Special Section: PEACE
It's Still an Option
A U.S. Department of Peace. In Our Time? Maybe.
by Sam Slovick
Spiritual Activism
by Julie Deife
Human Peace Machine Takes Off
Engaged Buddhism Offers a Path
by Steven Vincent
Engaged Buddhism Offers a Path
It begins with peace In oneself and ends with peace In the world.
On October 8th, 2005, renowned Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, led over 3000 people in a silent, mindful Peacewalk around MacArthur Park, Los Angeles.
Thich Nhat Hanh called upon us to:
“walk in such a way that each step we make becomes a realization of peace; each step becomes a prayer for peace and harmony… walk together in silence with no banners and no pickets…not a petition addressed to anyone, nor a demonstration against anyone… walk to unite our hearts, to nurture our togetherness and to dissipate fear and separation…learn together that wrong perceptions of self and others are at the foundation of separation, fear, hate and violence, and that togetherness and collaboration is possile.”
The teachings of Buddhism and Thich Nhat Hanh help us to look more deeply, so that we may begin to see that peace begins small and locally within the mind and heart of each sentient being.
Engaged Buddhism Begins
As a young monk in his native Vietnam, Thay (meaning teacher, as his students refer to him) faced an orthodox religious establishment which remained aloof to the horrors of the Vietnam War. Buddhism, it was believed, was to be practiced in the temple and on the meditation cushion. Thay believed that the essential tenets of the dharma (path) required practitioners to proactively relieve and prevent suffering.
In the early 1960’s, as part of the movement towards “Engaged Buddhism,” Thay founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS), a grassroots relief organization of some 10,000 student volunteers that rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools and medical centers and resettled homeless families. During this time, Thich Nhat Hanh also founded a new order of monks and nuns, a Buddhist university, a publishing house, and an influential peace activist magazine in Vietnam.
These activities eventually earned him the enmity of both sides in the conflict. The South Vietnamese and the United States governments considered him a communist for suggesting a negotiated end to the war and the communist insurgents thought him an imperialist lackey. When President Diem ordered the arrest of peace activist monks, Thich Nhat Hanh presented documents of human rights violations to the U. N. General Assembly during its debate on the suppression of Buddhists in Vietnam. SYSS students and staff were continually attacked and murdered and the university was harassed and coerced to exclude political activity. Some of the Buddhists who famously self-immolated to call attention to the suffering of Vietnam were participants in the Engaged Buddhism movement.
Exiled from Vietnam, he traveled to the U.S. where he made the case for peace to the American government. Thay may have changed the course of U.S. history when he persuaded Martin Luther King Jr. to oppose the Vietnam War publicly, helping galvanize the peace movement. The following year, King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1969, Thich Nhat Hanh was the delegate for the Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Paris Peace talks. When the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973, the Vietnamese government denied him permission to return to Vietnam, and he went into exile in France.
Reverence for Life
The foundational principle for non-violent action in Engaged Buddhism is The First Mindfulness Training. It embodies the practice of ahimsa or reverence for life. It reads:
Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.
Once we become aware of suffering we can then be moved to compassion and use it as a source of energy for the protection of life.
We may have a tendency to define ahimsa as simply a failure to kill or support killing, but the principle extends further, into our qualities of mind and heart. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “It is not just by not killing with your body that you observe ahimsa. If in your thinking you allow the killing to go on, you also break this precept.”
According to the Buddha, the mind is the base of all actions. When you believe, for example, that yours is the only way for humankind and that everyone who follows another way is your enemy, millions of people could be killed because of that idea. If we see deeply into the nature of interbeing, that all things “inter-are,” we will stop blaming, arguing and killing, and we will become friends with everyone. To practice non-violence, we must first of all learn ways to deal peacefully with ourselves.
Thich Nhat Hanh also points out that true peace requires non - fear and courage. He teaches that strength and practice are required, particularly in times of great difficulty. He asks us to practice by actively cultivating understanding, love and compassion, even in the face of misperception and conflict.
Practice Peace
There is no better time than now to take up an engaged practice of peace following Thay’s example. We have the opportunity to transform through practice the pervasive fear, anger and hatred which foments non - peace in our hearts and our actions, both in our society and the world.
Peace is Every Step is a sangha which sponsors Peacewalks on a regular basis. Please visit www.PeaceIsEveryStepLA.org or call
818-569-3009 to engage in peace with us today.
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