In the wake of the events of September 11, a number of Buddhist teachers and practitioners have offered thoughts and prayers for guidance during this time.

Teacher Responses | Best Web site Anthologies | Suggested Readings

READINGS

Need some inspiration to continue activist work during these challenging times? Try these three excellent resources:

1) The Winter 2002 issue of Turning Wheel was devoted to "Vowing Peace in an Age of War." Includes articles by Robert Thurman, Pat Enkyo O'Hara, and practical tools to work for peace within our families and our communities.

2) Sam Smith of the Progressive Review offers a short but powerful call to action titled Nobody Left But Us. Don't miss this one... although not written from a Buddhist perspective, it nonetheless reminds us of the bodhisattva imperative to help all sentient beings in the midst of suffering. Here's an excerpt:

If you're waiting for someone in power to do something useful about this mess, forget it. The axis of violence - Bin Laden, Sharon, and Bush - has turned this into a war of alternative terrors, the only certainty being that, by their bidding, somewhere, somehow, more innocent people will be killed or maimed...

Just as in every great moment of moral crisis, it is left to the weak to speak the truth, the outsider to find resolution, and the unannointed to carry out responsibilities that our elected representatives swore to fulfill but have so carelessly jettisoned...

There is a great coalition of conscience waiting to be formed, but at the moment it consists of millions who, thanks to the effectiveness of government and media propaganda, have yet to realize that they are not alone. Once that discovery has been made - and oh how the apostles of violence seek to prevent it - then the way to sanity will start to open...

3) War Prevention Works: 50 Stories of People Resolving Conflict. Oxford Research Group, 2001. Dylan Mathews, editor. Available from http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/wpwhome.html
This anthology of fifty case studies of peacemaking efforts in Nigeria, India, Serbia, Somalia, and other countries is an invaluable resource for activists, mediators, and researchers. From the foreword by Scilla Elworthy: "the report shows that there are a multitude of effective ways to prevent and to resolve conflicts without the use of violence."

The Oxford Project's Web site also contains an excellent page of resources and links on peace interventions.