Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm

by Thich Nhat Hanh

When I met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966, during the Vietnam War, one of the things we discussed was the importance of building community—or, as we call it in Buddhism, sangha.

Nirvana literally means cooling, the putting out of flames; in Buddhism, it refers to extinction of the afflictions brought about by our wrong perceptions. Nirvana isn’t a place to go or something belonging to the future. Nirvana is the true nature of reality, things as they are. Nirvana is available in the here and now. You are already in nirvana; you are nirvana, just as the wave is already the water.