"Waging Peace" #8

Featuring Thich Nhat Hanh, John Williams, and Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles

Welcome to “Waging Peace”

Remember, you’re the co-creator of this dive. Do as much or as little as you’d like, when you’d like, how you’d like, with the materials I provide. Just keep gentle faith with yourself.

---

Set your intention

Take a moment to name the primary intention you have for this month-long deep dive and/or this particular session. Take a quiet moment to center yourself in that intention.

---

Receive the music

Try to refrain from judging the music as “good” or “bad” or forming an “I like it” or “I don’t like it” opinion. For a few minutes, cultivate curiosity and openness. If resistance arises in you, be curious about that too.

---

Read the selection

This selection is sometimes reprinted as a poem, as here. That’s the form in which I first read it. But here I’m presenting the text as originally written—part of a longer speech by Thich Nhat Hanh.

I invite you to read this selection twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to my reading of it, perhaps with your eyes closed.

[UNTITLED]
Excerpt from an address to US Congress, September 10, 2003
Thich Nhat Hanh

My right hand has written all the poems that I have composed. My left hand has not written a single poem. But my right hand does not think, “Left Hand, you are good for nothing.” My right hand does not have a superiority complex. That is why it is very happy. My left hand does not have any complex at all. In my two hands there is the kind of wisdom called the wisdom of nondiscrimination. One day I was hammering a nail and my right hand was not very accurate and instead of pounding on the nail it pounded on my finger. It put the hammer down and took care of the left hand in a very tender way, as if it were taking care of itself. It did not say, “Left Hand, you have to remember that I have taken good care of you and you have to pay me back in the future.” There was no such thinking. And my left hand did not say, “Right Hand, you have done me a lot of harm—give me that hammer, I want justice.” My two hands know that they are members of one body; they are in each other.


(found at this link)

---

Contemplate/Create

Use any of these questions however you wish—e.g., as openings for meditation or prayer, as prompts for journaling or poetry-writing, as sparks for drawing or painting, as catalysts for change-making . . . You may also ignore my questions altogether to go off in other directions!

• Identify two parts of your body of which you’re especially mindful at the moment. Imagine them being in some sort of conflict. Now reflect/write/create in such a way as to bring them into greater harmony. Perhaps even imagine a negotiation between them.

Elsewhere, Thich Nhat Hanh has written:

Suppose you love oranges and consider oranges to be your favorite fruit. Still nothing prevents you from enjoying other kinds of fruits like mango, kiwi, or even durian. It would be a pity if you were committed to eating only one kind of fruit. You are free, and you can enjoy every kind of fruit. . . . So in your true home there is no discrimination, you are free. And when you live with the wisdom of nondiscrimination, you don’t suffer. You have a lot of wisdom and you embrace everyone—every country, every culture, every ethnic group.

• How do you yourself express, or live out, what Thich Nhat Hanh calls “the wisdom of nondiscrimination”? Reflect/write/create about one specific instance when you embodied it and you could tell that it made a difference in someone’s life (even your own!).

---

Want to visit with other Rafters in the Deep Dive?

Leave a comment on this post using the button. (Note: if you haven’t created a Substack profile yet, you’ll be asked to do so before you can comment.)

These materials are for educational purposes only. Not for sale or reproduction.

Join me and a SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST
for a closing Zoom on February 1!

6:00-7:00PM Central (7:00 ET, 5:00 MT, 4:00 PT)

Let’s close “Waging Peace” with a time of voluntary sharing. (It’s fine just to listen!) Come and reflect with other Rafters on this Deep Dive.

Registration is required for this celebration.

(Note: Minimum of five people must have registered for the Refuge by midnight, January 31, in order for this Zoom to take place. Thanks!)

---

Questions? Never hesitate to contact me.

See you tomorrow.