Creating True Peace, written by Thich Nhat Hanh, takes readers on a spiritual journey in a series of meditation practices, guidelines for mindfulness and, global change realizations. Thich Nhat Hanh, a native Vietnamese peace activist who had lived through two wars in Vietnam, writes a message through stories of war experiences. These experiences are within a Vietnam peace camp, Plum Village, during the Vietnam War, as well as, the experiences that he has had with the School of Youth for Social Service.

“Turn arrows into flowers”

In his book, Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that our perception of the situation is everything. He reminds us that we have a choice to turn the adversity into a positive interaction or a negative one. When we turn our arrows into flowers, they will fall at our feet in beauty instead of allowing them to pierce our skin. We must remind ourselves to take negative input and transfer them into positive thoughts that can enhance our lives for the better. Turn your arrows into flowers, plant more seeds of beauty and mindfulness.

True peace begins within ourselves.

In order to radiate peace to others, we must be able to see the peace within ourselves. We cannot transfer peace or teach peace when we, ourselves, are not peaceful and mindful in the terms of our lives. It is important to understand that everything you feel and think is portrayed in each action you make in the world. Every thought and seed of anger is transferred into reality when you speak and do. For this reason, it is absolutely vital to understand yourself. It is absolutely vital to calm your inner demons before you can intervene with someone else’s.

Misconception is the enemy.

The person is never the enemy. We are all fighting for a greater cause, to reach a greater purpose, and each and every one of us has a motive and a story behind our actions. Once we accept this we can also understand that the problem is better solved through collective compromise rather than fighting.

We must always use Hegelian methods to our thinking practices.

Before we can pick the best action we must understand every side of the story. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “To understand both sides in conflict, and to see what to do and what not to do, we must have confidence in our own view, in our own experiences and understanding of the differences between truth and wrong perceptions.” When we understand every point of all opinions of conflict we are better able to make judgments that interest all parties. Similarly, we are able to extract the positive aspects of each opinion to create a solution that is entirely enhanced.

Your enemy is your friend.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us this lesson when he reacts to his students’ deaths after they had been murdered by a group of armed men that came to their village. Funerals were held after the deaths of students and the monks of Plum Village spoke at the funeral to confirm their love for both the people that had died and the people that were the killers. The monks responded to the deaths of students with equanimity, “Dear friends, you don’t understand us, and that is why you have killed us. Our intention is not to do harm to anyone. We only want to help” (108). Even when our enemy has killed our spirits we cannot blame them for the deaths. We must blame their lack of understanding of our own situation and life. Remember that your enemy also is your teacher. You can learn much about the strength of yourself when you react to your enemy in acts of mindfulness. The way you react to your enemy is the determining factor of your growth.

We must water the seeds of love within us.

When we understand ourselves enough to know when these bad seeds are being watered, we can stop the growth of bad thoughts that will come from them. When we stop the growth of the bad seeds that grow within us, we can better grow the good seeds that are within us waiting to blossom.

The ancient stories of Buddha that Thich Nhat Hanh shares with his readers provide us with renderings of nonviolence methods that help to answer our deep-rooted problems of violence within our communities, our loved ones, and ourselves.This book creates a framework of visionary insight that each reader can use to excel themselves and, therefore, help to excel others in terms of peace and nonviolence. A blending of spiritual insight, meditation practices and inspiring true stories create a powerful enigma of what someone can become when they are at true peace with their own person and with the people around them.