´óÏó´«Ã½

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh ©

Thich Nhat Hanh is a world renowned Zen master, writer, poet, scholar, and peacemaker. With the exception of the Dalai Lama, he is today's best known Buddhist teacher. He is the author of more than one hundred books including bestsellers Peace Is Every Step, The Miracle of Mindfulness, Living Buddha, Living Christ and Anger.

Born in 1926 he was ordained at the age of 16. Just eight years later he founded the An Quang Buddhist Institute in Saigon. In 1961, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thây as he is known to his followers went to the US to study and teach comparative religion at Columbia and Princeton Universities. He returned to Vietnam two years later to help lead the Buddhist peace effort.

On full moon night in February 1964, he established the Tiep Hien Order or the Order of Interbeing, at a time when the Vietnam War was escalating and the teachings of the Buddha were desperately needed to combat the hatred, violence, and divisiveness enveloping his country. At this stage the Order comprised a small number of dedicated followers who were involved in social work and were committed to the principles of Engaged Buddhism. The Order was founded on the Fourteen Precepts or, as they are now known, Mindfulness Trainings. In the same year, along with a group of university professors and students in Vietnam, he founded the School of Youth for Social Service, in which teams of young people went into the countryside to establish schools and health clinics and to rebuild villages that had been bombed.

A delegation of monks ©

Two years later in 1966, Thây left Vietnam to call for peace. He was not allowed to return. In 1967, Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying, "this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam. is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity."

In 1969, he led the Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks and founded the Unified Buddhist Church (UBC) in France. UBC first established the Sweet Potatoes Meditation Centre in 1975. Word spread about his teachings and the community grew. In 1982 Plum Village was set up. Situated in Southern France, Plum Village is a meditation centre and home to the Order of Interbeing. Every year, Plum Village thousands of people from different faiths come from all over the world to attend retreats. A sangha (community of practice) of about 150 monks, nuns and lay-practitioners live permanently in Plum Village.

Thich Nhat Hanh's teaching is notable for its emphasis on joy, engagement in the world, and integrating the practice of mindfulness into daily life. To be mindful is to become aware of what is going on in our bodies, our minds, and the world around us. His teaching centres on conscious breathing and the mindful awareness of each breath. He reminds his students that any act is an opportunity to touch the sacred, whether it is washing the dishes or driving a car. He asks us to stop the war inside ourselves, to quiet our distracted minds and to return to the present moment. "If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace." This allows us to discover, that "There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way".

Find out more

• Zen Buddhism