THICH NHAT HANH: CONTEMPORARY ZEN BUDDHIST

Thich Nhat Hanh was born in central Vietnam in 1926 and, at the age of sixteen, was ordained a Buddhist monk.  Eight years later, he co-founded what was to become the foremost center of Buddhist studies in South Vietnam, the An Quang Buddhist Institute. 

In 1961, he went to the United States to study and to teach at Columbia and Princeton Universities.  In 1963, however, his monk-colleagues in Vietnam asked in a telegram that he come home and join them in their work to stop the escalating war.  This was following the fall of the oppressive Diem regime.  He returned at once and helped lead one of the great non-violent resistance movements of the century, based entirely on Gandhian principles.

In 1964, along with a group of university professors and students in Vietnam, he founded the School of Youth for Social Service, called the "little Peace Corps" by the American Press.  Teams of young people went into the countryside to establish schools and health clinics, and later to rebuild villages that had been bombed.  By the time of the fall of Saigon, there were more than 10,000 monks, nuns, and young social workers participating in the work. 

Also at this time, he helped set up what was to become one of the most prestigious publishing houses in Vietnam, La Boi Press.  In his own books, and as editor-in-chief of the official publication of the United Buddhist Church, he called for reconciliation between the warring parties in Vietnam, and because of that, his writings were censored by both opposing governments.

In 1966, he accepted an invitation from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Cornell University, to go to the U.S. "to describe to [us] the aspirations and the agony of the voiceless masses of the Vietnamese people" (New Yorker, June 25, 1966).  He went on to speak convincingly in favor of a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was so moved by Nhat Hanh and his proposals for peace that he nominated him for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize.  Largely due to Nhat Hanh's influence, King came out publicly against the war at a press conference, with Nhat Hanh present, in Chicago. 

When Thomas Merton, the well-known Catholic monk and mystic, met Nhat Hanh at Merton’s monastery, Gethsemani, near Louisville, Kentucky, he said, "Just the way he opens the door and enters a room demonstrates his understanding.  He is a true monk."  Merton went on to write an essay, "Nhat Hanh Is My Brother," an impassioned plea to listen to Nhat Hanh's proposals for peace.

Following meetings with key U.S. senators and government officials, Nhat Hanh went on to Europe where he had two audiences with Pope Paul VI, urging cooperation between Catholics and Buddhists to help bring peace to Vietnam.  In 1969, he set up the Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks. 

After the Peace Accords were signed in 1973, he was refused permission by the now Communist government in Vietnam to return to his homeland.  He then established a small community a hundred miles south of Paris.  There he spent his time meditating, reading, writing, binding books, gardening, and occasionally receiving visitors. 

In June 1982, he set up a larger retreat near Bordeaux.  In the years since, he has travelled regularly to North America to lead retreats and to give lectures on mindful living and social responsibility.