Engaged Buddhism

Thich Nhat Hanh (2003)
Creating True Peace - ending conflict in yourself, your family, your community and the world;
Rider; ISBN 1844132250

 Although they took our workers by force, they did not speak harshly to them. At the riverbank, the armed men asked our workers whether they were part of the School of Youth for Social Service. They answered yes. The men asked a second time to make sure and then said to our friends, "We are very sorry, we have to kill you." They then shot all six of them on the riverbank.

They had received orders from their superiors, who considered us their enemies, to kill anyone from our school because we had dared to work in the villages." (p107)

Promise me,
promise me this day, promise me now,
while the sun is overhead exactly at the zenith,
promise me:

Even as they strike you down with a mountain of hatred and violence;
even as they step on you and crush you like a worm,
even as they dismember and disembowel you,
remember, brother, remember:
man is not our enemy.

The only thing worthy of you is compassion -
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face the beast in man..

One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind, untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile will bloom a flower.
And those who love you will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.

Alone again,
I will go with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun and the moon will continue to shine.

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