Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk, poet and peace activist who within the Sixties got here to prominence as an opponent of the Vietnam Conflict, died on Saturday surrounded by his followers within the temple the place his religious journey started. He was 95.
“The Worldwide Plum Village Group of Engaged Buddhism proclaims that our beloved trainer Thich Nhat Hanh handed away peacefully at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, at 00:00hrs on twenty second January, 2022, on the age of 95,” an announcement on his official Twitter account mentioned.
His weeklong funeral can be held on the temple in a quiet and peaceable method, in line with his followers.
“Thich Nhat Hanh can be remembered as arguably one of the influential and outstanding spiritual leaders on the earth,” Chargé d’Affaires Marie C. Damour of the U.S. Mission to Vietnam mentioned in an announcement.
“By his teachings and literary work, his legacy will stay for generations to come back,” she mentioned, including that his teachings, specifically on bringing mindfulness into each day life, have enriched the lives of innumerable People.
Pioneer of Buddhism within the West
In an impressive physique of works and public appearances spanning many years, Thich Nhat Hanh spoke in mild but highly effective tones of the necessity to “stroll as in case you are kissing the earth along with your ft.”
He suffered a stroke in 2014 that left him unable to talk, and he returned to Vietnam to dwell out his last days within the central metropolis of Hue, the traditional capital and his homeland, after spending a lot of his grownup life in exile.
As a pioneer of Buddhism within the West, he shaped the “Plum Village” monastery in France and spoke repeatedly on the observe of mindfulness — figuring out and distancing oneself from sure ideas with out judgment — to the company world and his worldwide followers.
We invite our beloved international religious household to take a number of moments to be nonetheless, to come back again to our conscious respiration, as we collectively maintain Thay in our hearts. Extra official information coming shortly. Please join electronic mail updates: <a href=”https://t.co/iAvdN0AAWZ”>https://t.co/iAvdN0AAWZ</a>
—@thichnhathanh
“You discover ways to undergo. If you understand how to undergo, you undergo a lot, a lot much less. After which you understand how to make good use of struggling to create pleasure and happiness,” he mentioned in a 2013 lecture.
“The artwork of happiness and the artwork of struggling all the time go collectively.”
Born Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh was ordained a monk as trendy Vietnam’s founding revolutionary, Ho Chi Minh, led efforts to liberate the Southeast Asian nation from its French colonial rulers.
Thich Nhat Hanh, who spoke seven languages, lectured at Princeton and Columbia universities in america within the early Sixties. He returned to Vietnam in 1963 to hitch a rising Buddhist opposition to the U.S.-Vietnam Conflict, demonstrated by self-immolation protests by a number of monks.
“I noticed communists and anti-communists killing and destroying one another as a result of all sides believed that they had a monopoly on the reality,” he wrote in 1975. “My voice was drowned out by the bombs, mortars and shouting.”
‘Apostle of peace and non-violence’
Towards the peak of the Vietnam Conflict within the Sixties, he met civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., whom he persuaded to talk out in opposition to the battle.
King referred to as Thich Nhat Hanh “an apostle of peace and non-violence” and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.
“I don’t personally know of anybody extra worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this mild Buddhist monk from Vietnam,” King wrote in his nomination letter.
We have a good time the life and international, humane affect of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThichNhatHanh?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#ThichNhatHanh</a>, an ally of Dr. King’s, who died Saturday. <br><br>Right here’s a photograph of the 2 at a information convention in Chicago in 1966. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#MLK</a> nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize the subsequent yr.<br><br>?: Edward Kitch/AP <a href=”https://t.co/CJTJ7zHKv2″>pic.twitter.com/CJTJ7zHKv2</a>
—@TheKingCenter
Whereas within the U.S. to satisfy King a yr earlier, Thich Nhat Hanh was banned by the South Vietnamese authorities from returning residence.
Fellow monk Haemin Sunim, who as soon as acted as Thich Nhat Hanh’s translator throughout a visit to South Korea, mentioned the Zen grasp was calm, attentive and loving.
“He was like a big pine tree, permitting many individuals to relaxation underneath his branches along with his fantastic educating of mindfulness and compassion,” Haemin Sunim instructed Reuters.
“He was one of the superb folks I’ve ever met.”
Thich Nhat Hanh’s works and promotion of the concept of mindfulness and meditation have loved a renewed reputation because the world reels from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed greater than 1,000,000 folks and upended each day life.
“Hope is essential, as a result of it might probably make the current second easier to bear,” Thich Nhat Hanh wrote. “If we imagine that tomorrow can be higher, we are able to bear a hardship immediately.
“Should you can chorus from hoping, you’ll be able to deliver your self totally into the current second and uncover the enjoyment that’s already right here.”