Creating True Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh

The language of necessity, spoken by earnest politicians and faith leaders alike, has saturated public debates about war and peace in this age of terror.  Overflowing our nation's pulpits, bully and ecclesial, has been the passionate argument that preemptive war is necessary--that we have no choice but to strike at terrorists before they attack us with demonic force.   

The pervasiveness of this argument makes Thich Nhat Hanh's book--a magnum opus that marks more than 60 years of peacemaking in the tradition of engaged Buddhism--especially important. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk, argues that "violence is not inevitable." Even in an age of terror "peace is there for us in every moment.  It is our choice." Thich Nhat Hanh is firmly convinced that the condition of peace reflects both our "true nature," with its capacity for understanding and compassion, and the Spirit of God. "When we generate peace, loving-kindness, and understanding in ourselves," he writes, "we are generating the energy of God within us."  

Its emphasis on practices for enacting peace in everyday life make Creating True Peace the best example of practical ethics in recent years. Unlike Christian ethicists, who write only generally about the importance of practices, Thich Nhat Hanh describes the practices of peacemaking specifically, in the kind of detail found in exercise manuals. The practices are deeply Buddhist, ranging from mindful breathing and walking to compassionate listening and speaking to writing love letters and peace treaties, but their Buddhist quality does not make them inaccessible to Christians. On the contrary, the practices are eminently practical for anyone who chooses to be a peacemaker. If they seem inaccessible or even impossible, it is because no one has trained us Christians in the artful details of living peacefully.