Paul Haller left west Belfast in 1972, the bloodiest year of the Troubles, pledging never to return. But, encouraged by the ceasefires and peace process, he is helping to establish a strong Zen community in the North.

During his fortnight-long visit, Haller will deliver a series of talks and hold Zen meditation events. People bereaved or injured in the conflict - and the social workers, counsellors and community activists working with them - will be among those attending.

Haller, who is abbot of the San Francisco Zen Centre, will also help cancer patients and those suffering chronic pain. There is no belief system involved in Zen Buddhism. "It is a spiritual practice that doesn't have a dogma to it, " Haller says.

"Mindfulness and meditation can help people live with mental and physical pain, cope with difficult emotions and become more grounded." There are two Zen centres in Belfast . . . in Black Mountain and in the loyalist Donegall Pass where meditation classes are held by Kelsang Drolkar, an Irish-born Tibetan nun.

Zen centres have also opened in Newry, Larne, Ballymena, Portrush, Newcastle, and Coleraine. Growing up on the Falls Road, Haller attended mass daily as a child and jokes that he had ambitions of becoming a saint.

"But the craziness in 1972 . . . the rioting, shooting and bombing . . . meant I couldn't wait to get out of Northern Ireland, " he says. He went travelling and met a man in a Tokyo coffee shop who was studying to be a Zen priest. Haller decide to visit Thailand where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and spent six months living and meditating in a remote cave. He then moved to San Francisco.

"In the mid-'90s after the ceasefires, I started coming back to Northern Ireland; it was no longer an impossible place to be. I brought a group of Americans on a silent meditation walk up the Falls and down the Shankill.

"We stopped at each wall mural, silently contemplating it, then moving onto the next. We got a few strange looks but no disrespect. People are very receptive. We have full houses at our meditation events, " he says.

Haller says one victim of post-traumatic stress gave up his traditional treatment and has practised meditation and mindfulness for the past six months. "It's working for him. I've spoken to his psychiatrist and he's doing fine, " he said.