Working for Peace
Excerpt from Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
In
Plum Village in France, we receive many letters from the refugee camps in
Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, hundreds each
week. It is very painful to read them, but we have to do it, we have to be in
contact. We try our best to help, but the suffering is enormous, and sometimes
we are discouraged. It is said that half the boat people die in the ocean; only
half arrive at the shores in Southeast Asia.
There
are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates. Even though
the United Nations and many countries try to help the government continues to
inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received a letter telling us
about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. She was only
twelve, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.
When
you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You
naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it
differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only
have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we cannot do that. In my
meditation I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and
raised in the same conditions as he was, I am now the pirate. There is a great
likelihood that I would become a pirate. I cannot condemn myself so easily. In
my meditation, I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds
every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not
do something about the situation, in 25 years a number of them will become sea
pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing
villages, we might become sea pirates in 25 years. If you take a gun and shoot
the pirate, you shoot all of us, because all of us are to some extent
responsible for this state of affairs. (pp.61-62)
During
the war in Vietnam we young Buddhists organized ourselves to help victims of
the war rebuild villages that had been destroyed by the bombs. Many of us died
during service, not only because of the bombs and the bullets, but because of
the people who suspected us of being on the other side. We were able to
understand the suffering of both sides, the Communists and the anti-Communists.
We tried to be open to both, to understand this side and to understand that
side, to be one with them. That is why we did not take a side, even though the
whole world took sides. We tried to tell people our perception of the
situation: that we wanted to stop the fighting, but the bombs were so loud.
Sometimes we had to burn ourselves alive to get the message across, but even
then the world could not hear us. They thought we were supporting a kind of
political act. They didn't know that it was a purely human action to be heard,
to be understood. We wanted reconciliation, we did not want a victory. Working
to help people in a circumstance like that is very dangerous, and many of us
got killed. The Communists killed us because they suspected that we were
working with the Americans, and the anti-Communists killed us because they
thought that we were with the Communists. But we did not want to give up and
take one side.
The
situation of the world is still like this. People completely identify with one
side, one ideology. To understand the suffering and the fear of a citizen of
the Soviet Union, we have to become one with him or her. To do so is dangerous
- we will be suspected by both sides. But if we don't do it, if we align
ourselves with one side or the other, we will lose our chance to work for
peace. Reconciliation is to understand both sides, to go to one side and
describe the suffering being endured by the other side, and then to go to the
other side and describe the suffering being endured by the first side. Doing
only that will be a great help for peace. (pp. 69-70)
In
the peace movement there is a lot of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding.
The peace movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet
able to write a love letter. We need to learn to write a letter to the congress
or to the President of the United States that they will want to read, and not
just throw away. The way you speak, the kind of understanding, the kind of
language you use would not turn people off. The President is a person like any
of us.
Can
the peace movement talk in loving speech, showing the way for peace? I think
that will depend on whether the people in the peace movement can be peace.
Because without being peace, we cannot do anything for peace. If we cannot
smile, we cannot help other people to smile. If we are not peaceful, then we
cannot contribute to the peace movement.
I
hope we can bring a new dimension to the peace movement. The peace movement is
filled with anger and hatred. It cannot fulfill the path we expect from them. A
fresh way of being peace, of doing peace is needed. That is why it is so
important for us to practice meditation, to acquire the capacity to look, to
see, and to understand. It would be wonderful if we could bring to the peace
movement our contribution, our way of looking at things, that will diminish
aggression and hatred. Peace work means, first of all, being peace. Meditation
is meditation for all of us. We rely on each other. Our children are relying on
us in order for them to have a future.
(Excerpt
from Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh pp. 79-80)