Selected verses of transformation from Sister Đẳng Nghiêm’s collected poems

By Sister Dang Nghiem on February 25, 2025

What Does a Nun Do All Day?

All day long, I have only myself to be with,
Coming back to be aware of
Each step I take,
Each breath I inhale,
Each thought passing by.
 
All day long, I have only myself to look at,
When the wall of anger rises,
When hurt fills my chest,
When tears are shedding,
I tell myself, it’s okay, it’s okay.
I am here.
 
All day long, I have only my
“Self” to let go.

As It Is

I can be engrossed
In learning French, reading sutras,
But this heavy feeling inside me is still there.
 
Wherever I go, there it is.
Whatever I do, there it is.

This IT gnaws at me.
 
I wish to lie down and expire,
But IT will not deteriorate with my body,
Just as a tree may collapse,
But from its roots, it is continued.
 
One day, then another passes by,
I’m growing older.
I feel my aging, in the achiness of this body,
The sensitivity of the digestive tract,
The coldness of these extremities.
 
What have I done
To become freer?
 
I gave up a doctor’s fame.
I shaved my head and look
Like somebody I myself don’t recognize.
I keep three sets of clothes
And would be happy to give up
This heavy IT
Along with my extra robes to Sister Abbess.
Yet, I know IT is mine to sit with,
To embrace, to understand, and to transform.
 
IT is my daily death and sustenance.
IT is my one-way ticket to liberation.

Breathe, My Child

Breathe, breathe my child.
Let’s breathe, breathe my child,
Thay teaches his children.
His words are sincere and dear,
Echoing in my deep slumber.
I wake up and come home.
Being near Thay, Sisters, and Brothers,
Each second, I breathe in their love.
Each small step, I let go of sadness.
 
Look at that tree,
Windstorms split in two,
Roots shredded and pulled,
Still holding on to brown earth.
 
Dear tree, I am like your trunk,
Battered by wind and rain, in birth and death.
This spring, the earth’s calm, the sky’s clear.
On the fresh branches, birds summon and sing.
Purple flowers dress this trunk with life.

Stepping into Freedom

And like that I live joyfully each day,
And like that I let go each day,
And like that I see myself each day,
Happiness as well as sadness.
 
And like that I embrace myself each day,
And like that I take refuge in my Sisters each day,
And like that I join in each day,
With the rhythm of life, the sutras, the poems.
 
And like that I understand others more each day,
And like that the distance between us shortens,
And like that I come back to each day,
The breath, the smiles continue to radiate.

Wave and the Ocean

I will tell you a story
About a wave and the ocean:
Since an unknown time
The wave feels all alone.
She searches for the ocean
In endless outward directions.
 
The wave is full of desires,
And the ocean is vast.
The wave keeps on looking,
But the ocean is still far, far away.
 
There are nights by the gentle moon
The wave holds herself in stillness.
Suddenly she feels immense.
The ocean whispers inside her.
 
Sometimes she also howls.
Raging in rapid successions,
She indulges in self-destruction,
Because ignorance from infinite time
Would not want to rest.
 
Only the wave understands
How vast the ocean is.
Only the ocean knows
Where the wave goes and returns to.
 
Those days when the wave vagabonds,
The ocean patiently awaits.
Those days when the wave plunges into despair,
The ocean continues to embrace.
 
If the wave sees the ocean
She would no longer need to search.
 
If you know that we are in one another
You will fear no more.

These are excerpts from The River in Me: Verses of Transformation by Sister Đẳng Nghiêm, published by Parallax Press.

Author

Sister Dang Nghiem

Sister Dang Nghiem, MD (“Sister D”) was born in 1968 in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, the daughter of a... Read more at parallax.org