July/August 2000

Being Peace

Thich Nhat Hanh, July-August 1986

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist mystic, peace activist and poet. During the Vietnam war he staffed a mission in Paris that tried to represent a third position between the warring parties. Instrumental in founding the network of socially engaged Buddhists, he also founded Plum Village in France.

Because to meditate means to be aware of what is going on.

What is going on is very important. I think the most important precept of all is to live in awareness, to know what is going on - not only here but there. For instance, when we eat a piece of bread, we may choose to be aware of how our farmers grow the wheat. It seems that chemical poisons are used a bit too much. And while we eat the bread, we are somehow co-responsible for the destruction of our ecology. When we eat a piece of meat, we may become aware that eating meat is not a good way to reconcile oneself with millions of children in the world. Forty thousand children die each day in the Third World for lack of food. And in order to produce meat, you have to feed the cow or the chicken with a lot of cereal. Eating a bowl of cereal is more reconciling with the suffering of the world than eating a piece of meat. An authority on economics who lives in France told me that if only the Western countries would reduce the eating of meat by 50 percent, that would be enough to change the situation of the world.

What we are, what we do every day, has much to do with world peace. If we are aware of our lifestyle, our way of consuming and looking at things, then we know how to make peace right at the present moment. If we are very aware, we will do something to change the course of things.

In the peace movement, there is a lot of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding today. The people in the movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet able to write love letters. We need to learn to write to the Congress and to the president of the United States letters that they will not put in the trash can. We need to write the kind of letter that they will like to receive. The way you speak, the kind of language you use, and the kind of understanding you express should not turn people off. Because the people you write to are also persons like all of us.

Can the peace movement talk in loving speech, showing the way to peace? I think that will depend on whether the people in the peace movement can be peace. We cannot do anything for peace without ourselves being peace. If you cannot smile, you cannot help other people smile. If you are not peaceful, then you cannot contribute to the peace movement. We know that our situation is very dangerous. A nuclear war can happen at any moment. Practicing meditation is to practice awareness of what is going on. Therefore, if we are aware, if we know what is going on, we will be peace and make peace, so that the worst may not occur.

We need people who understand, who are capable of being in touch with people. But there are few such people. To reconcile the conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides. If we take sides, it is impossible for us to do the work of reconciliation. And humans want to take sides. That is why the situation gets worse and worse. Are there people who are still available to both sides? They need not do much. They need do only one thing: go to one side and tell all about the suffering endured by the other side, and go to the other side and tell all about the suffering endured by this side. That is our chance for peace. That alone can change the situation. But how many of us are in a position to do that?