Healing the Inner Child Thich Nhat Hanh

Healing the Inner Child
Thich Nhat Hanh

Sometimes we regret not having said the right things to someone in our family before they died. 

We regret that we have not been kind to him or to her during that person’s lifetime. 

Now we may feel that it’s too late. 

But we don’t need to feel that kind of regret. That person is still in us and we can begin anew. 

We smile to him and say the things we should have said that we didn’t have a chance to say. 

Say it right now and he will hear it. 

Sometimes we don’t have to say anything. 

We just live by the spirit we have found in the practice of beginning anew, and he will know it.

I told a U.S. veteran who’d killed five children in Vietnam, “You don’t have to continue to suffer because of the five children you killed. If you know how to live your life, how to save the children of the present and the future, those five children will understand you, will smile at you, and will support you on your path of practice.” 

There’s no reason why we have to be caught in our guilt complex. 

Everything is possible. The past is not gone. The past is still available in the form of the present. 

If we know how to touch the present deeply, we touch the past and we can even change the past. That is the teaching of the Buddha. 

If we have said something unkind to our grandma who has passed away, we can begin anew. 

We just sit down, practice mindful breathing in and out, and we ask our grandma to be there in us. 

We smile at her and say, “Grandma, I’m sorry. I will not say something like that again.” And we’ll see our grandma smiling. 

That practice will bring peace to us, will make us new, and will bring a lot of joy and happiness to the people around us and to future generations.

Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child

Thich Nhat Hanh