Thich Nhat Hanh's Letter to President Bush

I just discovered a Buddhist blog called Windmoor Village Zendo, and one of the recent posts there is the text of a letter Thich Nhat Hanh recently sent to George Bush...

Dear Mr. President 8.8.06

Last night, I saw my brother (who died two weeks ago in the U.S.A.) coming back to me in a dream. He was with all his children. He told me, “let’s go home together.” After a millisecond of hesitation, I told him joyfully, “Ok, let’s go.”

Waking up from that dream at 5 am this morning, I thought of the situation in the Middle East; and for the first time, I was able to cry. I cried for a long time, and I felt much better after about one hour. Then I went to the kitchen and made some tea. While making tea, I realized that what my brother had said is true: our home is large enough for all of us. Let us go home as brothers and sisters.

Mr. President, I think that if you could allow yourself to cry like I did this morning, you will also feel much better. It is our brothers that we kill over there. They are our brothers, God tells us so, and we also know it. They may not see us as brothers because of their anger, their misunderstanding, and their discrimination. But with some awakening, we can see things in a different way, and this will allow us to respond differently to the situation. I trust God in you; I trust Buddha nature in you.

Thank you for reading.

In gratitude and with brotherhood,
Thich Nhat Hanh
Plum Village

The stunning thing is that I just finished listening to a recent sermon by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in which he spoke the same truth.

We are all family, Tutu said. He repeated the word many times, all, all, all all! It really is that simple. No, it's *not* easy. And people hoping for an "ultimate answer" that would be less work or more in line with our lower natures keep trying to find one. Not going to happen. We already have our answer--we just need to get to work on applying it.

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