"Silence" By Thich Nhat Hanh

Every time I read something by Thich Nhat Hanh I feel better during it and after I'm done. The first book I ever read by him was a gift from Madame Stanton, a French teacher and advisor to the Alliance for Student Harmony, a diversity club at a New England boarding school. Yes, believe it or not, I went to a New England boarding prep school.

I found the parts about life experience helpful, like doing the dishes mindfully, etc. But the chanting while meditating.. I wasn't into that. Actually I am still not. I even skip those parts. But, whereas when I was a teenager I found them fake, and gimmicky, now I just feel like it's something genuine and helpful for someone... just not for me.

I felt a pang of regret that I didn't, after reading that book, suddenly take every opportunity to do Thich Nhat Hanh type stuff. For instance there was a retreat at the College I went to. Why didn't I go to that? Because I was so into my own way of thinking and following my Sifu. It was a sort of loyalty that in a way was too much. Then again, because of that I have a very strong base when it comes to Kung Fu instead of being sort of this and sort of that. I am completely and totally me.


The parts of Hanh's writing that I still tend to skim and skip are the chanting parts.

The closest thing I've come to chanting recently are various songs or "OM" and I notice whatever I am reading... I always end up doing it my own way. Not that my own way is better. It's just better for me.


In "Silence" though, Hanh talks about the harmony of a family. Having a meditation corner, having a little meditation bell with a cushion on it... and I realized that this was the sort of thing I was looking for. I love Christmas and the traditions I grew up with. But Church hasn't worked so far... and neither have Our Father's or Hail Mary's. The kids liked them... but the bell thing. It's so much simpler. Just ring a bell and everyone smiles for three breaths. So simple and so great.

When Hanh talked about his experience making friends with a French soldier it also was sort of a reality check. The Buddhism I practice (if you can even call it Buddhism) is more like a Buddhist flavoring that remained in the Kung Fu after it left Tibet and Shaolin and developed in the secular world Chinese villages, families, bandit groups, pirate groups, rebels, gangs, and American Kung Fu schools and cultural clubs.

We meditate, but we don't chant. We bow to Buddhist monks, because they are our lineage, and we would bow to them whether they were enlightened or not. And we Bow to Kwan Yu, because that's something Chinese people tend to do. Bowing and honoring has similarities to praying. But there are also differences.

But in a way we are still Buddhist, at least philosophically.


So when Hanh writes about the monks at the temple meditating when the French crash around and search for rebels it impresses me. Part of the philosophy of Kung Fu is to find that balance. The origins of our system are in Buddhist Philosophy. And yet the movements can be used for violence. But the violence is and antiquated sort. What if you are faced with the bombs and guns and anthrax that have been around for 100 years already?

That's why Hanh's experience is so valuable. He is a monk in the middle of war. In some of his other writing he talks about how temples he set up were even persecuted recently in Vietnam and that during the Vietnam war, when he set up a hospital, they were suspected by both sides.

So in Silence when he talks about making friends with a French soldier, and telling him about another friend who is fighting french soldiers.. it's really something. And then you compare that with what is going on in the Middle East now.

Some of Thich Nhat Hanh's friends had set themselves on fire in protest. It is interesting to compare and contrast that act with that of a suicide bomber.

I don't agree with everything Thich Nhat Hanh talks about. He mentions Buddha converting a serial killer. Not only that, the Sangha actually protects this horrible serial killer. And that killer becomes a devout practitioner of Buddhism. But.. would that fly even in Massachusetts for say someone like Zohar Tsarnaev who did a horrible thing. But from the story, the serial killer that Buddha saved is worse.

Part of me enjoys the gods that dish out cruel justice themselves to teach a lesson. But I respect Hanh's and the Buddha's stories and teachings because actually they lived in a much more violent environment than I can even imagine.


Long story short. Silence, by Thich Nhat Hanh is worth a read.