The Art of Power

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Silence can be more intimate than talking.

Even if you cultivate the five powers of faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, and insight, if you think you can cultivate them for yourself alone, your power will remain weak. The insight of interbeing teaches us that only when we acknowledge and awaken our collective consciousness can we harness the full strength of our collective power.

Beauty and ugliness, like many of our values, are creations of our collective consciousness.

When fear becomes collective, when anger becomes collective, it is extremely dangerous. It is overwhelming. This is why you have to choose an environment where you’ll be influenced by a healthy, clear collective consciousness.

My experience with several wars in Vietnam has led me to the firm belief that terrorism cannot be removed by force and that deep listening is more powerful than bombs. Terrorism is born from wrong perceptions. The terrorists have wrong perceptions of themselves. They have wrong perceptions of us. That is why they want to destroy us, to punish us. If we know how they think, how they perceive things, we can help them remove these wrong perceptions. The work of removing wrong perceptions is the foundation for transforming violence and terrorism and fostering peace.