"no Mud ~ No Lotus" ~ Venerable Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

Please find peace in your hearts with the teachings of
our Venerable Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh

“We are life without limit.

We are not caught in birth, we are not caught in death,
we are not caught in being, and we are not caught in non-being.
This is the truth of reality.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

“Watering the seeds of happiness is a very important practice
for the sick or dying.

All of us have seeds of happiness inside us, and in difficult moments
when we are sick or when we are dying, there should be a friend sitting
with us to help us touch the seeds of happiness within.

Otherwise seeds of fear, of regret or of despair can easily overwhelm us.”

Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

“It is only because of our misunderstanding that we think the person
we love no longer exists after they ‘pass away.’

This is because we are attached to one of the forms,
one of the many manifestations of that person.

When that form is gone, we suffer and feel sad.

The person we love is still there.

He is around us, within us and smiling at us.

In our delusion we cannot recognize him, and we say:
‘He no longer is.’

We ask over and over, ‘Where are you?
Why did you leave me all alone?’

Our pain is great because of our misunderstanding.

But the cloud is not lost.

Our beloved is not lost.

The cloud is manifesting in a different form.

Our beloved is manifesting in a different form.

If we can understand this, then we will suffer much less.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

“I am a continuation like the rain is the continuation of the cloud.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

“We all exist as part of a wonderful stream of life.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

One of the world’s most renowned and influential Zen Buddhist Master
Thich Nhat
Hanh dead at the age of 95.

Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist,
and founder of the Plum Village Tradition, historically recognized
as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism.

Who also helped pioneer the concept of mindfulness in the West
and socially engaged Buddhism in the East.

He passed away On January-22 2022, Born as Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926
and ordained at age 16, Nhat Hanh distilled Buddhist teachings
on compassion and suffering into easily grasped guidance
over a lifetime dedicated to working for peace.

In 1961 he went to the United States to study, teaching comparative religion
for a time at Princeton and Columbia universities.

For most of the remainder of his life, he lived in exile at Plum Village,
a retreat center he founded in southern France.

There and in talks and retreats around the world,
he introduced Zen Buddhism, at its essence,
as peace through compassionate listening.

Still and steadfast in his brown robes, he exuded an air of watchful,
amused calm, sometimes sharing a stage with the somewhat livelier
Tibetan Buddhist leader Dalai Lama.

"The peace we seek cannot be our personal possession.

We need to find an inner peace which makes it possible for us
to become one with those who suffer, and to do something
to help our brothers and sisters, which is to say, ourselves,"
Nhat Hanh wrote in one of his dozens of books, "The Sun My Heart."

Surviving a stroke in 2014 that left him unable to speak,
he returned to Vietnam in October 2018,
spending his final years
at the Tu Hieu Pagoda,
the monastery where he was ordained nearly 80 years earlier.

Nhat Hanh plunged into anti-war activism after his return
to his homeland in 1964 as the Vietnam War was escalating.

There, he founded the Order of Inter-being,
which espouses "engaged Buddhism" dedicated to nonviolence,
mindfulness and social service.

In 1966, he met the U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
in what was a remarkable encounter for both.

Nhat Hanh told King he was a "Bodhisattva,"
or enlightened being, for his efforts to promote social justice.

The monk's efforts to promote reconciliation between the U.S.-backed South
and communist North Vietnam so impressed King that a year later
he nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his exchanges with King, Nhat Hanh explained one
of the rare controversies in his long life of advocating for peace
— over the immolations of some Vietnamese monks
and nuns to protest the war.

"I said this was not suicide, because in a difficult situation
like Vietnam, to make your voice heard is difficult.

So sometimes we have to burn ourselves alive in order
for our voice to be heard so that is an act of compassion
that you do that, the act of love and not of despair,"
he said in an interview with U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

"Jesus Christ died in the same spirit."

Sulak Sivaraksa, a Thai academic who embraced Nhat Hanh's idea
of socially engaged Buddhism, said the Zen master
had "suffered more than most monks and had been involved more
for social justice."

"In Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s, he was very exposed to young people,
and his society was in turmoil, in crisis.

He was really in a difficult position, between the devil and the deep blue sea
— the Communists on the one hand, the CIA on the other hand.

In such a situation, he has been very honest
— as an activist, as a contemplative monk, as a poet,
and as a clear writer," Sivaraksa was quoted as saying.

According to Nhat Hanh, "Buddhism means to be awake
— mindful of what is happening in one's body, feelings,
mind and in the world.

If you are awake, you cannot do otherwise than act compassionately
to help relieve suffering you see around you.

So Buddhism must be engaged in the world.

If it is not engaged, it is not Buddhism."

Both North and South Vietnam barred Nhat Hanh
from returning home after he went abroad in 1966
to campaign against the war, leaving him, he said,
"like a bee without a beehive."

He was only allowed back into the country in 2005,
when the communist-ruled government welcomed him back
in the first of several visits.

Nhat Hanh remained based in southern France.

The dramatic homecoming seemed to signal
an easing of controls on religion.

Nhat Hanh's followers were invited by the abbot of Bat Nha
to settle at his mountain monastery, where they remained
for several years until relations with the authorities began to sour
over Nhat Hanh's calls for an end to government control over religion.

By late 2009 to early 2010, Nhat Hanh's followers
were evicted from the monastery and from another temple
where they had taken refuge.

Over nearly eight decades,
Nhat Hanh's teachings were refined into concepts accessible to all.

To weather the storms of life and realize happiness,
he counseled always a mindful "return to the breath,"
even while doing routine chores like sweeping and washing dishes.

"I try to live every moment like that, relaxed, dwelling peacefully
in the present moment and respond to events with compassion,"
he told Winfrey.

Nhat Hanh moved to Thailand in late 2016
and then returned to Vietnam in late 2018,
where he was receiving traditional medicine treatments
for the after-effects of his stroke and enjoyed "strolls"
around the temple grounds in his wheelchair,
according to the Buddhist online newsletter LionsRoar.com.

It was a quiet, simple end to an extraordinary life,
one entirely in keeping with his love for taking joy
from the humblest aspects of life.

"No mud, no lotus," says one of his many brief sayings.

Om Mani Padma Hung Hri

 

Death and dying and oneness
Thich Nhat Hanh: Oct 11, 1926 - Jan 22, 2022
From a human level, poetry like this may seem illogical or meaningless.
But from a quantum level, this man is conveying truth,
which the logical linear mind can't comprehend.
These are words from an ascended master perspective.

Oneness by Thich Nhat Hanh

The moment I die,
I will try to come back to you
as quickly as possible.
I promise it will not take long.
Isn’t it true
I am already with you,
as I die each moment?
I come back to you
in every moment.
Just look,
feel my presence.
If you want to cry,
please cry.
And know
that I will cry with you.
The tears you shed
will heal us both.
Your tears are mine.
The earth I tread this morning
transcends history.
Spring and Winter are both present in the moment.
The young leaf and the dead leaf are really one.
My feet touch deathlessness,
and my feet are yours.
Walk with me now.
Let us enter the dimension of oneness
and see the cherry tree blossom in Winter.
Why should we talk about death?
I don’t need to die
to be back with you.
Published in Call Me by My True Names by Thich Nhat Hanh (1993)
Original post: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=483647433130157&set=a.383368449824723