Violence
…in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence…
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Non-violence is a path, not a tactic…you have to be peace before you can do peace. (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Buddhism and the civil rights movement:
In 1966, I was invited to the US in order to speak out against the war in Vietnam… I recall one talk I gave, when an angry young American stood up and said “ You shouldn’t be here! You should be back in Vietnam with a gun, fighting American imperialism there.” There was a lot of anger in the peace movement. My response was “the roots of the war in Vietnam are here in America. The American soldiers in Vietnam are also victims. They are victims of a wrong policy. That is why I have to come here to tell the American people that the war is not helping.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen and the art of saving the planet)