Thich Nhat Hanh - True Peace Work: Essential Writings on Engaged Buddhism

True Peace Work is a revised edition of Engaged Buddhist Reader, originally published in 1996 and edited by Arnold Kotler, then publisher of Parallax Press. The Reader was a celebration of ten years of publishing at Parallax Press, which was founded in 1986 with Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanhs Being Peace. Each piece in the Reader was collected from books published by Parallax in that ten-year span, and the book included authors such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Robert Thurman, Peter Matthiessen, and Gary Snyder.

With True Peace Work, we have tried to remain true to the first edition, and have kept many of the essays in their original form. Of course, in publishing the second edition twenty-three years after the first, some updates have been needed, and we have taken the opportunity to include additional contributors as well. There are eleven new contributors to this edition: bell hooks, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Bill McKibben, Charles Johnson, Cheri Maples, Joan Halifax, Larry Yang, Matthieu Ricard, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, Brother Phap Dung, and Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. A sincere thank you to each of these profound teachers and thinkers for allowing their work to be included in this collection.

The term Engaged Buddhism was first used by Thich Nhat Hanh when he was talking about the response of Buddhist monks, nuns, and lay practitioners to the suffering of war in the 1960s. He writes: What was going on around us was the suffering of many people and the destruction of life. So we were motivated by the desire to do something to relieve the suffering in us and around us. Thich Nhat Hanh and his disciples went out of the temple to help the wounded, and while they helped, they practiced mindful walking and mindful breathing.

Buddhism in its essence is Engaged Buddhism. Buddhisms Noble Eightfold Path is a path of right action and right livelihood. Wherever the Noble Eightfold Path is practiced, Engaged Buddhism is also practiced. The pieces collected here reflect the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, which Thich Nhat Hanh talks about as the Buddhist contribution to a global ethic, something very practical which does not belong to the rituals of religion. Although readers will learn some of the history of Engaged Buddhism by reading this collection, it is not primarily historical or informational. This is a teaching collection, with insights and practices from some of the most widely respected spiritual leaders of our time.

Parallax Press Editors

Berkeley, California

January 2019

L IFE IS FILLED with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere, any time.