People’s Peace Conferences: A Real Roadmap for Peace in the World

Thay offered this teaching on the second day of a retreat for Israeli and Palestinian attendees. His purpose is to lay the foundation for a “peace process” based not upon governmental or political debates–which have failed–but rather upon mutual human needs and shared aspirations. Thay very mindfully builds that foundation for the first hour and twelve minutes of the talk before making his proposal. He starts with an instruction about how to receive this Dharma talk, which is to allow it to fall like rain upon the internal seeds of peace within us.

The talk then focuses upon how to cultivate the seeds of understanding, love, and compassion within ourselves, emphasizing that we only can make peace in the world if peace is within us. It develops in stages then from internal capacity to capacity to give to our loved ones and then outward through Sangha building. These are preparatory for developing the capacity to give deep listening and loving kindness to wider circles of people, ultimately to “enemies.” We must develop the foundation of non-violent responses to our own worry, fear, and anger in order to be able to communicate constructively with perceived adversaries. Thay urges us both to learn to “be ourselves”—our true selves—through individual Dharma practice and, also, to make good use of Sangha when available and “borrow the energy of Sangha” to sustain us when alone. Thay then provides a sketch of Buddhist psychology to emphasize that our happiness depends upon what seeds in our “store consciousness” we water—and allow our children to ingest—and that we are responsible for healthy consumption that does not perpetuate hate and violence.

In order to effect a peace process that has a better chance of succeeding, “We should know the art of selective watering so that we have enough calm, enough peace, enough hope, enough joy in us, so that we can help the other person to cultivate the same and to go home to ourselves and take care of our own garden.” This is the foundation that Thay lays for his proposal for a “real roadmap for peace.” In the remainder of the talk, he reemphasizes some steps in that process, such as: start first with your own inner garden, practice peace with your family loved ones, pacify your own anger, practice deep listening, recognize the other’s suffering, admit your role in it, and, remember, “You are not discussing peace; you are practicing peace.”

This is the second talk in a series of five given during the Israeli-Palestinian retreat in the year 2003. Thầy offered this talk in the Lower hamlet, Plum Village, France.