(Half bell)
(Bell)
Dear Thay, dear sangha.
I was at the Riverside Church in New York
in 2001 when you came to give a talk
shortly after September 11th. This was
the same location where Dr. King came
to give his speech against the Vietnam war
– a position, we remember with gratitude,
that was influenced by his time with you.
You spoke to your own experience of the
tragedy of war, and you were among
the only voices I can remember at the time
who advocated for seizing the moment
to work for peace.
Many of us in these times now
may be feeling fear, anger, despair
when we see so many wars waged in our name.
As you did with Dr King, can you advise us
how we might transform these feelings into
compassion and interactive peace making?
As you know, I was in America when the
September 11th took place.
That day I was going from Deer Park
to the north of California to organise
retreats and public talks.
And loading the bus,
we hear about the event.
I was supposed to give a talk in Berkeley
four days later.
And we could experience
the collective energy of fear and anger
in America.
Fear and anger.
We know that the collective energy
of compassion can be very healing,
but the collective energy of fear and anger
can be very dangerous.
It can start a war at any time.
So my purpose in giving the talks
was to ask Americans
to practice mindful breathing
in order to calm down
their feelings, their emotions.
That's the most important thing to do.
That is why in the talk taking place
in Berkeley – 4.000 people attended –
we wore our sangha tee,
the orange colour robe,
and we practiced meditation on compassion
and tried to calm down
– to help people calm down.
You can see the suffering on the face
of the people ... that day.
And we knew that after the talk
people suffer less
– by – you just look at their face
and you know that people suffer less
after a guided meditation on compassion
and calming down.
But that is only for a few thousand people.
The talk in the Riverside Church had
the same purpose.
And we advised our friends in America
not to do anything yet.
Not to say anything yet.
The first thing to do is to calm down.
And then begin to look into the situation
and ask the question,
why they have done such a thing to us.
Have we done anything
that made them so angry at us ...
– that made them so despair
that they could commit ... such an act?
I proposed that
– according to the tradition we belong to
– I proposed that
America organise sessions of deep listening.
We should invite many wise Americans
to come and help us to listen.
And we invite the people in America
who feel that they are victims
of social injustice and so on
to come and tell us about their suffering.
And we proposed that sessions of
deep listening like that within America
can be televised
– so that everyone can follow.
That is to listen to your own suffering
– to our own suffering.
And understand our own suffering
before we want to listen to the suffering
of the people on the other side.
It's very faithful to our practice.
You listen to your own suffering first
before you listen to the suffering
on the other side.
And after you have done deep listening
in your own country,
you may turn to the people over there
and use loving speech.
"Dear friends over there,
we have suffered a lot.
We don't understand
why you have done such a thing to us.
Have we done anything in order to try
to destroy you as a people?
as a religion? as a way of life?
We may have done something;
or we may have said something
that gave you the impression
that we want to destroy
you as a people, as a religion,
as a way of life.
But in fact, we do not have that intention.
So please tell us what we have done,
what we have said, that has given you
that kind of impression.
We know that you must have been
very angry at us
to have done such a thing to us.
We would like to listen.
Please tell us ... from your heart.
Tell us about your suffering ...
and our lack of skilfulness
– in making you suffer."
And that is what I proposed to America
at that time.
And this is a process of
restoring communication and reconciling.
And last spring – the spring of this year,
I went to Korea and I gave retreats
– we gave retreats and public talks.
And there was one public talk
in the south
attended by many people
– maybe 20.000 people,
and they announced to us
that they were going to organise
a huge ceremony of prayer
for peace
between the south and the north.
The north now has nuclear weapons
and they sound to be belligerent.
And the south is fearful,
and they are afraid that a war will
break out very soon.
So in that talk I said that: "Dear friends.
The danger is not the nuclear weapons.
The danger is the fear.
If you look deeply into the north, you see
the amount, the huge amount of fear.
When the president of the south
visited America, the north may think
that there should be a scheme
to attack the north,
so they are very scared.
And they are doing their best
in order to show that they are not afraid,
that they are ready to fight and to kill.
So, the belligerent attitude outside,
in appearance, shows that there is
a big fear inside.
And if you see that fear, you are not...
– you are not angry them anymore.
And you know that the best thing
is to try to help removing that fear
of the people in the north.
But in order to do that,
you have to remove the fear in you first.
Because you are also afraid.
And that is why a prayer for peace is not enough.
Coming together and praying is not enough.
You have to create –
you have to organise retreats
for politicians, school teachers,
business leaders,
and help them to look deeply,
to calm them down – themselves down,
and to remove their fear by understanding.
And when you are free from fear,
you can help the north to do the same.
So, it's not by political manoeuvring
that you can solve the problem.
It is that kind of practice
that can remove fear and anger in us
that can make us more peaceful
and compassionate.
And when you are more peaceful
and compassionate,
you can help the people
on the other side
to do the same
– to be a real peace maker.
And that is a process we have learned
from the buddhist tradition.
And as north Korea and south Korea,
they have had buddhism
as their spiritual tradition,
we believe that they can
make good use of their tradition
in order to practice
in order to get out of
this difficult situation.
And I think that the same things
should be true here – in the Middle East,
in Europe, in America and so on.
(Half bell)
(Bell)