Study Guide: Thich Nhat Hanh
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, and peace activist. He is renowned for his teachings and writings on mindfulness and peace.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him, “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence” when nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Exiled from his native Vietnam for almost four decades, Thich Nhat Hanh has been a pioneer in bringing Buddhism and mindfulness to the West.
Early Years
Born in central Vietnam in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh entered Tu Hieu Temple as a novice monk at the age of sixteen. As a young bhikshu (monk) in the early 1950s he was actively engaged in the movement to renew Vietnamese Buddhism. He was one of the first bhikshus to study a secular subject at university in Saigon.
Social activism during US invasion of Vietnam
When the US invaded Vietnam, monks and nuns were confronted with the question of whether to adhere to the contemplative life and remain meditating in their monasteries, or to help those around them suffering under the bombings and turmoil of war. Thich Nhat Hanh chose to do both, and in doing so founded the Engaged Buddhism movement, coining the term in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. His life has since been dedicated to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of all individuals and societies.
In 1961, Thich Nhat Hanh travelled to the United States to teach Comparative Religion at Princeton University. The following year, he taught Buddhism at Columbia University.
In Vietnam in the early 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh founded the School of Youth and Social Service, a grassroots relief organization of 10,000 volunteers based on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action.
As a scholar, teacher, and engaged activist in the 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon, La Boi publishing House, and an influential peace activist magazine.
In 1966 he established the Order of Interbeing, a new order based on the traditional Buddhist Bodhisattva precepts.
In May 1st, 1966 at Tu Hieu Temple, Thich Nhat Hanh received the ’lamp transmission’ from Master Chan That.
Exile from Vietnam
A few months later he traveled once more to the North American and Europe to make the case for peace and to call for an end to hostilities in Vietnam. It was during this 1966 trip that he first met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. As a result of this mission both North and South Vietnam denied him the right to return to Vietnam, beginning an exile from his homeland of 39 years.
Thich Nhat Hanh continued to travel widely, spreading the message of peace and brotherhood, lobbying Western leaders to end the Vietnam War, and leading the Buddhist delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969.
Friendship with Thich Nhat Hanh
Although Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. knew each other for only a few years before Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, their relationship had a profound impact on each other—and on the world.
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote an open letter to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 as part of his effort to raise awareness and bring peace in Vietnam. There was an unexpected outcome: The two men became friends and allies. This friendship between two prophetic figures from different religions and cultures, from countries at war with one another, reached a great depth in a short period of time.
In nominating Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967, he wrote, “Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”
In 2014, forty-six years after King’s assassination, Nhat Hanh wrote: “I was in New York when I heard the news of his assassination; I was devastated. I could not eat; I could not sleep. I made a deep vow to continue building what he called ‘the beloved community,’ not only for myself but for him also. I have done what I promised to Martin Luther King Jr. And I think that I have always felt his support.”
Plum Village
He also continued to teach, lecture and write on the art of mindfulness and ’living peace.'
In the early 1970s, he was a lecturer and researcher in Buddhism at the University of Sorbonne, Paris.
In 1975 he established the Sweet Potato community near Paris, and in 1982, moved to a much larger site in the south west of France, soon to be known as “Plum Village.”
Under Thich Nhat Hanh’s spiritual leadership Plum Village grew from a small rural farmstead to what is now the West’s largest and most active Buddhist monastery, with over 200 resident monastics and over 10,000 visitors annually. Plum Village welcomes people of all ages, backgrounds and faiths.
Over 100,000 people have made a commitment to follow Thich Nhat Hanh’s modernized code of universal global ethics, “The Five Mindfulness Trainings” in their daily lives.
More recently, Thich Nhat Hanh has founded Wake Up, a worldwide movement of thousands of young people training in practices of mindful living, and he has launched an international Wake Up Schools.
Thich Nhat Hanh has opened monasteries in California, New York, Vietnam, Paris, Hong Kong, Thailand, Mississippi and Australia, and Europe’s first “Institute of Applied Buddhism” in Germany.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings
- The first training is to protect life, to decrease violence in oneself, in the family and in society.
- The second training is to practice social justice, generosity, not stealing and not exploiting other living beings.
- The third training is the practice of responsible sexual behavior in order to protect individuals, couples, families and children.
- The fourth training is the practice of deep listening and loving speech to restore communication and reconciliation.
- The fifth training is to practice mindful consumption, to not bring toxins and poisons into our body or mind.
Artist and Poet
Thich Nhat Hanh is an artist. His unique and popular works of calligraphy—short phrases and words capturing the essence of his mindfulness teachings—have since 2010 been exhibited in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, Germany, France, and New York. He is also a poet. Here is one of his most famous poems.
Please Call Me by My True Names
Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow —
even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.
I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his “debt of blood” to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.
My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.
Healing those who fancy themselves “leaders”
Thich Nhat Hanh has led events for members of the US Congress and for parliamentarians in the UK, Ireland, India, and Thailand. He has addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Melbourne and UNESCO in Paris, calling for specific steps to reverse the cycle of violence, war and global warming. On his visit to the US in 2013 he led high-profile mindfulness events at Google, The World Bank, and the Harvard School of Medicine.
Stroke
On 11 November 2014, a month after his 88th birthday and following several months of rapidly declining health, Thich Nhat Hanh suffered a severe stroke. Although unable to speak and mostly paralyzed on the right side, he continued to offer the Dharma and inspiration through his peaceful presence.
Return to Vietnam
Thich Nhat Hanh currently resides at Từ Hiếu Temple in Vietnam where he ordained with his teacher when he was sixteen years old. He has expressed a wish to stay there for his remaining days. He comes out regularly in his wheelchair to visit the temple altars and to lead the sangha on walking meditation around the ponds and ancestral stupas. His return to Từ Hiếu has been a bell of mindfulness reminding all how precious it is to belong to a spiritual lineage with deep roots.
If You Know How to Suffer, You Suffer Less | Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh, 2013.07.29
- In the first part of the talk, Thay explains how to make good use of suffering, learning the art of suffering in order to create understanding, compassion, love and happiness.
- Thay explains the chant of Namo Avalokiteshvara. Chanting starts at 39:30.
- The second part of the talk starts at 1:13:00. Thay explains how to invite to the bell of mindfulness, a practice that brings peace and happiness right away.