Friday, November 20, 2015

Letter to President

Please refer to Thay's Letter to President G.W.Bush (8.8.2006).
http://plumvillage.org/letters-from-thay/letter-to-president-g-w-bush-august-8-2006/

Mr. President, I think that if you could allow yourself to cry like I did this morning, you will also feel much better. It is our brothers that we kill over there. They are our brothers, God tells us so, and we also know it. They may not see us as brothers because of their anger, their misunderstanding, and their discrimination. But with some awakening, we can see things in a different way, and this will allow us to respond differently to the situation. I trust God in you; I trust Buddha nature in you.

Please refer to Sister Mai Nghiem's Letter to President Hollande (17th November, 2015).
http://plumvillage.org/news/dear-president-hollande/

May we all together work to build a world where attentive and compassionate listening to the suffering endured by both sides prevails over the unnecessary escalation of violence that no one wishes for, where the desire for deep and genuine understanding triumphs over our prejudices, our fears and our thirst for vengeance or power;
So that together we may, as Gandhi said, not just keep ourselves from making the world blind, but also light a spark of life, of hope and of love in the eyes of its inhabitants.


(My commentary)
Thay's sentence of "Let us go home as brothers and sisters" is very deep. Home means this planet earth.  Brothers and sisters means that we are all the same. We are made of water, air, earth and sunshine. The whole cosmos is in us. So, we are the whole cosmos. When our bodies disintegrate, we return to our home, or the whole cosmos. And when causes and conditions are sufficient, we will manifest again in different forms in the phenomenal world. In other words, French people are made of non-French people elements, including Islamic State people. So, Islamic State people are inside of French people. Namely, French people are Islamic State people. How can we kill ourselves? How can brothers and sisters kill each other? Impossible! We need to stop separations, or discrimination right now. Instead, we need to embrace each other unconditionally. We need to understand the root cause of sufferings each other. For that, we need the deep listening capacity for mutual understanding. Once we understand the root cause of our sufferings, we can generate compassion and transform our anger and hatred to peace. That's the way to be happy!

(Cf.) http://www.amazon.com/Unconditional-Love-Accept-just-way-ebook/dp/B00LA87R7A/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_ssw?&linkCode=wss&tag=practofcompa-20


Thay's calligraphy