Thich Nhat Hanh (draft)

1. Who is he?
● zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet and peace activist,
revered throughout the world for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on
mindfulness and peace.
● Thich Nhat Hanh has published over 100 titles on meditation, mindfulness and
Engaged Buddhism, as well as poems, children’s stories, and commentaries on
ancient Buddhist texts. He has sold over three million books in America alone, some
of the best-known include Being Peace, Peace Is Every Step, The Miracle of
Mindfulness, The Art of Power, True Love and Anger.
● Thich Nhat Hanh has been a pioneer in bringing Buddhism to the West, founding six
monasteries and dozens of practice centers in America and Europe, as well as over
1,000 local mindfulness practice communities, known as ‘sanghas’.
● He has built a thriving community of over 600 monks and nuns worldwide, who,
together with his tens of thousands of lay students, apply his teachings on
mindfulness, peace-making and community-building in schools, workplaces,
businesses – and even prisons – throughout the world.
● Born in central Vietnam in 1926
2. Advocacy/Mission
a. Human rights advocate
i. Plum village
1. Worked to help Vietnamese refugees, political prisoners, and
hungry children in Vietnam
b. Engaged Buddhism - a way of life and spiritual practice that works actively in the
world to relieve suffering.
i. Alleviate sufferings of refugees, boat people, and hungry families.
c. Teaching mindfulness - advocacy is to have quintessence of the deep
understanding of reality that comes from meditations
i. Through teaching mindfulness, Hanh teaches compassion and using the
energy within the people to recognize their emotions and work them out.
ii. Teaches to have sense of peace and creates the art of community
building - brotherhood and sisterhood must be built
d. Offers several annual retreats in Europe, a biennial reaching tour in United states
and regular teaching in Asia
3. Most significant…
a. http://plumvillage.org/news/thich-nhat-hanhs-peerless-influence-on-western-
buddhism/
b. Creating western buddhism (plum village)
i. Making the belief adjust to the needs of the Western Culture.
ii. Order of interbeing and Wake up Movement
iii. Social justice to environmentalism
iv. Diversity of the belief is because it adjusts through time (on what is
important)
v.
4. Strategies to get his goals
 a. Portrays the mindful practice of sangha- building as form of permanent
opposition to the corrosive individualism of our time
b. Mindfulness
c. Doesn’t use violence rather being in peace with oneself
5. Teachings on nonviolence
● His key teaching is that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live happily in the
present moment—the only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the
world.
● Practice it within ourselves
● https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/quotes/thich-nhat-hanh-on-nonviolence
6. Why is he a great peacemaker?

References:
http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/NonviolenceBook/ThichNhatHanh.htm
http://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/08/learning-thich-nhat-hanh-living-legend-non-violence
http://universespirit.org/thich-nhat-hanh
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/30/local/me-buddhist30