Thich Nhat Hanh

Only last month, I was writing an entry in this blog about Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk from Vietnam. I did not say much about him except to mention his age and the concern about his health - I didn't even know whether he was still living or not - but I reproduced a story from one of his books titled A Pebble for Your Pocket (ISBN 1-888375-05-1) which was published 21 years ago. It was a story that left a deep impression on me. Deep enough for me to have wanted to share it.

I was rocked this morning when news filtered out on facebook, and then on whatsapp, that this remarkable monk had died at the age of 95. He was an influential and revered activist monk. During the 1960s, he refused to side with North or South Vietnam and worked tirelessly to speak out against the Vietnam War. 

"I saw communists and anti-communists killing and destroying each other because each side believed they had a monopoly on the truth," he once wrote. When he left Vietnam for the United States to meet Martin Luther King, the South Vietnam government banned him from returning, thus sending him into a 40-year exile.

Thich eventually settled in France where he opened the Plum Village meditation centre to promote mindfulness to the West. He was the author of about 100 books on Buddhism and mindfulness. In 2014, he suffered a stroke which left him unable to talk. Expressing a desire to return to his native village, the Vietnamese government allowed him to return. Thus, from 2018 till his final days this month, he has been looked after by the monks in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue.  

My father with his friend and ally, #ThichNhatHanh, who died this week. I celebrate and honor Thich Nhat Hanh’s life and global influence for peace. @nytimes: “A prolific author, poet, teacher and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh was exiled from Vietnam after opposing the war… pic.twitter.com/XHrNuE3imo

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) January 21, 2022

In order to appreciate Thich Nhat Hanh further, here is one of his last public interviews, conducted by no less a personality than Oprah Winfrey. A year after this interview, he was stricken by a stroke. This was a very powerful interview or teaching, in my opinion.