Thích Nhất Hạnh: Call Me By My True Names

As I continue to struggle and seek to strengthen my heart's capacity for wisdom, compassion, empathy, and love, this beautiful poem came to me once again today. It is by one of my longtime beloved teachers, Thích Nhất Hạnh, who is a world renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. Here Thích Nhất Hạnh reminds us of the connection we have with the web of life in all its suffering and brutality and its beauty, wildness, love and Grace. And we are reminded that, given the circumstances of our birth and the environment in which we grow, we may or may not have a heart "capable of seeing and loving." As I was reminded by my therapist two hours ago, we all have an "inner Trump." And under all our woundedness is the pearl of our true nature, the loving and sacred essence of who we truly are. Many of us — and to one degree or another — have forgotten and disconnected from the beauty of our true nature and, as I once did, project some degree of our self-loathing or shame or fear or disowned grief outward into the world. What I have discovered on my own path of healing and awakening is that empathy is the antidote. And the journey into empathy, compassion, wisdom, kindness and love for many of us is through the truth of the places inside our hearts and minds that we struggle with, consciously or otherwise. Among my ongoing prayers is that more and more of us will engage in the courageous process of tending to what we have neglected and befriending what we have rejected within ourselves. As we do this, it becomes less and less comfortable to condemn anyone. We come to understand and know our true names. And the door of our hearts open more and more expansively with each passing year. May we know that ours is a world which hungers for kindness, and may we grow into the greater kindness and Love that is our essence.  — Molly

~❤~❤~❤~ 

Call Me By My True Names

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
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,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
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 in all walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs 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. 

 — Thích Nhất Hạnh

Please go here for more information:

https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/