Beyond Good and Evil | Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh

In your practice of Buddhist meditation,
you should learn very quickly that

the good and the evil are...

of the same origin.

They are all organic.

They nourish each other.

It's like a flower and garbage.

The flower is nourished by garbage.

And the garbage is
nourished by the flower.

Because the flower will have to...

to rot. to decompose,

and become the garbage.

So the practice within Buddhist meditation
is not to try to destroy, to combat, to fight

what you call evil,

but to embrace it tenderly and
to recognize it as it is because it is yourself.

Your fear is yourself.

And fighting your fear is fighting yourself.

Being afraid of your fear is...

being afraid of yourself.

So using the energy of mindfulness
to embrace your fear

represented by the little wounded child
within you.

It's a beautiful image

corresponding to the truth.

Because that suffering child
is still alive in you.

And you may have been too busy
to take good care of him or her.

And now you know the practice.

And you have to go back to him, to her,

to hold her, to hold him dearly
in your arms of mindfulness.

With your mindful breathing,

your mindful steps,

you take care of him, of her.

And you rely on the
collective energy of the sangha

in order to embrace her,
to nourish her also.

And collective practice

always bring the
collective energy of mindfulness

that we can always rely and make use
in order to embrace our...

wounded child.