A Love Letter to the Planet

A Love Letter
to the Planet
T H Í C H N H ẤT H ẠN H
Thích Nhất Hạnh planting a bodhi
tree in India, 2008; photo courtesy of
monastic Sangha

IN TERBEIN G—OU R T R U E NAT U R E
Dear Mother, every time I step on the Earth, I am
now able to transcend the notions of mind and
matter. Your sublime reality also transcends the
notions of mind and matter. Matter and mind are
just ideas, two faces of the same reality. The pine
tree is not just matter, as it possesses a sense of
knowing. A dust particle is not just matter, since
each of its atoms has intelligence and is a living
reality. Our nature is your nature, which is the nature of the cosmos. This is the nature of interbeing—of no-being and no-nonbeing, no-birth and
no-death, no increasing or decreasing, no matter
and no mind, no inside or outside, no coming or
going. Earth is thought to be one of the four basic
elements, but Mother Earth is also composed of
the other three non-earth elements—water, air,
and fire. The four elements carry in themselves
time, space, and consciousness. Each step reveals
to us the Buddha nature that is not only present in
humans but in all things.
Dear Mother, you are a great Bodhisattva, giving birth to countless buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Your heart embraces the whole cosmos and your
wisdom radiates in the ten directions. We cannot
compare our capacity to understand and to love
with yours. Some of us resent you for giving birth
to them, causing them to endure suffering, because they are not yet able to understand and appreciate you. With the practice of looking deeply,
we see that we can overcome all of our suffering
and resentment. Getting in touch deeply with the
historical dimension, we can see the ultimate dimension and thus come to better understand what
is happening in the historical dimension.
In the ultimate dimension, there is no birth,
no death, no suffering, no happiness, no coming,
no going, no good, and no evil. We must learn to
look at the world of signs and appearances from
the perspective of the ultimate dimension. In the
historical dimension, if there is no death, there will
be no birth. If there is no suffering, there will be no
happiness. Without evil, good cannot be; without
the mud, lotuses will not grow. Mud and lotus are
not enemies. Lotus and mud depend on each other
to manifest. The same is true for suffering and happiness, good and evil. But since our understanding
of good and evil is still very dualistic, some of us resent, blame, and reproach the Earth and the Sky.1
We use our small minds to judge the great mind of
the Earth and the Sky.
Thích Nhất Hạnh shares
intimate conversations with
Mother Earth.
… without the mud,
lotuses will not grow.
Mud and lotus are not
enemies. Lotus and
mud depend on each
other to manifest.

The floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are not punishments or manifestations of
your anger, but are things that must occur on occasion in the historical dimension, out of necessity,
so that balance can be reestablished; the same is
true of a shooting star. For balance in nature to be
achieved, at times some species have to endure
loss. But when the need to survive is replaced with
greed and pride, there is violence, which always
brings about unnecessary devastation. We have
seen that when one species develops too rapidly,
exceeding its natural limit, causing great loss and
damage, threatening the lives of other species,
then naturally causes and conditions will arise
to bring about the destruction and annihilation
of that species. Equilibrium can then be restored
among the remaining species. These causes and
conditions often surface from within the very species causing the destruction. We have learned the
lesson that when we perpetrate violence toward
our own and other species, we are violent toward
ourselves; when we know how to protect all beings, we are protecting ourselves.
Calligraphy by Thích Nhất Hạnh

Dear Mother, each of us has Buddha nature because we are all your offspring, whether we are
humans, animals, plants, or minerals. We humans
are often proud of our mind consciousness, but
this is only one of the many functions of mind,
such as Store Consciousness2 and Vimala (pure,
non-defiled) Consciousness. Our mind consciousness gives us the ability to recognize our own presence and the presence of the cosmos in this moment, but it is limited by our habitual tendency to
differentiate between being and nonbeing, birth
and death, inside and outside, individual and collective. Some of us have practiced, contemplated,
and purified ourselves, and attained the wisdom of
nondiscrimination. We are able to be in touch with
nirvana, with the nature of no-birth and no-death
in ourselves. You must be very proud of those of us
who are able to continue you on the path of evolution, those who have the capacity to guide and
to lead others toward the insight of nonduality,
transforming all differentiation, discrimination,
fear, hatred, and despair.
You have given birth to many great buddhas
and bodhisattvas. We make the deep vow to follow those who have gone before us on this path.
We make the vow to confidently embody your
wondrous and sublime consciousness, so as to
be worthy of calling ourselves your children. We
understand that all things are impermanent and
without a separate self-nature; you, the Sun, and
all buddhas and bodhisattvas are of the same nature. We know that in the ultimate dimension, your
lifespan, Father’s, and that of all beings, including
leaves and budding flowers, are limitless—transcending birth and death, being and nonbeing. Yet
in the historical dimension, we still want to protect
you, our Mother Earth, so that you can continue for
a long time in this beautiful and precious form, not
just five hundred million years, but even beyond.
We want to protect you so that you can be here
with us, within this cozy solar system, for a very
long time.
Respected Mother, some of us ask what will happen to them once their physical form disintegrates.
We know clearly that we will return to you. It is only
natural. If we know how to contemplate, to look
deeply, we will recognize the true no-coming
and no-going nature of all things. We will no longer have any questions about coming and going.
Knowing that we have manifested from you in the
past and that we will continue to manifest from
you again and again in the future, each time fresh
and new, we have no more worries, no more fears.
Dear respected Mother, I see the whole cosmos in you, and you in me. Although you are the
mother of all species, as humans we are capable
of conversing intimately with you, capable of seeing you and understanding you. We know that you
want us to live in such a way that in each moment
of our daily lives we can produce the energies of
mindfulness, peace, solidity, and love. We vow to
obey your wish and respond to your love. We have
the conviction that if we keep producing these
wholesome energies, we will be able to help reduce suffering on Earth, especially the suffering
We know that when we
suffer, you also suffer in
us. At these times, we
have turned to you, dear
Mother, and asked you
whether or not we could
count on you, on your
stability and compassion.