Returning to Vietnam as veterans of the Vietnam War, bearing many wounds in their souls, these Americans may have felt apprehensive but the open hearts of Vietnamese people relieved their pains and helped them regain their lost souls.
Besides other activities, Soldier’s Heart organisation recently brought a group of American veterans back to Vietnam to cure the wounds in their souls.
The group was led by Doctor of Psychology Edward Tick, Soldier’s Heart director, who has spent years to research the impacts of wars on American veterans.
The Vietnam War which ended several decades ago, has left not only physical but spiritual wounds on veterans. Dr. Tick wrote about this in his book “War and Soul”.
Dr. Tick, writer John Fisher and two veterans – Al Plapp and Joe Caley, participated in a talk with VietNamNet, hosted by writer Nguyen Thi Minh Thai.
Nguyen Thi Minh Thai: You called your feeling “regeneration”. This is a wonderful example of reaching reconciliation through love and sharing. You are about to visit the capital of Vietnam’s Buddhism – Dinh Bang village, where people worship all kings of the Ly Dynasty. Vietnamese people have followed Buddhism for thousands of years.the Buddhist spirit can also be used for treatment.
I would like to ask Dr. John Fisher: Do you think Buddhism can help to cure wounds of soul, even for Americans who are not Buddhists?
John Fisher: I’m not a Buddhist but a Christian. But I see many similarities between Buddhism and the culture of native Indian in the US. The most interesting thing in Vietnam is your culture and Buddhism, with philosophies about mercy, forgiveness and love. That’s why I feel like I’m welcomed in Vietnam.
I like to visit Buddhist temples to pray and talk with others but I’m also a Christian so I try to harmonize these things in my heart. When I came to Vietnam, I feel that you spreaded your arms to welcome me though we were enemies in the past, and now we are friends. That’s the most wonderful part in the process of healing and reconciliation when I came back to Vietnam. Your culture has helped me a lot and I love it very much.
Edward Tick: Let me tell you some more about the way we apply Buddhism in treatment. One of the lessons that I’ve learnt from Buddhism philosophy is Karma.
I understand that each person has a Karma in his life and we are in the common Karma of a country, a culture or a history.
I’ve also learned that Karma is not immutable. It can be changed by man’s efforts. So I advise veterans to not feel so wretched about their Karma as with their open hearts and by doing good things, they can change their Karma.
Another lesson from Buddhism culture is the taking care of soul. The souls exist before we are born and after we die, the souls still exist. So I’m very interested to know whether man will lose his soul or not.
I see veterans as people who have lost their souls. We are responsible to take care of our souls and the souls of surrounding people and those that we took off their lives.
In the West, when a veteran had a nightmare, he saw the people they killed or injured. But hospitals considered the nightmares as insomnia and they gave him sleeping pills to put an end to the nightmares. But even with sleeping pills, veterans couldn’t sleep well.
When we taught American veterans about Vietnamese people’s conception of the 15th day of the seventh lunar month (Ram Thang Bay), the day people take care for homeless souls, all veterans belived in that conception.
They believe that they have their souls, their enemies also have their souls and they have to take care of their own souls and the souls of their enemies. And though we are Western people, Christian followers, we still pray for the souls of killed people.
When we came to Vietnam, we visited cemeteries for war martyrs and we prayed for their souls, who we killed in the war.
By that action, I think that the souls that we prayed for will have peace and contentment and they will forgive us. So veterans’ inomnia and nightmares reduce gradually and nightmares are replaced by good dreams when we can hold the hands of Vietnamese people and say we are friends.
Nguyen Thi Minh Thai: This methodology is a complete process of treatment by culture and spiritual method. You have helped many Americans to cure wounds of soul. will you use the spirit of reconciliation and love in curing these wounds in the future?
Edward Tick: Our Soldier’s Heart organization has spent a lot of time to research the PTSD and to take care of both Vietnamese and American veterans and veterans of other wars. We are very honored to join the reconciliation process with Vietnamese people.
Veterans in our organization are the evidences for healing wounds of war by reconciliation and love.
Soldier’s Heart will continue researching and taking care of any veteran of any war conducted by the US.
We will combine with the Museum of War Remnants in HCM City to hold an art exhibition in the US. We have borrowed 100 paintings by Vietnamese children about war and peace to exhibit throughout the US in the next two years. After we post these paintings on our website, we have received 1200 poems from American readers.
We want to promote culture and education cooperation between the two countries. We will pay a visit to Vietnam’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities to promote it and I see this as my whole-life mission.
We want to bring Americans to Vietnam and Vietnamese to America to strengthen mutual understanding and mutual assistance.
Nguyen Thi Minh Thai: I would like to ask Mr. Tick why do you choose this moment, when our capital city reaches its 1000th year to go to Vietnam?
Edward Tick: I love Vietnam, I love Hanoi and I can’t miss this chance. I also love the name Thang Long – Flying Dragon. I think that dragon is Lac Long Quan, your ancestor, who will protect you. I hope that Lac Long Quan will fly to protect you and this nation will be regenerated.
I also like the story about the Sword Lake very much. After driving away Ming invaders, King Le Loi returned the sword to the Turtle Deity to bring it to the heaven. I think that is a very important message, not only for Vietnam and the US, but everybody in the world. It shows that the Le King didn’t need weapon anymore so he returned the weapon to build peace. We should do the same.
John Fisher: We are always happy to return to Vietnam and your warm welcome has helped us to find peace in our souls. We believe that our lost souls have been regenerated in Vietnam and the US, through your welcome and reconciliation.
Nguyen Thi Minh Thai: Thank you very much for joining us in this talk! It is wonderful to close this talk in a Hemingway spirit: A Farewell to Arms to maintain only love.
Source: VietNamNet