By Thich Nhat Hanh

Colors of Compassion Retreat

Ocean of Peace Hall, Deer Park Monastery

March 26, 2004

Let us enjoy breathing with the sound of the bell. 
Breathing in, I am aware that I am surrounded by the mountains.
Breathing out, I smile to the mountains.
Breathing in, I know that I am sitting with my very colorful Sangha.
Breathing out, I smile to my Sangha.
I have arrived, therefore I am not in a hurry.

Dear Sangha, yesterday I spoke about home, true home. I told you that I have a home nobody can take away from me, no matter where I go. One time when I was in Washington, D.C., the State Department informed me that my passport was no longer valid. They did that so I could not speak publicly on behalf of the victims of the war. People in Washington, D.C. urged me to go into hiding, because I risked deportation and jail. I did not go into hiding. I was forced to seek political asylum in France, and I obtained a travel document called an apatride; the English word for a person with this document is expatriate. With this document, you can ask for a visa to go to European countries who have signed the Geneva Convention. But for countries like Canada and the United States of America where you must have a visa, it is very difficult to ask for a visa when you do not have a country. You are without fatherland, motherland. 

But because I did not have a country of my own, I had the opportunity to find my true home. This is very important. It is because I did not belong to any particular country that I made an effort to break through, and I got my true home.

My dear friends, if you have the feeling you do not belong to any country, to any geographical spot, to any cultural heritage, to any particular ethnic group—for example, when you go to Japan you don’t feel that Japan accepts you, when you go back to America you don’t feel that America is your home, when you go to Africa you don’t think that you are an African, when you go back to the United States of America you don’t feel that you are accepted—when you feel you have nothing to belong to, you have no identity, that is when you have a chance to break through to your true home. That was my case. 

My true home is not limited to any spot, any place—geographically speaking, ethnically speaking, culturally speaking—although there may be some cultural preference, some ethnic preference, some geographical preference. Sometimes you like snow and very cold weather. Sometimes you like to be in a place where there is a lot of sunshine. You may have a preference, but you do not discriminate. All belongs to you.

There is absolutely no discrimination in your true home. At times you may prefer something, but you do not discriminate against anything in terms of geography, ethnicity, or culture, because everything may be beautiful, every place may be beautiful. And you do not just have one portion of it, you have the totality of it. You are free to enjoy everything. 

Suppose you love oranges and consider oranges to be your favorite fruit. Still nothing prevents you from enjoying other kinds of fruits like mango, kiwi, or even durian. [Laughter] It would be a pity if you were committed to eating only one kind of fruit. You are free, and you can enjoy every kind of fruit. And it would be a pity if you were committed only to one spiritual heritage, like only Christianity or Buddhism. Because there are beautiful things to enjoy in each spiritual heritage.

Your orange may taste wonderful, but mango tastes wonderful also. It would be a pity to discriminate against the mango and the kiwi and the durian. So in your true home there is no discrimination, you are free. And when you live with the wisdom of nondiscrimination, you don’t suffer. You have a lot of wisdom and you embrace everyone—every country, every culture, every ethnic group. That is my case. I don’t discriminate against anything. I love oranges, but I also love mangos and kiwis. Durian [Laughter]—although I don’t eat it, I don’t discriminate against it, and my disciples eat it for me. 

This is my right hand, this is my left hand. My right hand has written all my poems except one. I always write my poems with a pen, except one time when I did not have a pen and there was a poem in me that wanted to come out. There was a typewriter so I rolled an old envelope into it, and I typed my poem. That was the only time my left hand participated in poetry writing, yet my right hand never has a superiority complex. My right hand does not think or say things like, “Left Hand, do you know that I have written all the poems except one? [Laughter] Do you know that I can do calligraphy? I can invite the bell to sound. And you, Left Hand, do not seem to be good for anything.” My right hand never has that kind of thinking, that kind of attitude. That is why my right hand never suffers because of jealousy; it doesn’t have a superiority complex. When you feel that you are more powerful, more talented, more important than others, then you suffer from a superiority complex. 

And my left hand doesn’t have an inferiority complex, though she has not written many poems or done any calligraphy. It’s wonderful, she does not suffer at all. There is no comparing, there is no low self-esteem. That is why she is perfectly happy, my left hand.

One day I was trying to hang a picture on the wall. My left hand was holding a nail, my right hand a hammer. That day, I don’t know why, instead of pounding on the nail I pounded on my finger. And when I hit the finger of my left hand, the left hand suffered, and the right hand put down the hammer right away and took care of the left hand in the most tender way, like it was taking care of itself. There was no duality. The right hand does things for my left hand as it does for itself. There is no discrimination, no thinking: “I am I, and you are you.” My two hands practice perfectly the teaching of the Buddha—no self, no separate self.

My right hand considers the suffering of my left hand as his own suffering. That is why he did everything to take care of the left hand. My left hand did not have any anger toward my right hand. It did not say, “You, Right Hand, you have done me an injustice. Give me that hammer, I want justice!” [Laughter] There’s no such thinking. There is a kind of wisdom inherent in my right hand and in my left hand, called by the Buddha the wisdom of nondiscrimination. If you have it, you don’t have to suffer at all.

The Wisdom of Nondiscrimination

The wisdom of nondiscrimination is written in Chinese like this. [Thay writes on the board]. In Sanskrit, nirvikalpajnana. Vikalpa, discrimination . . . nirvikalpa, nondiscrimination . . . jnana, wisdom: the wisdom of nondiscrimination. The wisdom of nondiscrimination is innate in us. But if we allow wrong perceptions and habit energies to cover it up, it cannot manifest. The practice of meditation helps us to recognize the seed of nondiscrimination in us, and if we cultivate it, water it every day, it will manifest fully and liberate us. The other person also has the wisdom of nondiscrimination. But because he or she has lived in a culture, in an environment where the thinking and action are so categorized by individualism, selfishness and ignorance, the wisdom on nondiscrimination cannot manifest. 

One year I went to Italy for a retreat, and I noticed they planted olive trees in groups of three or four. I was surprised, and asked, “Why do this?” They said, “No, we didn’t.” But if you look, you see groups of three or four olive trees together. They explained it’s not three olive trees, it’s just one. One year it was so cold that all the olive trees died, but deep down the roots did not die. So after the hard winter, spring came and young sprouts were born. And then instead of having one trunk, they had three or four trunks. Looking superficially you think that there are three or four olive trees but in fact they are one. If you are brothers of the same parents, you are like that. You have the same roots, father and mother. These three or four olive trees, they have the same block of roots. They look like three different trees, but they are just one. It would be strange if one of the trees discriminated against another one, and they fought and killed each other: that is sheer ignorance. If they look deeply and touch their roots, they know they are brother and sister, they are one.

If the Israelis touch their wisdom of nondiscrimination, they will find out the Palestinians are their brothers. They are like the right hand and the left hand. It would be silly to consider each other as enemies and kill each other for the sake of survival. It would be a pity if Hindus and Muslims fight and kill each other. It would be a pity if Catholics and Protestants fight and kill each other, because they are of the same roots. They do it because they have not been able to touch their ground of being, allowing the wisdom of nondiscrimination to manifest, to show them the way and the truth. When you go to your true home, when you are able to touch your true home, you see everything includes everything else—you touch the nature of interbeing of everything.

[Thay picks up a white carnation]. If you look deeply into this flower you see a cloud, because you know that if there is no cloud there will be no rain, and this flower cannot manifest itself. So looking into the flower you see an element you don’t call flower. But if you remove the cloud from the flower, the flower cannot be there. And if you look deeply you see the sunshine. Without the sunshine, nothing can grow. I can touch the sunshine by touching the petal of the flower. If you remove the sunshine, the flower will disappear.

When you look into the flower you see the earth, you see the minerals. You cannot remove the elements of soil from the flower—it will collapse, it will vanish. That is why you can say a flower is made only of non-flower elements. Cloud is a non-flower element essential to the flower. Sunshine is a non-flower element. The soil, the compost are non-flower elements. Without non-flower elements a flower cannot manifest herself as a wonderful thing. A flower cannot be by herself alone. A flower can only inter-be with the sunshine, with the cloud, with the soil, with the farmer, and with everything. So, to be means to inter-be. You cannot be by yourself alone. And a flower is made exclusively of non-flower elements. If you remove all non-flower elements, there is no flower to be seen and touched. So the flower has no separate existence. You cannot imagine that there is a flower without sunshine, without cloud, without soil. 

Such a thing does not exist: the Buddha called it the self. The flower is full of everything in the cosmos, except one thing—the flower does not have a separate self, a separate existence. This is the insight of the Buddha. The flower is full of everything, but empty of a self, of a separate existence. This is important. With meditation, with mindfulness and concentration, you can look deeply into the flower and discover the nature of emptiness. Empty of what? Empty of a separate existence. But at the same time the flower is totally full of the cosmos. So, the real meaning of to be is to inter-be. You cannot be, by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with everyone else, everything else. That is the case of the flower, that is the case of the table, that is the case of the house, the case of the river.

Suppose we speak of America as a flower. What is America made up of? Only non-American elements. Culturally speaking, ethnically speaking, and geographically speaking, it’s the same. America has no self, no separate self. And America cannot be by herself alone. America has to inter-be with non-American elements. This is the teaching of the Buddha, this is the insight you can touch with the practice of looking deeply.

America is made only of non-American elements. And if you have that wisdom you will do everything to protect non-American elements. If you destroy non-American elements, you destroy America, right? And in fact, now America is doing a lot of harm to non-American elements. America thinks she has a self, a separate self. That is why you have to bring the wisdom back to America, so America realizes she is made only of non-American elements. If America is made only of non-American elements, then the American citizen is made up of non-American elements. There is no such a thing as an American identity. Looking deeply into an American you see only non-American elements. There’s no such a thing called an American self.

Scientifically speaking, the idea of self, the idea of entity, is an illusion. If you touch the truth of non-self you are free. But if you allow that illusion to occupy you, you will continue to suffer a lot. 

What is Buddhism made up of? It’s very clear Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements. That is why it is silly to die for Buddhism, to kill for Buddhism. Therefore Buddhism doesn’t accept any crusade, any holy war, because in Buddhism there should be the wisdom of nondiscrimination, the wisdom of no-self. That is why if you consider yourself to be a Buddhist, you don’t fight for Buddhism in such a way you destroy non-Buddhist elements. A holy war in Buddhism is unthinkable, unacceptable. If you wage war against non-Buddhist elements, you wage war against Buddhism, because Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements. That is why the spirit of tolerance, of all-embracing in Buddhism, is so clear.

As a Buddhist, you are not caught in the idea Buddhism is a self. As a true Buddhist, you embrace all non-Buddhist elements. You don’t discriminate against Christianity, Judaism, Islam. Because looking deeply you see beautiful elements in every tradition. When I look into the Christian Gospel deeply with the eyes of a practitioner, I see the teaching of interbeing in it, I see the teaching of non-self in it, I see the teaching of nondiscrimination in it that have not been explored and developed by Christian theologians. If I were born a Christian, I would do that! 

You call me a Vietnamese, and you are very sure I am a Vietnamese. You consider Vietnamese to be an identity. In my case, I don’t have a Vietnamese passport, I don’t have an identity card. Legally speaking, I am not a Vietnamese. 

Culturally speaking, I have elements of French culture in me, of Chinese culture in me, of Indian culture in me, even of American Indian culture in me. There is no such a thing as Vietnamese culture. And when you look into my writing, my person, my Dharma talks, you can discover several sources of cultural streams. Ethnically speaking, there is no such race as the Vietnamese race. Looking into me you can see Melanesian elements, Indonesian elements, Mongolian elements, Negritos elements. The Vietnamese race is made only of non-Vietnamese elements. If you know that, you are free. 

The cosmos has come together to help you to manifest. And in you the whole cosmos can be found. When I hold a flower and invite you to look deeply into the flower, you can see the sunshine, the cloud, the earth, the minerals. But if you continue to look you will find out everything in the cosmos is present in the flower, including sky, space, and consciousness. Yes, consciousness is in the flower—collective consciousness and individual consciousness, because the flower is, first of all, an object of your perception. Perception is consciousness. To perceive means to perceive something. Perception includes the perceiver and the perceived, and what you hold in your hand is not a separate entity. It is part of your perception. Therefore, your consciousness is in the flower, and the flower is in your consciousness. That is the teaching of the Buddha concerning mind.

The wisdom of interbeing helps you to touch the wisdom of nondiscrimination in you and set you free. There is no more discrimination. There is no more hatred. You don’t think you want to belong to just one geographical area and cultural identity. Looking into yourself you see a multitude of ethnic and cultural sources, and you can see the presence of the whole cosmos within yourself. You might manifest as a lotus flower. You might manifest as a magnolia flower. You might manifest as an orange flower. Every kind of flower is beautiful, whether the flower is red, yellow, white, or black. 

Scientifically, you know a color has no self. A color is made only of other colors. Looking deeply into one color you see all the other colors in it. The color white is made of non-white elements, and that can be proved scientifically. The color brown is made of non-brown elements. The color black is made of non-black elements. We, that is the fact. You are in me and I am in you. It’s silly to discriminate against each other. It is ignorant to discriminate, to think you are superior to me, I am superior to you.

In Europe and in America there are many people who have mental illness. Psychotherapists used to tell them it was because they had low self-esteem, and they tried everything to help them feel they were superior. In this winter retreat, the monastics in Deer Park studied the Rule of the Benedictine monks together with the Buddhist Pratimoksha—comparative studies of the two traditions. They found out in the Benedictine tradition they try to combat the superiority complex, arrogance, with the inferiority complex, “I am nothing, I am not worth a worm.” Because the feeling you are superior can bring about a lot of suffering. So to heal it, you use the inferiority complex. But the inferiority complex is also a complex. You are using a poison to neutralize another poison. 

In Buddhism, all complexes are born from the notion of self. There are three complexes, not two. If you think you are superior to others, you are sick. The ground of your sickness is your illusion of a self that is better than others. Many of us have been struggling to prove we are better, we are more powerful than others, we are more clever than others. We are trying to seek happiness by proving we are superior. We behave like a hammer trying to drive the nail to prove everyone is the nail except me, the hammer. And all of our life we try to demonstrate one thing, “I am superior to you, our nation is superior to yours, our race is superior to yours.” You want to prove militarily speaking you are the number one power, you can defeat any nation, and that gives you some satisfaction: “Oh, I am superior to them. My nation is the mightiest nation.” 

When the other side suffers, they want to respond in the same way. They want to say, “We are not nothing, we are something. If you can hit us that way we can hit you back another way. If you can bomb us, we can bring a bomb and blow ourselves up in the bus. We can make you sleepless. We can make your nation live in fear day and night.” So they try to retaliate, to prove they are something, they are not nothing. Both sides are trying to do something to punish and to prove they are superior. That is happening with many groups, whether Palestinians, Israelis, Hindus, or Muslims, anti-terrorists or terrorists. We want to prove we aren’t nothing. We are worth something, and you cannot look down on us. All that kind of striving is based on the illusion of self. 

In fact, we inter-are. If you suffer, we suffer also. If you are in safety, we will be in safety also. Safety and peace are not individual matters. If the other person is not safe, you cannot be safe. If the other person is not happy, there is no way you can be happy. If the father is unhappy, the son has no chance to be happy. If the wife is not happy, it’s very difficult for the husband to be happy. That is why happiness is not an individual matter. You have to see the nature of interbeing. When you make the other person happy, you have a chance to be happy also. And that is why the insight of interbeing is the ground for peace and happiness. You have to touch the ground of interbeing. When you help others to touch the ground of interbeing, then discrimination will vanish.

So the superiority complex brings a lot of suffering to you and to them, because when they suffer from inferiority complex, they struggle and make you suffer. According to the Buddha, superiority complex or high self-esteem is a sickness, because it is based on the illusion of self. And low self-esteem is another sickness born from the illusion of a separate self. The right hand and the left hand have no separate self. The three olive trees, they don’t have a separate existence. The two brothers are not separate. 

The third complex is the equality complex. If you consider yourself equal to him or to her, that is also a sickness, because you have to have a self to compare yourself to others. Then there can be the idea of competition: “I am as good as you are, I will prove it.” That also will cause a lot of suffering. So, psychotherapy in Buddhism is based on the wisdom of no-self, of interbeing. When you remove the notion of self you are free from three kinds of complexes, and there will be peace, reconciliation, brotherhood and sisterhood.

Buddha was not a God, he was a human being like us. He suffered, he practiced, and he was able to transform himself. Then he was able to transmit the wisdom of interbeing, of nondiscrimination to us. With that wisdom we can liberate ourselves, and we help liberate the world with our practice. We live without any kind of complex, whether superiority, inferiority, or equality, because there’s no self. To be a lotus flower is wonderful. To be a magnolia flower is equally wonderful. In the lotus there is a magnolia; in the magnolia there is a lotus.

The Buddha told us humans are made of non-human elements, namely animals, vegetables, and minerals. That is why you have to remove the notion of human being. If the human being is aware he is made only of non-human elements, such as animal, vegetable and mineral, he will know how to protect the life of animals, minerals and vegetables, and he will not exploit them, pollute them, and destroy them. Because protecting the realm of animals, vegetables and minerals is to protect the realm of humans. That is the teaching of the Diamond Sutra. The Diamond Sutra is the most ancient text on deep ecology. Looking into humans you have to see non-human elements. The teaching is so clear, and simple enough for us to understand, to touch, and to practice.

You might like to ask, “Dear Thay, in your true home, is there any suffering? You enjoy your true home, but does suffering exist there?” The Buddha spoke about the Four Noble Truths, and the First Noble Truth is ill-being, dukka. He encourages us to recognize ill-being, and to take a deep look into the nature of it. He advises us not to try to run away. Ill-being is suffering. But why did the Buddha call suffering a noble truth? What is so noble about suffering? Thanks to suffering, thanks to the understanding of the nature of suffering, you have a chance to cultivate your understanding and your compassion. Without suffering there is no way you could learn to be understanding and compassionate—that is why suffering is noble. You should not allow suffering to overwhelm you, but if you know how to look deeply into the nature of suffering and learn from it, then you have the wisdom of understanding and the wisdom of compassion. 

Ill-being can be described as violence, discrimination, hatred, jealousy, anger, craving, and especially ignorance. Because of ignorance we do a lot of things that make us suffer and make others suffer. In the Gospel it says, “Forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” This means they are ignorant. Ignorance is the nature of ill-being, the root of ill-being.

The Buddha spoke about the Second Noble Truth, the making of ill-being,  the cause of ill-being. The path leading to ill-being is the Second Noble Truth. Ill-being has its roots. When a practitioner looks deeply into the nature of ill-being, she discovers the roots of that ill-being. And with that understanding, suddenly the Fourth Noble Truth reveals itself. If this is the path leading to ill-being, then we should not follow this path. Instead we discover a noble path leading to the cessation of ill-being. 

So the Third Noble Truth is the cessation of ill-being. The cessation of ill-being means the birth of well-being. Ill-being means the absence of well-being. The absence of ill-being means the presence of well-being. It’s like when there is darkness there’s no light, and when darkness stops, light reveals itself. According to the teaching and the practice, the presence of well-being is possible, and the cessation of ill-being is possible with the practice of the Noble Path. But the Noble Path leading to the cessation of ill-being cannot be seen unless you understand ill-being and the nature of ill-being. That is why the first truth is noble, the second one is noble, the third is noble, and the fourth is noble. 

The Noble Path leading to the cessation of ill-being is Right View—the wisdom of nondiscrimination, the wisdom of interbeing. And when you have that wisdom you have Right Thinking. You think only in terms of interbeing, in terms of non-self, in terms of nondiscrimination. When your thinking is characterized by discrimination and anger, that is not right thinking, that is wrong thinking leading to wrong action and wrong speech. That is why Right Thinking is the kind of thinking that goes along with understanding and love and compassion. Because they are born from Right View, from the wisdom of interbeing, the wisdom of nondiscrimination. 

And when your thinking is right, your speech will be right—Right Speech. And when your views are right, your thinking is right, your bodily actions will be right—Right Action, Right Livelihood, etc. Most people tend to think the Kingdom of God is a place where there is only happiness and no suffering. Many Buddhists believe in the Pure Land of the Buddha people don’t suffer. This is dualistic thinking, which goes against the wisdom of Buddhism, the wisdom of interbeing.

Look at this marker. You call this side your left, this side your right. Do you believe the right is possible without the left? No; without left there is no right, without right there is no left. If you are politically on the left, don’t wish for the disappearance of the right. If there is no right, you cannot exist as the left. You have to wish for the existence of the right for you to be on the left. Now I turn the marker vertically, and we see the above and the below. Do you think the above can exist without the below? No. Do you think we can grow a lotus flower without the mud? Can we grow a lotus flower on marbles? No. In order to grow vegetables you need compost, and with garbage you can make compost to nourish flowers and vegetables. So, suffering and happiness are organic. If you know this you can transform suffering into wellbeing. This is the teaching of the Buddha, the teaching of non-dualism.

There is no lotus flower possible without mud. There is no understanding and compassion without suffering. I would never want to send my children to a place where there is no suffering because they would have no chance to learn how to understand and to be compassionate. It is by touching and understanding suffering that you have a chance to understand people and their suffering. And out of that understanding of the suffering of others and your own suffering, you begin to know what it means to be compassionate.

No lotus flower can be without mud, and that is why my definition of the Kingdom of God is not a place where there is no suffering. There is suffering. But there is an opportunity for you to cultivate understanding and compassion. So my definition of the Kingdom of God is a place where there is understanding and compassion. A place where there is no understanding and compassion is hell. The Pure Land is also like that. The Pure Land is a kind of university—the bodhisattvas are teachers of understanding and love. And they need suffering in order to help people to understand and to be compassionate.

Even when you see a lot of violence, discrimination, hatred, jealousy, and craving, if you are equipped with understanding and compassion you don’t suffer. You are the bodhisattva, the teacher of understanding and compassion, and you are helping people to learn how to be more understanding and compassionate. And you are building the Kingdom of God, you are building the Pure Land of the Buddha. How beautiful, how meaningful is your life to have this chance. You are the organic gardener. You know how to make use of the garbage to nourish the flowers and the vegetables. You are making life more beautiful, more meaningful, because you have the power of understanding and compassion in you. And understanding and compassion protect you. You don’t have to suffer, even if there is anger, there is violence, there is discrimination against you. Understanding brings about compassion. And those of us who have understanding and compassion, we don’t have to suffer. We don’t have any kind of complex.

In my true home there is the presence of well-being, because understanding and compassion are there. That is why I am capable of protecting myself and protecting other people. I help them to cultivate more understanding and compassion so they won’t suffer because of the presence of negative things.

A garden should have both garbage and flowers. And the organic gardener knows how to handle the garbage so the flower will grow. That is why in a world where there is violence, discrimination, hatred, and craving, if you are equipped with wisdom, Right View, the wisdom of interbeing, the wisdom of nondiscrimination, you don’t have to suffer.

Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. You are protected by understanding and compassion. You are not a victim of anyone any more. It is they who are the victims of their ignorance, their discrimination, and they are the object of your work. You are living in such a way you can help them to transform their ignorance, their discrimination, their craving, their hatred.

Craving is born from ignorance. Anger is born from ignorance. You crave to be recognized as superior. You crave power, fame, wealth. You don’t know around us are many people who have plenty of power, fame, and wealth, but they suffer deeply from loneliness, from despair, and many of them have committed suicide, while people who have a lot of understanding and compassion don’t have to suffer at all. They can live happily because they are protected by their wisdom and their compassion.

TRANSCRIBED BY GREG SEVER. EDITED BY BARBARA CASEY.