1
00:00:01,757 --> 00:00:03,626
(Bell)

2
00:00:06,792 --> 00:00:12,088
(Bell)

3
00:00:33,302 --> 00:00:36,492
What is the hardest thing
that you practice?

4
00:00:39,498 --> 00:00:44,788
That is not to allow yourself
to be overwhelmed by despair.

5
00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:47,773
That is the hardest thing.

6
00:00:48,430 --> 00:00:51,232
Because when you are
overwhelmed by despair,

7
00:00:51,419 --> 00:00:54,520
that is the worst thing
that can happen to you.

8
00:00:56,635 --> 00:01:00,031
I remember when the war was going on.

9
00:01:01,707 --> 00:01:07,301
We did not see the light

10
00:01:09,602 --> 00:01:12,161
at the end of the tunnel.

11
00:01:12,398 --> 00:01:16,600
It seemed that the war
would go on and on forever.

12
00:01:17,952 --> 00:01:22,106
The young people
came and asked:

13
00:01:22,421 --> 00:01:24,187
'Dear Thay,

14
00:01:24,407 --> 00:01:27,661
do you think that
the war will end soon?'

15
00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:33,574
It is very difficult to answer.

16
00:01:33,854 --> 00:01:38,326
Because you have not seen the light
at the end of the tunnel.

17
00:01:38,980 --> 00:01:41,472
But if you say: 'I don't know',

18
00:01:41,789 --> 00:01:50,796
then you water
the seed of despair in them.

19
00:01:55,105 --> 00:02:00,064
So Thay had to
breathe in and out a few times

20
00:02:00,564 --> 00:02:02,524
and then what he said was:

21
00:02:02,787 --> 00:02:04,425
'Dear friends,

22
00:02:04,641 --> 00:02:08,041
the Buddha said
that every thing is impermanent.

23
00:02:08,221 --> 00:02:11,770
The war should be impermanent also.

24
00:02:12,144 --> 00:02:14,486
It should end some day.

25
00:02:14,674 --> 00:02:17,987
Let us continue to work for peace.'

26
00:02:19,242 --> 00:02:21,365
During the war,

27
00:02:21,586 --> 00:02:26,756
we, young nuns and monks,
and lay practicioners

28
00:02:27,128 --> 00:02:31,290
we organized the School of
Youth for Social Service

29
00:02:32,155 --> 00:02:36,626
like the Peace Corps
created by John F. Kennedy.

30
00:02:37,547 --> 00:02:41,286
We went into the war zone
and we helped the wounded people.

31
00:02:43,742 --> 00:02:48,735
We helped create refugee centers,

32
00:02:49,047 --> 00:02:54,293
we gave them a chance
to go back to normal life.

33
00:02:56,173 --> 00:03:00,897
We rebuilt the villages
that had been bombed.

34
00:03:03,836 --> 00:03:06,748
There was a village called Tra Loc

35
00:03:06,894 --> 00:03:10,911
not very far from the demilitarized zone

36
00:03:11,624 --> 00:03:14,269
separating North and South.

37
00:03:15,275 --> 00:03:20,236
The village of Tra Loc was bombed,
completely destroyed.

38
00:03:21,168 --> 00:03:23,561
Our young social workers,

39
00:03:23,763 --> 00:03:27,145
including monks and nuns
and lay practitioners,

40
00:03:27,314 --> 00:03:30,837
they had rebuilt the village.

41
00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,332
But it was bombed again
and destroyed again.

42
00:03:37,399 --> 00:03:40,835
And our social workers wired us

43
00:03:41,606 --> 00:03:45,593
and asked whether
they should rebuild it.

44
00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:48,767
We said: 'Rebuild it'.

45
00:03:49,119 --> 00:03:51,143
And we rebuilt it.

46
00:03:51,329 --> 00:03:53,600
And it was bombed again.

47
00:03:55,515 --> 00:03:57,263
Four times.

48
00:03:58,497 --> 00:04:00,392
If we gave up,

49
00:04:01,628 --> 00:04:04,744
that would create a feeling of despair.

50
00:04:04,939 --> 00:04:11,298
That is why we kept
rebuilding it and rebuilding it.

51
00:04:11,743 --> 00:04:15,507
So the hardest thing is
not to lose your hope,

52
00:04:16,323 --> 00:04:19,017
not to give up, to despair.

53
00:04:19,199 --> 00:04:21,572
That is the hardest thing.

54
00:04:21,792 --> 00:04:25,600
We have gone through
two wars like that.

55
00:04:28,500 --> 00:04:33,430
We saw French soldiers came,
killed and get killed.

56
00:04:34,681 --> 00:04:38,468
We saw young Americans came
and killed and get killed.

57
00:04:38,651 --> 00:04:44,037
50.000 young Americans
were killed in Vietnam.

58
00:04:44,819 --> 00:04:50,942
Hundred of thousands of them were wounded

59
00:04:52,544 --> 00:04:56,911
and many had to be cared
by psychotherapists and so on.

60
00:04:57,183 --> 00:05:01,655
In a situation of
utmost suffering like that

61
00:05:01,932 --> 00:05:05,756
if we don´t have a practice
we cannot survive.

62
00:05:07,281 --> 00:05:09,759
We practice in such a way

63
00:05:09,967 --> 00:05:17,114
that we can preserve
our hope and our compassion.

64
00:05:25,061 --> 00:05:31,341
When the journalists
asked us questions about that,

65
00:05:31,830 --> 00:05:36,621
about how do we felt
about young Americans coming

66
00:05:40,110 --> 00:05:43,986
and killed and died in Vietnam,

67
00:05:44,497 --> 00:05:48,227
we said: 'They are victims,
we don't hate them.

68
00:05:49,342 --> 00:05:54,453
They are victims of a kind of policy
that is not very intelligent.

69
00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:59,709
A policy based on fear.

70
00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:11,320
Fear of the taking by the communists
of the whole South East Asia.

71
00:06:16,373 --> 00:06:18,055
They are victims.

72
00:06:18,232 --> 00:06:20,560
They have to come here
to kill and to die.'

73
00:06:21,184 --> 00:06:24,121
You understand,
so you are not angry at them.

74
00:06:27,428 --> 00:06:34,561
In 1966, Thay was invited
to come to America.

75
00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:45,575
He had the chance to talk
to the American people about the war.

76
00:06:47,851 --> 00:06:53,033
There was a very angry young American

77
00:06:53,592 --> 00:06:58,025
who stood up
and told Thay this:

78
00:06:59,641 --> 00:07:01,640
'You should not be here.

79
00:07:01,871 --> 00:07:08,175
You should go back and fight
American imperialism in Vietnam.

80
00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,814
You have to kill
the American soldiers there.'

81
00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:15,936
Thay's answer was:

82
00:07:16,221 --> 00:07:19,600
'I thought that
the root of the war is here.

83
00:07:19,808 --> 00:07:22,148
It is not in Vietnam.

84
00:07:22,633 --> 00:07:26,013
The young Americans
who came in Vietnam

85
00:07:26,215 --> 00:07:28,543
they are just victims.

86
00:07:28,793 --> 00:07:31,374
So I had to come here
and tell the American people

87
00:07:32,246 --> 00:07:35,848
that this war
is not helping Vietnam at all.'

88
00:07:37,033 --> 00:07:41,834
So without that kind of
understanding and compassion,

89
00:07:43,576 --> 00:07:48,292
you will lose yourself
in anger and hate.

90
00:07:48,607 --> 00:07:51,256
And you will not be able
to say things like that

91
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:53,776
and help the American people understand

92
00:07:53,942 --> 00:07:58,868
and change the policy.

93
00:08:06,099 --> 00:08:12,903
There was a peace movement in America
oposing the war in Vietnam.

94
00:08:21,678 --> 00:08:25,414
As people demanded peace
and did not get it,

95
00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:27,991
they got very angry.

96
00:08:28,506 --> 00:08:31,573
So there was a lot of anger
in the peace movement.

97
00:08:33,951 --> 00:08:36,991
And when Thay toured America
and talked to these groups,

98
00:08:37,151 --> 00:08:40,473
Thay said: 'If you have
a lot of anger in you

99
00:08:40,634 --> 00:08:42,425
you cannot touch the peace.

100
00:08:42,588 --> 00:08:45,175
You have to be peace
before you can do peace.

101
00:08:48,232 --> 00:08:51,236
Understanding is very important.

102
00:08:51,448 --> 00:08:55,491
You need to know
how to write a love letter

103
00:08:56,456 --> 00:08:59,135
to your president, to your Congress,

104
00:09:00,022 --> 00:09:03,560
and tell them that
you don't support the war.

105
00:09:03,770 --> 00:09:07,529
If you write a strong, angry letter,

106
00:09:07,860 --> 00:09:09,880
they will not read it.'

107
00:09:09,979 --> 00:09:13,360
Thay was able to speak like that

108
00:09:13,615 --> 00:09:18,244
and help somehow to end the war.

109
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,294
Understanding suffering

110
00:09:27,813 --> 00:09:31,784
helps compassion to be born in you.

111
00:09:34,198 --> 00:09:38,194
You will be free
from despair, from anger,

112
00:09:38,324 --> 00:09:40,713
and you can help the cause of peace.

113
00:09:42,406 --> 00:09:44,204
(Bell)

114
00:09:47,493 --> 00:09:53,685
(Bell)