Introduction
If You Want Peace, You Can Have Peace Sister Annabel Laity
The venerable Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk of the Vietnamese meditation school. “Thich” is the title given to all Buddhist monks and nuns in the Vietnamese tradition. It is a transliteration of the clan name Sakya and means that a monk belongs to the family of Shakyamuni Buddha. Nhat Hanh is a name he was given at the time of ordination. It means “One Action.” To his friends and students, however, he is more affectionately known as “Thây,” which means Teacher. That is how we shall refer to him here. The number of those who look to Thây as their teacher extends far beyond those he has personally instructed. Through his many books, translated into twenty-two languages, his teachings have become known around the world. It has been said that Thây and the Dalai Lama are the two best-known Buddhist monks and teachers in the world today. We are fortunate to have on our planet people who are compassionate enough and brave enough to embrace the world with arms of caring action. Like the Buddha they are just human beings, and yet they help us see how any one of us human beings has the capacity to achieve such