For two of my teachers
I give thanks:
Cao Ngoc Phuong
Khuu Vinh Ngoc Thuy
I first read Phuong’s autobiography
Learning True Love:
How I Learned & Practiced Social Change in Vietnam
When it was published in 1993
I assigned it for years
In a Social Justice course at SLU
The social work majors appreciated her
Phuong was a social worker without an MSW
I wanted the students
To become acquainted with lines like these
“A living example often can have a stronger effect
Than thousands of theoretical teachings and rules”
“What really inspired me was working
In the slums…
Most of the time I went alone
I never felt tired doing this work
It was a joy
To be able to help”
“My dear brother is gone
But his spirit lives on in my heart
And in the hearts of so many of his friends
Who continue his work
From time to time I still say ‘hello’ to him
When I see myself behaving the way he did
It seems that a part of him
Has been reborn in me”
In 2007 a new edition of Learning True Love appeared
Updating her and Thich Nhat Hanh’s return to Vietnam
After four decades of living in exile
Mostly in France
I had Thuy in class
In spring 2006
We meet up several times a year
She often brings me gifts
(Much art hanging on the walls in my home
I received from Thuy)
She has long touched me
With her calm and courage and kindness
She will deny it (predictably)
She will tell me to ask her sister for an alternative point of view
We went out to celebrate her graduation from SLU
She didn’t see why I made such a big deal about it
It was a big deal
Coming to this country at the age of 8
Graduating at 22
With a 3.7
Setting an example
For her younger siblings
She later tutored me some in Vietnamese
And was always so positive
She introduced me
To the intricacies of Vietnamese poetry
She thinks deeply about the meaning
Of this precious life
Thich Nhat Hanh quotes the sutra
“The one contains the all”
When I look deeply at Thuy
I get a glimpse of the vast interbeing
Of the United States people
And the Vietnamese people
Her parents in their 20s
During the war years
Their suffering after the war
Their journey to this country
War and peace
Victory and defeat
Home and exile
Grief and relief
I am
Because Thuy is
For these two teachers
I join my palms
I see the Buddha
In each of them
They live out the Dharma
The way of understanding and love
They are part of my sangha
Bringing harmony and awareness
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