In this article, we share some reflections by Brother Dinh Thanh about a recent pilgrimage in the footsteps of our beloved teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, in Vietnam.
Dear friends,
I have just returned from a pilgrimage in Vietnam, following in the footsteps of Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh).
It was a moving pilgrimage, particularly a few inner events that I will recount here.
As has now become my custom, at the Root Temple of Tu Hieu where Thay ordained as a novice monk, I got up early to meet my spiritual friends and myself. I chose to sit in the open space between Thay’s hut and his “stupa,” where some of his ashes are kept.
One morning, a beautiful song came back to me with great emotion: “This Bitter Earth”, composed by Clyde Otis and performed here magnificently by Dinah Washington and Max Richter. It echoes the challenges, both the pain and joy, of existing on this earth.
I’ll let you listen to and savor this moving song… below, I include the lyrics with some personal annotations.
This bitter earth
Well, what the fruit it bears
The fruits that we are, humans and all species, and the love and compassion we can have for each other.
This bitter earth
And if my life is like the dust
Oooh, that hides the glow of a rose
What good am I?
Heaven only knows
And the choice is given to me:
— To participate in the bitterness of life or to offer some sweetness?
— To indulge in despair and victimization or to develop resilience, healing, compassion, and presence and to offer that to the world?
Lord, this bitter earth
Yes, can be so cold
Yes, there were cruel, long periods and moments in my personal history when I felt that the earth was so cold: including my mother’s womb, my family, my school, my society… and also looking at the history of countries: seeing the exploitation, the wars… parents losing children, children becoming orphans, hate, discrimination, etc…
Today you’re young
Too soon, you’re old
And on top of that is the suffering of impermanence. This game of hide and seek seems like a rather cruel game…
But while a voice within me cries
I’m sure someone will answer my call
And this bitter earth
May not be so bitter after all
Luckily some masters, who have come before us and have found a way out, are there to answer our longing for relief and for freedom from unnecessary suffering. The road seems long, but at least, a path is there; and if practiced, the relief is immediate, at least partly, and progressively.
And this bitter earth, oooh
May not, oh, be so bitter after all
Human life seems to enjoy challenges, and good dramas that make good stories, in which obstacles are overcome. The hero’s journey. So, let’s play the game with a good heart, because it seems like the only choice we have, is to contribute either to the bitterness or to the sweetness of this world.
What good is love
Mmm, that no one shares
And if my life is like the dust
Oooh, that hides the glow of a rose
What good am I?
Heaven only knows
Love is the answer. Feeling ever loved, ever loving, and ever loving of all the different parts of ourselves, and of everyone and everything around us.
This is the invitation, as suggested in the following Gatha by Thay, a short poem that we can recite to ourselves when we wake up in the morning.
Waking up this morning, I smile.
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment,
and to look at beings with eyes of compassion.
Then we went on pilgrimage to Phuong Boi (Fragrant Plam Leaves), a beautiful forest in Dalat, where Thay had intended to co-create his first community.
On this land, I felt this bittersweetness—this coexistence of bliss, sweetness, joy, and the hard obstacles of loss and despair. Thay came here with some depression: the loss of his mother, the hardships with the Buddhist church authorities, and the war. This is really “Bodhicitta Land“, as a fellow pilgrim nicknamed it.
And this bitter earth, oooh
May not, oh, be so bitter after all
I am very grateful for this song and for Thay, who has also inspired me through his insights and profound teachings of interbeing, impermanence, and non-self.
I am happy to be on this earth.
The river reflects everything in herself. Thanks to the river’s flow, the flux of life is possible. And death lies within life, because without death there could be no life. Let us welcome the flow. Let us welcome impermanence and non-self. Thanks to impermanence and non-self, we have the beautiful world praised by Zen poets—the sheen of banana trees, the ramrod and perfumed areca trees reaching to the sun. The earth is filled with dust. Our eyes are filled with dust. There is no need to seek a Pure Land elsewhere. We only need lift our heads and see clearly the moon and the stars. The essential thing is to be aware. If we open our eyes, we will see. I am sure that Heaven has areca, star fruit, lime, and grapefruit trees. I laugh when I think how I once sought paradise as a realm outside of the world of birth and death. It is only in the world of birth and death that the miraculous truth is revealed.
-Thich Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (Journals 1962 -1966)
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