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2008 New Year’s Letter by Thay from Plum Village — Deer Park Monastery
A letter to all my spiritual children, as the year comes to an end…I remember the last time I met Dr. King, in Switzerland, at the “Pacem In Terris” conference organized by the World Council of Churches in 1968. Dr. King stayed with his assistant on the 11th floor in the big hotel where the conference was taking place. I stayed on the ground floor with just one lay assistant. Dr. King invited me to have breakfast with him so we could talk. Because I was busy with a press conference, I was half an hour late, but Dr. King had kept my breakfast warm. In that meeting, I had the opportunity to tell him: “The friends in Vietnam really support you, and they see you as a living bodhisattva.” He was very happy to hear that. Every time I think back on that meeting, I feel glad I was able to tell him that, because a few months later he was assassinated.
Filed under: Holidays, News, nonviolence, Peace Tagged: | buddhism, new year, New Year's Eve, Thich Nhat Hanh
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