FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
*Poem written by *
*Thich Nhat Hanh.
*
***The enemy's name is cruelty
The enemy's name is lack of conscience
Its name is hatred, its name is bitterness.
The enemy wears a coat of doctrine
The enemy wears the pretence of freedom
It wears hypocrisy, it wears twisted words.
The enemy is not a stranger It lies inside of each of us.
The enemy's name is false accusation
The enemy's name is ignorance
Its name is ambition, its name is envy.
The enemy's name is covetous eyes
The enemy's name is arrogant head
Its name is a lonely heart, its name is a narrow mind.
The enemy is not a person.
The enemy is not in the stranger It lies inside of each of us."
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He lives in exile in a small community in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide. He has conducted many mindfulness retreats in Europe and North America helping veterans, children, environmentalists, psychotherapists, artists and many thousands of individuals seeking peace in their hearts, and in their world.
"Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive."
Thich Nhat Hanh