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My Life
Please promise me today, under the midday sun above our heads, that you will never hate humankind. Even if people heap upon you mountains of hatred and cruelty, even if they kill you, trample upon your life, tear out your liver and heart, or cast you into the depths of humiliation, our enemy is not human beings. In the desperate atmosphere of war, we practice mindfulness, returning to our breath, to the island within, recognizing suffering—the first noble truth, which includes hatred, anger, fear, craving, discrimination—and we trust in impermanence: war, too, must come to an end. Through walking meditation, sitting meditation, and smiling at the sunny morning, we nourish the wholesome seeds within us, maintaining solidity of body and mind when the storms of emotion arise.
Plum Village is like a miracle, the fruit of ancestral merit, welcoming each year practitioners from 30–40 countries, including Germans, who come without weapons to practice deep understanding and compassion. The activities supporting suffering at Plum Village also extend to:
- children in poor countries
- elderly people living alone
- prisoners in Europe and America (sending books, Dharma teachers into prisons)
- psychotherapists, environmental activists, peace advocates, teachers, parents, actors, directors, veterans, police officers
My two hands are the image of non-discriminative wisdom: neither side is arrogant, neither side is inferior, both care for each other when one is wounded. If Jews and Palestinians, Muslims and Hindus… knew themselves as two hands of the same body, they would no longer punish each other. Each of us—journalists, directors, writers, poets, teachers, physicians—can contribute to transforming the consciousness of the community, helping politicians or ordinary people to awaken, to find a new path that is less costly, bringing peace to the enemy and to ourselves.