Ancient Wisdom, Present Moment Applications

The DNA Spiral of Thich Nhat Hanh's "Interbeing"

Some people remember exactly where they were when they heard JFK died. I will never forget the moment I discovered Thich Nhat Hanh passed away.

It was a Saturday night and not having the energy to cook after a long day of work I ordered takeout. I was waiting for my food to be ready beside a frolicking Lithia Creek tumbling its way under a road overpass, with only streetlamps lighting the water. The moment I scrolled and saw the news on my phone remains frozen in time. Tuning in… some recognition dawning: yes, I know this… yes, this eternal… I download an audio gift from Sounds True and the soul stirring sound of his voice singing … even now my entire body vibrates with energy remembering that moment, hearing the tang of his preciously intimate human voice, the creek rushing by, the light playing on the water, the mourning and jubilation one thing, all of it pulsing, alive, ever changing…

I had not been a student of Thich Nhat Hanh’s, but, his legacy is so intricately woven into the fabric of this world that one need not have been a direct student or even conscious of what he taught to be deeply blessed by his teachings.

There are several of you reading this who have spent decades as practicing Buddhists, and I ask for your sweet tolerance of me coming upon Thich Nhat Hanh’s Being Peace and marveling at its potency, only now, after his death, for the first time. Forgive me… please look kindly on my uninitiated, open-eyed wonder…

It’s just that Thich Nhat Hanh’s ideological underpinning for “engaged Buddhism” is so remarkably at the heart of what I mean when I use the phrase “Agents of Evolution.” Interbeing, at least what I understand and sense of it so far, is profoundly at the root of the evolutionary developments I see that lie before us.

On their website, Plum Village, the monastic community founded by Thich Nhat Hanh in France, explains that “The Order of Interbeing, Tiep Hien in Vietnamese, is a community of monastics and lay people who have committed to living their lives in accord with the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, a distillation of the Bodhisattva (Enlightened Being) teachings of Mahayana Buddhism.”

Tonight I am struck by Mindfulness Training number two, (quoted from Chapter 8 in Being Peace):

Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We shall learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to others' insights and experiences. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

Isn’t this the way the blessings of the ancient wisdom traditions carry on – adhering not to the views of the tradition, but its ethos. Not to the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. Through receiving others with compassionate and deep listening, rather than standing behind a fixed idea, facing off on an ideological battlefield. Being open to being changed by life, and relationship… indeed being intimately aware of how we inter be with all of life.

If each one of us reading this took to heart this one possibility, what a wave of peace could be spread: “We are committed to learning and practicing non-attachment to views and being open to others’ experiences and insights in order to benefit from the collective wisdom.” (From the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings as worded on the Plum Village website.)

Thank you, Thay, for your luminous Heart. May we all receive the spirit of your immense blessings.