Dear Thầy, I am an activist in the peace movement. We have a war going on which many people think is unjust. And we are all contributing to the war by our taxes, and by mostly, most people, we are silent in the face of what's going on. And many peace activists around the country think that we're not able to involve enough people into the movement. And there is a despair, and we don't know what to do. So could you help us with that?

We can only stop a war when there is a collective awakening on the part of the population, the people. The war is serving the interest of some people. In one section of the economy, the war helps, like the manufacture of weapons and so on. There are jobs created by the war. So you have to see all these elements.

One thing we can do is to help people to see the suffering of the war, caused by the war. People are busy in their enterprises, in their daily life. They don't have the time to look and to see what is going on. And there are people who keep saying that everything is okay, we are making progress, and so on.

So as an activist, we have to be alert, skillful, in order to overcome these kind of difficulties. We should work for a collective awakening, so that people have a chance to see very clearly that the war is not serving the interest of our country, of mankind. The war has not helped controlling, eradicating terrorism. The war is causing many more people to die every day. And the purpose of the war has not been realized: eradicate, uprooting terrorism, and make people live more safely.

And peace activists may burn out if they don't organize themselves in such a way that compassion, understanding, brotherhood, sisterhood could continue. We might be inspired by the idea of peace, of fighting for the end of the war. But if there is no peace in our heart, there is no harmony among the peace workers, there is no hope. And we can be discouraged.

So for the peace movement, for the peace activists to practice, to take up the practice and to build a strong, harmonious, loving community of peace workers, that is the first step. And if you can do that, many new opportunities will present themselves, and you can mobilize the whole population. If you are divided, if you have despair, you cannot serve, you cannot do anything.

That is why the practice of being peace is at the foundation of the practice of doing peace. Being peace first, and doing peace, that is something that comes from that foundation. I myself have been in peace movements, and I realized that the peace movement is at some time, was at some time very angry, not very peaceful, not enough brotherhood, sisterhood, understanding, mutual understanding, and compassion. So we cannot go very far.

So build up a strong peace movement, you need the practice. And this teaching of the Buddha can help a lot.

[one sound of the bell.]