With a deep mindful breath, we announce the passing of our beloved teacher, Thay Nhat Hanh, at 00:00hrs on January 22, 2022 at Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, Vietnam, at the age of 95.
Thay has been the most extraordinary teacher, whose peace, tender compassion, and bright wisdom has touched the lives of millions. Whether we have encountered him on retreats, at public talks, or through his books and online teachings–or simply through the story of his incredible life–we can see that Thay has been a true bodhisattva, an immense force for peace and healing in the world. Thay has been a revolutionary, a renewer of Buddhism, never diluting and always digging deep into the roots of Buddhism to bring out its authentic radiance.
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We invite you to join our global community online, as we commemorate Thay’s life and legacy with five days of practice and ceremonies broadcast LIVE from Hue, Vietnam and Plum Village, France, starting on Saturday January 22nd. Please see our website for more details coming shortly: www.plumvillage.org/memorial
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That is sad/joyful for his followers. I know a few people who will join in. I learned a bit about him from a former neighbor but did not follow up with further study myself.
When I lived in Marina, California, just up the road from my apartment was a Vietnamese Buddhist temple. For Buddha’s birthday, part of the celebration was a wonderful ceremony called Transfer of Merit where you bestow on others all the spiritual merit you’ve gained. I’ll have to say for Tích Nhất Hạnh, that’s a mighty lot of merit he shared to others. He was an absolutely fascinating and wonderful person.
Buồn. I saw him speak twice, once in Hanoi and once at the Deer Park Monastery, near San Diego. He had a way of simply putting everything in perspective. Stay calm, be mindful, enjoy the world around you, and get the garbage out of your life. Goodbye, thầy Hạnh. We’ll miss you.
"The practice of the five remembrances helps us accept many of our deepest fears - such as old age, sickness, and death - as realities, facts we cannot escape. When we practice accepting these truths, we can realize peace and have the capacity to live conscious, healthy, and compassionate lives, no longer causing suffering to ourselves and others… Only by looking deeply into the nature of your fear can you find the way out." - Thich Nhat Hanh, Fear
The Five Remembrances
I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is no way to escape having ill-health.
I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
I inherit the results of my actions of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation.
By all accounts I’ve read, that is correct. His books (of which I’ve read one) have done a lot to make Buddhist philosophy “accessible” in the West. At least one account I’ve read puts him in the top two spots of modern-day influential Buddhist thought leaders. (The other being the Dalai Lama.)
My sister-in-law studied under him at his Plum Village in France.
I spent two weeks at Deer Park Monastery where I listened to many hours of his talks – many of them live (but not in person).
It was a truly rich and rewarding experience. This was a man – not unlike the Dalai Lama – who believed in the synergies between Buddhism and the rational sciences rather than viewing them as mutually exclusive.
There’s another related aspect: Thich Nhat Hanh was a major proponent of Buddhist real-world activism, which is rather contrary to the common perception of Buddhism as being detached from this-worldly life.
Buddism typically preaches that the solution to worldly woes is to disavow our worldly needs and wants (if I understand even approximately right, this was the core of Gautama’s teaching). Thus, Buddhists practice meditation to learn the mental discipline to free themselves from their worldly needs.
Monks who live in monasteries (of all religions with monastic aspects, including Christian and Jewish) take this to an exteme, separating themselves from the outside world. This was a big deal especially in ancient times, when the faithful suffered serious persecution under the Romans.
Thich Nhat Hanh became an overt proponent of engaged Buddhism, meaning that he espoused overt pacifist activism in the real-world. The entire monastery where he lived did this. (I’m not sure if Nhat Hanh himself was the originator of this in his monastery.)
His years-long career of world traveling, teaching, and writing on Buddhist and pacifist topics was entirely in keeping with his philosophy.
You may recall Thích Quảng Đức, the monk who publicly immolated himself in 1963 in protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the Diem regime. This was about as extreme an example of Buddhist activism as one can imagine.
Thích Quảng Đức was a member of the same monastery where Thich Nhat Hanh lived. They were monastic brothers. In the book that I read, he tells of the back-story behind that. He tells us that the event was planned well in advance, and that Quang Duc meditated for hours every day, for weeks in advance of the event, to prepare himself.
Yes. I had a clinical interest in Zen Buddhism until I stumbled on his teachings. It then became something more.
I know he had a stroke a few years ago and it wasn’t clear whether he’d pull through. I think he was no longer able to speak. He recently moved back to Vietnam to pass on.