Quote of the Week: Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh

photo by Don Farber

This week’s quote comes from Vietnamese Zen master Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, whose bio appears on this Jizo Chronicles post.

In light of the news coming from Japan over these past few days, these words — from Thây’s book Being Peace — are especially relevant and poignant:

Many of us worry about the situation of the world. We don’t know when the bombs will explode. We feel that we are on the edge of time. As individuals, we feel helpless, despairing. The situation is so dangerous, injustice is so widespread, the danger is close. In this kind of a situation, if we panic, things will only become worse. We need to remain calm, to see clearly. Meditation is to be aware, and to try to help….

Our world is something like a small boat. Compared with the cosmos, our planet is a very small boat. We are about to panic because our situation is no better than the situation of the small boat in the sea. You know that we have more than 50,000 nuclear weapons. Humankind has become a very dangerous species. We need people who can sit still and be able to smile, who can walk peacefully. We need people like that in order to save us. Mahayana Buddhism says that you are that person, that each of you is that person.

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