"Many years ago, during the Vietnam War, I sat in a vacant airfield in the highlands of Vietnam waiting for a plane to travel north. There had been a great flood there and I was hoping to help bring relief to the victims. Because the situation was urgent, I had boarded a military plane that let me off in the highlands of Plei Ku. I was there waiting for the next plane when an American officer, who was also waiting for the plane, came and sat near me. There were only the two of us at the airfield. I looked at this young officer with a lot of compassion. Why did he have to come here to kill or to be killed? Speaking only out of compassion, I said to him: 'You must be very afraid of the Vietcong,' (the North Vietnamese Army). But I was not skillful. Instead of him seeing me as a friend, I had watered the seed of ear in him, and he suddenly touched his gun and asked me: 'Are you Vietcong?'
"Before coming to Vietnam, U.S. Army officers were told that everyone in Vietnam could be a communist guerrilla, and fear inhabited every American soldier. The soldiers had been taught that every child and every monk could be a guerrilla agent and they saw enemies everywhere. I had tried to express my sympathy to him, but as soon as he heard the word 'Vietcong,' his fear overwhelmed him and he reached for his gun.
"I breathed in and out and then I said, very calmly, 'I am not Vietcong. I am waiting for my plane to go to Da Nang and help the people hurt by the flooding there.' By sitting very still and speaking calmly, I could express the sympathy I had for him and the soldier was able to feel it. He took his hand off his gun.
"The war had created a lot of victims, Americans as well as Vietnamese. If I had acted out of fear, he would have shot me out of his own fear. Dangers don't just come from outside. They also come from inside us. If you are not serene and solid enough, if you are not lucid and calm enough, you draw dangers and accidents to you.
"The quality and the happiness of a human being depend on the quality of the seeds they have in their store consciousness. We should organize our life in such a way that the wholesome seeds in us have a chance to be watered every day. This is a crucial practice. Our society cannot get out of this situation of violence and despair without this kind of practice. We need to protect ourselves with a good environment, because we are exposed to negative watering every day. Often, both at work and at home, what we see, what we hear, and what we read water the seeds of violence, despair, and hatred in us and in our children.
"The practice of transformation and healing cannot be effective without the practice of seeking or creating a sane environment. When someone is sick, we have to bring him to a place where he can be treated and heal. Suppose someone has eaten or drunk something that has given him diarrhea. The first thing is to advise that person to stop eating or drinking that thing, and instead to eat and drink the things that will bring healing. Maybe some medicine is needed. But what is important is to prevent that person from continuing to eat and drink the things that will worsen the situation. It's the same with consciousness. If someone is affected by the poisons of violence, anger, and despair, and we want to help her heal, we have to bring her out of the situation where she continues to ingest the toxins of violence and fear. This is very simple, very clear. This is not only the job of educators. Everyone has to participate in creating safe environments for ourselves and our children.”
