In order to assist their campaign in lobbying more effectively, and to deepen their understanding of nonviolence, particularly its Buddhist roots, the Cambodian Women's Committee for Nonviolence and the Election and others have begun to organise a series of workshops on active nonviolence, such as the one which Venerable Kim Teng opened with the tale of the blind men and the elephant. Venerable Kim Teng began by introducing basic meditation, encouraging the participants to follow their breath, in order to cultivate peaceful hearts, emphasising that a peaceful country begins with a peaceful heart. There is little we can do for peace in the world without peace in our minds. Meditation was followed by activities including listening exercises, games to help define violence and nonviolence, and small group discussions on personal experiences of nonviolent action, such as the Dhammayietra, and its effects on those participants. I thought if all those people were walking through battlefields for peace, surely I could do something for my country.
Hatred is appeased by love.
He told several stories from the Buddha's life which related examples of nonviolence, such as that of Visakha, a woman who had solved a conflict between two groups of monks, that the Buddha had been unable to solve, by withholding food offerings from them. Venerable Kim Teng then gave examples of nonviolent actions in the history of Cambodia, such as the monks, led by Venerable Hem Chieu, who struggled for independence from the French nonviolently. Initially they mobilised around the issue of the right to study in Khmer language, which was forbidden under the French. Other lessons were drawn from the nonviolent student demonstrations of 1991 in Phnom Penh, which government forces had infiltrated with violent elements, later responding thereby by shooting and killing several demonstrators. Venerable Otsu, a Japanese monk, then told stories from Gandhi's struggle for independence from the British, particularly that of the Salt Campaign.