"One of the most influential spiritual leaders of our times.”
—Oprah Winfrey
Thich Nhat Hanh, whom I've ways considered one of my teachers, was a revered Zen master, peace activist, author, poet, and founder of the Plum Village Monastery in Southern France. "Thay," as he was often called which means teacher in Vietnamese, who helped pioneer the Mindfulness movement in the West passed away peacefully at his villa on the grounds of the 19th century Tu Hien Pagoda (temple) in Hue, Vietnam. Born Nguyen Xuan Bao, the ailing monk who was exiled in the 60s for opposing the Vietnam War had a stroke that in 2014, that left him speechless. At the time, it was believed he wouldn’t survive. But on October 28, 2018, he returned to Vietnam to live in a room with sparse essential furnishings in the very temple where he took his vows at the age of 16. Framed above his head in his own brushstroke were the words tro ve, meaning “returning.” In 1961, he went to the United States to study, and later taught comparative religion for a time at Princeton and Columbia universities. His reputation grew among the hippies of my generation who set his antiwar poetry to music. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr., referring to him as “this gentle monk from Vietnam.”
Nhat Hanh taught a simple form of meditation and mindfulness that was approachable to those interested in peace and tranquility. He published over 70 books, many that have passed through my home library over the years. He told anyone who would listen that you didn’t have to spend years on a mountain top to benefit from meditation. He also taught his students and readers how to live mindfully, focusing on being in the present moment. This was appealing to Westerners who were seeking spirituality without the trappings of organized religion of their youth.
That being said, he had his detractors. His highly publicized visits enraged other Vietnamese exiles when he toured the country in 2005 and 2008, and held well-attended services, giving the impression that the ruling Communist Party permitted freedom of worship. I can tell you from personal experience following a tour of North and South Vietnam with my son Jason in 2004 that religious freedom is heavily curtailed in Vietnam, and the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam is controlled by the state (VBC). This surprise revelation occurred to me following my visit to the Venerable Thich Vien Dinh, who was under house arrest at his Pagoda outside Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). His only crime was that he belonged to the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and not the Vietnamese Buddhist Church (VBC) under control by the Communist Party. I discovered that there was a mole in the Pagoda reporting to the communists, and whatever photos I took and sent back were confiscated. The authorities also inquired how much money I donated to the pagoda. As of 2017, Dinh’s brother Truman Nhu, a real estate agent in
San Jose and friend who left Vietnam in 1984, informed me that through peaceful resistance and sheer political will, that his serene brother Vien Dihn who he hasn’t seen in 35 years is still a leader of the UBCV. While still under house arrest, he was living peacefully in a 800 year old countryside pagoda in Binh Dihn Province.
Postscript: Thich Nhat Hanh liked to use the lotus flower as a metaphor for life. It reminds us that like the lotus, in order to reach our potential, we have the power to rise above the murky, muddy water-which represents life’s challenges-to bloom into a thing of beauty ("No Mud, No Lotus)
