As a young boy, Thich Nhat Hanh was captivated by an image of a smiling, peaceful Buddha. Photo courtesy of Parallax Press. Nguyen Xuan Bao wanted to ordain as a monk at age 12, following in the footsteps of his older brother. His parents were initially hesitant, as he was so young and they knew monastic life would be challenging.
However, by the time he actually ordained as a novice monk and received the novice precepts at age 16, he had their full support. In , he took the full vows of a monk. He received the name Thich Nhat Hanh. The young monk was sent for training to a traditional institute of Buddhist studies but was dissatisfied with the narrow curriculum.
He left for the University of Saigon, where he could study world literature, philosophy, psychology, and science in addition to Buddhism. By his mid-twenties, Thich Nhat Hanh already had an impressive list of accomplishments. He had founded his own temple, had several books published, and was known for his reformist take on Buddhism.
This was at the time of the eight-year war between France and the nationalist Viet Minh fighting to end colonial rule. Monks were killed, even though they were unarmed. Engaged Buddhism was born in response to the war between the nationalist Viet Minh, led by the communists, and the French army.
The war ended with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in In response to the escalating war, Nhat Hanh founded the Engaged Buddhism movement.
Its mission was to apply Buddhist teachings and practice to the real-world suffering caused by war, social injustice, and political oppression. Nhat Hanh was named editor-in-chief of the magazine Vietnamese Buddhism , led meetings attended by hundreds of people, and started a magazine for young monastics called The New Lotus Season.
We all loved Buddhism and we all loved our country. Not surprisingly, the growing popularity of the Engaged Buddhist movement attracted opposition from the conservative Buddhist establishment.
Nhat Hanh was accused of sowing the seeds of dissent and his journal was discontinued. Nhat Hanh and his followers needed a place of spiritual refuge, and in they established Phuong Boi — the Fragrant Palm Leaves Hermitage — in the Vietnamese highlands. In , the tranquility of Phuong Boi was destroyed when agents of the South Vietnamese government entered the hermitage. There, he decided to accept a fellowship to study comparative religion at Princeton University.
SYSS headquarters in Saigon. More than a thousand young Buddhists applied for the three hundred places in the program. After completing his studies at Princeton, he had been appointed a lecturer in Buddhism at Columbia.
One day in the library, he came across a book that had been taken out only twice before — once in and again in Deciding to become the third borrower, he had a strong desire to meet the other two. But they had vanished — and so would he. Then what is actually there will reveal itself…. Like the grasshopper, I had no thoughts of the divine. Thich Nhat Hanh would write later that while he became a monk in Vietnam, he realized the path in the West.
Meanwhile, the war in his homeland had escalated dramatically, with ever-deeper U. In , Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death in protest, and other self-immolations followed. Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West , has returned home to Vietnam to enjoy the rest of his life. Devotees from many parts of the world are visiting the ailing year-old, who has retired to a Buddhist temple outside Hue.
This thoughtful and accepting approach to his own failing health seems fitting for the popular Buddhist teacher, whose followers include a thousand Buddhist communities around the world and millions more who have read his books. For everyone, his teachings encourage being present in the moment. As a scholar of the contemporary practices of Buddhist meditation , I have studied his simple yet profound teachings, which combine mindfulness along with social change. In the s, Thich Nhat Hanh played an active role promoting peace during the years of war in Vietnam.
Hanh was in his mids when he became active in efforts to revitalize Vietnamese Buddhism for peace efforts. Over the next few years, Thich Nhat Hanh set up a number of organizations based on Buddhist principles of nonviolence and compassion. Healing Spring Monastery. Blue Cliff Monastery. Deer Park Monastery. Magnolia Grove Monastery. Plum Village Thailand. Stream Entering Monastery. Mountain Spring Monastery.
Update: We are offering online retreats while Plum Village France remains closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. For a high-res version, and to request permission to use this photo for commercial or non-commercial use, please email: permissions parallax. Available in: KB. Together with his friends and colleagues, Thich Nhat Hanh developed a social work program for rural development and founded the School of Youth for Social Service.
At this time, he was Editor-in-Chief of the leading Buddhist magazine, publishing over 50, copies every week. Available in: 3MB. Available in: 4MB. Exiled for daring to go abroad to call for peace in , he led the Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Paris Peace Talks. For a high-res version, and to request permission to use this photo for commercial or non-commercial use, please email: jhforest gmail. Thich Nhat Hanh and his colleagues and students retreated to the small farmstead in Thich Nhat Hanh and his students found land in south-west France, where they established Plum Village mindfulness practice center in Available in: 2MB.
Thich Nhat Hanh created meditation halls in the old farm buildings, and began to teach the first generation of meditation practitioners in the West. He was abroad in when the U. Nine years later, when the communist government seized the south, it kept the ban in force. He lives in France and teaches in the United States and has won a worldwide following with his doctrine of "engaged Buddhism," which emphasizes peace, meditation, and — in a crisis — nonviolent civil disobedience.
His books have sold more than a million copies. His return has meant navigating a diplomatic mine field. It took a year to negotiate the government invitation to him and followers to make the visit in January. Vietnam has agreed to publish some of his books here, and allow him to travel throughout the country.
But his itineraries need official approval, police discourage large attendance at his talks, and minders report his every word to the government.
His visit comes at a time of renewed human rights pressure. Last year, Washington placed Vietnam on its worst-offender list, citing its mistreatment of ethnic minority evangelicals in the Central Highlands and repression of dissident Buddhists and Catholics.
Under threat of economic sanctions, Hanoi released a half dozen political and religious dissidents in a nationwide prisoner amnesty early this year, and last month the U. State Department acknowledged Vietnam has made progress in relaxing curbs on religious freedom. Indeed, public worship has flourished in recent years with crowds filling incense-fragrant temples and wooden church pews — as long as no politics come into play.
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