Los Angeles, CA, – As people struggle with this country’s continued involvement in Iraq along with ongoing realizations and concerns about global warming, poverty, and racial tensions world-wide, renowned peacemaker Thich Nhat Hanh will offer a “Peace Day in Los Angeles” on September 29th, 2007 to support the healing in Los Angeles, America and the world. The day will begin with a peace walk entitled “Peace is Every Step” at 9:30 a.m. at MacArthur Park, 2230 West 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057. Thich Nhat Hanh will then give a public talk called “Celebrating Our Peace and Joy: Detecting and Transforming Our Fear and Discrimination”
“We are so honored to co-sponsor Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace Walk,” says Walter Jackson, who owns Self Awareness Trainings, a personal growth company, with his wife Janet Alston Jackson. “This is the second time we have been con-sponsors. In 2005 at the last walk, over 3,000 people attended. It was magical to see that many people walking in silence without protesting, but instead touching inner peace.”
Thich Nhat Hanh is revered as one of the greatest peacemakers of our times, and author of more than 100 books. He was nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize and has been a Buddhist monk, peace activist and advocate of love and forgiveness since the age of 16. He has survived persecution, three wars, and 39 years of exile from his native Vietnam. In 2005, Thich Nhat Hanh was allowed to return home to Vietnam. He was the reason Dr. King came out against the Vietnam war.
“You are invited to come and walk peacefully”, says Thich Nhat Hanh. “We shall walk in such a way that each step we make becomes a realization of peace; each step becomes a prayer for peace and harmony. Children will join us and we shall walk together in silence, with no banners and no pickets. The walk will not be a petition addressed to
anyone, nor will it be a demonstration against anyone. The walk is to unite our hearts, to nurture our togetherness and to dissipate fear and separation.”
Thich Nhat Hahn, who Dr. King considered his “brother,”
The Jacksons have facilitated workshops to thousands on Understanding Behavioral Styles for effectively communicating with others and Mindfulness;
“Mindfulness, the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh is non-religious and is now being taught in stress management, pain and cancer clinics around the country,” says Alston-Jackson, “But the beauty of Mindfulness is that when you practice living in the moment, you can have inner peace and perfect health.”
EDITORS’ NOTE: The walk begins at 9:30 a.m. at MacArthur Park, 2230 West 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057. The walk is free and open to the public. Tickets for the public talk at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium are available at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium Box Office or Ticketmaster. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. Tickets are $30.00 for general admission and $20.00 for students and seniors. For more information, visit www.deerparkmonastery.org or contact Denise Nguyen at 626-786-0472, denisenguyen@
