I'll start with a quick recap, I guess.
Wednesday was the first official day for Thich Nhat Hanh (whom I will refer to as Thay from here on out), so we went to pay our respects at Phap Van Temple. All the monks and nuns who came with Thay from France and America are staying there. However, Thay and the delegation quickly up and left in order to purchase gifts for the Buddhist society here, so the lay delegation listened to an older monk talk alternately in English and French about her experiences during the Vietnam war. It was moving and terribly sad. Many of her friends were killed by people on both sides of the conflict, friends who subscribed to Thay's School of Youth for Social Service. In otherwards, Nonviolent Buddhists. She had trouble sticking to the "Man is not my enemy. Cruelty and misunderstanding are my enemies" when so many were killed for no reason. Her friends. But a killer said "I'm sorry, I am forced to kill you," before shooting a few of the monks near the river, and she was able to revolutionize her practice. The people who are killing are threatened by those who work above them! They can be killed if they do not kill. It is the idea of killing that we must continue to fight!
Then there was good food and I saw Thai Nghiem and Trung Nghiem! They're the sisters that I made friends with during my stay in Vermont. I was so happy to see them, I cried. Honest tears of joy. I was not preparing myself for the raw emotional experience of a Buddhist pilgrimage. It's intense. I was so happy! We hugged and cried.
That night, dinner and a Sangha be-in. Essentially, we shared and discussed for two and a half hours! Buddhists sure can talk. It's like the UN here! We had a few small things to decide as a group, and it has to be done by concensus, but MAN! SLOW GOING. I breathe, I am at peace. You really have to use this practice to be in this practice, you know? ;-)
Thursday, we followed Thay to two different Buddhist temples in the city for welcome ceremonies. I'll be honest, it was a little boring. Lots of Vietnamese formalities. But being with Thay and the monks and nuns is really powerful. They carry an energy with them, it's hard to describe. Nourishing, somehow.
And that night returned to Phap Van for a Dharma talk/teaching from Thay. It was pretty basic, I guess, about sitting meditation and being in our breathing and how this is Buddha nature, but there were so many people! Thousands! He's a fucking rock star! And I understand why, but it was really astounding, how many people came to hear him speak. He just sat in lotus on stage in front of thousands of people and talked quietly about the being peace. But something he said really touched me. We practice to be at peace and living joy in the here and now. We can be prefectly at peace every second, every moment. We don't think of being peace for the future or finding a solution later. We are peace now.
Today was a longevity ceremony, to wish Thay many years of teaching. Very beautiful ceremony, though mostly in Vietnamese. He's so funny! He was sitting on stage with 10 old, old Venerables, everyone was very somber and ceremonial, and Thay reaches out to one of the vases and extracts a single tulip. The noise it made over the microphone was like velcro ripping. He smiled, smelled the flower, and passed it to the ancient on his right. People laughed some, especially when the old monk sort of balked and set the flower down in front of him.
Thay
And that brings us up to speed I guess, event-wise.
What else! About Vietnam: hot. Tiring. A little scary (man on a motorbike tried to snatch my bag off my shoulder just a few minutes ago). But I was prepared for all that. I'm a little homesick, but I'm loving the newness and the practice. Also, people here are wonderful. French, American, Polish, Thai. You know, un peu de tout. Speaking lots of french. Eating fruits I can't even name! Some green milky thing with large seeds encased in jello. Beautiful dragonfruits, sweet and white and tender, full of tiny black seeds. Crazy, convoluted pears. Watermelon and oranges galore.
I think we leave for the monastery in Bao Loc tomorrow, and I don't know what internet access will be like there. I may be out of contact for two weeks or so, hopefully not.
I have so many more pictures but not much more time! Love for now, talk to you later?
:-) Thanks for reading, guys. I appreciate it.
Until Next Time, more information on Thich Nhat Hanh's reason for being here.
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