Dang Nghiem

“When I missed the physical body of my partner, I meditated on its parts, tossed by the waves, torn, dispersed, and deteriorated. When memories of our lives together became acute and intense, I breathed. I breathed through each wave of yearning, of regret, of guilt, of what-could-have-been. Every time I asked him, “Where are you?” A quiet voice immediately responded, “I am here. I have never left you.” I did not only lose a partner. I lost my childhood all over again. I lost my soul mate. I lost the accepting father and the gentle mother that he was to me. I lost the dream of a “normal life,” which I had tried so hard to achieve. Now I had to face my own mind.”
― Dang Nghiem, Healing: A Woman's Journey from Doctor to Nun

“As a doctor, I worked with many patients in their dying hours. They would scream or cry, drenched in despair. All their untended relationships and unresolved pain would surge and become uncontrollable. In their last moments, deep-seated complexes would manifest in their mind with no mercy. To die peacefully, we need to live peacefully. But how? We need to take care of our mental formations while we still have time, long before the moment of death.”
― Dang Nghiem, Flowers in the Dark: Reclaiming Your Power to Heal from Trauma with Mindfulness