Thich Nhat Hanh 1926 – 2022
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926 – 2022) was a Vietnamese philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Buddhism.
Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, and one of the most influential teachers of contemporary engaged Buddhism. His leadership of the Buddhist Peace Delegation during the Vietnam War, his founding of the School of Youth for Social Service, and his decades-long exile in France, where he established the Plum Village monastic community, made him a global figure of mindful and nonviolent practice. His many short books, including The Miracle of Mindfulness, Being Peace, and Living Buddha, Living Christ, brought the practice of mindfulness, the doctrine of interbeing, and the engaged Buddhist tradition to a worldwide audience.
Nguyen Xuan Bao was born at Hue in central Vietnam in October 1926 and at sixteen entered the Tu Hieu temple as a novice in the Vietnamese Linji (Lam Te) line, taking the dharma name Thich Nhat Hanh on full ordination in 1949. In the 1960s he founded the An Quang Buddhist Institute, the School of Youth for Social Service, the publishing house La Boi, and the lay Order of Interbeing, coining for the first time the phrase 'engaged Buddhism' for the movement of war-time Buddhist relief. Visits to Princeton and Columbia in 1961–1963 broadened his audience; an American tour in 1966 brought him to Martin Luther King Jr., who the next year nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Refused readmission to South Vietnam after his peace campaigns and forbidden return after 1975, he settled in France in 1969 and in 1982 founded Plum Village in the Dordogne, the first of a global network of mindfulness practice centres. His more than one hundred books include The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975), Old Path White Clouds (1991), Peace Is Every Step (1991), Living Buddha, Living Christ (1995), The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching (1998), and Anger (2001).
Thich Nhat Hanh's signature teaching of 'interbeing' presents the impermanence and emptiness of Mahayana Buddhism as the mutual constitution of all phenomena and grounds a non-violent ethical practice of mindfulness that reaches into ordinary life, social action, and ecology. After a stroke in 2014 he returned in 2018 to live in silent retirement at the Tu Hieu temple at Hue, where he died in January 2022.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Vietnamese
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Buddhism
Selected quotes
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“Peace is every step.”
When I was in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries, or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who were suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both—to go out and help people and to do so in mindfulness. We -
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves.”
The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999) -
Attributed to Thich Nhat Hanh:
“Interbeing is the truth that nothing is by itself; everything inter-is with everything else.”
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“Smiling is the most basic kind of peace work.”
Being Peace -
Attributed to Thich Nhat Hanh:
“If you are not in the present moment, you are nowhere at all.”
Frequently asked about Thich Nhat Hanh
- When did Thich Nhat Hanh live?
- Thich Nhat Hanh was born in 1926 and died in 2022.
- Where was Thich Nhat Hanh from?
- Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese philosopher of the Contemporary era.
- What philosophical movements is Thich Nhat Hanh associated with?
- Thich Nhat Hanh was associated with Buddhism.
- What was Thich Nhat Hanh known for?
- Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, and one of the most influential teachers of contemporary engaged Buddhism.
- How many quotes are attributed to Thich Nhat Hanh?
- There are 11 attributed quotations from Thich Nhat Hanh in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.