This book's subtitle tells you how all-encompassing Thich Nhat Hanh's message is in this book. It also includes the 2-pp UNESCO Manifesto 2000 for peace seeking. (For his books I/ve read, click on his name.)

The opening paragraph sums it up: “True peace is always possible. Yet it requires strength and practice, particularly in times of great difficulty. To some, peace and nonviolence are synonymous with passivity and weakness. In truth, practicing peace and nonviolence is far from passive. To practice peace, to make peace alive in us, is to actively cultivate understanding, love, and compassion, even in the face of misperception and conflict. Practicing peace, especially in times of war, requires courage.” His answer to our deep-rooted crisis of violence and feelings of helplessness, victimization, and fear is built upon his spiritual base of ‘Engaged Buddhism’ that he developed from his own experiences in this violent world. This book is both a spiritual guide for peaceful inner change and a practical blueprint for change at communal, national, and global levels. He blends inspiring stories of peacemaking with a combination of mediation practices and instruction to show us how to take Right Action at all levels.

Having lived through two wars in his native Vietnam, Hanh works to prevent conflict of all kinds – from the internal violence of individual thoughts to interpersonal and international aggression. His stories of how he and his students were able to practice peace during wartime in Vietnam are testaments to his way of practicing peace. He describes peace practices that can help anyone practice nonviolent thought and behavior – it is for people of all faiths. Hanh teaches us to look more deeply into our thoughts and lives so that we can know what to do and what not to do to transform them into something better. The simple but powerful daily actions and everyday interactions he recommends for us can root out violence where it lives in our hearts and minds and help us discover the power to create peace at every level – personal, family, neighborhood, community, state, nation, and world. I see Hanh’s message as very effective at the personal and family levels. But I also see it as increasingly less effective as one goes up the levels to state, nation and world, which requires increasingly more people to realize the wisdom of Hanh’s very articulate retelling of a very old message: both Jesus and Buddha taught nonviolence resistance. Too many people today simply don’t understand this and choose violence instead. Creating true peace is hard, as is living true faith and compassion.