Can There be Peace without War?

Summary

The talk was delivered at Deer Park Monastery in the Ocean of Peace meditation hall on the last day of a retreat themed around finding one’s true home. It centered on Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching of interbeing, mindfulness, and the practical application of Buddhist insight in daily life, especially for children, families, teachers, and young people facing anger, fear, and violence. A major emphasis was the importance of breathing mindfully and using the sound of the bell as a reminder to return to the present moment. The speaker encouraged children to remember that they are “the leaves of one tree” and “the stars of one sky,” a reminder that people should not fight one another. When confronted by aggression or provocation, the practice is to breathe in and out, remain peaceful, and avoid reacting with anger. In this framing, not becoming angry is described as a true victory, because it benefits both oneself and the other person. The talk also addressed practical questions from retreat participants, including how to remain mindful while speaking, how to respond to toxic political discourse, how to support grieving families, and how to help children and youth who are overwhelmed by strong emotions. The response was that mindfulness of speaking is itself a valid continuation of mindfulness of breathing, and that deep listening and compassionate speech are essential for healing communication. The speaker stressed that parents and teachers must practice these skills themselves if they want to transmit them effectively to children and students. He also mentioned efforts to work with Google employees to invent devices that could detect rising anger and invite users to breathe, though he emphasized that technology alone is not enough without human practice. A substantial portion of the talk explained the Buddhist principle that peace and war, birth and death, and other apparent opposites inter-are rather than exist as separate, fixed realities. War was described not only as external conflict but also as internal conflict, such as the struggle between competing impulses or the urge to punish when anger arises. Likewise, birth and death were presented as occurring together in every moment: cells die and are born continuously, clouds transform into rain, and a flame does not truly come from nowhere or go nowhere. These examples were used to show that what appears as ending is actually continuation and transformation. The speaker connected this insight to modern science, especially the first law of thermodynamics, to argue that nothing is created or destroyed in an absolute sense. The talk then moved into a detailed explanation of the Noble Eightfold Path and the Five Mindfulness Trainings as concrete expressions of the path of healing and transformation. Right view was defined as insight that transcends dualistic notions such as being and non-being, birth and death, coming and going, and sameness and otherness. Right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right diligence, right mindfulness, and right concentration were all described as practices grounded in non-discrimination, compassion, and the ability to generate healing thoughts, words, and deeds. The speaker highlighted “selective watering” as a method of nourishing positive seeds such as joy, loving kindness, and non-violence while refraining from feeding negative seeds like anger, jealousy, and fear. The talk also outlined the sixteen exercises of mindful breathing, grouped into four tetrads: awareness and calming of the body; generating joy and happiness, and handling painful feelings; recognizing and calming mental formations; and contemplating impermanence, non-craving, nirvana, and letting go. Special attention was given to the practice of belly breathing during strong emotions, with the instruction to stop thinking, bring attention to the abdomen, and remember that emotions are impermanent. This was presented as a life-saving practice for young people, many of whom may feel driven toward self-harm or suicide when they do not know how to handle overwhelming feelings. Finally, the speaker described the three doors of liberation—emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness—as ways to touch ultimate reality and free oneself from fear. Emptiness was explained as the absence of a separate self in all things; signlessness as seeing beyond outer appearances; and aimlessness as releasing craving, including craving for happiness, enlightenment, or nirvana. The talk concluded by affirming that each practitioner can be a cell in the Buddha body, Dharma body, and Sangha body, and that by living mindfully, one becomes a continuation of the Buddha and a light for others.