Buddhist Monk Talks about Peace, Terrorism

The United States should hold “sessions of deep listening” designed to promote understanding between world nations, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh told a crowd of about 1,800 students, faculty and Cambridge residents assembled at Memorial Church on Friday.

The speech was was the largest event featuring a Buddhist speaker ever to take place at Memorial Church, with the line to get in stretching from the main doors of the church all the way to Matthews Hall as early as half-an-hour before the scheduled beginning of the speech.

Several hundred people had to be turned away because of lack of space, according to Dorothy A. Austin, associate minister of Memorial Church and coordinator of the event.

Thich Nhat Hanh—a 75-year old Vietnamese monk, world-renowned peace crusader, author and Zen Buddhist master—was invited as part of the church’s Faith and Life Forum to address issues in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, political engagement through religion and the Buddha’s teachings of mindfulness.

He also commented on America’s need to promote peace in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

“All of us have been victims of wrong perceptions,” he said. “We can remove terrorism from the human heart.”

“When America looks in the direction of other nations and expresses her willingness to listen and to understand the suffering of other people through loving speech, it will create an atmosphere of love and hope,” he said.

Thich Nhat Hanh is internationally known for his “engaged” style of Buddhism, “which seeks to bring Buddhism to bear on issues of social justice,” Austin said in her introductory remarks.

Thich Nhat Hanh has also written extensively on the use of Buddhism to help with personal issues, including depression, and family and relationship issues.

On Saturday, Thich Nhat Hanh held a six-hour retreat for members of the public. Dressed in their traditional gray and brown robes, he and monks from the Maple Forest Monastery and Green Mountain Dharma Center in Hartland-Four-Corners, Vt., led a few hundred individuals in singing, chanting, sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindful eating and relaxation exercises.

Early Saturday afternoon, a line of people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds could be seen circumambulating the Yard following Thich Nhat Hanh in mindful concentration between the church and Widener Library.

It was a sight that greatly impressed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

“Something quite wonderful is happening here, Dorothy,” Austin said Knowles told her. “This is exactly the place where this sort of event should happen.”

Early Saturday afternoon, a line of people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds could be seen circumambulating the Yard following Thich Nhat Hanh in mindful concentration between the church and Widener Library.

It was a sight that greatly impressed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

“Something quite wonderful is happening here, Dorothy,” Austin said Knowles told her. “This is exactly the place where this sort of event should happen.”

Thich Nhat Hanh said he believes that those wishing to help others must first help themselves.

“As social activists, we have to take care of ourselves,” he said. “Do not water the negative seeds of consciousness within—water the positive seeds.”

Buddhist teachings rely on “mindfulness” as a means of finding energy for compassion, a central tenet of the religion.

“Often, we are not really alive because we are not present in the here and now,” Thich Nhat Hanh told the audience.

He emphasized that becoming mindful was a way to promote “insight,” “understanding” and “love.”

Thich Nhat Hanh first became known for his efforts to promote reconciliation in the Vietnam War.

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam,” King wrote in a letter to the Nobel Institute. “His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”

Thich Nhat Hanh has published over 100 books, including the best-seller Living Buddha, Living Christ, an exploration of parallels between the teachings of Buddhism and Christianity.

In 1969, Thich Nhat Hanh established the Unified Buddhist Church, which serves as an umbrella for monasteries and practice centers worldwide.

In 1982, he founded Plum Village, a practice center and monastery in southwest France. He resides there when he is not on tour.

Thich Nhat Hanh was invited to speak at Harvard at the request of the Harvard Buddhist Community, a student organization at the Harvard Divinity School.

Christopher T. Bell, co-chair of the Harvard Buddhist Community and a second-year graduate student at the Divinity School, approached Austin after hearing that Thich Nhat Hanh would be in the Boston area this week.

“I knew that the church was open to that kind of thing,” Bell said, noting that the Dalai Lama was planning to come Harvard this year.

Though Memorial Church has never previously held a Buddhist event of this magnitude, the church has hosted several other talks by practicing Buddhists, including a visit last year by Joseph Goldstein, co-founder of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., and a planned visit by prominent female Tibetan Buddhist Pema Chodron, author of When Things Fall Apart.

Austin said she believes Memorial Church should have a role in promoting Buddhist-Christian dialogue.

“The message is that peace, love and compassion are central to the teachings of Buddha and of Christ, and people of both faiths are engaged in this kind of practice,” she said. “We turn to these teachings from deep within our monastic traditions to give us instruction, practice and a path to practice peace.”

—Staff writer J. Hale Russell can be reached at jrussell@fas.harvard.edu.