Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and peace activist, dies at 95: NPR

Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh attended a large chanting ceremony at Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City in 2007. Nhat Hanh, a pioneer in the Western method of meditation, has passed away. at the age of 95 on Saturday.

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Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh attended a large chanting ceremony at Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City in 2007. Nhat Hanh, a pioneer in the Western method of meditation, has passed away. at the age of 95 on Saturday.

AP file image

HANOI, Vietnam – Thich Nhat Hanh, the revered Zen master who helped pioneer the concept of mindfulness in the West and socially engaged Buddhism in the East, has passed away. He was 95 years old.

A post on the monk’s verified Twitter page by the Buddhist Community attached to the International Plum Village said that Brother Nhat Hanh, known by his followers as Thay, had passed away at Tu Hieu Pagoda, Hue, Vietnam.

“We invite our dear global spiritual family to take a moment to be still, to return to mindful breathing, as we embrace the Master in our hearts together,” read one post. post next write.

Born Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926 and ordained at the age of 16, Nhat Hanh distilled the Buddhist teachings on compassion and suffering into easy-to-understand guidelines throughout a life dedicated to peace. . In 1961, he went to the United States to study abroad, teaching comparative religion for a time at Princeton and Columbia universities.

For most of the rest of his life, he lived in exile at Plum Village, a retreat center he founded in the south of France.

There, in talks and retreats around the world, he introduced Zen Buddhism, which, in its essence, is peace through compassionate listening. Still and unwavering in his brown robe, he exudes an air of calm watchfulness, amusement, sometimes sharing the stage with the somewhat livelier Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama.

“The peace we seek cannot be our personal possession. We need to find an inner peace so that we can become one with those who are suffering and do something to help. support our brothers and sisters, that is, ourselves,” Nhat Hanh wrote in one of his dozens of books, “The Sun in My Heart.”

After a stroke in 2014 that left him speechless, he returned to Vietnam in October 2018 to spend the last years of his life at Tu Hieu Pagoda, the temple to which he had ordained nearly 80 years earlier.

Nhat Hanh began working against the war after returning to his homeland in 1964 when the Vietnam War was escalating. There he founded the League of Friends, espousing “attachment Buddhism” for the purposes of non-violence, mindfulness, and service to society.

In 1966, he met US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in an encounter notable for both. Nhat Hanh told King that he was a “Bodhisattva,” or enlightened being, for his efforts to promote social justice.

The monk’s efforts to promote reconciliation between the US-backed South and communist North Vietnam were so impressive that a year later he nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In an exchange with the King, Nhat Hanh explained one of the rare controversies in his life of campaigning for lasting peace – about the fact that some Vietnamese monks and nuns were burned to protest the war.

“I say this is not suicide, because in a difficult situation like Vietnam, it is very difficult for your voices to be heard. So sometimes we have to burn ourselves to make our voices heard. It’s an act of kindness, you guys. It’s an act of love, not of despair,” he said in an interview with American talk show host Oprah Winfrey. “Jesus Christ died in the same spirit.”

Sulak Sivaraksa, a Thai scholar who supports Nhat Hanh’s idea of ​​Buddhism being socially attached, said the Zen master has “suffered more than most monks and has been more involved in justice.” society.”

“In Vietnam in the 1950s-1960s, he had a lot of contact with young people, the society was in turmoil and crisis. He was really in a difficult position, between the devil and the blue sea – Communists on the one hand. On the other hand, CIA. In such a situation, he was very honest – as an activist, a contemplative monk, a poet and a writer clearly,” Sivaraksa is quoted as saying.

According to Nhat Hanh, “Buddhism means being awake – paying attention to what is happening in your body, emotions, mind, and the world. So Buddhism has to be involved in the world, if it’s not engaged, it’s not Buddhism.”

Both North and South Vietnam banned Nhat Hanh from returning home after he went abroad in 1966 to campaign against the war, prompting him to say, “like a bee without a hive.”

He was only allowed to return to the country in 2005, when the communist-ruled government welcomed him back for some of the first visits. Nhat Hanh is still based in the south of France.

The dramatic return home seems to signal a loosening of control over religion. Nhat Hanh’s followers were invited by Abbot Bat Nha to settle in his mountain monastery, where they stayed for several years until relations with the government began to sour over calls Nhat Hanh’s call for an end to government control over religion.

In late 2009 to early 2010, Nhat Hanh’s followers were expelled from the monastery and from another temple where they took refuge.

Over nearly eight decades, Nhat Hanh’s teachings have been distilled into concepts accessible to all.

To overcome the storms of life and realize happiness, he advises to always think of “returning to the breath”, even when doing daily tasks such as sweeping the house, washing dishes.

“I try to live each moment like that, relaxing, living peacefully in the present moment, and responding to events with compassion,” he told Winfrey.

Nhat Hanh moved to Thailand at the end of 2016 and then back to Vietnam at the end of 2018, where he is being treated with traditional medicine for the aftermath of his stroke and enjoys “walking” around the mold. Buddhist monk in his wheelchair, according to online Buddhist newsletter LionsRoar.com.

It was a quiet, simple end to an extraordinary life, one perfectly suited to his love for pleasure from the humblest aspects of life. “No mud, no lotus,” one of his many terse sayings.