The title of today’s talk, Embracing Anger, is taken from the title of a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh on September 25, 2001 in New York City, two weeks after the attack on the World Trade Center. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk as well as an author and poet. During the Vietnam War, he led the Buddhist delegation at the Paris Peace Talks. For his work, he has been forced to live in exile from that time on. Since the war he has worked tirelessly to promote peace throughout the world. Although Thay, as he is called, now makes his home at the Plum Village Monastery in France, he happened to be in the United States last September leading a series of Mindfulness Retreats on the topic of Peace. Pam and I participated in the first of these retreats in Massachusetts in mid August.

After September 11, Thay and his followers quickly organized a public talk in New York City to respond to the tragedy. For the past week, a clipping from the New York Times announcing the talk has been on display in the Wuerker Room. The words of one of Thay’s poems, "For Warmth," are printed on the announcement. You may also find them in your insert. The song that you heard at the beginning of the service is based on this poem. Let me recite it.

The poem was written after Thay learned about the bombing of the city of Ben Tre during the Viet Nam war. He opened his talk in New York with the following:

"My Dear friends, I would like to tell you how I practice when I get angry. During the war in Vietnam, there was a lot of injustice, and many thousands, including friends of mine, many disciples of mine, were killed. I got very angry. One time I learned that the city of Ben Tre was bombarded by American aviation. And the city was destroyed. The military man who was responsible for that declared later that he had to destroy the city of Ben Tre to save it. I was very angry.

But at that time, I was already a practitioner, a solid practitioner. I did not say anything, I did not act, because I knew that acting or saying things while you are angry is not wise. It may create a lot of destruction. I went back to myself, recognizing my anger, embracing it, and looked deeply into the nature of my suffering."

In today’s talk, I will explore this concept of "embracing your anger". However, embracing anger is only the first step toward an effective response to that which makes us angry. I will also discuss the technique of deep listening in order gain a level of understanding from which compassion flows. Finally, I will explore the impact our own actions have on the world around us, and introduce the concept of "mindful consumption."

Before getting into the main topic, I would like to share some of our experience at the Mindfulness Retreat in Massachusetts last August. The retreat was held on the Umass campus in Amherst. There were about 600 attendees along with monks and nuns from Plum Village in France and two monasteries here in the U.S. Attendees came from all over the United States and Canada.

Many parts of today’s service are shortened versions of practices that we either learned or had reinforced at the retreat. The bell ceremony, the song we sang together, the guided meditation, and the chanting are all examples. Each practice is designed to help develop our own skills in the practice of mindfulness. In Buddhism, mindfulness is the state of awareness or enlightenment toward which everyone strives. With enlightenment, the true nature of reality is revealed. The illusions that are the source of all suffering are gone, and thus suffering ceases. When described in these terms, it all sounds very mystical. However, in practice it is quite down to earth. By calming our minds and learning to live the present moment we can truly experience the joy of being alive.

The retreat included additional practices all focused on encouraging mindfulness. Before 6:00 AM we began with mindful movements, essentially slow stretching exercises with breathing. These were followed by 45 minutes of walking mediation and 30 minutes of sitting meditation, all before breakfast. All meals were eaten in silence as we contemplated our thanks for the food and enjoyed company of each other. In addition, there was noble silence from 10 PM each evening until after lunch the following day. Try that while sharing a room!

Each morning, Thay gave a Dharma talk related to the theme of the retreat, bringing peace into our homes, schools, and workplaces. Pam and I purchased tapes of these talks and would very much enjoy sharing them; more on that later. In the afternoon, one of the other monks or nuns would lead a workshop or give a talk on subjects ranging from deep relaxation to a practice of conflict resolution called "Beginning Anew." We also have these talks on tape. In the evenings, we would meet in small groups (20-25) facilitated by a monk and a lay leader. This was a time for sharing our daily experiences and to seek answers to questions. The discussions were also conducted in mindfulness creating a peaceful atmosphere rather than a debate. The retreat encouraged the practice of mindfulness every minute of the day, whether you were eating, walking, speaking, resting, or even brushing your teeth.

The retreat was a life-changing event for both of us. Although is has been difficult to sustain many of the practices we learned, those that we have maintained certainly have enriched our lives. We look forward to the opportunity in the future when we might be able to once again immerse ourselves in mindfulness for an entire week.

Well, back to the topic at hand. Less than a month after we returned from the retreat, the events of September 11^th rocked our world. The tragedy evoked many emotions, among them horror, grief, sadness, disbelief, and most certainly anger. How could anyone so carefully plan such a calculated act of cold-blooded murder? How could anyone hate us that much? Naturally, our initial reaction is that we want to lash out; strike back at those who have caused us so much pain. Many were calling for immediate retaliation. In time, our government launched the "War on Terrorism" with a goal to stamp out terrorism wherever it exists in the world. We are told that this could take many years and involve a different kind of war than we have ever seen. Can terrorism actually be eliminated through the means of warfare? Can any effort to eliminate terrorism be successful if we do not focus on the causes of terrorism?

Let’s examine the current example in the Middle East. After months of brutal suicide bombings in Israel and the West Bank, the Israeli army launched a military campaign with the stated goal "to stop terrorists and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure (CNN, March 1, 2002). Did they succeed? The military campaign is over but the suicide bombings continue. I contend that the military actions in Israel are more an act of lashing out in anger, an act of retaliation, than one of preventing future violence. Last Ocober, when Thich Nhat Hanh said "Violence and hatred cannot be removed with violence and hatred. Rather, this will make violence and hatred grow a thousand fold," I believe he spoke the truth.

But what is the alternative? Certainly no one condones terrorism. Even Thich Nhat Hanh, a confirmed pacifist, advocates punishing terrorists. In an interview with Anna Simpkinson, Thich Nhat Hanh was asked "what is the right action to take with regard to responding to terrorist attacks?" His response, in part, was: "We have to stop the violence, of course. If need be, we have to put the men responsible in prison. But the important thing is to look deeply and ask, why did that happen? What responsibility do we have in that happening?"

I will explore an alternative response more closely. When we become angry, whether in response to a terrorist attack or something our spouse or child did, we must control the urge to lash out. Any good book on parenting will tell you to "count to ten" or take some deep breaths before reacting when your child has done something to make you angry. Here is where the concept of "embracing anger" comes in. In his recent book simply titled Anger, Thay says "Anger is like a howling baby, suffering and crying. The baby needs his mother to embrace him. You are the mother of your baby, your anger. The moment you begin to practice breathing mindfully in and out, you have the energy of a mother, to cradle and embrace the baby." Thay goes on to explain that by practicing mindfulness, in time you will be able to see the true nature of your anger. It make take only 20 minutes, or it may take days or weeks. In either case, you have avoided saying something or doing something in the "heat of the moment" that you make regret later.

We have avoided a potential confrontation and perhaps have a better understanding of the source of our anger. But his is only the beginning. The practice is much deeper.

Mindfulness practice and meditation are not merely a means for attaining inner peace and tranquility, but developed fully, allow us to have a positive impact in the cause for world peace. How do I make the jump from inner peace to world peace? Well, rather than a jump it is a step-by-step process.

When we look deeply at the true nature of our anger, we may see that our own actions are a partial cause. Suppose our spouse has said something to us that made us angry. By practicing mindful breathing, we avoid escalating the argument. After some time for contemplation we recognize that something we did the day before may have led to what he/she said today. On the other hand, looking deeply we might see that the source of our anger is perhaps a misunderstanding. For example, we feel anger toward those who plan terrorist attacks and suicide bombings. Do we understand why they do this? Do they understand our motivations for why we live the way that we do? Our neighbors, two houses away, are Palestinian Muslims from Jerusalem. In the past three years, our two families have become good friends. We mostly avoid discussions about the current situation in the Middle East. We know that they have family still in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Jordan, and they suffer great anxiety for them. On the few occasions when we have discussed politics, we get a glimpse of what it is like to live through more than 30 years of occupation. It is an opportunity to practice deep listening; that is listening with all of your senses in order to see the true nature of the other’s suffering. Also, through deep listening it is possible to see if there has been any misunderstanding of our own actions or intentions. If there has, we can take the opportunity to correct the misunderstanding.

Through the practice of mindfulness and contemplative meditation, we can arrive at an understanding of how all things are interconnected. We see that a tree cannot exist without the sun, the rain, the seed, and for that matter, the insects and the many living things that died before that helped create the soil in which in grows. In a similar way, we see that we cannot exist without the oil fields in Saudi Arabia that provide gasoline for our cars, or without the cleared sections of the Amazon rainforest to provide beef cattle for our hamburgers. A recent ad campaign against drug use shows children making statements about how they helped assassins commit murder, highlighting the connection between the money used for buying drugs and the actions of drug producers in South America. Perhaps we should have a similar campaign exposing the connection between the rate of US consumption of world resources and the plight of those in certain third world countries that we exploit. If we understand the impact our consumption has on others, perhaps we can also begin to understand why some harbor such extreme hatred toward us.

Our final step is to take action based on what we have learned. We can change our habits of consumption to be more mindful of the impact it has on others. We can engage people that we meet from other cultures in meaningful conversations and transcend the barriers that separate us. We can contact our Congressmen, our Senators, and our President and let them know how we want them to act and why.

In this talk, I have only begun to describe practices such as embracing anger, deep listening, and mindful consumption. If you are interested in exploring these ideas further, please come talk to Pam or myself. If there is enough interest, we would like to start a group to study the practice of mindfulness. With the tapes from our retreat as well as other publications, we have sufficient materials to get things started.

So, by embracing our anger and taking care of it, we are able to look deeply at its true nature. We look inside ourselves first to search for causes. We practice deep listening in order to understand the other’s point of view. We look deeply at the world and see that everything is connected. Our own actions, our own habits of consumption have an impact on children half way around the world. We must seek ways to act with mindfulness and practice mindful consumption. We must also let our public officials know how we feel. In these ways we can have a positive impact in the cause for world peace without resorting to violence.