We promise one another / poems from an Asian war /
Don Luce introduced...
T h í c h N h ấ t H ạ n h
p r a y e r s f o r p e a c e
Remember , brother / remember / Man is not our enemy .
( THÍCH NHẤT HẠNH )
Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Buddhist monk who has made several trips
to the United States and Europe to help Westerneres better understand
Buddhism and the cultural and historical background to the present conflict
in his country . He is also a scholar and poet . Thích Nhất Hạnh is one
of the spritual leaders of what some people call the Third Force in Việtnam ,
a loose coliation of religious leaders , students , and Vietnamese from all
walks of life , striving to create a Việtnam free of both Communist and
American domination .
( DON LUCE ' s note )
N I G H T O F P R A Y E R
In that Moment
wind was still
birds silent
seven times Earth shook
as Immortality traversed
the stream of Birth-and-Death
The Hand on the wheel
in the mudra of Peace
bloomed like a flower in the night .
That Moment
the flower of Immortality opened
in the garden of Birth-and-Death
the Enlightened smile :
word and symbol
He came
to learn Man' s language .
That night in Tusita Heaven
doves looked down
saw Earth , my homeland, brighter than a star .
While galaxies inclined , worshipping
till East turned rose
and the Lumbini gardens became a soft cradle
welcoming Buddha , newly born .
To nighy , tonight
on Earth , my homeland ,
men look up
their tear-blind eyes turn toward Tusita Heaven .
The screams , the cries of pain are eveywhere ,
As Mara ' s hand bears down :
Violence , Hate .
In darkness Earth , my homeland thirsts ,
yearns for the miraculous event
when Eternity parts its curtains
shadows dissolve
and the Long Hoa * comes to my land
when the Sound of being echoes again
in the singing of a child .
Tonight , the moon , the stars , bear witness :
let my homeland , let Earth pray .
for Việtnam
Her deaths and fires
grief and blood --
that Việtnam will rise and from her sufferings
become that new soft cradle
for the Buddha-to-Come .
Let Earth , my country , pray
Once more the flower blooms .
Tonight we hope
our agony bears fruit
that Birth-and-Death will cross
the stream of being
and Love' s spring bathe ten thousand hearts ,
that Man will learn the language of the Inexpressible
the prattle of a child
will teach the law .
------
* The Buddhist Messiah . \
( Don Luce 's note ).
R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S
Promise me this day ,
promise me now
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith ,
promise me .
Even as they strike you down
with a mountain of hate and violence ,
even as they
step on your life and crush it
like a worm ,
even as they dismember , disembowel you ,
remember , brother ,
man is not our enenmy .
Just your pity ,
just your hate
are invincible , limitless , unconditional .
Hatred will never let your face
the beast in man .
And one day
when you face this beast alone ,
your courage intact , your eyes kind ,
untroubled
( even as no one sees them ) ,
out of your smile
will bloom a flower
and those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousan worlds of birth and dying .
Alone again
I ' ll go on with head bent
but knowing the immortality of love .
And on the long , rough road
both sun and moon will shine ,
lightening my steps .
[]
THÍCH NHẤT HẠNH .
( from WE PROMISE ONE ANOTHER, poems from an Asian war -
selected, translated by DON LUCE , JOHN C. SCHAFER
and JACQUELYN CHAGNON - Published by The Indochina
Education Mobile Project , Washington, D.C, 197 - p 114 - 119 ) .
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