Thich Nhat Hanh and Buddism

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Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese monk and a peace activist. Thich or Thay in Vietnamese means teacher. He is an author of more than 100 books and was nominated for the nobel prize by Martin Luther King Jr. His life has since been dedicated to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society.

Nhat Hanh was born in the city of Quảng Ngãi in Central Vietnam in 1926. He was inspired to become a monk when he was seven. He saw the picture of the Buddha sitting on the grass with peace and a smile. He was impressed and had a desire to be like him. At first, his parents opposed his will because they believed that the life of a monk was difficult. When ordaining, Viemanese ordain for their entire life. He kept learning about it until the age of 16 when he had the permission of his parents to enter the monastery in Vietnam. He received training in both Zen and Mahayana.

He was named editor-in-chief of Vietnamese Buddhism in 1956. In the following years, he founded the school of Youth for Social Service, a neutral Corps of Buddhist Peace workers who went into rural areas to establish a school to built a healthcare clinics and help re-build villages.

Vietnam War

In 1960, Nhat hanh came to the U.S. to study comparative religion at Princeton University and a following year was appointed lecturer in Buddhism at Columbia University. Then in 1963, he returned to Vietnam to aid his fellow monks in their non-violent peace efforts, valiantly opposing his own government.

During the Vietnam War, he and his fellow monks had difficulty with a decision: Should he still live peacefully in the monastery to practice mindfulness or go out and help people who were suffering?Since, for him becoming a monk meant having time to practice for transformation and healing himself, and then to help transform suffering and healing other people, he decided to do both

For this decision, he already established the idea of Engaged Buddism – a buddism movement that involves peaceful activism for social reform .

“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs.

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