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Thich Nhat Hanh |
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Thich Nhat Hanh
born October 11, 1926 in central Vietnam) is an expatriate Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He joined a Zen monastery at the age of 16, studied Buddhism as a novice, and was fully ordained as a monk in 1949.Commonly referred to as Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese: Thích Nh?t H?nh), the title Thích is used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan.
In the early 1960s he founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS) in Saigon. This grassroots relief organization rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools, established medical centers, and resettled families left homeless during the Vietnam War. He travelled to the United States to study at Princeton University, and later to lecture at Cornell University and Columbia University. His main focus at the time however, was to urge the U.S. government to withdraw from Vietnam. He urged Martin Luther King, Jr. to publicly oppose the Vietnam War; King nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize (January, 1967).
Thich Nhat Hanh has become an important influence in the development of Western Buddhism.
His teachings and practices aim to appeal to people from various religious, spiritual, and political backgrounds, intending to offer mindfulness practices for more Western sensibilities. He created the Order of Interbeing in 1966, establishing monastic and practice centers around the world. As of 2007 his home is the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France, and he travels internationally giving retreats and talks. He coined the term Engaged Buddhism in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.
A long-term exile from Vietnam, he was allowed to return for a trip in 2005 and again in 2007. He has published more than 100 books, including more than 40 in English. He also publishes a quarterly Dharma talk in the journal of the Order of Interbeing, The Mindfulness Bell. Nhat Hanh continues to be active in the peace movement, promoting non-violent solutions to conflict. He conducted a peace walk in Los Angeles in 2005, and again in 2007; He was awarded the Courage of Conscience award June 16, 1991.