By Seth Mydans
Published Jan. 21, 2022
Updated Jan. 25, 2022

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was one of the world’s most influential Zen masters, spreading messages of mindfulness, compassion and nonviolence, died on Saturday at his home in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam. He was 95.

The death was announced by Plum Village, his organization of monasteries. He suffered a severe brain hemorrhage in 2014 that left him unable to speak, though he could communicate through gestures.

A prolific author, poet, teacher and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh was exiled from Vietnam after opposing the war in the 1960s and became a leading voice in a movement he called “engaged Buddhism,” the application of Buddhist principles to political and social reform.

Traveling widely on speaking tours in the United States and Europe (he was fluent in English and French), Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced tik nyaht hahn) was a major influence on Western practices of Buddhism, urging the embrace of mindfulness, which his website describes as “the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment.”

In his book “Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life,” he wrote, “If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.”

His following grew as he established dozens of monasteries and practice centers around the world. The original Plum Village, near Bordeaux in southwest France, is the largest of his monasteries and receives visits from thousands of people a year.

In 2018, he returned home to Hue, in central Vietnam, to live out his last days at the Tu Hieu Temple, where he had become a novice as a teenager.

Thich Nhat Hanh dismissed the idea of death. “Birth and death are only notions,” he wrote in his book “No Death, No Fear.” “They are not real.”

He added: “The Buddha taught that there is no birth; there is no death; there is no coming; there is no going; there is no same; there is no different; there is no permanent self; there is no annihilation. We only think there is.”

That understanding, he wrote, can liberate people from fear and allow them to “enjoy life and appreciate it in a new way.”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Thich Nhat Hanh at a news conference in Chicago in 1966. Dr. King nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize the next year.Credit…Edward Kitch/Associated Press
His connection with the United States began in the early 1960s, when he studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and later lectured at Cornell and Columbia. He influenced the American peace movement, urging the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to oppose the Vietnam War.

Dr. King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967, but the prize was not awarded to anyone that year.

“I do not personally know of anyone more worthy than this gentle monk from Vietnam,” Dr. King wrote to the Nobel Institute in Norway. “His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”

Thich Nhat Hanh was born Nguyen Xuan Bao in Hue on Oct. 11, 1926. He joined a Zen monastery at 16 and studied Buddhism there as a novice. Upon his ordination in 1949, he assumed the Dharma name Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich is an honorary family name used by Vietnamese monks and nuns. To his followers he was known as Thay, or teacher.

In the early 1960s, he founded Youth for Social Services, a grass-roots relief organization in what was then South Vietnam. It rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools, established medical centers and reunited families left homeless by the war.

Thich Nhat Hanh began writing and speaking out against the war and in 1964 published a poem called “Condemnation” in a Buddhist weekly. It reads in part:

Whoever is listening, be my witness:
I cannot accept this war.
I never could I never will.
I must say this a thousand times before I am killed.
I am like the bird who dies for the sake of its mate,
dripping blood from its broken beak and crying out:
“Beware! Turn around and face your real enemies
— ambition, violence hatred and greed.”

The poem earned him the label “antiwar poet,” and he was denounced as a pro-Communist propagandist.

Thich Nhat Hanh took up residence in France when the South Vietnamese government denied him permission to return from abroad after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.

He was unable to return to Vietnam until 2005, when the Communist government allowed him to teach, practice and travel throughout the country. His antiwar activism continued, and in a talk in Hanoi in 2008 he said the Iraq war had resulted from fear and misunderstanding in which violence fed on itself.

“We know very well that airplanes, guns and bombs cannot remove wrong perceptions,” he said. “Only loving speech and compassionate listening can help people correct wrong perceptions. But our leaders are not trained in that discipline, and they rely only on the armed forces to remove terrorism.”

Thich Nhat Hanh during a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City in 2007. He had lived in exile for decades. Credit…Associated Press
In 2013, on one of his many visits to centers of influence in the West, he spoke at Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, bringing his message of quiet contemplation to the forefront of the high-energy digital age.

“We have the feeling that we are overwhelmed by information,” he told the assembled workers. “We don’t need that much information.”

And he said: “Do not try to find the solution with your thinking mind. Nonthinking is the secret of success. And that is why the time when we are not working, that time can be very productive, if we know how to focus on the moment.”

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 AT 5 PM – 9 PM PDT
Singing in Solitude: Hot as Hell!
Details
Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 5 PM – 9 PM PDT
Public · Hosted by SoCal Vocalist Relief Fund, Tiffany Ho and 2 others
Online Event
Come join us for our next benefit concert this Wednesday August 26th, HOT AS HELL! Donations made throughout the concert will go to the SoCal Vocalist Relief Fund and 10% will be given to Border Angels!
BORDER ANGELS is a non-profit organization that advocates “for human rights, humane immigration reform, and social justice.” To learn more, visit their site at https://www.borderangels.org/
STARRING:
~Audrey Pennington~ 5 p.m.
Pulled – The Addams Family
Perfect – Edges
Screw Loose – Cry-Baby
Taylor the Latte Boy

~Marcello Padilla~ 6 p.m.
I Am Aldolpho – The Drowsy Chaperone
Disaster – Drew Gasparini
It All Fades Away – Bridges of Madison County
If I Loved You – Carousel
Too Good at Goodbyes – Sam Smith
The Impossible Dream – Man of La Mancha
U Move, I Move – John Legend

~Lettrice Lawrence~ 7 p.m.
Under The Boardwalk
The Glory of Love
Wind Beneath My Wings
Lonely by: Lettrice Lawrence

~Rachel Stoughton~ 8 p.m.
“Ouvre ton coeur” – Bizet
“Extase” – Duparc
“Il est doux, il est bon” – Massenet
“I want Magic” – Previn
“St. Ita’s Vision” – Barber
“Simple Song” – Bernstein
—
The Singing in Solitude benefit concert series is presented by SoCal Vocalist Relief Fund. Click the link to learn more about our fundraiser and to donate: https://www.facebook.com/donate/366064624381305/

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Speaking at the Chinese New Year Spring Reception organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (HKETONY), Mr Leung said that international airlines opened new direct flights to Seattle, Dallas/Fort Worth and Newark, adding that Cathay Pacific Airways will launch its inaugural direct flight from Hong Kong to Boston in May.

Hong Kong imported US$40 billion worth of U.S. goods last year (2014), and improved access for US agricultural products and made the city the most open market for US beef in Asia. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and the US concluded agreements to combat tax evasion.

Noting that The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal have recently ranked Hong Kong as the freest economy in the world for 21 consecutive years, Mr. Leung said Hong Kong would continue to capitalise its position as China’s global financial center. “We’ll leverage our ‘superconnector’ role between the Mainland of China and the rest of the world.”

He told the American guests that Hong Kong was working to promote new growth sectors of arbitration, intellectual property trading, creative industries, as well as innovation and technology. “We are upgrading the quality of our workforce as we are facing an aging population and are making it easier for talented people and entrepreneurs from around the globe to come, stay, live, work and establish a business there,” he added.

Also speaking at the occasion, Director of HKETONY, Mr Steve Barclay said aside from promoting closer economic, investment and trade ties, his office aims also to foster cultural ties between Hong Kong and the 31 eastern states.

He highlighted the first collaboration with the Yale-China Association to bring two promising Hong Kong artists to Yale University on a fellowship program. Parry Ling , a relational artist, and Hao Yang, a choreographer/dancer, are currently on a six-month residency at Yale.

Mr Barclay said the Office would organise a week-long “Spotlight Hong Kong” exhibition at Time Warner Center from February 25. The exhibition will focus on Hong Kong’s vibrant mix of East-meets-West cultures – from cultural heritage, creative and film industries to performing arts.

One of the exhibits will be a series of Hong Kong Street Markets which were painted by US nationally recognized illustrationist Michael Sloan during his residency in Hong Kong in 2012-14.

The exhibition will also help promote the US debut of the Hong Kong Dance Company’s performance, “The Legend of Mulan”, at Lincoln Center from March 5 to 8.

To reach out to the US young generation, Mr Barclay said his office has launched a new Facebook – Hong Kong Meets America. It carries all sorts of trendy, useful and interesting information about the city.
To promote Hong Kong music talents, the reception featured performances by the Cornelia String Quartet, led by violinist CheHo Lam; and singer songwriter Mara Measor, both Hong Kong-born and raised.
The reception ended with a grand lucky draw, with the winner receiving a pair of Newark-Hong Kong round trip premium economy tickets sponsored by Cathay Pacific Airways.

About 370 guests, mainly comprising key members of the business, government, academic and media sectors, attended the reception in New York.

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