Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation Thich Nhat Hanh A Vietnamese Zen master the Rev. Thich Nhat Hanh lives in Plum Village in southern France where his international ministry is based. One of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, he brings together a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar, and activist. The simple, compassionate clarity of his writings have touched countless lives. he shows us how attentive, respectful mindfulness can heal our souls and our world, and bring us home, in joy, to the living body of Earth and kinship with all beings. In 1967 Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize. His heroic work during the Vietnam War helped victims on both sides of the conflict. He also chaired the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation, and he has continued to participate in international gatherings. In 1982 at the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament he spoke before a forum of religious leaders. I haven't much to say," he said, "but on my way here I wrote a poem." He read to the assembled delegates the following collection of verses printed below, "Please Call Me By My True Names." Please Call Me By My True Names Don't say that I will depart tomorrow- even today I am still arriving. Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin a bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate. And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans. Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion.