The United States should hold “sessions of deep listening” designed to promote understanding between world nations, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh told a crowd of about 1,800 students, faculty and Cambridge residents assembled at Memorial Church on Friday.

The speech was was the largest event featuring a Buddhist speaker ever to take place at Memorial Church, with the line to get in stretching from the main doors of the church all the way to Matthews Hall as early as half-an-hour before the scheduled beginning of the speech.

Several hundred people had to be turned away because of lack of space, according to Dorothy A. Austin, associate minister of Memorial Church and coordinator of the event.

Thich Nhat Hanh—a 75-year old Vietnamese monk, world-renowned peace crusader, author and Zen Buddhist master—was invited as part of the church’s Faith and Life Forum to address issues in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, political engagement through religion and the Buddha’s teachings of mindfulness.

He also commented on America’s need to promote peace in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

“All of us have been victims of wrong perceptions,” he said. “We can remove terrorism from the human heart.”

“When America looks in the direction of other nations and expresses her willingness to listen and to understand the suffering of other people through loving speech, it will create an atmosphere of love and hope,” he said.

Thich Nhat Hanh is internationally known for his “engaged” style of Buddhism, “which seeks to bring Buddhism to bear on issues of social justice,” Austin said in her introductory remarks.

Thich Nhat Hanh has also written extensively on the use of Buddhism to help with personal issues, including depression, and family and relationship issues.

On Saturday, Thich Nhat Hanh held a six-hour retreat for members of the public. Dressed in their traditional gray and brown robes, he and monks from the Maple Forest Monastery and Green Mountain Dharma Center in Hartland-Four-Corners, Vt., led a few hundred individuals in singing, chanting, sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindful eating and relaxation exercises.

Early Saturday afternoon, a line of people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds could be seen circumambulating the Yard following Thich Nhat Hanh in mindful concentration between the church and Widener Library.

It was a sight that greatly impressed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

“Something quite wonderful is happening here, Dorothy,” Austin said Knowles told her. “This is exactly the place where this sort of event should happen.”

Early Saturday afternoon, a line of people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds could be seen circumambulating the Yard following Thich Nhat Hanh in mindful concentration between the church and Widener Library.

It was a sight that greatly impressed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.