Buddhism
Living in Mindfulness – Millions mourn Thich Nhat Hanh
Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has died. (Archive image) Photo: Narong Sangnak/EPA/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
He once took a vehement stand against the Vietnam War. Along with the Dalai Lama, he became one of the best-known representatives of Buddhism. Now the world-renowned Zen master has died.
Famed Zen master and author Thich Nhat Hanh has passed away.
The world-renowned Buddhist monk, whom Martin Luther King Jr. nominated for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully on Saturday at the age of 95 at his home in Tu Hieu Temple in the Vietnamese city of Hue, according to the meditation center he founded « Plum Village» on Twitter. Thich Nhat Hanh’s numerous books promoting charity and living in mindfulness and awareness of the present have been translated into nearly two dozen languages.
influence in Europe
The Vietnamese was also active in Germany: in 2008 he founded the EIAB in Waldbröl near Cologne. Since then, many thousands of visitors from 35 European countries have taken part in courses there. Around 30 of the monk’s more than 100 works were published in German, including “The fearless Buddha: What carries us through fear” and “Reconciliation with the inner child: About the healing power of mindfulness”. According to religious scholar Perry Schmidt-Leukel, his death was “a loss for humanity.”
In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh was exiled from his homeland as part of his efforts to bring about peace during the Vietnam War. He then lived in exile in France for a long time. In 1982 he founded the famous Plum Village, a Buddhist meditation center, in the Dordogne department in the southwest of the country. Many other centers and monasteries followed, including in the USA, Australia and Thailand. Thousands of people from all over the world come to the retreats every year.
Tich Nhat Hanh repeatedly asked people to live more consciously. He warned: “We know that many civilizations have disappeared in the past, and our civilization can disappear too. We need a real awakening. We need to change the way we think and speak, and it’s possible.”
Commemoration in the live stream
The American Embassy in Vietnam on Saturday said Thich Nhat Hanh had always advocated religious pluralism. He will be remembered “as one of the most influential and prominent religious leaders in the world”. “Through his teachings and literary work, his legacy will live on for generations to come.” Plum Village in France announced that it would commemorate the dead for five days with meditations and ceremonies broadcast over the internet. People around the world posted quotes from the monk on social media.
Thich Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam in late 2018 after suffering a stroke in 2014. He told his students that he wanted to spend the rest of his life at Tu Hieu Monastery in the city of Hue, where he was ordained as a monk at the age of 23. One of the well-known quotes from the peace activist, who was called “Thay” (teacher) by his students, is: “The wave does not have to die to become water. She is already water.”