When I reviewed the video of an earlier class I was reminded of a poem by the Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, “Call Me by My True Names.” I had mentioned it at an earlier class and Reba reminded us of it again as we considered our current political reality and what is playing out over our two pandemics: the Covid-19 virus and racism. The verses I always remember were the ones based on a horrific situation in Vietnam that the Zen Master had just heard about:
” I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.”
There other verses are like that and equally insightful and compassionate. CLICK to read the entire poem
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