No Beginning, No End

An Excerpt from Wait
By Cuong Lu

About This Title

Written as a love letter to those in pain, Wait encourages us to seek out a path to peace and freedom from suffering. Cuong Lu, a long-time disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh, personally witnessed a shooting while fleeing Vietnam in 1975. The memory of this trauma prompted him to dedicate his life to sharing the wisdom of deep listening, finding understanding, and in his words, "defusing the bombs in our hearts." We have waited long enough for the violence to stop. Now is the time to help turn the tide, interrupt the cycle of violence, and create a world where love and understanding thrive.

No Beginning, No End
Page 19-21

Listen to this excerpt from the audiobook edition of Wait

To live fully, we need others. We need someone to love and someone to miss. Even when our beloved is far away, they are still in our heart. When we think of them, we feel warm inside. Love is a profound connection—to others, and to ourselves. In love, we are more than ourselves; we also become the person we love. Love brings us together.

It rips my heart open when I hear about school shootings and other senseless violence. Why would someone harm others? Why would they wish for someone else’s death? If you shoot someone, you are destroying life, and although you may not realize it, you are also killing yourself. In war, mass shootings, suicide, and every kind of violence, everyone loses. If you kill yourself, you are killing me too. Please don’t kill me. I want to live and I want to love. If we can learn to love ourselves and each other, the whole world wins. To love means to live. Nothing is more beautiful than the flowers and rivers, the ocean and the sky. We are a part of life. Please choose to live. Please choose love.

When we wake up in the morning, the sun rises, and we inhale and exhale, knowing life is there. The birds are singing, the activity of the day is beginning. Are we ready to welcome life? We may think no one loves us, but it’s never true. There’s always someone. We think no one loves us, but our heart continues to beat. Our lungs breathe. The birds and the sunlight love us. A child’s smile is a recognizable sign of love. Love is in you, and it’s in the air.

My whole life I’ve been looking for you. When I felt the most profound suffering, I began looking for something, I didn’t know what. Now I’ve discovered the object of my search—it’s you. Finding you, I find myself, and I become the happiest person on earth. I’ve found life and a way to end violence, hatred, and despair.

What would you like to do today? Would you take a walk with me and discover (or rediscover) the beauty of life? Let’s look at the sky and see how deeply blue it is. I was twenty-five when I saw the sky for the first time. I was sitting under an oak tree and I looked up. The sky was vast, and I saw life in its azure and white textures. Embraced by a deep quiet, I fell in love with the sky. “Have you always been there?” I asked, and the spirit of the sky replied, “Yes, I’ve been calling you, and now, at long last, you hear me. You see me.” How can we not feel the love of life? We’re looking for love and don’t realize it already surrounds us. We need air, water, and love to survive. Let’s walk the path of life together. Beauty is available. Happiness and love are available in every moment, even during the most difficult moments.

Cuong Lu is a Buddhist teacher ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village. He dedicated his life to service after witnessing a shooting while fleeing Vietnam in 1975. He served as a monk for sixteen years and now teaches in the Netherlands, where he lives with his wife and three children. A former prison chaplain, he is the author of The Buddha in Jail.

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