​ Sunday Church

Today is Sunday and my mom brought me and my siblings to church. But church was different today. There was a guest. His name was Sensai Bastien and he came to church this week to talk to us about the fundamentals of Buddhism and what peace really means. Sensai Bastien has been asked to be the president of Zen Peacemakers Organization. He began his Zen training in Omaha Nebraska 1979. He told us a story about a king who was insulted by people of another country. So the king said he was going to slaughter thousands of people in that kingdom and the people who were going to be slaughtered found out and told the Buddhist what the king was going to do. So while the king was marching his soldiers to the kingdom, the Buddhist sat there in the middle of the road and said nothing. So the king turned around. Then the king's priest bugged him, and told him he should rethink his idea and go back. The king said no but he was insulted again. So he marched his soldiers back to that kingdom and the Buddhist was on the road again. But this time, the king went right by him. The king then slaughtered thousands of people. When the Buddhist went  back to his kingdom, they asked him why he didn’t do anything to stop the king, the Buddhist said, “ I cannot make peace but I am peace.”

The point of the story is that he could not make peace but he could be an example of peace to show others. I learned that people cannot make other people believe things but they can show them how. I told this story because I think the world needs to show people a better example of what peace looks like. 
Connor