The Roots of War

The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives--the way we develop our industries, build up our society, and consume goods.  We have to look deeply into the situation.  We cannot just blame one side or the other.  We have to transcend the tendency to take sides.
During any conflict, we need people who can understand the suffering of all sides.  We need links.  We need communication.
Practicing nonviolence is first of all to become nonviolence.  Then when a difficult situation presents itself, we will react in a way that will help the situation.  This applies to problems of the family as well as to problems of society.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Ecology of Mind

We need harmony, we need peace.  Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.  Not only do we have to respect the lives of human beings, but we have to respect the lives of animals, vegetables, and minerals.
Ecology should be a deep ecology.  Not only deep but universal, because there is pollution in our consciousness.  Television, for instance, is a form of pollution for us and for our children.  Television sows seeds of violence and anxiety in our children and pollutes their consciousness, just as we destroy our environment by chemicals, tree-cutting, and polluting the water.  We need to protect the ecology of the mind, or this kind of violence and recklessness will continue to spill over into many other areas of life.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Citizenship

As citizens, we have a large responsibility.  Meditation is to look deeply into things and to see how we can change ourselves and how we can transform our situation.  To transform our situation is also to transform our minds.  As we begin to live more responsibly, we must ask our political leaders to move in the same direction.  We have to encourage them to stop polluting our environment and our consciousness.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Not two

When we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it.  We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it.  If we want to understand a person, we have to feel his feelings, suffer his sufferings, and enjoy his joy.  In Buddhism, we call this kind of understanding "non-duality."  Not two.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Waging Peace

Many people are aware of the world's suffering:  their hearts are filled with compassion.  They know what needs to be done, and they engage in political, social, and environmental work to try to change things.  But after a period of intense involvement, they may become discouraged if they lack the strength needed to sustain a life of action.  Real strength is not in power, money, or weapons, but in deep inner peace.
Practicing mindfulness in each moment of our daily lives, we can cultivate our own peace.  With clarity, determination, and patience--the fruits of meditation--we can sustain a life of action and be real instruments of peace.  I have seen this peace in people of various religious and cultural backgrounds who spend their time and energy protection the weak, struggling for social justice, lessening the disparity between rich and poor, stopping the arms race, fighting against discrimination, and watering the trees of love and understanding throughout the world.
Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh

Oprah Talks to Thich Nhat Hanh

 "The moment I meet Thich Nhat Hanh at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, I feel his sense of calm. A deeply tranquil presence seems to surround the Zen Buddhist master."

 

The O Exclusive Interview

He's been a Buddhist monk for more than 60 years, as well as a teacher, writer, and vocal opponent of war—a stance that left him exiled from his native Vietnam for four decades. Now the man Martin Luther King Jr. called "an apostle of peace and nonviolence" reflects on the beauty of the present moment, being grateful for every breath, and the freedom and happiness to be found in a simple cup of tea.

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-Talks-to-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/1

Interbeing

"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be," we have a new verb, inter-be.
If we look into this sheet of paper deeply we can see the sunshine in it.  Without sunshine, the forest cannot grow.  And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper.  And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper.  And we see wheat.  We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper.  The logger's father and mother are in it too.  When we look in this way, we see  that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
Looking even more deeply, we can see ourselves in this sheet of paper too because when we look at a sheet of paper, it is part of our perception.  Your mind is in here and mine is also.  So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper.  Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper.  We cannot just be by ourselves alone.  We have to inter-be with every other thing.  This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Wisdom from PEACE IS EVERY STEP - Thich Nhat Hanh