An hour with Brother Thuy (pronounced TIE)

Brother Thuy is but another name for the enlightened Thich Nhat Hahn, Vietnamese-born poet and monk, residing for many years now in Plum Village, France. The 82-year-old was once nominated by Martin Luther King Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize. I listened to Krista Tippett's interview with him in 2003 on the great radio program Speaking of Faith. You can listen online.

Central to Brother Thuy's beliefs is the simple notion of knowing how to live in the present moment. If you know how to handle the present moment, you have done well for yourself.

Tippett asked an interesting ever-so-American question. "What are some of your most pressing questions in your life today?" Thich said he hadn't any, that the whole point of living a mindful life is that you face each situation as it comes so you'll be ready for the next opportunity that arises.

He spoke about anger. Right behind me on my bookshelf is his book Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames. We have a right to our own anger, he says, but we haven't a right to let it fester and not learn from it. I have spent lots of my life around angry people. Sadly, my mother is still a very angry woman, at age 86, and growing up I escaped into my own world of books and writing and sports to get out of our very angry household. Years later, my own inability to handle my own anger manifested itself in my acquiring manic-depression, which I've subsequently licked.

For some reason, I rarely get angry anymore. Thich might say it's because I possess so much compassion, or the ability to view every human being as a feeling person who experiences pain, yes, even my own mother. If we feel another person's pain it's hard to be angry with them for long. We can practice the important art of forgiveness.

Thus it was that I checked the blog of a woman called Stephany where I had left her a compassionate comment after her blogpost of a day of life's inevitable woes. Checking on the post today, I saw that Stephany had never published my comment.

My first response was anger. Then hurt. What had I done wrong? Hadn't she liked my comment? Had I perhaps written too long a comment and it detracted from the power of her own comment? Although I don't know Stephany, I do read her posts, enjoy her love of nature and find her life of such interest that I'll often stop by to read about it.

What should I do? Well, I sent her a note. Will she write me back? I have no idea. I'm not one of her regulars the way I'm a regular with Iris or with Stephen.

I learned something interesting about myself yesterday. My brain is like a 300-ring circus. I have so many interests and loves that if I'm disappointed about one thing, I rapidly forget about it cuz something else comes along. I was forced to stop reading my current book The Queen's Sorrow, about the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, as it was time to get ready for our New Directions meeting.

I was terribly sad to abandon the book as it's quite suspenseful. The moment I put it down, with sadness, I soon forgot about it as I gathered my things together for New Directions and my sadness dissipated.