You are probably familiar with the quote: ‘There is no way to peace; peace is the way.’ I guess after seeing that on so many SZC T-shirts, I had assumed it was a Buddhist quote; but no. The author of that line is A.J. Muste, a Dutch-born U.S. clergyman of the 1920’s who eventually became a Quaker, a pacifist and a social activist. Robert Aitken amplified the social activist side of this statement by paraphrasing it as ‘There is no way to a just society; our just societies are the way.’ In ‘Envisioning the Future’, he encouraged us to see that Right Action is part of the Eightfold Path that begins and ends with Right Meditation.

How can we cultivate the practice of peace? There have been many Buddhist leaders like Thich Nhat Hanh and Joanna Macy who are models for us. What I find in Buddhist practice is that it offers a way to not get stuck in one perspective, not get trapped in a frozen view of the world, and to find for ourselves that peace which is always there. It’s a way out of the violent and acquisitive aspects of our society. We find that still point as described in the Verses of the Faith Mind (Hsin Hsin Ming, Sengtsan 3^rd Patriarch):

To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail. The Way is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

‘Peace is the way’ means that we live each moment as much as we can in the vast and fathomless peace. It’s a peace which gets stronger with meditation. It isn’t safe, uneventful peace (buji peace) but one where, through patient dialogue and strategy, we work towards the common good. And if we momentarily fail, we make amends and find again that peace which is the Way. As the Hsin Hsin Ming said, setting up what you like against what you don’t like is the cause of all the problems.

When we live in a social system that is weighted towards violence and acquisitiveness, then our meditation can help us realise that the world actually is a mutual, interdependent, co-operative single existence. You and the one you disagree with are the one existence, but at the same time you are uniquely you, they are uniquely them.

I turned to the writings of Claude Anshin Thomas to see his wise comments on how to deal with disagreements. Anshin Thomas enlisted when he was 17 to fight in the Vietnam War and after the war ended spent a lot of time trying to deal with the fallout from the war, dealing with anger, addiction and depression. He somehow found Buddhist practice and became a Zen monk. In his book ‘Bringing Meditation to Life’, he writes: ‘Though my understanding of peace continues to grow and change, I do know that peace is not the absence of conflict; it’s the absence of violence within conflict’. Anshin’s point is that there will always be disagreements, but it’s how we deal with it that matters. The practice of peace also doesn’t mean that we are somehow untouched by emotions, or by the ups and downs of life. Anshin writes: ‘In all our lives, there are moments of calm and moments of non-calm. If I am living in mindfulness, I can learn to live with my fear, my doubts, my insecurity, my confusion, my anger. My task is to dwell in these places like still water.

Fully embracing this now-moment, there is no way to peace. We have already arrived.

This essay was written by Jane Andino, roshi for the October/November 2025 Newletter