"DON'T SHOOT YOUR BROTHER"

"During the Vietnam War, it was so difficult for us to voice our concerns. We did not want the war.

The war put us in a situation where we were asked to kill our brothers and kill with foreign weapons and ideologies.

Communism and anti-communism are imported. They were imported. Also, weapons used by the communists were imported. And also the weapons by the anti-communists were imported. They gave us guns and ideologies and asked us to fight each other and kill each other.

We started the movement called "Don't shoot your brother".

Our voice was silenced by both warring parties.

We tried to speak out.

We tried to tell you - "We don't want this war."

We don't want to kill each other with foreign weapons and foreign ideologies.

And yet we were forced to do so.

So those of us who practice mindfulness, understanding, & compassion, we did not want to accept the war. We wanted to reconcile. And our voice was not allowed.

So we had to burn ourselves alive to get the message across.

Thích Quảng Đức, a friend of mine, one day burned himself. And his picture appeared in the international press. I was in New York. I saw that picture on the New York Times front page. He was a friend of mine. Nhat Chi Mai, one of the first six members of the Order Of Inter-Being, my disciple - she also burned herself calling for reconciliation. [...] She left behind a set of letters calling for the president of North Vietnam and the President of South Vietnam, for everyone to come together and stop the act of killing each other. She doused herself with gasoline and burned herself. I was embarrassed. She left behind a letter for me: "Thai, don't worry. PEACE WILL COME. Don't suffer too much. Don't worry."

She was about to die but she tried to comfort her teacher.

It was very difficult for us to voice our concerns although we were the majority in the country.

We did not want the war."

excerpt from Thich Nath Hanh,

"Ending the cycle of negative habits" (link to his full talk is in comments)

I hesitated to post this picture of Thích Quảng Đức who calmly set himself on fire at a busy Saigon intersection in July 1963.

This act, "an act of love", the photo of which circulated worldwide, played a crucial role in turning global opinion against the South Vietnamese government that, up until then, had been backed by the US in the war against the communist North.

Yet on this 50th anniversary of the end Vietnam War, as the US is sinking into another dark & dangerous period, it encapsulates the best - the most diamond-like part of our human nature - our true core & essence - the only thing that is of true substance when all else is stripped -or burnt- away.

As I am traveling through Vietnam, acutely aware of the blood-soaked ground that I walk, on this day, marking the end of the war,

I bow to Thích Quảng Đức, to Nhat Chi Mai, and to every human being who has ever given ALL of themselves for #peace out of pure love without ever hurting anyone else.

#vietnam #vietnamwar