How to transform despair into compassion and peace?

(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)