:: May/June 2004 Volume 3/Number 3

Thich Nhat Hanh
Hollywood Leadership in Fearful Times

By Bob Belinoff

Called Thay by those who know him, Tich Nhat Hanh is a seventy-eight year old Vietnamese monk, a practitioner of  “engaged Buddhism” who has authored seventy-five books, a nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Thich Nhat Hanh and 150 monks have been ensconced for nearly 3 months in their new monastery Deer Park, just outside Escondido. They’ve created here in another hilly, sunny clime a kind of Southern California Plum Village, his monastery in France. The three day retreat I am attending is for the entertainment industry. Supposedly most of the 250 attendees write, act, sing, dance or make movies. But more than a story about a part of our popular culture this is a story about what it means to be a leader in these dark times.

I drive a winding road up a mountainside to reach the monastery. Though I have passed no checkpoint I have the distinct feeling that I have entered another country. This is a four hundred acre nation with many buildings, many mouths to feed, and many services to provide. The signs at this border crossing read “Breathe Easy”, “Relax”, “You are home”, “Have no fear”.

Many retreatants stay in simple rooms in low-rise dorm-like quarters. I along with about one hundred others will be camping. I set up my tent down the hill in a camping area without regulations or even indications on where to camp. I return to register, which amounts to smiling and signing my name. Registration, food, parking, agendas, much to do - and nothing to do. There seems to be a patina of gentleness between “me” and “doing” . Actually everything gets done by itself. There are no visible moving parts, the machine is completely organic, less an organization it is more like an organ.

Meals are offered buffet style under an awning. Five separate lines allow four-hundred people to fill their plates in about ten minutes, no waiting. If craft services on a movie lot were run like this production below line costs could be cut in half.

We eat in silence, tablefuls of silence. This is awkward only for a moment. I smile and sit and eat. Alone but not alone. We are held up by one another – this is the nature of Sangha – a shared concept of support. It is why there is not a single sign anywhere that states any rules, no one lays down the law. Yet nothing appears out of order.

There will be no concurrent workshops at this conference, notin prime time programming, Indi-financing or even inner peace. The agenda lists little but meals, walking meditation and Dharma Talks in the copper domed meditation hall.

There are four-hundred of us sitting zazen under the dome of the meditation hall. Thich Nhat Hanh, Thay as he is less formally known, sits before us a small handsome straight-backed man in a brown robe. “Good morning my dear friends.” He tells us this story: “I had been visiting with a Buddhist scholar in Plum Village. He asked me how I spent most of my time. I told him I spent hour after hour in my garden watering  my vegetables. He said Thay, ‘You are great poet, anyone can water vegetables, why do you not spend more time writing?’ I told him, "if I didn’t work in my garden I couldn’t write poetry.”

Thay talks about only nurturing the good in people. “Only water the good seeds," he tells us. "Do not water negative thoughts." He talks about being present and shows us how to practice being present through walking meditation. Foot to ground; say to yourself “I am home”. Other foot, “I am free."

Later I will walk back down the hill, slowly. I will walk slowly back to my tent. I will sit and look at a caterpillar eat a leaf. I will put on a sweater. I will brush my teeth. Look at the moon. I will breathe deep and I will go to sleep.

“Good Morning my dear friends”, Thay sits informally, at ease, one leg draped over the other on the edge of a low-rise dais. “What makes you happy?" he asks. "Money? Power? Success?” Understanding, he tells us, is the foundation for happiness. “This happiness can be cultivated, can be grown. Understanding makes you happy. Understanding yourself, your world, your husband or wife or partner.” Thay rises, crosses, pauses, turns, sits.

What is it about this man? Why do I believe him? How has he created this apparently frictionless nation, where meals are cooked, plants are watered, garbage is emptied, people create art, sweep the walks and smiling is endemic? Where are his assistants, his cabinet, his secretaries, his directors - and directives? How do things get done, when so little is written and hardly anyone speaks?

 “Good Afternoon my dear friends, only water good seeds." It is question and answer time. When someone asks him about George Bush he has nothing bad to say. He says, "The people around the President do not nurture his Buddhist heart. They nurture his terrorist heart."

Q.  I find it difficult to meditate, what can I do?

A. Don't meditate, just sit. That way you won't feel like you have to accomplish anything.

Q. What about sex in movies?

A. Sex is a beautiful and natural part of being alive, we must honor that beauty, not violate it.

Q. What about violence?

A. It is like eating bad food, it is bad food for the eyes.

Q. Suffering?

A. Very important, without it we can not know what happiness is.

Q. Why is there so much violence in the world?

A. We are all, even us here, operating under misperceptions. We don't understand.

Q. What does it mean to understand? Thay smiles.

I have not been speaking, and hardly thinking, being very much in the here and now, and walking very slowly for three days, eating in silence. In the paying attention, in the walking, I am practicing engaged Buddhism. And I am beginning to understand. It is not that I know, it is that I understand. Understanding resides in a place outside of knowing - between steps - going nowhere, being peace.

Yes, among those who make and green light films there needs to be an understanding; that violence is bad food for the eyes and the heart, that reckless personal conduct runs roughshod over the delicate psychic bonds that hold the universe together. But the understanding Thich Nhat Hanh wants to convey is bigger than that.

And he conveys it simply by sitting there, being one who understands. His presence and his understanding create a gravitational field into which people are drawn. It is not a force field, so nothing has to be enforced. It is power. And power is always at rest, and everything within its field is efficiently addressed.

This tiny nation's Constitution is the Tao:

When a country is in harmony with the Tao
The factories make trucks and tractors
When a country goes counter to the Tao
Warheads are stock piled outside the cities
There is no greater illusion than fear,
No greater wrong than being prepared to defend yourself,
No greater misfortune than having an enemy
Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.
When the Masters work is done the people say, "Amazing, we did it by ourselves."

Bob Belinoff is a Los Angeles documentary film-maker. www.digitalwkshop.com. Bob@digitalwkshop.com