~ Trần Quang Lộc, Composer, Au Lac

I love the natural, unaffected poems of Supreme Master Ching Hai – so gentle like the springtime breeze, yet filled with love and rich in their meaning. Overflowing with emotions, the verses have touched my heart and inspired me to adapt them into music.

Her poems are the voice of the heart. They are the love of a Master that is reserved for sentient beings who are still lost in the illusions of the mundane world of sorrows. I’d like to thank Supreme Master Ching Hai for giving me a chance to soar high with the poems of magnanimity, carrying with them your love and affection. There, dreamingly I’d feel a breeze from the Zen temple wafting between the earth and sky. Since happiness is a quest, one must go through many adversities in the hope of finding it, so that in retrospect, one would feel more courageous, more brave, and cherish more each moment of the happiness. Supreme Master Ching Hai’s choices of words carry with them remarkable melodies. Her poems always long for human love, not through regrets or lamenting. It’s like the sharing of a pair of warm opened hands, or the closeness of a pair of eyes looking at the world lovingly, urging humankind to rise up to bring peace into each other’s heart. In order to see the mountain peak, one should soar up into the sky; and to learn about Earth and Heaven, one must contemplate to find a place where there is no hatred, where everyone in this world comes together with human love. How can we hear the melodious sound from the inner realm while our ears still ring with the urban hustle and bustle? The interweaving of music and poetry is like an essential element which  produces wonderful sounds, condensing in a sweet reverberation of friendship so that we can share with one another the joy as well as the sadness.

Like the poet has written:
"Let’s live just for each other
"Let’s live just for each other
Let’s live on for our future
Let’s live on for our future
Let’s build Eden on Earth
Let’s gift peace to each other."
Let’s gift peace to each other."

My admiration and appreciation to Zen Master and Poet Supreme Master Ching Hai are also infinitely overwhelming like the vastness of her poems. Every time I gently step into the garden of art full of fragrance and colors and bathe in that river of poetry, I find myself to be like a floating leaf, or a small and modest drop of water returning to the vast and pure ocean. Certainly, you will also have such feelings while reading the magnificent book “Celestial Art” and “The Love of Centuries” poetry anthology from Supreme Master Ching Hai.

~ Trần Quang Lộc, Composer, Au Lac