But they have their way of talking, of communicating, so if you are very attentive, you can understand what it tries to tell you. “You know, the plants of corn, they don’t speak English like we do here. “The young plant of corn may have forgotten and it may look up, very surprised: ‘Me? A grain of corn? I don’t believe it!’ “The first question they may ask the plant of corn is: ‘My dear little plant of corn, do you remember the time you were a tiny seed?’ And they should come and talk to the plant of corn. “And 10 days after the planting, they may already see a young plant of corn with two or three leaves. The homework was to take the grain home and plant it in a pot, and then to come back every day to check the seed and give it water. There were about 1,000 grains of corn inside, and Thay offered each child and adult in the retreat one grain of corn. He bought a bag of corn seeds – the kind you make popcorn with. Thay starts by remembering how on a previous retreat, where there were about seventy children, he gave them homework. It is a story of continuation that you can share with your children, as Thay made it accessible to a young audience. Thich Nhat Hanh tells the story of a kernel of corn becoming a corn stalk. This is an excerpt from a Dharma talk for children that took place in 2010 during the No Birth, No Death Nottingham Retreat.
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