To know a person’s suchness
InThich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life he comments on understanding and accepting a person as they are which he calls their “suchness”. For whatever reason, I really liked his reference and explanation. He stresses that for the benefit of any relationship it is important to know and accept a person and all that they can bring to a relationship or in other words the “essence of their personality” and “true nature”. He states, “that if we don’t know enough about the ‘suchness’ of that person, we may get ourselves into trouble”. He further explains that to know a person we should also accept that there will be flaws which is okay, “We do not expect a person always to be a flower. We have to understand his or her garbage as well. That’s a statement that would benefit us all to remember.
The Roots of War
I wonder how many wars there would be if we all had to do as Thich Nhat Hanh’s states in his selection on The Roots of War. He states the importance of having key people who know and appreciate the suffering that is inflicted on all sides during war. Unfortunately, I believe that those key people manipulate any information that is passed to always enforce the rightness of their side. Any suffering is blanketed under statements that the cost is justified, and in the long run, will be beneficial to everyone. The short term cost is hidden and easily forgiven. I wonder if it is possible for the majority of Americans when contemplating the war we are in to ask themselves if the roots of our war could be found here in the U.S. and not in the middle east. I doubt it. A couple years ago a journalist published a book about the greatest generation. He writes about the generation of my parents. I bought the book and gave it to my father. It surprised me that he wasn’t interested. When I asked him why, he stated that the greatest generation is yet to come. For him the greatest generation would be the one that refused to enter into any war, to stop all wars. Maybe I’m being pessimistic but I doubt if we will ever have a greatest generation.