From Vietnam to Iraq, this Zen master has seen it all
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>From Vietnam to Iraq, this Zen master has seen it all
Venkatesan Vembu
Saturday, May 12, 2007 00:00 IST
HONG KONG: Over 40 years ago, at the height of the Vietnam
war, Thich Nhat Hanh learnt cruelly that peacemaking can
be fraught with many perils. Vietnamese Buddhist monks were
burning themselves to death to draw the world's attention to the
suffering of the Vietnamese people. And Nhat Hanh, who travelled
to the US with a message of reconciliation and a call for the
cessation of hostilities, wasn't allowed by the Vietnamese
Communist rulers to re-enter his homeland for the next 40 years!
But it was the exiled Zen Master, who subsequently set up a
monastery in Plum Village in southern France, who inspired
American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr to come out
in opposition against the Vietnam war, and marshalled a moral
force for peace. It is in that same spirit of reconciliation
and compassion that Nhat Hanh today sees the compulsion for an
early end to the Iraq war, which, given the serious military
setbacks for the US, has been dubbed "the other Vietnam".
The 81-year-old Nhat Hanh dwelt at length on Iraq. The war,
he says, was based on a "wrong perception", which in turn
triggered fear and anger. Those two emotions - fear and anger
- are never any good when you're beginning any enterprise,
and increasingly, Americans have begun to realise the folly of
those ways, he observes. "Mr Bush," he points out, "isn't very
popular because of the war in Iraq."
Did he think it was time for spiritual and moral leaders like
him to speak out forcefully against the war, just as they did
40 year ago? "Both America and Iraq have suffered deeply,"
he notes, and recalls that right after the 9/11 attacks, he
gave a public talk in the US counselling against hasty reprise
action. "I hope that there will be an attempt at introspection,
and that the war can end soon."
Nhat Hanh and his sangha of monks and nuns were in Hong Kong
after travelling in Vietnam, where they organised, with the
permission of the Communist leadership, a "healing ceremony"
- of chanting and meditation sessions - as a requiem for the 7
million people who died in the war. It was only the Zen Master's
second visit to his homeland: he was allowed in for the first
time in 2005.
What was it like to be back home? Nhat Hanh says that there is a
need for greater "religious freedom" and "democracy" in Vietnam,
but says that the bigger blessing is to realise that "Vietnam
is at peace". And the people's response to his visit, he adds,
was overwhelming. "Not just Buddhists, but also Catholics,
Protestants and even Communists" - came for the ceremonies,
which served as a process for reconciliation.
During his first homecoming, he noticed that virtually everyone
of his generation had died, and his audiences were mostly the
young - many of whom, growing up in a Communist state, had never
been to a temple before. It led him to the belief that "Buddhism
needs to be renewed: it should provide a new kind of language
to help young people to overcome the suffering within them."
So, would he urge youngsters to stand up for democracy and social
justice in politically repressed societies like Vietnam and Hong
Kong? "In defence of freedom and justice, you should do what
is right, even if it is considered political," he says. But
in a larger sense, everything is political, philosophises the
Zen Master.
"Even the rice you eat is not free of politics, and the coffee
you drink has a political flavour to it.... As for the goods you
consume, perhaps they were made by child labourers, who should
have been at school. And perhaps the products you use were
manufactured at great environmental cost, which doesn't make
for good politics." Each of us, says Nhat Hanh, should be aware
of these factors. Therein, he adds, lies the path to Buddhahood.