I wrote to Martin Luther King a letter
on June 1st, 1965.
And exactly one year after that, I met him in Chicago
in the press conference.
In my letter to Martin Luther King, I said that, "Man is not our enemy,
no human being is our enemy.
Our enemy is hate, violence, fear, discrimination, ignorance.
That's the true enemy. Our enemy is not man."
That was the first time we attend a dialogue with a Christian leader,
the leader of the Civil Rights movement.
We had to agree with each other that we are not enemies to each other.
The American soldiers who came to Vietnam to kill and to be killed,
they are not truly enemies.
The true enemies is misunderstanding, wrong perceptions, hate, fear, anger.
In order to help a man, you have to help him or her to remove
these elements from within.
And I said that in the peaceful movement in Vietnam, we have that insight -
that both communist and anti-communist, if they kill each other because they had ideas
about happiness, about the future that is different
and it is these ideas, these convictions that have led to the killing of brothers by brothers.
And I told him in the letter that in the Civil Rights movement,
there must be, or there may be that kind of insight.
That we are not struggling against other human beings,
we struggle, we fight only the negative elements in man
which is discrimination, injustice, and fear.
And I told him that if there are monks who burn themselves alive,
that is not truly violence.
Because we are caught in a war situation where the voice of people cannot be heard
even from the inside, not to say from the outside of the country.
So the press, radio television belonging to the warring parties,
they don't speak our hope, our insight.
So in order for the world outside to know we do not want, we did not want that war
we have to burn ourselves so that the message can get across.
And burning ourselves alive like that is an act of compassion,
and not an act of despair, of violence.
And when Jesus allowed himself to be crucified, as the son of God,
as the son of man, he knew; but he accepted that.
And that is not an act of despair, but of love.
So there must be that kind of communion between the two communities,
the two sanghas to collaborate.
Because we intended to work together with his sangha,
Martin Luther King's sangha.
So exactly one year later, we met in Chicago.
And during the meeting, we talked about these kind of things.
The real enemy.
Man is not our enemy.
We should not operate on the base of hate, anger, but on compassion.
And after that, he came out against the war in Vietnam.
And even people in his movement was afraid of that.
They did not approve of that.
But he was very courageous, he has seen the truth.
He got the insight that man is not our enemy.
So there were American soldiers in Vietnam,
who had been told before they come
that Buddhist monks may be
guerillas in disguise.
And they should not trust Buddhist monks.
And that is why many of us were killed
out of suspicion and things like that.
And we know that it is ignorance, wrong perceptions are the foundation
of their act.
And in order to keep that insight alive,
so that compassion be maintained,
we have to practice.
Otherwise you will be carried away by anger and fear and frustration.
So we had a campaign to end the war in Vietnam.
In the United States there was the Fellowship of Reconciliation;
its headquarters was in Nyack, New York.
And they sent people to Vietnam, and contact us,
and we collaborated with them, and we started a campaign
called "Stop the Killing"
and we stood on the ground, "Man is not our enemy.
Our enemy is misunderstanding, suspicion."
And so if Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King can hold hands
and work together, you can see that Buddha and Jesus
are working together.
(laughter)
And I have written a book
with the title, "Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers".
So your practice should be on that line,
because that insight can bring you
peace, insight, happiness, and you know where to go.
There is no more confusion if you have got that insight.
And non-discrimination becomes something real
and not just talking.
(small bell)