ll both go to bed.”I didn’t think much of that moment, but when I was writing the letter toher I was able to acknowledge that her presence that night helped to change thestorm in me. That letter nourished me so much because as soon as I was able toacknowledge some goodness in her, my views completely changed about her.I didn’t look at her the same anymore, and I came to care for her in a way thatI had never been able to care for her before.If you’re having difficulties with someone, sit down and think of somethingreally good that came of that person. It may change your perspective of thesituation, the person, or the organization, and the government, too. If we lookclosely we’ll be able to identify people with wisdom, insight, and compassion,and we can find ways to support them. Even those whom we feel we reallydisagree with, we can look a little bit more and see that they’re not just that,they’re much more. We can look again to pick out these things, and then wecan act from there.Brother Phap Luu — No Fear, No ViewSo much of the suffering that we experience in the world, in America today,is because of fear. It comes from a sense of being a victim, a sense that we arenot in control, a sense that there are outside forces that somehow have powerover us. So the question is, how do we bring the Dharma into this moment, intoour lives, so that we generate non-fear in ourselves and in those around us?If we ask ourselves that question, moment to moment, we’re really askingourselves, how am I generating non-fear for myself, for my family, for my com-18 Summer 2007