Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Thich Nhat Hahn addresses the spiritual contradictions at the heart of peace activism, drawing on his experience surviving war in Vietnam. He argues that anger alone cannot sustain genuine peace work; instead, activists must cultivate non-duality and compassion through meditation and deep understanding of all sides in a conflict. The talk moves from diagnosing why peace movements fragment and fail—taking sides, wielding anger as fuel—to proposing concrete spiritual remedies. He describes the practice of non-violence toward one’s own body as foundational, then envisions each home having a dedicated breathing room where practitioners recover peace when agitated. Finally, he reframes daily life as spiritual practice, teaching children and adults to begin each day with mindfulness so that peace becomes lived reality rather than mere political rhetoric. The teaching blends geopolitical analysis with accessible meditation instruction.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 LD.mp3
UUID: 23a05104-2093-4753-973f-071611801a7b
Teacher: Thich Nhat Hahn
Collection: Looking Deeper – Meditationson Mindfulness thich (Thich Nhat Hahn)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~3,213
It’s very hard to work with the peace movement in this country. And in the peace movement, we have a lot of anger, frustration. And the peace movement is also very divided, deeply divided. Sometimes, in order to do something, needed here a coalition for different kind of organizations of peace here to work together is very difficult. And therefore there must be a coalition in order to to give an impression that the peace movement is big.
But after that, after the demonstration, no real energy is left. And anger, division, hatred is always there. Peace is reconciliation. And reconciliation needs a kind of effort to transcend the conflict in order to accept both sides. It is not to take a side that will help.
It has always been like that. If you are really for reconciliation, for peace, then you have to be for reconciliation. You cannot say that this side is more righteous. Therefore, I am with this side. This is too easy.
You have to accept things are things the way they are first. Transcend the conflict in order to help both sides. Like in the situation of South Africa. You know, not only the black people, they suffer, but the white people, they are scared also. If you are to help, you help both sides.
And there must be a way. You have first to be to encounter the sufferings of both sides. And then you when you understand, you can do a lot of things. The only fact that you can go to one side and tell one side of the suffering of the other side is already very good. And you go to the other side and telling about the suffering of this side, that is already very good.
And we do not have many people who are doing that right now. We only want to take aside. And we make the situation worse and worse all the time. Well, if you are to reconcile two friends, one friend, another friend, and if you take and how can you reconcile? When you take side, you are you get alienated from that side.
And she refused to talk to me. So you have to transcend the conflict and you should be capable of going to this side to this person and this person with a free free attitude, free mind. And if I can get in real touch with you, I understand your suffering. And when I get in touch with you, I understand your real suffering. That kind of understanding is the base of all kinds of peace work and activity.
How many of us are in a situation to be in touch in free touch with? I said that during the war in Vietnam, it is very difficult to not to take sides because you are suspected by both sides and you are killed by both sides. Many of our peace workers in Vietnam, social and peace workers, have been killed by either one side or the other side, because we do not want to identify with any side of the war. But if you cannot hold this kind of line, you are not capable of practicing peace. You have to be peace yourself, And you practice peace.
Not only our government is the product of our way of life, But the government of the other side is also the product of our way of life. Not only President Reagan is the product of your society, but also the of of the the head of the Soviet Union is somehow the product of our way of of of living and their policy. Things are linked to each other. This is like this. That is why death is organized like that.
So there are people in the peace movement that can only use their anger in order to to to as a source of energy for action. If the anger is not there, you are not capable of doing anything. Because there is no energy. You must be angry at something in order to have an energy to work. But compassion is also energy.
But compassion is also a source of action. Compassion is engendered by understanding. And understanding comes from the source of meditation, of looking. There are those who say that, well, if he is just doing the opposite thing that we need, we wish to have a government that is doing the things that we need. So we support one candidate or another candidate.
But when that candidate succeeded in becoming president, forming a government, it will do exactly the same thing. Because the structure of our society is like that. And you may have the impression that if you got into the office of the president, you will do differently. But one, when you are sitting there and if you touch the reality of your country, you will do the same thing. Therefore, Mister Reagan is yourself.
And our way of looking, our way of seeing things is important. And therefore, sitting there, practicing walking, practicing looking in order to see the real nature of interbeing is important. And then by your talents, by your capacity, you make known, you show people how things are and how we should conduct our internal and foreign policy. I think all these things have to be done with a great great deal of patience day after day. If you are a writer, if you are an artist, if you are an educator, well, you have things to do in order to make it clear that there is only one way, only one way to go, to get out of the situation.
That is the way of nonduality. Suppose you have to solve the problem of Nicaragua. And if you really have learned from Vietnam, and then you have to solve the problem of Nicaragua on the base of non duality. You have to get a real dialogue with the other block of people and helping the people in Nicaragua. I know that it is difficult, but also I have said that fighting a war is much more difficult.
And you know that you defeat yourself in advance. So bring all our intelligence, our efforts into solving the problem in a way we see it, the non-dualistic way. And civilization should take a turn. Our way of thinking is important. We have to change drastically our way of thinking.
It’s it’s strange that we just come out of a war that continue to suffer. And I myself have suffered a lot. Many students of mine were killed during the war. A student of mine one day I was in Paris, and I learned that six social workers of mine were assassinated. And as a human being, I cried because they have listened to me and come and served in the Buddhist School of Youth for Social Service.
And a friend of mine who was an American, who was in the peace movement, he said, well, you don’t have to cry, Thay. You are in the army of nonviolent people working for peace. You are a general, and your army has to suffer casualties. I said, no, my friend. I’m not a general.
I just I’m just a friend of these six workers, and you should let me cry. A student of mine who was a monk who is a very good social worker, one day he was walking on the street, and an American soldier on on on a army truck spat on his head. Because in in the mind of that soldier, Buddhism and the Buddhist constitute an obstacle for for America in fighting the war. The Buddhists demonstrated for peace and do things like that. So it harm they harm the war effort.
So that American soldiers saw my student with a shaved head walking slowly on the street, so he spit on his head. And there are so many things like that. That monk came to me and cried and said, Thay, you have to let me go to the National Liberation Front. He was young. I said, my my dear friend, you are not made to hold a gun.
You are made you are made in order to help the starving children, the wounded people, or I know who you are, so therefore continue with your work. He is only a victim of the war like all of us. He’s full of misunderstanding. He’s maybe the victim of propaganda. Because the Catholics in Vietnam also tried to monopolize many of them try to monopolize the anti communist business.
Because some people make profit from the war, you know, and therefore the Buddhist described it as pro communist. And that these words got into the press and got into the brains of American soldiers. And that is why there was they’re spitting on the head of my student. Well, in that situation, if you are not calm, if you do not see things clear, then you can do a lot of bad things. And even so, we can see we could see that American soldiers in Vietnam were the victim of misunderstanding.
If you really wanted to serve the peace movement, you have to bring that spiritual dimension into the peace movement, that vision of interbeing, non duality in the peace movement. That means you have to bring peace to the peace movement. You bring peace to the peace movement by your being peace, your practice of peace, your view, your vision of a peaceful world. And then as individuals with your talent, you will make your people understand because understanding is the basic thing for peace. There’s still a lot of ignorance concerning the situation of the world.
And political scientists, because they do not practice the way of understanding that humans should do, they see things in dualism. So it is you who have to bring to the peace movement that spiritual dimension that will make the peace movement into a real movement. And then the peace movement will not be isolated from the mainstream of people. And you have to bring that vision into society by various kind of arts and expression. I think a revolution in the thinking is necessary.
I said somewhere that the peace movement is very capable of organizing a big meeting or writing very strong and articulate letter of protest. But the peace movement is not yet capable of writing a love letter, a kind of letter that your president or your congressman like to read. Unless you understand him or her, you cannot write a letter that she like to read. Since your your letter proves that you understand, and then you will be listened to. And if you are listened to, your idea will come true.
So writing a love letter is writing a letter of understanding. You know the situation is like that. He has to do like that, but you think, you hope this can be possible and you have an ally. Otherwise, when the letter comes, they identify it as a letter of protest. They will put in a trash can.
And that has happened several times. Although they might be polite enough or skillful enough to give you an answer, but then answer is very formal. It has nothing in it. I hope that the Buddhist peace fellowship will have meetings in order to discuss on how to to to apply this into with our daily life, to propose the way of life that will that will serve to make it clear, to help the people to see this. But one thing is clear to me.
If we continue the ancient way of thinking, we will we will we are going to repeat the same mistakes. Non duality is the word. You are it. You are her. You are him.
This is like this. That is why that is like that. You have to follow that principle if you want to work for peace. For peace in yourself, for peace in the world. Because peace in yourself is peace in the world.
This is because that is. We get to be to to to make peace with our body, because our body is us. Not only with our feeling, with our body. So making peace with your body is very important. You know that you take care of everything else except your tool.
You don’t pay very much attention to to your tools. The next time when you take a shower or a bath, take one toe in your hand with full mindfulness, and realizes being there as a very real toe. It has behaved very well because you know that. You know that as many cells as it has in itself, you have a lot of chances — not chances, but you know cancer can happen to every cell. The growing of a cell in an abnormal way will bring about cancer.
But your toe has been doing remarkably well. And you should be thankful to your toe, because you have been very neglectful to it, and therefore it deserves more attention, more love. So establish relationship, good relationship, peace with your toe and with all your body. You begin with a finger or with a toe, and you see. And If you care to look carefully at your hand, you understand everything.
The joy that you have during your practice should be a joy for your body too, and not only for your mind. And therefore, when you sit, when you practice, if your body does not feel well, and then you have to take care of it. If your body tells you that it has not got enough sleep, you have to listen. And it has many ways of telling you so. The other day during a dharma talk, I saw a number of people do they didn’t listen to their body enough.
They were not very kind to their body. They might regard their body as less important than their mind, but that’s not correct. When I have pain in my muscle, my body is trying to tell me something. Our body has its own language. And to practice meditation means to be aware of what is going on.
If you don’t hear the voice of your body, you are not attentive enough. So take care of your body, listen to it, and attend to it nicely. You have to treat your body with nonviolence. Therefore, nonviolence too should be applied to your body. Sometimes, the pain is unbearable, and you try to be a hero.
You said, well, I have to overcome it. I have to learn from my pain. As if there are not enough pain for you to learn from. You have to create new pain. So non duality leads to non violence.
And you know how to deal with your body and with your feelings. Always non violence. And non duality and non violence always lead to joy and peace. So if the practice has no joy, no peace, it is violent. And if it is violence, it is rooted in duality, not non duality.
So please pay attention. Non duality, non violence, peace. The three cornerstones of correct meditation. And the practice should be a joy. And therefore, sitting is a festival.
Walking is a festival. Eating is a festival. The tangerine is there. The tangerine is always there. In each house, we can set up a room for practicing breathing and smiling and the bell.
I think maybe in our next civilization, each house will have a breathing room. Breathing room. A room where we have we have appointment with ourselves. That’s the best kind of appointment you might have. Next time, if you want to have some time during the day for sitting, breathing and smiling, you can put that time away.
And if someone asks you whether you are free that time, you say, No, I had an appointment. I have an appointment. And you don’t lie to them because that appointment is with yourself. This is the most important appointment in the day. You don’t lie because you really have an appointment with yourself.
But if you don’t have that real appointment, you are not telling the truth. So, in that room, which exists in every civilized home, because we have rooms for everything except a room for ourselves. Because our loved ones, we have to take care of them. A room not big, you don’t need furniture. You need only a few cushions.
And if possible, a pot of flower one flower or a branch of tree a tree symbolizing life, the freshness. And every time you go into that room, you practice happiness, you practice non duality, non violence and joy. You bow to the flower. If you have a beautiful Buddha statue, you you can put on a small table. Otherwise, a flower would be would be enough.
And a small bell. Try to have a bell with a wonderful sound. And you might invite members in the family or a friend to come into that to practice breathing, smiling, having a cup of tea in mindfulness. The best moment. We realize the best moment of our life.
And every time during your daily life you get agitated or irritated. Not being peace. You can think of the room. You go slowly to it. You open the door.
You enter into the world of mindfulness, of peace. You bow to the flower, you sit down, you breathe, you practice the bell until you recover your peace and your happiness. Because when you are angry or agitated, you should not be saying things or doing things. Because saying things or doing things in that context will cause destruction, damage. So every time you feel angry, breathe.
I’m breathing in knowing that I’m angry. And you turn to that room. And once in that room, you sit down, you practice breathing, smiling, contemplating your feeling until you reestablish peace and happiness. And when you know that you are ready to encounter people, you go out of the room. And I think we can teach our children to do the same.
In the morning before going off for school or for your office, you go into that room, you invite the bell to sound once, you practice the bell, some breathing, some smiling, and you you you tell your child to practice the same. Because beginning our day with such peace and joy, we might have a chance to have a real good day. Because wishing people, have a good day, have a good morning, this is only a wish. We should not be satisfied only with wishing. We should really make it a real good day.
And and you may like to wish yourself a true continuation, because walking, looking in the meditation hall, in the breathing room with mindfulness, you may like to continue that outside of the of the breathing room. And you can apply it also in your office. That is why a retreat is a happy event. And at the end of the retreat, we should wish each other a happy continuation.