What should we do when someone attacks us physically?
Can a person or a country use force in order to protect himself or his country?
There are many things we can do in order
to prevent ourselves from being attacked,
physically, or even mentally.
By that I mean that we do not just wait until we are attacked in order to ask
the question what kind of response we should have.
There are many ways of protecting ourselves from attack.
And that is done by our way of living our daily life.
You as a person, you as a country,
you learn to live in such a way that nobody wants to attack you.
If you know how to generate the energy
of brotherhood, of compassion, always ready to help the people around you,
you'll be protected by the energy of compassion, of understanding,
and protected by your friends.
Because by living with understanding and compassion,
you have a lot of friends protecting you.
And this is the basic practice.
That is why we should not wait until there is an attack in order to learn how to react.
The Buddha himself was attacked physically.
Several times.
After enlightenment, you know.
Angulimala tried to kill him.
And, Devadatta and others tried to kill him.
Of course, the Buddha used many ways in order to keep himself
from being destroyed physically by the attack.
The Buddha, when he was a young man,
he was very versed in martial arts.
He knew that with his skill, he can always respond to a physical attack.
We can learn like him -- we practise qigong and other non-violent ways of
protecting ourselves.
We eat and walk and sleep in a way that we
preserve our health and resistance.
And we cultivate mindfulness and concentration and compassion.
Because mindfulness, concentration and compassion can protect you.
Every time the Buddha was attacked physically,
he used his mindfulness, intelligence, compassion, to support the person
who is about to attack him.
And he did not have to use his martial art.
Maybe there are times when he must have recourse to this kind of skill,
but so far, as we read the sutras, we see
that he mainly used his intelligence and
compassion in order to neutralize the
person trying to attack him.
Even a white elephant.
You know, there was one time when
there was a split in the Sangha,
and the monks did not listen to him.
So, he was sad.
You know, a teacher has the right to be sad,
when his students do not live peacefully with each other.
So the Buddha withdrew to a jungle,
to a forest, and he spent a few months
in that place.
And he made friends with many animals,
including one elephant, and the baby elephants.
And the Elephant Queen was very nice.
From time to time, she brought bananas and things like that, and
offered them to the Buddha.
And during that time, the Buddha learned
to speak the language of an elephant.
He didn't have much to do.
He enjoyed himself with the animals.
Later on, when they released a wild animal to attack him,
Ananda, his attendant, was so scared.
Ananda was ready to die to protect the Buddha.
Ananda wanted to stand between the elephant and the Buddha.
Because the elephant was coming up, charging.
And suddenly, the Buddha let forth an elephant (how do you call it?)
call, let forth an elephant call,
exactly like the voice of the Elephant Queen.
That kind of reaction was quite natural.
And when the wild animal hears that, he stopped.
And the Buddha advanced with his hand.
The elephant kneels down, and the Buddha touched him with compassion.
That is a story that we can read in the sutras.
There are many ways to protect yourself.
And killing is only the last resort.
You have to protect yourself.
You have to protect your country.
But there are many, many nonviolent ways that you have to use
before you think of the last ...
means, which is violence.
When the country is united,
when the country is led by wise people,
the country has many ways of making friends,
and neutralizing enemies.
And that country doesn't have to use her army a lot.
Maybe we need to have an army,
but the soldiers may spend their time
repairing roads, building bridges. Very nice.
The answer is "yes, you can neutralize someone who wants to attack you."
But, don't think that the army, the gun,
is the only way to do so.
There is an array of methods that you can use.
If your fear is too big, you might think
right away of the gun and of the army.
But if you are trained in loving kindness,
compassion, deep dialogue,
you won't have to use the army, or the gun.
And our political leaders have to know that.
You who practise, you should try to convey
to your political leaders
that fear is dangerous
And misunderstanding is dangerous because
misunderstanding brings fear and anger,
and we immediately think of the gun and the army as the only solution.
But if they practise deep dialogue, deep listening, loving kindness,
try to take care and help other nations and countries and people.
Then even if we have a powerful army,
we will never use it.
And people like President Chirac,
Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush,
should learn from you who know the practice
of deep listening and loving speech, and nonviolent communication and so on.