Just Peace

I’d like to begin with a reading from Thich Nhât Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. This comes from one of his early books entitled Peace Is Every Step.

Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don't have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy.

We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.[1]

I was first introduced to Thich Nhât Hanh in the fall of 1989. My formation as a minister had entered an academic phase when I began studies at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. I had been a Unitarian Universalist since 1975, and in those 14 years had become immersed in congregational life, starting in Columbia, MO, and on to The Woodlands, TX, a suburb of Houston.

One of my favorite professors, Dr. Ruben Habito, taught world religion. He can be described as a Christian Buddhist—or maybe a Buddhist Christian. Ruben was born and raised a Roman Catholic in The Philippines. At the age of 17, having entered the priesthood, he was sent to Japan as a missionary. He stayed 19 years

Some of you know that my husband and I visited Japan about 18 months ago to visit my son Rob, who taught English there for over 2 years. Japan is steeped in religion—Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian. There are shrines on street corners; Buddhist and Shinto temples; Christian churches, all open to tourists and practitioners alike. We often saw individuals making very brief, silent prayers.

About 800 years ago, the Zen sect of Buddhism was brought to Japan from China. Zen teaches that one can achieve self-enlightenment through meditation and discipline.

Jon and I were in Japan for less than 2 weeks; Ruben Habito was there for 19 years. Japanese religion seeped into his bones as he earned a Ph.D. in Buddhism and was authorized as a Zen master in 1988.

He left the priesthood and became a professor at Perkins the same year I began studies there. I quickly enrolled in Ruben’s world religion class where he introduced us to mindfulness.

At the beginning of each class he would lead us in a brief, silent meditation, paying attention only to our breath, letting go of the world weighing on us outside the classroom door. We came to relish that experience of mindfulness, centering ourselves in the present moment.

If you have never meditated before, it is suggested that you follow your breaths or count your breaths. If thoughts arise, treat them as "clouds passing by." Acknowledge them, and let them pass. Focus your attention on your breath or on the counting.

Just count from one to ten, and if you lose count, start with one again. The more common method is to count as you exhale, but find the method that suits you. Count from one to ten, then start the sequence over, and continue this cycle.

Other kinds of meditation include words to help guide you into relaxation. As an experiment, let’s try a guided meditation right now. When I pause, simply pay attention to your breath . . .

Sit comfortably in your chair, clear your lap of anything other than children or your resting hands. Sit tall so your lungs can fill easily with oxygen. Now take a deep, cleansing breath. And again. Now let your breath flow naturally. Notice the feeling of your breath into your nostrils, through your airways, into your lungs, and back out. Just breathe for a few moments, savoring the gift of breath . . .

Notice your body, the feel of the floor and your chair. Let your attention move through your feet and deep into the earth beneath you. Feel the gravity holding you down. . . . Let your attention move up through your legs, your sitting bones, your torso, and out through your fingertips. . . .

Let your attention move back through your arms, into your shoulders, your neck, and your head. . . . Let your awareness extend through your head and into the clouds, into the cosmos. Feel the lightness of your being, soaring in your imagination to heights unknown. . . .

Let your thoughts become clouds passing by; let them be. Let your emotions wash through you; let them be. You are a part of the universe, both unique and united. . . .

Rest in this moment. Memories belong to the past; plans belong to the future. Rest in this moment. . . . Thank you.

Zen meditation is done in silence, but with more formality and the alternation of sitting and walking meditation followed by a formal tea ceremony. Back in seminary, Ruben wanted to start a regular Zen meditation group and I volunteered my dorm room on Wednesday evenings for four months, until we outgrew the space. Beginning in my small room, the new Maria Kannon Zen Center of Dallas was established and continues to thrive. I am pleased to see that Ruben Habito and Barbara Kohn, a Buddhist monk here at the Austin Zen Center, will be doing a workshop together at our UU General Assembly a week from Friday.

It was through Ruben that I first became acquainted with Thich Nhât Hanh, who was born in Vietnam in 1926 and left home as a teenager to become a Zen Buddhist monk.

As a young monk, he was not satisfied to stay within the walls of a monastery living a peaceful life. He founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University and was chairman of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation during the Vietnam War. He and some like-minded friends initiated the movement of Engaged Buddhism in which they combined the practice of mindfulness with the practicality of social work for Vietnamese villagers in the midst of war.

Obviously he has been considered subversive by the governments of Vietnam, because since 1968 Nhât Hanh has lived in exile in France, where he continues writing, teaching, gardening, and helping refugees worldwide. He and 100 monastics and 90 lay people went to Vietnam this year from January through April. This was a trip that took years to negotiate with authorities.

Thousands of followers have visited Plum Village in France, where the teacher they know as Thây resides. In his latest book, Creating True Peace, Nhât Hanh writes:

Years ago in Vietnam, people used to take a small boat out into a lotus pond and put some tea leaves into an open lotus flower. The flower would close in the evening and perfume the tea during the night. In the early morning, when the dew was still on the leaves, you would return with your friends to collect the tea. On your boat was everything you needed: fresh water, a stove to heat it, teacups, and a teapot. Then, in the beautiful light of the morning, you prepared the tea right there, enjoying the whole morning, drinking tea on the lotus pond.[2]

He also writes about four kinds of consumption: edible food, sense impressions, consciousness, and mindful intentions.[3] When we are mindful, we think about the food and drink we take into our bodies. Our bodies have been handed down to us for countless generations. Eating poorly does a disservice to our ancestors and is often passed on to future generations.

Though we must destroy plant and animal life in order to survive, we can reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that damage the environment, harm other humans, and kill other species. We can work toward a more equitable distribution of the world’s food supplies.

The second kind of food Nhât Hanh describes includes sense impressions. We are constantly taking in information through sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. To be mindful is to pay attention to the kinds of conversations and music we hear, news we read, TV we watch, and so on. Sights, sounds, and even ideas can strengthen our sense of peace or our sense of violence.

A third kind of food is consciousness. What nourishes our thinking? An environment of wisdom and compassion will help us support the well-being of society. Mindfulness means that we pay attention to the influences on our conscious and subconscious minds.

A fourth kind of food, mindful intentions, refers to our deepest desire, our goals and motivations for living the way we do. Are we driven by selfish, angry intentions, or do we try to serve others and relieve their suffering? Do we seek fame, profit, and power, or are we content with peace, love, and understanding? It takes a certain amount of introspection to know whether or not we contribute to a more peaceful world.

Okay, that’s all very well and good, but so what? How does this apply to our lives today?

One way it applies is in our summer program for children and youth. My sister Madeleine Trichel is the founding director of the Interfaith Center for Peace in Columbus, OH, and was interviewed by Chuck for his radio show last week. Her Guide to Teaching Peacemaking has been the impetus for all three UU churches in Austin, plus First UU in Columbus, to develop a Summer of Peace. Each church came up with a different format, but it’s exciting to think we’re all on the same general theme of peace.

Our Summer of Peace naturally mirrors our weekly Peace Candles: peace in my heart, in my church, in the world, and in the web of life. Each class will rotate through the Creation room for art, the Expression room for stories and role-play; and the Cooperation room for cooperative games and activities. The High School class has its own schedule of topics related to peace.

The very reason I chose this sermon topic today is because of Jenny Carloye. One part of her vision is that the religious education of children, youth, and adults should coincide from time to time.

We have a lot of role models for peace if we think about it, including Jenny and Patty, who created the Peaceful Planet curriculum used in all our classrooms each fall, and all the teachers and students who have participated in it.

Even as we live in the real world we can nurture the seeds of peace within us. Notice that these beautiful flowers connect us to everything: the sun and rain and air and mud; people who planted, those who picked, packed, shipped, and arranged; _____ who brought them here today; _____ in whose honor they were brought; and all of us who have eyes to see. Flowers will grow, given a chance, in garbage and compost. We, too, can mindfully nurture the seeds already within us—seeds of understanding, respect, and maybe even love.

[1] Thich Nhât Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1991), p. 5.

[2] Thich Nhât Hanh, Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World (New York: Free Press, 2003), pp. 67-68.

[3] Ibid., pp. 78-84.

Just Peace

Rev. Kathleen Ellis

June 12, 2005