“The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace”. Thich Nhat Hanh

     There is much unease in the world with all the changes. Feelings of anxiety, nervousness, anger and frustration  related to uncertainty and unpredictability arise at times. This catapulted me to start thinking about peace. When I think about peace, my mind goes to the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, the late Buddhist Vietnamese monk, famous peace activist, prolific writer, spiritual leader, teacher and scholar. I have read his profound books and watched his interviews. He embodied peace and calmness.   He is described as ‘living peace’. Yet, as a young Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh faced a world on fire with horrendous violence, bombings and destruction in his homeland because of war in Vietnam.    In introducing Thich Nhat Hanh’s (1967) book, “Vietnam: Lotus in the Sea of Fire”, Kosen Gregory Synder wrote that Thich Nhat Hanh, known as “Thay”, to his students and friends, developed practices of peace in the fires of war. I am deeply puzzled and baffled by how Thich Nhat Hanh learned to transform his experiences of pain and suffering into peace. One explanation for this is provided by Synder. Synder described Thay as a manifestation of an awakened “bodhisattva in our time”. In Mahana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is an enlightened being, who can reach nirvana, but delays it so that he/she can help suffering beings. Thay’s books have certainly helped me profusely.

     Thay, like other monks, had to grapple with helping people and protesting the war, as well as, practicing the contemplative life during the war in Vietnam. He did both and formulated the movement of “engaged Buddhism”, which highlights inner transformation to help individuals and communities. Thus, in following the principles of engaged Buddhism, one must eliminate violence, hatred and anger in one’s consciousness, before one tries to reduce these elements in society. Socially engaged Buddhism refers to applying the Buddhist teachings to contemporary situations, (economic, political, cultural etc.)   to reduce suffering. According to Synder, Thay (1967) noted that socially engaged Buddhism is highlighted by a villager’s statement, “The Buddha no longer sits in the temple all the time. The Buddha goes out to the people” (p.xvi).

     In places of conflict, our priority is to seek safe places externally. Then, we must think about cultivating spaces of safety within. Internal places of peace, rest and restoration. In this post, I will be writing some thoughts on cultivating inner peace by examining the writings of Thay. Thay is credited with introducing the concepts of Buddhist mindfulness to the west. Western psychology has integrated mindfulness techniques in evidence-based treatment protocols, like Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).  In addition to mindfulness, I will look at other psychological concepts in cultivating peace, like regulation and Internal Family Systems. As socially engaged Buddhism postulates, one has to transform one’s inner violence, anger and hatred before changing social issues. One cannot have seeds of consciousness marked by hatred and anger and hope to positively impact social issues. I believe that Thay’s peace activism was so powerful because he utilized principles of engaged Buddhism.  

 

THICH NHAT HANH

     Who was Thay? Thay started out as a Buddhist monk at the age of 16 and was one of the first monks to study secular topics at university in Saigon.  Thay’s writing is elegant and profound. He was fluent in Vietnamese, English, French and very familiar with classical Chinese, Pali and Sanskrit.   In 1961, Thay came to the United States to study comparative religion at Princeton Theological Seminary and then taught and did research on Buddhism at Columbia University. He also taught at Union Theological Seminary. He lobbied with western leaders to end the war in his country. Thay came to the west as a humanitarian asking for the ending of the suffering of people in Vietnam. Among his many accomplishments, he founded the La Boi Publishing House, the Van Hanh Buddhist University, the School for Youth for Social Services (Buddhist peace workers, who rebuilt clinics and schools throughout villages) and the international Plum Village community. In nominating Thay for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to him as “Apostle of peace and nonviolence”

     Thay’s views on cultivating peace is summarized by his words, “the way out is in”.  Thay’s views are consistent with the concept of change from the inside out.  I love Thay’s quote “The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace”. So, what are some tools to walk in peace when facing changes and the mind is bombarded with thoughts and feelings, colored by uncertainty, fear of the unknown, anger, hatred, frustration, and exhaustion? One such tool is the practice of mindfulness, which, Thay is credited with bringing to the west.

MINDFULNESS: “COOKING OUR POTATOS”

     Peaceful states of consciousness are regulated states, meaning that everything is flowing in balance and harmony. All is calm. Our nervous systems are not activated abruptly, and we do not sense any immediate threats. Peaceful states of consciousness are associated with love and compassion, energies which regulate and heal.  Peaceful states are “hate free” zones. When people hate, they use the same intense energy as love, but the dysregulating and destructive “hate” energy is directed against the object of hate. One of my mentors once told me that the opposite of hate is indifference. I agree.

     Unlike regulated states, dysregulated states of consciousness are defined by turbulence, lack of harmony, peace or balance, where things do not seem to be flowing evenly. Dysregulated states are marked by the activation of the nervous system, such as when a threat has been detected. In dysregulated states, obtrusive and unyielding things remain, such as sticky thoughts, ruminations, heavy unprocessed emotions and unresolved issues. There are many strategies to regulate dysregulated states, like exercising, listening to music, dancing, reading, praying, chanting, and doing yoga. Mindfulness practice is one strategy to regulate and facilitate peaceful states of consciousness.

     In his book, “Peace is Every Step”, Thay (1991) talked about “cooking our potatoes” as an analogy of mindfulness practice. I love Thay’s analogy, where the raw potato is a difficult emotion. We cannot eat raw potatoes just as it is difficult to process difficult emotions. However, boiling the potato makes the potato edible. Thay (1991) wrote that “we cannot eat raw potatoes, but we don’t throw them away just because they are raw” (p.62). He added that we put our potatoes in a “pot of water, put a lid on, and put the pot on the fire” (p. 62).   Thay (1991) refers to the fire as the practice of mindfulness where we are engaging in deep breathing and consciously attending to the dysregulated states, like feelings of anger, fear, sorrow.   Thay describes the lid of the pot as our “concentration”. Just as the lid of the pot does not allow the steam to escape, we need to concentrate deeply on the dysregulated states, such as anger, to observe, describe into words and sit with the feelings to get an understanding of where the feelings are coming from. In mindful practices, we engage in deep listening to our dysregulated states to understand the roots, contributing factors and context of the dysregulated state. Some questions to address in dysregulated states maybe: 1) Where there activation of past emotional wounds which contribute to our feelings? 2) Were our assumptions and rules about life violated that are leading to certain feelings? Management of painful emotions means understanding their origin and context, “feeling the feelings” without judgement and developing helpful, loving and compassionate self- soothing strategies. Our connections to caring and loving people can help us deal with negative feelings.

     In his book, “Living Buddha, Living Christ”, Thay (1995) wrote that “mindfulness, the capacity to be here, to witness deeply everything that happens in the present moment, is the beginning of enlightenment” (p. 182). He also described practices of mindfulness as lighting the “lamps with us” to gain a deeper understanding of our worlds so that we can work towards enlightenment. Thay wrote that the seeds of mindfulness are in all of us, just as “Buddha nature” described in Buddhism or “Kingdom of God within our hearts” in Christianity.

INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS

     In the book, “Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire”, one chapter contains a letter that Thay wrote to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965.  Thay pointed to “intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship, …hatred and discrimination which lie in the heart of” people, as the real enemies (p.148). He was referring to the notion that people have parts which may be marked by intolerance and discrimination against others, which are the enemies, not the individual human beings.  Thay highlighted that we need to look at parts of ourselves that are intolerant of others and attempt to heal these parts. I find it fascinating that Thay’s concept of inner transformation as peace practice is very consistent with psychologist,  Dr. Richard C. Schwartz ‘s Internal Family System (IFS).

     The IFS paradigm is rich and complex. I am simplifying a few of the concepts of IFS.  In IFS, subpersonalities or “parts” of an individual’s psyche relate to each other like members of a family system. Schwartz and Sweeney (2020) describe our inner parts as inner people. One person may have a multitude of parts. Parts develop and take on extreme roles because the person has faced a very stressful experience. The parts have noble intentions but due to their extreme and rigid roles, they do not engage in behaviors which contribute to the well- being of the person. In IFS, a person has at least three types of parts, exiles, firefighters and managers. Exiles are often parts created from difficult and painful childhood experiences where the person was rejected, abandoned, or marginalized by other people or external systems.  Exile parts may label themselves as “bad” and carry feelings, like shame, guilt, anger, resentment etc. When a person is “blended with” an exile part, he/she is often flooded with these feelings of shame, guilt and fear etc. Thus, the manager part (administrative part who runs the day-to-day routine of the person) keeps the exiles out of mind and the person does not experience negative feelings.  The role of manager parts is to control situations so that exile parts are protected and not triggered. When manager parts are unable to carry out their roles, firefighter parts are activated. Unlike the manager part, who uses rational thinking and planning in socially acceptable strategies to keep exiles out of mind, the firefighter parts react with extreme impulsive, reactive and socially unacceptable behaviors (e.g. excessive drinking) to keep exiles out of mind.

     In addition to parts, Schwartz and Sweeney (2020) also discussed that we are also born with a “Self” or seat of consciousness, which cannot be damaged. In IFS, our access to our individual “Self” or seat of consciousness, contributes to a balance, and harmony.  Schwartz and Sweeney (2020) draw parallels between the “Self” and other spiritual traditions, such as, Quakers who refer to a person’s core as “inner light”, Buddhists call it “Buddha nature, Hindus call it “atman”, and Sufis call it “the Beloved or God within”.  I think of the “Self” as infinite, expansive love and compassion. Schwartz and Sweeney (2020) describe the “Self” as characterized by “curiosity, compassion, calm, confidence, courage, clarity, creativity, connectedness and kindness” (p.45).

     Unlike the parts, the “Self” is not attached to identities, needs or problems that need fixing. It can remove judgement and moral meaning. Exile parts of a person do come up when the manager and firefighter parts are ineffective. For example, an exile part in an adult, who experienced terrible hurt and suffering as a vulnerable child, may carry feelings of anger, sadness, and hatred. When the exile part of the person is activated with a current stressor (e.g. the person encounters another individual who is aggressive to him/her), the person will be flooded with anger, rage, shame and hatred.  The person is “blended” with the exile part. Healing happens when the individual becomes aware of the exile part and connects the part with the “Self”.  The part can tell its story, unburden its negative feelings and receive love and compassion from the “Self”. The part is heard, seen and understood by the “Self”.  As the person has access to the “Self”, the person “un-blends” from the exile part, feelings of the exile part are processed, and the person looks beyond the raw feelings for constructive intentional action and not reactive action.  Options for peace are explored.

     For me, Thay’s quote, of walking in peace despite the mind scattered in different directions, means that when our parts are activated, we need to become aware of the parts, and connect parts with “Self”. Many practices, like mindfulness, walking in nature, praying, singing, reading can help us access the “Self”. States of peace are when actions are decided through “Self” leadership, where the “Self” manages the parts. I believe that “Self” led social actions and advocacy is powerful and has longstanding effects. I wonder whether Thay was so successful in his peace activism because he was leading from the “Self”. Grounding ourselves with “Self” is critical for inner calmness and this can also lead to effective advocacy and activism for social causes we care about. I believe that tapping into the “Self” and awareness of parts helps us develop a superpower: to know, love and trust ourselves.

CONCLUSION.

Thay’s peace practices and western psychological concepts have a lot to teach us in terms of cultivating inner states of peace. I will end with a quote from Thay, “peace in oneself, peace in the world”. As indicated by socially engaged Buddhism, once we are in states of peaceful consciousness, our activism to change social structures is effective. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) confirmed Nov 26th as the “World Olive Tree Day”, celebrating peace and harmony among  human beings and human-beings  and nature. For me, peace practice is a daily activity as I value and love peace.

REFERENCES

Hanh, Thich Nhat (1967). Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. Parallax Press.

Hanh, Thich Nhat (1991). Peace Is Every Step. Bantam Books.

Hanh, Thich Nhat (1995). Living Buddha and Living Christ. Riverhead Books.

Plum Village. The Life Story of Thich Nhat Hanh. https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography

Schwartz, R. C. & Sweeney, M. (2020). Internal Family Systems, second edition. The Guilford Press.

 

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PEACE IN UNEASY TIMES