The poem “I Have Gone Looking for the World-Honored One”, a masterpiece by Thay of Plum Village, was adapted into a chant and performed at Deer Park Monastery (Escondido, California, January 25, 2004) with the recitation of Thay and the Plum Village Sangha. The work recounts the journey from childhood, listening to the call of the World-Honored One, wandering through ten thousand perilous paths of life, experiencing deep anguish, cold, hunger, and yearning, to finally realize that the World-Honored One is always present in the heart, the distance no longer than a single heartbeat. The images of falling autumn leaves, the moon hanging over the gate, the rain of Dharma Nectar, and storms that dissipate to make way for peace, show that when reflecting oneself in the mirror of the moon, the child sees themselves and sees the World-Honored One, with a smile of no birth and no death. The World-Honored One sits there as solid as Mount Sumeru, as peaceful as the breath, having never been absent; to find the World-Honored One is also to find oneself. With tears of happiness, the child vows to nourish and transmit the substance of freedom and solidity for today and tomorrow.

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