Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Thich Nhat Hanh, influential Zen Buddhist monk, dies at 95

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Thich Nhat Hanh, influential Zen Buddhist monk, dies at 95

Nhat Hanh distilled Buddhist teachings on compassion and suffering into easily grasped guidance over a lifetime dedicated to working for peace.

Jan. 21, 2022, 11:47 PM EST / Updated Jan. 22, 2022, 12:31 AM EST

By The Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam — Thich Nhat Hanh, the revered Zen Buddhist monk who helped pioneer the concept of mindfulness in the West and socially engaged Buddhism in the East, has died. He was 95.

HÀ NỘI, Việt Nam - Thích Nhất Hạnh, vị thiền sư đáng kính, người đã giúp đi tiên phong cho khái niệm chánh niệm ở phương Tây và Phật giáo gắn bó với xã hội ở phương Đông, đã qua đời. Ông ấy đã 95 tuổi.

HANOI, Vietnam – Thich Nhat Hanh, le moine bouddhiste zen vénéré qui a aidé à lancer le concept de pleine conscience en Occident et le bouddhisme socialement engagé en Orient, est décédé. Il avait 95 ans.

A post on Nhat Hanh’s verified Twitter page attributed to The International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism confirmed the news. The post said Nhat Hanh, known as Thay to his followers, died at midnight Saturday.

“We invite our beloved global spiritual family to take a few moments to be still, to come back to our mindful breathing, as we together hold Thay in our hearts," the post said.

Born as Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926 and ordained at age 16, Nhat Hanh distilled Buddhist teachings on compassion and suffering into easily grasped guidance over a lifetime dedicated to working for peace. In 1961 he went to the United States to study, teaching comparative religion for a time at Princeton and Columbia universities.

For most of the remainder of his life he lived in exile at Plum Village, a retreat center he founded in southern France.

There and in talks and retreats around the world, he introduced Zen Buddhism, at its essence, as peace through compassionate listening. Still and steadfast in his brown robes, he exuded an air of watchful, amused calm, sometimes sharing a stage with the somewhat livelier Tibetan Buddhist leader Dalai Lama.

“The peace we seek cannot be our personal possession. We need to find an inner peace which makes it possible for us to become one with those who suffer, and to do something to help our brothers and sisters, which is to say, ourselves,” Nhat Hanh wrote in one of his dozens of books, “The Sun My Heart.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/thich-nhat-hanh-influential-zen-buddhist-monk-dies-95-rcna13152

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