ABOUT OUR TEACHER | Thich Nhat Hanh
One of the best known and most respected Zen masters in the world today, poet, and peace and human rights activist, Thich Nhat Hanh (called Thây by his students) led an extraordinary life. Born in central Vietnam in 1926, he joined the monkshood at the age of sixteen. The Vietnam War confronted the monasteries with the question of whether to adhere to the contemplative life and remain meditating in the monasteries or to help the villagers suffering under bombings and other devastation of the war. Nhat Hanh was one of those who chose to do both, helping to found the “engaged Buddhism” movement. He dedicated his life to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society.
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In Saigon in the early 60s, Thich Nhat Hanh founded the School of Youth Social Service, a grass-roots relief organization that rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools and medical centers, resettled homeless families, and organized agricultural cooperatives. Rallying some 10,000 student volunteers, the SYSS based its work on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action. Despite government denunciation of his activity, Nhat Hanh also founded a Buddhist University, a publishing house, and an influential peace activist magazine in Vietnam.
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After visiting the U.S. and Europe in 1966 on a peace mission, he was banned from returning to Vietnam in 1966. On subsequent travels to the U.S., he made the case for peace to federal and Pentagon officials including Robert McNamara. He may have changed the course of U.S. history when he persuaded Martin Luther King, Jr. to oppose the Vietnam War publicly, and so helped to galvanize the peace movement. The following year, King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Subsequently, Nhat Hanh led the Buddhist delegation to the Paris Peace Talks.
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In 1982 he founded Plum Village, a Buddhist community in exile in France, where he continued his work to alleviate suffering of refugees, boat people, political prisoners, and hungry families in Vietnam and throughout the Third World. He received recognition for his work with Vietnam veterans, meditation retreats, and his prolific writings on meditation, mindfulness, and peace. Thich Nhat Hanh published over 130 books, including classics like The Miracle of Mindfulness and Peace is Every Step. In September 2001, just a few days after the suicide terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, he addressed the issues of non-violence and forgiveness in a memorable speech at Riverside Church in New York City. In September of 2003 he addressed members of the US Congress, leading them through a two-day retreat.
By 2019, Nhat Hanh had built a network of monasteries and retreat centers in half a dozen countries, including France, the U.S., Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Additional practice centers and associated organizations Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing established include Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York; the Community of Mindful Living in Berkeley, California; Parallax Press; Deer Park Monastery, established in 2000 in Escondido, California; Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi; and the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany. The Maple Forest Monastery and Green Mountain Dharma Center in Vermont closed in 2007 and moved to the Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush. The monasteries, open to the public during much of the year, provide ongoing retreats for laypeople, while the Order of Interbeing holds retreats for specific groups of laypeople, such as families, teenagers, military veterans, the entertainment industry, members of Congress, law enforcement officers and people of color.
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According to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, the charitable organization that serves as the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism's fundraising arm, as of 2017 the monastic order Nhat Hanh established comprises over 750 monastics in 9 monasteries worldwide. He also established two monasteries in Vietnam, at the original Từ Hiếu Temple near Huế and at Prajna Temple in the central highlands.
In November 2014, Nhat Hanh experienced a severe brain hemorrhage and was hospitalized. After months of rehabilitation, he was released from the stroke rehabilitation clinic at Bordeaux Segalen University. On July 11, 2015, he flew to San Francisco to speed his recovery with an aggressive rehabilitation program at UCSF Medical Center. He returned to France on January 8, 2016.
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After spending 2016 in France, Nhat Hanh travelled to Thai Plum Village. He continued to see both Eastern and Western specialists while in Thailand, but was unable to verbally communicate for the remainder of his life.
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On November 2, 2018, a press release from the Plum Village community confirmed that Nhat Hanh, then 92, had returned to Vietnam a final time and would live at Từ Hiếu Temple for “his remaining days.”
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Nhat Hanh died at his residence in Từ Hiếu Temple on January 22, 2022, at age 95, as a result of complications from his stroke seven years earlier. His death was widely mourned by various Buddhist groups in and outside Vietnam. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the U.S. State Department also issued words of condolence.
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His five-day funeral, which began on the day of his death, had a seven-day wake that culminated with his cremation on January 29, 2022. In a 2015 book, Nhat Hanh described what he wanted for the disposition of his remains, in part to illustrate how he believes that he “continues” on in his teachings:
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I have a disciple in Vietnam who wants to build a stupa for my ashes when I die. He and others want to put a plaque with the words, “Here lies my beloved teacher.” I told them not to waste the temple land...I suggested that, if they still insist on building a stupa, they have the plaque say, I am not in here. But in case people don’t get it, they could add a second plaque, I am not out there either. If still people don’t understand, then you can write on the third and last plaque, I may be found in your way of breathing and walking.
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For more information about Thich Nhat Hanh visit www.plumvillage.org.
