Sister Peace Reflects on Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Sister Peace
As part of our celebration of Black History Month, recognized each February in the United States and Canada, Sister Peace reflects on the friendship between Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and shares her thoughts about a statue of the two of them that was installed at Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi in 2015.
It was the relationship between two great teachers—Thay and Dr. King—that attracted me to our tradition of Engaged Buddhism. I wanted to join their vision of the Beloved Community and practice the art of mindful living. So I became a Buddhist nun. In our tradition, Dr. King meant peace and love. Through their Interbeing, these great beings saw peace the same way, non-violently, manifesting through the Beloved Community.
Thay made famous the healing art of walking meditation, and Dr. King walked for peace and justice in protest. They were both walkers. And when I lived at Magnolia Grove Monastery, I’d often visit the Beloved Community Garden with a beautiful statue of Thay and Dr. Martin Luther King holding an open scroll that says, “The Beloved Community: To build a community that lives in harmony and awareness, that is the most noble task.”
There were many occasions when I would practice walking meditation towards the statue because I was feeling challenged or trying to figure something out. I said to myself, and with all due respect, “I’m going to go see the boys, and see what they have to say.”
I’d walk over there and I’d look up and see them holding that scroll and say to myself, “Oh my goodness, the mountains in my life are molehills compared to what both of you had to encounter…. what you had to surmount.” Somehow just establishing that relationship with them really helped put whatever I was feeling or needing to take care of into some perspective. I did this quite often, and sometimes, because you could see them from a certain point from the main campus, I’d just look over there and smile. So I was really grateful to have that as a touchstone. I remember after the garden was dedicated and made the local news, people actually came because they wanted to see that statue of Dr. King in a monastery. It’s really sort of remarkable. I think Thay knew all of this.
It was Dr. King pointing my way to Thay that brought me to our tradition in the first place. And Thay pointing back to Dr. King. Isn’t that a beautiful continuum? A beautiful Interbeing.
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