Vietnam Lotus in a Sea of Fire Author:Thich Nhat Hanh In this book, published during the Vietnam War, Thich Nhat Hanh, presents a Buddhist proposal for peace in his country. — From the Foreword by Thomas Merton: "Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, ... has felt himself obligated to take an active part in his country's effort to escape destruction in a vicious power struggle between capitalism... more » and communism.
While many of his countrymen are divided and find themselves, through choice or through compulsion, supporting the Saigon government and the Americans, or formally and explicitly committed to communism, Nhat Hanh speaks for the vast majority who know little of politics but who seek to preserve something of Vietnam's traditional identity as an Asian and largely Buddhist culture. Above all, they want to live and see an end to a brutal and useless war. He speaks for his people and for a renewed and "engaged" Buddhism....
"This new Buddhism is not immersed in an eternal trance. Nor is it engaged in a fanatical self-glorifying quest for political power. It is not remote and withdrawn from the sufferings of ordinary men and their problems in a world of revolution. It seeks to help then solve these problems. But at the same time it struggles to keep itself independent of massive pressures -- whether American or Chinese or Russian -- in order to assert certain claims which have never been clearly apprehended or understood in the West. These claims issue from a state of mind which is widespread all through Southeast Asia. To ignore this state of mind is fatal. It must be known and understood."« less