Submission on behalf of Thich Nhat Hanh to Haass Panel of the Parties in Northern Ireland

8/13/2019 Submission on behalf of Thich Nhat Hanh to Haass Panel of the Parties in Northern Ireland

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Submission to the Haass Panel of Parties in the Northern Ireland Executive 2013

A Proposal by Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, on the occasion of his

visit to Parliament Buildings, Northern Ireland

- Submission to the Panel of the Parties

By the organisers of Thich Nhat Hanh’s visit to Parliament Buildings in April 2012:

Dr Peter Doran, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast & Mindfulness Ireland Sangha

(Belfast).

Bridgeen Rea, Founding Member of Mindfulness Ireland Sanghas in Northern Ireland1.

Thay Phap Lai (Brother Ben)(UK), Senior Teacher in Plum Village2

Thay Phap Dung (US), Senior Teacher in Plum Village

Sr Chan Khong (Sr True Emptiness), Plum Village3

Sr Jina, Abbess, Plum Village4

Mick McEvoy, Mindfulness Ireland Sangha (Belfast)

Martina Cassidy, Mindfulness Ireland (National representative of Mindfulness Ireland5)

ooOoo

And Mary Lynch, Director, Mediation Northern Ireland, Belfast6

1 Mindfulness Ireland is the network responsible for the promotion of mindfulness in the tradition of Thich

Nhat Hanh in Ireland.2 Corresponding Address: Brother Phap Lai, C/O Upper Hamlet

Address: Plum Village Practice Centre: [email protected] & Dr Peter Doran: [email protected]

Phone: +33 (0) 5.53.58.48.583 Founding member, with Thich Nhat Hanh, of Plum Village, and author of Learning True Love: Practising

Buddhism in a Time of War , Parallax Press, 2007. A nun’s journey from Vietnam to France and the history of

Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist community. 4 A native of Ireland

5 Mindfulness Ireland is the network responsible for promoting mindfulness in Ireland in the tradition of Thich

Nhat Hanh.6

Mediation Northern Ireland works with individuals, communities and organisations in the public, private andthird sector to support them to deal with difference and to find non violent resolutions to disputes. See:

http://www.mediationnorthernireland.org/cms/index.php

mailto:[email protected]










The First Mindfulness Training as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh: Openness

Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology,

even Buddhist ones. We are committed to seeing the Buddhist teachings as a guiding means that help us learn to look deeply and develop understanding

and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result is the result of perceiving things

in a dualistic or discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform

dogmatism and violence in ourselves and the world.

Thich Nhat Hanh leading a walking meditation at Parliament Buildings

Introduction

When the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh addressed over one hundred politicians and

representatives of civil society in the Senate Chamber at Parliament Buildings in April

2012, the celebrated Vietnamese Zen practitioner, poet, peace activist and writer

brought with him a profound sense of identification and empathy. He also brought a

proposal or invitation to consider introducing the practice of mindfulness and deep

listening to our engagement with ourselves and others, in the course of building aculture of compassion and peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh has risen to prominence as a great teacher and peace activist as a

result of his own journey out of the Vietnam conflict and onto the road of

transformation 1. In many ways his most compelling message was his own biography

because – in his transformation of his experience of conflict2 – his audience shared a

deep recognition. One of the most remarkable aspects of Thich Nhat Hanh’s adult life is, perhaps, also themost obvious. Out of a cataclysmic experience of war and conflict, enmity and exile, he

has combined a life of contemplation and action to create community. Indeed, out of

great suffering he has created a parable of community4 that is now offered as a gift to others both in terms of its central practice (“mindfulness is the key”) and its vision of a

harmonious common life founded on a shared practice of mindfulness and ethics,

kindness and joyful service informed by a deep insight into the shared destiny and

humanity of all people.




The Second Mindfulness Training: Non-Attachment to Views

Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views.We are committed to learning and practicing nonattachment from views and being open to other’s insights and experiences in or der to benefit from thecollective wisdom. Insight is revealed through the practice of compassionate listening, deep looking, and letting go of notions rather than through the

accumulation of intellectual knowledge. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, andwe will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

Out of his own life experience of conflict, out of his own struggle to respond

authentically and compassionately to his experience of war and suffering, he has

discovered universal resources (notably the centrality of mindfulness for fecund actions

in the world) from which we in Northern Ireland can learn and embody in our own context 5.

That context, in Northern Ireland, is one that is crying out for a mode of being and

qualities of mind that acknowledge our histories and anticipates a future without

allowing either to over-determine and close down the a future without allowing either to

over-determine and to close down the miracles possible in our present day encounters

where there exists an openness and readiness to understand the other.

As an early response to Thich Nhat Hanh’s invitation to explore mindfulness and deep

listening as a path to deepen the spirit and practices of the peace process, his community

of practice (Plum Village) has engaged with local sanghas (intentional communities

aligned to Thich Nhat Hanh’s practice and teaching ), the School of Law at Queens

University Belfast and Mediation Northern Ireland, to develop proposals for a one week

retreat and teaching opportunity toward the end of 2014. The retreat will be offered to

mediators who wish to inform and deepen their practice by integrating deep listening

and mindfulness skills.

Mindfulness Ireland and Plum Village Practice Centre in France are available to supporthealing the past through interventions and retreats/training in the art of mindfulness

practice, deep listening, mediation and reconciliation. Delegates to train in Plum Village

will be given special attention and are welcome year round. Possibilities for training in

Ireland include attendance at ‘Days of Mindfulness’ and at biannual retreats organised

by Mindfulness Ireland and specially organised retreats such as the one being planned in

collaboration with Mediation Northern Ireland. A special two-three day training can be

arranged for Panel members in March 2014 if this is desirable.

As a contribution to the work of the Panel of the Parties we are attaching a text of Thich

Nhat Hanh’s talk as delivered in the Senate Chamber at Parliament Buildings. Let us set

out our reasons for this contribution.




A Deep Recognition

When the then Junior Minister in Northern Ireland’s Office of the First and deputy First

Minister (OFMdFM), Martina Anderson, held up her copy of The Miracle of Mindfulness,

and described how she had begun to practise mindfulness during her years spent as an

IRA prisoner in Durham Prison, there was truly a sense of “living history”.

The Junior Minister was responding to Thich Nhat Hanh on that occasion on Tuesday

17th April after his address in the Senate Chamber at Parliament Buildings on the

outskirts of Belfast, where former combatants and political opponents from across the

once deadly spectrum now serve as legislators and ministers in government. He

addressed an audience of ministers, legislators and a cross-section of representatives of

civil society who have played their own quiet roles in supporting the peace through their

actions in the therapeutic community, spirituality, social activism, regeneration and investment. Mindfulness practitioners from the Buddhist and other traditions were

present, including members of a local ecumenical society dedicated to the work and

memory of Thomas Merton.

Addressing the theme of ‘building peace’, Thich Nhat Hanh or ‘Thay’ as he is

affectionately known laid out his now familiar pillars of mindfulness, reminding us that

‘The Kingdom of God is now or never’. It was when he began to describe how mindful

breathing and mindful walking put us in touch with the wonders of life and support us in

recognising the pain, the sorry, the fears and the anger within us that his words took on

an immediacy in the context of the journey out of conflict. “There is suffering inside

every one of us. And that suffering inside of us may reflect the suffering of our own parents, our ancestors who may have suffered a lot. But because many of them did not

know how to handle, to transform their suffering, that is why they have transmitted

their own suffering to us,” he explained. “That is why it is very important to get in touch

with our suffering, to embrace it, to listen to it, to take a deep look into the nature ofsuffering, and to find out the roots of our own suffering. And our own suffering also




somehow reflects the suffering of the world. That is why, to understand our own

suffering helps us to understand the suffering of other people more easily. The other

people might be another tradition in politics, religion and so on…”

The Third Mindfulness Training: Freedom of Thought Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our view on others, we are determined not to force others, even our children, by any means

whatsoever – such as authority, threat, money, propaganda, or indoctrination – to adopt our views. We are committed to respecting the rights of others to bedifferent, to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however, learn to help others let go of and transform narrowness through loving speech and

compassionate dialogue.

At the heart and soul of Thay’s discourse were two invitations: to visit our own suffering,

individual and collective, in order to unlock the compassion born of understanding, a

compassion with the “power to heal” and which allows us to more easily identify with

the suffering of the other. “And when they see us looking with the eyes of compassion

they feel wonderful, they feel different. They suffer less.” He went on to describe the

other capacities generated by compassion, including the art of gentle, loving speech and compassionate listening, the tools for a new kind of liberation, a liberation of hearts and

minds.

Recalling his proposal after 9/11 for organized sessions of deep listening and workshops

with Palestinians and Israelis in Plum Village, Thay issued a similar invitation in Belfast.

He called for wise and compassionate people to lead sessions of deep listening and loving

speech, and for such sessions to be televised. He offered this suggestion not as a political

solution but as a spiritual practice that has the power to heal and transform and prepare

the ground for political solutions to come more easily. For suffering and happiness in anyrelationship, he reminded us, are never an individual matter. “We are different political

parties and religious traditions but we are on the same boat. We are of the same nation.

If you suffer I will have to suffer. My happiness cannot be based on your suffering and

your happiness cannot be based on my suffering. That understanding can be agreed by

everyone.”




The Fourth Mindfulness Training: Awareness of Suffering Aware that looking deeply at our own suffering can help us cultivate understanding and compassion, we are determined to come home to ourselves, to

recognize, accept, embrace and listen to our own suffering with the energy of mindfulness.

Conclusion

There are repeated calls on individuals to confront sectarianism and overcome division,

but sometimes the we have lacked a source of tools, practices, and the appropriate

language10 that might enable individuals to enter into their own experience of change

while holding and accommodating opposing world views. Themes from the fourteen

Mindfulness Trainings as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing, a

network of practice, directly touch on many of the dilemmas that have accompanied the

‘peace process’, challenging absolutist and received knowledge or certainties in order to

be open to others; encouraging compassionate dialogue; awakening to the suffering of

others; sharing; getting in touch with what’s wondrous, refreshing and healing within

and around us; losing no time to be reconciled and to resolve conflict; selflessly speaking

out against injustice; and pursuing all this in a spirit of mindful practice:




Some Themes from the Mindfulness Trainings

Relevance to qualities of mind and heart that

we might cultivate as a contribution to the

political processAware of the suffering created by fanaticism and

intolerance...We will train ourselves to look at

everything with openness.

This training offers mindfulness as a practice that

might help to interrupt individual and collective

habits of thought and action subject to

historical/teleological over-determination.

Non attachment to views A contribution to moving towards a deeper

listening to and confidence in the collective

wisdom, through compassionate listening. This

might contribute to a deepening of individual

and collective capacities for co-determination of

the future, more rooted in the felt experience of

the present moment.Freedom of thought and acknowledgement of

the suffering that arises from imposing our views

on others.

This is a deep insight that refers not only to

physical violence but to the inner violence that

results from an anti-dialogical disposition that

lacks attention to loving-speech and

compassionate dialogue.

Awareness of suffering, including our own

suffering as the transformative path to

understanding the roots of our suffering and that

of others.

If victims and perpetrators are to use their

experience as a catalyst for transformation

perhaps there are practices to cultivate a deep

form of mindful listening (individually and

collectively) that can go to an understanding of

the roots of suffering that is shared andliberating.

Compassionate and healthy living The cultivation of wellbeing and practices that

nourish body and mind can contribute to the

overcoming of our shared trauma and support

the emergence of qualities that may support the

challenge of co-authoring an uncertain future

grounded in universal values of solidarity and

compassion.

Taking care of anger in order to unblock

communication, and understanding the anger in

ourselves and others by identifying wrongperceptions and foregrounding relationships.

Acknowledging the impermanence of all

existence, we come to value and relate

differently to all beings in the present moment.

Historical layers of antagonism have led to fixed

and virtuous claims and counter-claims in which

communities and nations have lost sight of theirindebtedness to one another. Cultures of

commemoration and fixation have undermined

openness and the liberation of true dialogue and

creativity, the kind of creativity and hybridity

that informed the establishment of the Good

Friday Agreement/Belfast Agreement. How can

we cultivate practices that extend the spirit of

the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement into day-to-

day practices in our civic and political

relationships? Mindful listening and mediation

can be a starting point.




Further reading and listening

For BBC Coverage of Thich Nhat Hanh’s visit see:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17759031

For a full version of Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk and the responses from various political

representatives go to: https://soundcloud.com/peterdoran-1/thich-nhat-hanhs-address-

in

For a video recording of Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk in the Senate Chamber at Parliament

Buildings, go to: http://vimeo.com/51181552

The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh and his Order ofInterbeing:http://plumvillage.org/mindfulness-practice/the-fourtee-mindfulness-

trainings/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17759031


https://soundcloud.com/peterdoran-1/thich-nhat-hanhs-address-in




http://vimeo.com/51181552










1 The French-Indo China War was a colonial struggle that led to the partitioning of Vietnam. The colonial context, the manipulation by external geopolitical actors, religious discrimination (under the Diem regime) and conflicted identities are experiences Thay shares with aspects of the contested history of Ireland, North and South.

2 It is interesting to recall that Thay struggled with a suspicion about an identity imposed by society and his

own sense of a ‘true self’ (emptiness); this struggle is partly reflected in the tension felt in Northern Ireland between public identities (‘nationalist’ and ‘unionist’) that are often perceived as ‘sectarian’ and private aspirations to identities that can also be inclusive, generous and conducive to dialogue. At the root of Thay’s teachings are insights about holding our identities in a new way, (in)formed by inter-being and drawing on a deeper sense of freedom than that predicated on the assertion of identity and history. 3 Even the chronology of Thay’s life – emergence into activism and struggle with his response to the conflict in

Vietnam – coincides with the contemporary origins of the political conflict in Northern Ireland, during the mid- and late 1960s. Indeed, the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland drew directly from the influences of campaigns and tactics witnessed in Europe and North America. 4 When Thay is asked to talk about himself (his biography) he will often invite the questioner to look to his

community. For Thay the community he has helped to shape is now inseparable from his own identity. 5 Thay’s participation in Buddhist reform was animated by the insight that our religious impulse cannot be

satisfied by exposure to derived teachings alone, but must involve an engagement with the suffering and reality of our own contemporary context. What form does our suffering take in this place, today? Ethical language to accompany the demands of our time. When visiting the United States in 1966, Thay’s position on the war led to accusations of treachery from both sides in the war. Similarly, in Northern Ireland, it has been extremely difficult – and at times risky – to articulate ‘non-aligned’ positions on the conflict. 7 E.g. For Irish Republicans the ‘peace process’ and its institutions are often presented, instrumentally, as the

means to an inevitable outcome in the form of a unified island. For many Unionists, the institutions are regarded more defensively, as the bulwark that will forever protect the integrity of the United Kingdom. 8 The continuing ideological battle, especially that between extreme forms of unionism and nationalism,

perpetuate attempts in the public realm to vindicate past actions and positions. This dynamic can conflict with the felt need among many, including former combatants, for opportunities to re-examine their past actions with a view to taking responsibility and seeking forgiveness. 9 Hershock (2005) on Chan Buddhism.

10 The peace process has coincided with a period of great difficulty for the Catholic Church, which has

experienced a dramatic loss of authority. In a wider sense, the churches have struggled to remain relevant in the lives of ordinary people who might, once, have looked to them for a stronger sense of leadership.




Transcript of Thay’s address to the Stormont Senate Chamber,

Belfast, Tuesday 17th

April, 2012

“Thank you so much for your welcome. Distinguished members of the House, Distinguished guest

and friends, I am sure that all of you agree with me that we need a spiritual dimension in our daily

life in order to be able to overcome difficulties and meet challenges whether we are political

activists or peace activists, business leaders, school teachers or health professionals or police officers

we need a spiritual dimension in our life. I have offered retreats of mindfulness to members of

parliament to business leaders to school teachers to health professionals and we have found out

that this practice of mindfulness can help people in the effort to restore themselves and how to get

the nourishment and healing that they need in order to continue and I would like to share some of

our experiences with you here today.

We need a spiritual practice in order to take care of our body of our feelings and of our perceptions,

our emotions so that we can respond with clarity, compassion and loving kindness. When we

breathe in mindfully, when we focus our attention on our in breath and our out breath we can

release the past, the future, our projects and come in touch with our body again and we become

freer just by one in breath and one out breath made in mindfulness. When I bring my mind back to

my body just by breathing in mindfully I feel new possibilities arise and I feel that I have more

freedom. There are many ways to respond to the same challenge. The practice of mindful breathing

can help me connect to my body; help me to recognise that I have a body which is a wonder. If we

spend too much time with our computer we may forget that we have a body and become alienated

from our body. That will be the source of sickness and stress and so on, so it is very important to

from time to time go back to our body and connect with our body. If we can connect with our bodywe can connect with the earth, Mother Earth and connect with all the elements that are very

refreshing and healing in us and around us, it’s very important. It is a very simple practice but it can

help tremendously.

When I go back to my body I may notice that there is stress, there is tension, and there is pain in my

body. I may have allowed tension and pain to accumulate a lot in my body. So when I go back to my

body by the way of mindful breathing and mindful walking I feel I need to help my body to release

the tension. So by breathing out, smiling I can allow the tension in my body to be released. That I can

do whilst sitting in my office, or in my car, at any time of the day. I do not have to put aside time for

my spiritual practice. This type of practice can be taken at any time of day whether you are washingyour teeth, you are washing your dishes or you are driving your car. To be mindful of what is going

on, to be mindful of your in breath and out breath is always possible.

To release the tension in my body, I can do this several times a day. Many of our Brothers and Sisters

in the community they program a Bell of Mindfulness in their computer and every quarter of an hour

they hear the Bell of Mindfulness, they stop working, stop thinking. They begin to breath in an out

and release the tension and smile to their body and begin to connect with the wonders of life that

are available in the here and in the now. In this practice we know that the kingdom of God is not

something in the future elsewhere but it is right here and now. When I get in touch with a flower,

deeply, I know the flower belongs to the Kingdom of God. If I am in touch with the flower deeply Iam in touch with the Kingdom of God. In this practice we notice that the practice is now or never




and we know that our body also belongs to the kingdom of God and that is why breathing in,

breathing out mindfully we come home to the present moment which is place where life is available

because the past is already gone and the future is no yet there. Only the present moment contains

life and possesses all the wonders of life. That is why my practice of mindful breathing of mindful

walking will bring me home to the here and the now to those things that are healing, nourishing,that belong to the kingdom of God. I know it is possible to live happily right in the here and the now.

I do not have to wait until the future in order to start living. So generating a feeling of joy, generating

a feeling of happiness is possible with mindful breathing, mindful walking. Many of the members of

the Congress in America, they know the practice of mindful walking and breathing. We have offered

two retreats of Mindfulness in Capitol Hill. There are those who say that between their office and

the place where they cast their vote, they always practice walking meditation. Mindful of every step

and allowing their mind to stop thinking completely. This helps them survive their hectic lives by

such a practice, mindful breathing and mindful walking. We need a little bit of training in order to get

used to the practice and we can release the tension, get in touch with the wonders of life, getting

the nourishment and healing at any time thanks to this simple practice. Also when we go home to

ourselves we have the opportunity to notice there may be a painful feeling, a painful emotion. The

practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking can help us to recognise the pain, the sorrow, the

fear, the anger in us and help us to recognise it, help us to embrace it tenderly in order to bring a

relief, to calm it down. When we are with our body, we can release the tension in our body and calm

our body down. There is more peace in our body after a few minutes of practice. So the same thing

is true with our painful feelings, our strong emotions. If we know how to generate the energy of

mindfulness and peace by breathing mindfully, by walking mindfully we have that energy in order to

embrace our pain, our sorrow, our fear our anger and get a relief after a few minutes.

Most people in our society do not like to go back to themselves because when they go back to

themselves they will have to encounter the bloc of pain, fear, sorrow or anger in them and it is not

pleasant. That is why most of us try to run away from ourselves from our own suffering. Or we may

like to cover up the suffering inside by consuming. We consume television, conversation, books,

novels, music. It is not because we like these things very much but because we can’t bear, we do not

know how to handle the suffering inside that is why we need those items provided by the market. So

this practice offers us another alternative. If you know how to breathe in mindfully or walk mindfully

you may generate an energy of mindfulness and peace and with that you can go home to yourself

without fear and you have the capacity to recognize the fear the sorrow, the pain, the anger and

embrace it tenderly and after a few minutes of practice you can get a relief. There is more peace;there is more capacity to be in touch with the wonders of life that are available in and around us.

Getting in touch with the suffering inside is a very important practice. There is suffering inside of

every one of us and that suffering may reflect the suffering of our own parents, our own ancestors.

Our parents, our ancestors may have suffered a lot. But as many of them did not know how to

handle this, to transform it, that is why many of them have transmitted us their own suffering and

that is why sometimes we suffer and we don’t know why we suffer like that. So it is very important

to get in touch with the suffering, to embrace it, to listen to it, to have a deep look into the nature of

suffering in order to find out the cause, the roots of our own suffering. Our suffering somehow also

reflects the suffering of the world. That is why to understand our own suffering helps us tounderstand the suffering of the other people much more easily. The other people in the other




So that is the kind of speech that we can use when there is compassion in our heart and that will

change the whole situation. The other person will open his heart, her heart and tell you truth. Then

you have a chance to practice compassionate listening. Compassionate listening is the kind of

practice that has the power to heal. Heal yourself and heal the other person.

Compassionate listening is the kind of listening that is conducted with the mindfulness of suffering.

Mindfulness of suffering means that you are aware that there is suffering in him or in her. Listening

like this you have only one purpose to allow him/her to speak out so they can suffer less. If during

the time you listen you keep that kind of awareness alive then you are protected. What the other

person says will not touch the anger, the irritation in you because you are protected by compassion.

Even if his speech is full of wrong perception, full of accusation, anger, blame. You can still continue

to listen with compassion because you are protected by the energy of compassion just because you

know how to protect that kind of awareness. I listen to him with only one purpose that is to speak

out and help him have the chance to suffer less. Then even if he has a lot of wrong perceptions, even

if he has a lot of anger I still continue to listen. I will not interrupt him/her or them. Maybe later onin a few days I will have the chance to offer him/her or them some information so that they will

correct the perceptions but not now. Now is only compassionate listening. To listen like that for one

hour is very healing. Whether that person is our partner, our son, our daughter, our father, our

colleague or even another group even if they are terrorists.

When the event of September 11th

happened I was in America. That event took place only five days

after the publication of my book, ‘Anger’. The whole country of America was overwhelmed by the

feelings of fear and anger. I think acting on the basis of fear and anger is very dangerous. I was

scheduled to speak in Berkley for 4,000 people and what I did was to conduct a session of breathing

in and out to calm the emotion of fear and anger. Then I propose that we have to keep our calm andstart that kind of deep listening. I propose this. I propose that America can organise sessions of deep

listening and they can address the people they think to be the enemies and say something like this.

‘Dear people over there you have done such an awful thing to us. You must be very angry. You must

have suffered a lot to have done such a thing to us. We do not know why you have done such a thing

to us. Have we done anything to make you that angry? Have we tried to destroy you as a people, as

a religion, as a culture? It is not our intention to do that. Maybe we have done something. Maybe we

have had said something that gave you the impression that we want to destroy you as a people, as a

culture, as a religion but in fact we do not have that intention. We may have been unskilful about

what we said or done in the past, so please tell us we will listen to you with all our heart. If we havecommitted some unskillfulness tell us, we will apologise.’

So we can organise sessions of listening like that. Invite the people in our society who are considered

wise, in the spiritual traditions and otherwise. Then we might televise these kinds of sessions of

deep listening and loving speech in order for the whole nation to follow. This practice of deep

listening and loving speech can be healing and remove the fear and the anger and put us in a much

safer condition. You know the war in Iraq was started with that feeling of fear and anger and many

millions of human lives were destroyed just by that. That is why it is very important that we practice

so that we can understand our own suffering. You can see the suffering of the other person, that we

can start dialogue with the practice of deep listening and loving speech. That we can restorecommunication and begin the process of healing. In Plum Village, France were we live and practice




we have sponsored sessions of practice inviting groups of Palestinians and Israelis to come and

practice with us. We support them in their practice. When they first come both groups have a lot of

anger, fear and suspicion and strong emotion. So the practice for the first week is to just to help

them to walk, to breathe, to sit in such a way that can help them to calm down. They are feeling

their own emotion. For the second week we initiated them into the practice of deep listening,compassionate listening. Each group is requested to use loving speech and tell the other group

about their suffering. Suffering endured by the children and the adults. You have to tell them

everything about your own suffering and difficulties. The other group is using deep listening,

compassionate listening, and mindfulness of compassion in order to listen. The outcome is that this

group whilst listening realised for the first time that the other group, they have suffered almost

exactly the same kind of suffering that ‘we have’ children and adults. They begin to see the other

group as human beings and they for the first time begin to look on them with eyes of compassion.

They suffer less and the other group suffer less also. They know that there are wrong perceptions on

both parts. But that kind of dialogue helps us to very much recognise that they are wrong

perceptions, all wrong perceptions. We have plenty of time later on to help offer each other

information to help remove wrong perceptions and let the healing take place. Both groups begin to

share a meal together in mindfulness, do walking meditation together, holding hands. Brotherhood

and sisterhood become possible understanding, with compassion and understanding of the

suffering. They always come together at the end as one group and report to us about the success of

their practice. They always express the wish to continue the practice by forming groups in their local

areas.”

Ends Here.




Annex: A note on Thich Nhat Hanh7

The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master, poet, scholar, peace activist and renowned teacher of

mindful living is best known for his opposition to the Vietnam war, efforts that led to his nomination

by Dr Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace Prize. For his efforts in opposing the war he came

close to losing his own life in a grenade attack and lost a number of monastics and fellow activists to

the war. In one infamous incident, on 4 July 1966, a band of masked men rounded up five of Nhat

Hanh’s social workers on a river bank and shot them, killing four. Their killers said: “We are sorry,

but we are forced to kill you”. Recently, his monastics in Vietnam, at Bat Nha, have also suffered

persecution at the hands of Vietnamese authorities.

Nhat hanh has spent many years in exile, in France, where he founded the mindfulness practice

centre of Plum Village in France for monastics and lay people. He also has a number of centres in the

United States and affiliated monastic centres in Asia. He describes mindfulness, or meditation, as the

energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching

life deeply in every moment of daily life. An acknowledged Buddhist scholar and celebrated writer

on Buddhist ethics, Nhat Hanh has written over one hundred books linking mindfulness to political

themes such as ‘power’, ecological responsibility and consumerism.

Next to the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, is probably the best known and most respected Buddhist

master in the world today. Born in central Vietnam in 1926, Nhat Hanh was ordained a Buddhist

monk at the age of sixteen. Taking inspiration from Gandhi, Nhat Hanh led a range of nonviolent

forms of struggle, including fasting, using literature and the arts as ways to challenge oppression. He

coined the term ‘Engaged Buddhism’ to describe his merger of contemplation with social activism.

In June of 1966, Nhat Hanh challenged Martin Luther King to take a stand against the War in

Vietnam. It was an important meeting for Dr. King. Some months after King’s meeting with Thich

Nhat Hanh, on April 4th, 1967 — exactly one year before he was killed — King finally came out

against the war in Vietnam, giving one of his most eloquent, powerful, and prophetic speeches. His

speech was entitled, “Beyond Vietnam.”

.

7 First published on www.sluggerotoole.com, a Northern Ireland political blog site.

http://www.plumvillage.org/thich-nhat-hanh.html



http://www.uumilwaukee.org/sites/default/Files/sunday_services/Past_sermons/08_Thich_Nhat_Hanh___MLK.pdf



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhzZdwfGQk8



http://www.plumvillage.org/



http://www.plumvillage.org/mindfulness-trainings/3-the-five-mindfulness-trainings.html



http://www.parallax.org/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U



http://www.sluggerotoole.com/











Submission on behalf of Thich Nhat Hanh to Haass Panel of the Parties in Northern Ireland

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Transcript of Submission on behalf of Thich Nhat Hanh to Haass Panel of the Parties in Northern Ireland