Thầy teaches that a clear view of true happiness is the ground of right thinking, right speech, and right action, both in our own lives and in political life. Many people believe happiness comes from money, power, fame, and sensual pleasure, yet Thầy points to those who have all of these and are not happy, and shows why understanding is the foundation of love.

He brings this clarity to terrorism. Recalling the days after September 11th, when he and the monastic Sangha helped a large crowd in Berkeley calm their fear and anger before looking deeply, Thầy asks what wrong perceptions lie at the root of the violence, and how we might speak to those who hold them. Thầy shares, “Wrong perceptions and fear and anger cannot be destroyed by bombs.”

With a sheet of paper that has a left and a right side, and the lotus that cannot grow without the mud, he shows how life and death, happiness and suffering, lean on each other. In the same way, the two parties in Congress are like the left hand and the right hand: not enemies, but companions on the road. Thầy describes communication flowing like good circulation in a body, from ourselves to our staff, our committees, our supporters, and the other party.

Recalling the Manifesto 2000, signed by more than seventy-five million people, Thầy notes that people found the time to sign it but not to practice it, and suggests that communities read its points together every fortnight, as monastics recite the trainings. He then reads the Five Mindfulness Trainings in a language that is not Buddhist.

Thầy shares his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King and the beloved community they spoke of, and proposes bringing a spiritual dimension into Congress, so that it becomes a community, with training in the practice for young couples, parents, and teachers.

After the talk, Thầy responds to questions from the audience:

• Do we have to suffer more before our politics can go deeper?
• How can we translate community building into our work in Congress?
• What guidance can you offer us in a new phase of human existence?

In his answers, Thầy tells of returning to Vietnam with two hundred members of the Sangha, and Sister Tùng Nghiêm offers a response on finding the words that open other people’s hearts.

This is the third talk in a series of three given during the Path Towards Peace retreat for members of the United States Congress, in the year 2011. Thầy offered this talk at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, United States of America.