The Friendship of Martin Luther King. Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh - Tricycle

The Friendship of Martin Luther King. Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh - Tricycle



“I Have Always Felt His Support”


A look into the friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr., two brothers working to build a Beloved CommunityBy Marc AndrusJAN 17, 2022
Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh at the 1966 conference in Chicago | Photo courtesy Parallax Press








In the new book Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr., author Marc Andrus chronicles the relationship that developed between the two spiritual leaders as allies in the peace movement and as friends. The two met in 1966 and only knew each other for a few years before Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, but they bonded over a shared vision of the Beloved Community, where all are included and at peace with one another, and where each being in the community is connected to every other being. Read three passages from the book below:

Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr.’s First Meeting in 1966

A. J. Muste, working on behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, arranged a meeting between Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago on May 31, 1966. They conferred privately for some time, discussing the latest crises in Vietnam, and then held a joint press conference at the Sheraton-Chicago Hotel.

The paradoxical nature of this meeting is that there are no detailed notes on the private conversation and no transcript or recording of the press conference is known at this time. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Nhat Hanh recalled, “We had a discussion about peace, freedom, and community. And we agreed that without a community, we cannot go very far.”

The main artifacts of the 1966 meeting are photographs of Nhat Hanh and King at the press conference. The power of these photographs is felt immediately: the men have an intensity of expression, and their youthful energy radiates from them. If the photographs can be considered to have iconic quality, it would be of friendship and solidarity. They are not two men working on isolated issues; the message is their commitment and their common cause.

At some point that day, likely during the press conference, they released a joint statement. The statement read:


“We believe that the Buddhists who have sacrificed themselves, like the martyrs of the civil rights movement, do not aim at the injury of the oppressors but only at changing their policies. The enemies of those struggling for freedom and democracy are not man. They are discrimination, dictatorship, greed, hatred and violence, which lie within the heart of man. These are the real enemies of man—not man himself.

We also believe that the struggles for equality and freedom in Birmingham, Selma and Chicago, as in Hue, Danang and Saigon, are aimed not at the domination of one people by another. They are aimed at self-determination, peaceful social change, and a better life for all human beings. And we believe that only in a world of peace can the work of construction, of building good societies everywhere, go forward.

We join in the plea, written June 1, 1965, by Thich Nhat Hanh in a letter to Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘Do not kill man, even in man’s name. Please kill the real enemies of man which are present everywhere, in our very hearts and minds.’”

This brief statement of mutuality and solidarity bursts with meaning; in it, deaths that had been conceived of as suicides are redefined as martyrs’ deaths. Further, common cause is made between those in the Vietnamese peace movement and Black civil rights activists. For some, the fact that Nhat Hanh was not a partisan for either North or South Vietnam must surely have been lost in the seeming enormity of King making a joint statement with a representative of a country at war with the United States.

Living in the Beloved Community meant, for King, living in what he called “the World House,” or as Nhat Hanh would express it, “becoming a citizen of the world.” King believed that living in the World House didn’t mean abandoning his national and local causes, but whatever he personally believed, the wider public wondered if King was trading civil rights for Blacks for peace for Vietnam, and other international causes, such as international justice.

To make this statement together, on their first meeting, was an extraordinary beginning to their relationship. At the May 31, 1966 meeting, with its private conversation followed by the press conference, we may say that Nhat Hanh and King began a friendship that is at the heart of the Beloved Community to which both men dedicated their lives.

***

Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Meeting in 1967

In May 1967 the World Council of Churches held a Pacem in Terris conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and Nhat Hanh and King both attended. The New York Times reported that King delivered a “bitter denunciation” of the Vietnam War there. The conference was also the last time that King and Nhat Hanh would meet. Their meeting may be seen as a metaphysical exchange between friends, marked by human warmth and humor. Here is how Nhat Hanh describes their meeting:


Dr. King was staying on the eleventh floor; I was on the fourth floor. He invited me up for breakfast. On my way, I was detained by the press, so I arrived late. He had kept the breakfast warm for me and had waited for me. I greeted him, “Dr. King, Dr. King!”

“Dr. Hanh, Dr. Hanh!” he replied.

We were able to continue our discussion on peace, freedom, and community, and what kind of steps America could take to end the war. And we agreed that without a community, we cannot go very far. Without a happy, harmonious community, we will not be able to realize our dream.

I said to him, “Martin, do you know something? In Vietnam they call you a bodhisattva, an enlightened being trying to awaken other living beings and help them move toward more compassion and understanding.” I’m glad I had the chance to tell him that, because just a few months later he was assassinated in Memphis.

According to Sister Chan Khong, [a Vietnamese nun and the first fully-ordained monastic disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh], it was at the Pacem in Terris meeting that King shared his understanding of the Beloved Community with Nhat Hanh. The importance of community was a mutual value for the two men; in fact, Sister Chan Khong holds that since before his ordination at the age of sixteen, Nhat Hanh has worked for “true sisterhood and brotherhood” in Vietnam.

In return, Nhat Hanh tells King that he is viewed as a “great bodhisattva” in Vietnam, an enlightened being with the quality of awakening compassion in others. King is not the only person Nhat Hanh calls a great bodhisattva. In other places, he calls the Earth, the Sun, the mother of the Buddha, and Sister Chan Khong “great bodhisattvas.” The designation by Nhat Hanh of non-traditional bodhisattvas is far more than a personal, affectionate bestowing of an honorific. Nhat Hanh is advancing his ideas of the restoration and reformation of Buddhism by his expansion of the beings who may be venerated as bodhisattvas. In Thich Nhat Hanh’s communities, well-known bodhisattvas, venerated throughout the Mahayana, are honored too, resettling the landscape of the holy. For instance, by invoking the mother of the Buddha and Sister Chan Khong, Nhat Hanh honors human women. A central goal of his reform of Buddhism in Vietnam has been gender equality in monastic Buddhism, and the honoring of a human woman as a bodhisattva furthers that goal. King, as a Christian American, might be another challenging entry into the lists of the holy for Vietnamese Buddhists, when placed next to Manjusri and Avalokiteshvara. Both King and Sister Chan Khong are also people of the contemporary world, bringing the idea of the holy close. The Earth and the Sun as bodhisattvas are in keeping with Nhat Hanh’s contributions to the Beloved Community; with Nhat Hanh, the concept is completely inclusive—all human life, all life we recognize as sentient, all beings of the cosmos.

As to what King made of Nhat Hanh’s message during their Geneva meeting, I can only join my hopes to those of Nhat Hanh’s, that it was a comfort to King as he faced the challenges of what would be the last months of his life.

***

Thich Nhat Hanh’s Reaction to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death

The day after King’s “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech, he was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. With him were several close friends and coworkers in the civil rights movement, including Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, and Jesse Jackson. The morning after hearing the news, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a heartbroken letter to his and King’s mutual friend Raphael Gould, one of the directors of the Fellowship of Reconciliation: “I did not sleep last night. . . . They killed Martin Luther King. They killed us. I am afraid the root of violence is so deep in the heart and mind and manner of this society. They killed him. They killed my hope. I do not know what to say. . . . He made so great an impression [on] me. This morning I have the impression that I cannot bear the loss.”

Years later, Nhat Hanh recalled: “I was in New York when I heard the news of his assassination; I was devastated. I could not eat; I could not sleep. I made a deep vow to continue building what he called ‘the beloved community,’ not only for myself but for him also. I have done what I promised to Martin Luther King Jr. And I think that I have always felt his support.”

This brief statement, made before Nhat Hanh’s massive stroke in 2014, is replete with the qualities of friendship and love. At the affective level, we see that Nhat Hanh was deeply moved by King’s death. Nhat Hanh’s reaction to the news of King’s death was not that of a dispassionate observer, but rather of someone aware of their interconnection and of the love that provides the interconnection in both the model of reality that Nhat Hanh had inherited and in the model he adopted from King: the Beloved Community. One does not make a “deep vow” to continue a great work of someone at a great remove, but rather to continue the work of someone one loves.

Anyone who has known a great love in their life knows that the measurement of that loving relationship in days marked off on a calendar is perhaps the least meaningful way to measure the relationship, if measuring ever enters the picture at all.

The friendship between Nhat Hanh and King in the world we access with our senses spans a short period of time—from 1965 to 1968. The points of contact between the two men over that slender skein of years is equally meager: an open letter on the immolations in Vietnam, the meeting in Chicago, the Nobel Peace Prize nomination, a second meeting in Geneva, and a tiny number of errata—these constitute the historical deposit of their relationship. Yet Nhat Hanh’s 2014 statement about King is suffused with the warmth of friendship and brotherhood.

⧫

Adapted fromBrothers In The Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. by Marc Andrus (2021) with permission of Parallax Press.

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Marc Andrus is the author of the newly released Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. and the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California.





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Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master, Dies at 95 - Tricycle

Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master, Dies at 95 - Tricycle



Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master, Dies at 95


The beloved teacher and civil rights activist was a pioneer of engaged Buddhism who popularized mindfulness around the world.By Joan Duncan OliverJAN 21, 2022
Thich Nhat Hanh at the Plum Village monastery in southern France | Courtesy Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism








Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh—a world-renowned spiritual leader, author, poet, and peace activist—died on January 22, 2022 at midnight (ICT) at his root temple, Tu Hien Temple, in Hue, Vietnam. He was 95.

“Our beloved teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has passed away peacefully,” his sangha, the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, said in a statement. “We invite our 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 in peace and loving gratitude for all he has offered the world.”


Thich Nhat Hanh had been in declining health since suffering a severe brain hemorrhage in November 2014, and shortly after his 93rd birthday on October 10, 2019, he had left Tu Hien Temple to visit a hospital in Bangkok and stayed for a few weeks at Thai Plum Village in Pak Chong, near Khao Yai National Park before returning to Hue on January 4, 2020. He had returned to Vietnam in late 2018, expressing a wish to spend his remaining days at his root temple.

Known to his thousands of followers worldwide as Thây—Vietnamese for teacher—Nhat Hanh was widely considered among Buddhists as second only to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in the scope of his global influence. The author of some 100 books—75 in English—he founded nine monasteries and dozens of affiliated practice centers, and inspired the creation of thousands of local mindfulness communities. Nhat Hanh is credited with popularizing mindfulness and “engaged Buddhism” (he coined the term), teachings that not only are central to contemporary Buddhist practice but also have penetrated the mainstream. For many years, Thich Nhat Hanh has been a familiar sight the world over, leading long lines of people in silent “mindful” walking meditation.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Thich Nhat Hanh’s role in the development of Buddhism in the West, particularly in the United States. He was arguably the most significant catalyst for the Buddhist community’s engagement with social, political, and environmental concerns. Today, this aspect of Western Buddhism is widely accepted, but when Nhat Hanh began teaching regularly in North America, activism was highly controversial in Buddhist circles, frowned upon by most Buddhist leaders, who considered it a distraction from the focus on awakening. At a time when Western Buddhism was notably parochial, Nhat Hanh’s nonsectarian view motivated many teachers to reach out and build bonds with other dharma communities and traditions. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his inclusive vision laid the groundwork for the flourishing of Buddhist publications, including Tricycle, over the past 35 years.

At the heart of Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to Buddhism was his emphasis on dependent origination, or what he called “interbeing.” Although this is a core teaching shared by all schools of Buddhism, prior to Nhat Hanh, it received little attention among Western Buddhists outside of academia. Today, it is central to dharma practice. Nhat Hanh viewed dependent origination as the thread that tied together all Buddhist traditions, linking the teachings of the Pali canon, the Mahayana teachings on emptiness, and the Huayen school’s vision of radical interdependence.

While Thich Nhat Hanh was a singular and innovative teacher and leader, he was also steeped in the Buddhist tradition of his native Vietnam. More than any other Zen master, he brought the essential character of Vietnamese Buddhism—ecumenical, cosmopolitan, politically engaged, artistically oriented—to the mix of cultural influences that have nourished the development of Buddhism in the West. Thich Nhat Hanh | Courtesy Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism

Born Nguyen Xuan Bao in central Vietnam in 1926, Nhat Hanh was 16 when he joined Tu Hieu Temple in Hue as a novice monk in the Linchi (Rinzai in Japanese) school of Vietnamese Zen. He studied at the Bao Quoc Buddhist Academy but became dissatisfied with the conservatism of the teachings and sought to make Buddhist practice more relevant to everyday life. (Tellingly, he was the first monk in Vietnam to ride a bicycle.) Seeking exposure to modern ideas, he studied science at Saigon University, later returning to the Buddhist Academy, which incorporated some of the reforms he had proposed. Nhat Hanh took full ordination in 1949 at Tu Hieu, where his primary teacher was Zen master Thanh Quý Chân Thậ.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Nhat Hanh assumed leadership roles that were harbingers of the prolific writing and unrelenting activism that his future held in store. In the early 50s, he started a magazine, The First Lotus Flowers of the Season, for visionaries promoting reforms, and later edited Vietnamese Buddhism, a periodical of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), a group that united various Buddhist sects in response to government persecution at the time. In 1961, Vietnamese Buddhism was closed down by conservative Buddhist leaders, but Nhat Hanh continued to write in opposition to government repression and to the war that was escalating in Vietnam.

Nhat Hanh first traveled to the United States in 1961, to study comparative religion at Princeton University. The following year, he was invited to teach Buddhism at Columbia University. In 1963, as the Diem regime increased pressure on Vietnamese Buddhists, Nhat Hanh traveled around the US to garner support for peace efforts at home. After the fall of Diem, he returned to Vietnam, and in 1964 devoted himself to peace activism alongside fellow monks. Nhat Hanh became a widely visible opponent of the war, and established the School of Youth for Social Service (SYSS), a training program for Buddhist peace workers who brought schooling, health care, and basic infrastructure to villages throughout Vietnam. In February 1966, with six SYSS leaders, he established the Order of Interbeing, an international sangha devoted to inner peace and social justice, guided by his deep ethical commitment to interdependence among all beings.

On May 1, 1966, at Tu Hieu Temple, Nhat Hanh received dharma transmission from Master Chan That, becoming a teacher of the Lieu Quan dharma line in the forty-second generation of the Lam Te Dhyana school. Shortly thereafter, he toured North America, calling for an end to hostilities in his country. He urged US Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara to stop bombing Vietnam and, at a press conference, outlined a five-point peace proposal. On that trip he also met with the Trappist monk, social activist, and author Thomas Merton at Merton’s abbey in Kentucky. Recognizing a kindred spirit, Merton later published an essay, “Nhat Hanh Is My Brother.” Thich Nhat Hanh with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a joint press conference on May, 31 1966 Chicago Sheraton Hotel | Courtesy Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism

While in the US, Nhat Hanh urged the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to publicly condemn the war in Vietnam. In April 1967, King spoke out against the war in a famous speech at New York City’s Riverside Church. A Nobel Laureate, King nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in a letter to the Nobel Committee that called the Vietnamese monk “an apostle of peace and nonviolence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war.” Nhat Hanh did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize: in publicly announcing the nomination, King had violated a strict prohibition of the Nobel Committee.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s anti-war activism and refusal to take sides angered both North and South Vietnam, and following his tour of the US and Europe, he was barred from returning to his native land. He was granted asylum in France, where he was named to lead the Buddhist peace delegation to the Paris Peace Accords. In 1975, Nhat Hanh founded Les Patates Douce, or the “Sweet Potato” community near Paris. In 1982, it moved to the Dordogne in southwestern France and was renamed Plum Village. What began as a small rural sangha has since grown into a home for over 200 monastics and some 8,000 yearly visitors. Always a strong supporter of children, Nhat Hanh also founded Wake Up, an international network of sanghas for young people.

After 39 years in exile, Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam for the first time in 2005 and again in 2007. During these visits, he gave teachings to crowds numbering in the thousands and also met with the sitting Vietnamese president, Nguyen Minh Triet. Though greeted with considerable fanfare, the trips also prompted criticism from Nhat Hanh’s former peers at UBCV, who thought the visits granted credibility to an oppressive regime. But consistent with his stand of many years, Nhat Hanh made both private and public proposals urging the Vietnamese government to ease its restrictions on religious practice.

Fluent in English, French, and Chinese, as well as Vietnamese, Nhat Hanh continued to travel the world teaching and leading retreats until his stroke in 2014, which left him unable to speak. But Nhat Hanh’s legacy carries on in his vast catalogue of written work, which includes accessible teachings, rigorous scholarship, scriptural commentary, political thought, and poetry. Beloved for his warm, evocative verse, Nhat Hanh published a collection of poetry entitled Call Me By My True Names in 1996. His instructive and explicatory work includes Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire, published in 1967, and such best-sellers as Peace is Every Step (1992), The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975, reissued 1999), and Living Buddha, Living Christ (1995).

In addition to his followers worldwide, Nhat Hanh leaves behind many close brothers and sisters in the dharma, most notably Sister Chan Khong. A longtime friend and activist in her own right, she has assumed a more pronounced leadership role in the sangha in recent years.

♦
ARTICLES BY THICH NHAT HANH

Interbeing with Thich Nhat Hanh: An Interview
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was born in central Vietnam in October 1926 and became a monk at the age of sixteen.

The Fertile Soil of Sangha
Thich Nhat Hanh on the importance of community.

The Heart of the Matter
Thich Nhat Hanh answers three questions about our emotions

Walk Like a Buddha
Arrive in the here and the now.

Free from Fear
When we are not fully present, we are not really living

Cultivating Compassion
How to love yourself and others

Thich Nhat Hanh’s Little Peugeot
The Zen master reflects on our culture of empty consumption and his community’s connection to an old French car.

Why We Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Suffering
Instead, we should fear not knowing how to handle our suffering, according to Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

Fear of Silence
While we can connect to others more readily than ever before, are we losing our connection to body and mind? A Zen master thinks so, and offers a nourishing conscious breathing practice as a remedy.

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Joan Duncan Oliver is a Tricycle contributing editor. The author of five books, she edited Commit to Sit, an anthology of articles from Tricycle.

'인류 영적스승' 틱낫한 스님 입적 "탄생도 죽음도 실제아냐" | 중앙일보

'인류 영적스승' 틱낫한 스님 입적 "탄생도 죽음도 실제아냐" | 중앙일보

입력 2022.01.22 10:31
백성호 기자


세계에서 가장 영향력 있는 종교인 중 한 사람인 틱 낫한 스님이 21일 베트남 후에에 있는 불교 사원에서 입적했다. 95세.


틱 낫한 스님은 명상을 현대인에게 일상 속에서도 실천할 수 있게끔 쉽고 구체적으로 전했다. [중앙포토]

고인이 설립한 프랑스의 수도공동체 플럼 빌리지(plum village)’는 이날 “2014년부터 틱 낫한 스님이 뇌출혈로 말을 하는 것이 어려웠고, 사람들과 소통할 때는 몸짓으로 했다”며 입적 전 틱 낫한 스님의 상태에 대해서도 밝혔다.

고인은 1926년 베트남에서 태어나 16세 때 출가했다. 61년에 미국으로 가서 프린스턴 대학에서 공부를 했고, 코넬 대학과 컬럼비아 대학에서 강의도 했다. 베트남 전쟁이 발발하자 세계 곳곳을 누비며 반전 평화 운동을 펼쳤다.


틱 낫한 스님과 제자들이 반전 평화 운동 집회에 참석해 발언하고 있다. [중앙포토]

사이공의 탄압에 대한 저항 운동과 반전 평화 운동에 대한 공으로 67년에는 노벨평화상 후보에도 올랐다. 그런데 그 해에는 노벨평화상이 누구에게도 수여되지 않았다. 틱 낫한 스님의 지구촌 평화 운동을 저지하고자 베트남 정부는 귀국 명령을 내렸고, 틱 낫한 스님은 73년에 프랑스로 망명했다. 2005년이 돼서야 비로소 틱 낫한 스님은 베트남으로 돌아갈 수 있었다.

장기 망명한 팃 낫한 스님은 프랑스에서도 난민 구제 활동을 활발하게 전개했다. 1982년에는 프랑스 보르도 근처에 있는 수도공동체 ‘플럼 빌리지’를 설립했다. 플럼 빌리지는 불교에만 국한되지 않고 명상과 힐링을 찾는 현대인에게 커다란 마음의 쉼터가 되기도 했다. 특히 서구인에게 불교식 명상의 현대적 접근을 가능하게 했다는 평가를 받는다.
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틱 낫한 스님은 2003년 한국을 방문한 적도 있다. 당시 서울에서 전남 순천의 송광사로 버스를 타고 이동하는데, 주최 측은 틱 낫한 스님을 위해 따로 VIP용 승용차를 준비했다. 틱 낫한 스님은 “나는 함께 온 일행들과 움직이고 싶다”며 승용차 탑승을 거절하고, 대중과 함께 버스로 이동했다는 일화가 지금도 절집에서 회자된다. 그는 대중과 함께하는 일상 생활에서도 부처님의 가르침을 그대로 실천하고자 했다.


2003년 전남 장성군 소재 백양사를 찾은 틱 낫한 스님(오른쪽)이 서옹 스님(왼쪽)에게 선물을 받고 있다. [중앙포토]

틱 낫한스님는 미국에서도 ‘그린 마운틴 수행원’을 세워서 현대인을 대상으로 명상을 전했다.

저술 활동도 무척 활발했다. 『귀향』『화』『틱 낫한의 걷기 명상』『부디 나를 참이름으로불러다오』등 100권이 넘는 저서를 출간했고, 이중 베스트셀러가 된 책도 상당수다.

뉴욕타임스는 21일 틱 낫한 스님의 부고 기사에서 삶과 죽음에 대한 그의 어록을 하나 뽑았다. “태어남과 죽음은 단지 개념일 뿐이다. 죽음도 없고 두려움도 없다. 그들은 실제가 아니다.(Birth and death are only notions. No Death, No Fear. They are not real.)” 불교에서는 진리의 자리는 오고 감이 없다고 말한다. 태어남과 죽음도 바다 위에 일어나는 파도와 같다고 말한다. 삶과 죽음에 대한 틱 낫한 스님의 불교적 이해와 수용을 그대로 드러내는 대목이다.


틱 낫한 스님은 베트남 출신이다. 반전 평화 운동으로 노벨평화상 후보에도 올랐다. [중앙포토]

백성호의 현문우답, 다른 기사들


“두 날개의 새” 원효대사의 반전…그는 원래 ‘칼의 달인’이었다 [백성호의 한줄명상]

우상은 왜 ‘I’dol일까…“다른 신을 섬기지 마라”에 담긴 깊은 뜻 [백성호의 예수뎐]

中 무시에 나옹 선사 "고려에서 해 떠야 중국 산 붉어진다" [백성호의 한줄명상]

"군자 뽑나, 소인 뽑나" 주역대가 대산 옹 '세가지'만 보라 했다 [백성호의 현문우답]

[백성호의 한줄명상]공민왕 스승 나옹 선사…"청산은 나를 보고 말없이 살라하네"

[백성호의 예수뎐]예수의 거문고 소리, 누가 알아들었을까
백성호 종교전문기자 vangogh@joongang.co.kr



# 명상지도자

# 베트남

# 베트남 정부

# 베트남 전쟁

# 불교식 명상

# 틱 낫한

# 플럼 빌리지

# 입적

# 열반
좋아요38싫어요6

hyun**** 11시간 전


중의 명복을 빈다니. . . 여기 독자들 희한하네. 종교전문기자도 황당하겠네.
좋아요0화나요0
댓글 옵션 버튼 펼치기/닫기
skc4**** 12시간 전


공산주의자의 실체를 제대로 깨닫지 못하고 남베트남에서 전쟁반대 평화협상등을 주장 국론 분열 남베트남을 적화시키는데 일조했다는 비판을 받고있던데요 사람은 완벽한 사람이 있겠어요
좋아요2화나요0
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life**** 13시간 전


같은 시대에 같이 호흡하고, 직접 만나지는 못했지만 그분의 책을 읽고 그분의 가르침을 받을 수 있었던 인연에 감사합니다. 인류의 스승이 우리 곁을 떠남에 아쉬울 뿐입니다.

===

세계적 불교 지도자·평화운동가 틱낫한 스님 열반…향년 95세(종합2보)

General / 김범수  / 2022-01-23 00:34:42

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베트남전 반대하다가 추방…뇌졸중으로 쓰러진 뒤 고국서 여생 보내

"고통을 이용해 행복 느낄 수 있어" 명상 수련 강조

인권 운동가 고(故) 마틴 루서 킹 목사, 노벨평화상 후보로 추천

▲ 틱낫한 스님의 2007년 당시 모습 [EPA 연합뉴스 자료사진. 재배포 및 DB 금지]

(하노이·서울=연합뉴스) 김범수 특파원 김연숙 기자 = 세계적인 불교 지도자이자 평화 운동가인 틱낫한 스님이 향년 95세를 일기로 열반했다.

22일 미국 일간지 뉴욕타임스(NYT)와 현지 언론 등에 따르면 틱낫한 스님은 베트남 중부 도시인 후에의 뚜 히에우 사원에서 별세했다.

그가 프랑스에 세운 불교 명상공동체 플럼빌리지 사원은 틱낫한 스님이 이날 자정에 입적했다고 고인의 트위터를 통해 밝혔다.

베트남 출신인 틱낫한 스님은 시인이자 교사, 평화 운동가로, 티베트의 정신적 지도자인 달라이 라마와 함께 '살아있는 부처', '영적 스승'으로 꼽혔다.

고인은 1926년에 태어나 23세의 나이에 승려가 됐다.

영어 등 7개 국어를 구사했던 그는 1960년대 초반 미국 프린스턴대와 컬럼비아대를 방문해 불교와 관련된 강의를 했다.

지난 1963년 고국에 돌아온 뒤 반전 운동에 참여했다가 남베트남 정부에 의해 추방당했다.

이후 주로 프랑스에 거주하면서 불교 원리를 정치·사회 개혁에 적용하는 참여불교 운동을 전개하며 전세계에 영향을 끼쳤다.

▲ 2018년 4월 인도서 강연하는 달라이 라마 [EPA=연합뉴스 자료사진. 재판매 및 DB 금지]

고인은 생전에 미국의 인권 운동가인 고(故) 마틴 루서 킹 목사와 만나 갈등 해결을 위해 적극적으로 목소리를 내달라고 당부하기도 했다.

평화와 비폭력을 지향하는 틱낫한 스님에 감명한 킹 목사가 그를 노벨평화상 후보로 추천한 것은 유명한 일화다.

그는 서방 세계에 불교를 널리 알린 인물이다.

프랑스에 플럼빌리지 사원을 세운 뒤 줄곧 마음의 수련과 명상의 중요성을 강조했다.

그는 늘상 "고통을 받는 법을 알게 되면 고통을 줄일 수 있으며, 고통을 이용해 행복과 환희를 느낄 수 있다"고 설파해왔다.

고인은 2014년 뇌졸중으로 쓰러진 뒤 말을 할 수 없게 되자 여생을 고향에서 보내기 위해 2018년 베트남으로 돌아왔다.

그는 사후에 시신을 화장해서 전세계에 있는 플럼빌리지 명상 산책로에 뿌려달라고 유언을 남겼다.

생전에 한국을 방문했던 틱낫한 스님은 국내에도 '화', '틱낫한 명상', '마음에는 평화 얼굴에는 미소' 등 다수의 책이 소개됐다.

틱낫한 스님의 열반 소식이 전해지자 달라이 라마는 고인의 업적을 기리며 추모 메시지를 전했다.

달라이 라마는 고인의 트위터에 공유된 메시지를 통해 "나의 친구이며 영적형제"라고 지칭했다.

그러면서 "마음챙김'(mindfulness) 명상과 자비로움이 내면의 안정에 도움을 주고, 마음의 평화를 추구함으로써 세계 평화에 기여할 수 있다는 점을 다른 사람들과 공유함으로써 진실로 의미있는 삶을 살았다"고 말했다.

아울러 틱낫한 스님이 생전에 베트남전을 반대했고 킹 목사의 인권 운동을 지지한 점도 높이 평가했다.

이어 "그에게 경의를 표하는 최선의 방법은 세계 평화를 이루기 위한 그의 활동을 이어나가는 것"이라고 강조했다고 현지매체인 VN익스프레스는 전했다.

전세계 유수의 언론사들도 틱낫한 스님의 별세 소식을 전하면서 애도의 뜻을 전했다.

AFP통신은 고인을 "서구에 마음챙김을 소개했다"고 전했고 뉴욕타임스는 "전세계에 큰 영향을 미친 승려"라고 평가했다.

이밖에 CNN은 "평화 운동가로서 베트남전에 반대하는 운동을 주도했다"고 전했다.

고인의 장례는 뚜 히에우 사원에서 일주일간 조용하고 평화로운 방식으로 진행된다고 측근들은 전했다.

(끝)

Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully | Plum Village

Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully | Plum Village



March 11, 2019
Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully


A new interview with Brother Phap Dung on Vox about how Thay is living his days.
By Eliza Barclay | 11th March, 2019

“Letting go is also the practice of letting in, letting your teacher be alive in you,” says a senior disciple of the celebrity Buddhist monk and author.
Thich Naht Hanh, 92, reads a book in January 2019 at the Tu Hieu temple. “For him to return to Vietnam is to point out that we are a stream,” says his senior disciple Brother Phap Dung.

Thich Nhat Hanh has done more than perhaps any Buddhist alive today to articulate and disseminate the core Buddhist teachings of mindfulness, kindness, and compassion to a broad global audience. The Vietnamese monk, who has written more than 100 books, is second only to the Dalai Lama in fame and influence.

Nhat Hanh made his name doing human rights and reconciliation work during the Vietnam War, which led Martin Luther King Jr. to nominate him for a Nobel Prize.

He’s considered the father of “engaged Buddhism,” a movement linking mindfulness practice with social action. He’s also built a network of monasteries and retreat centers in six countries around the world, including the United States.

In 2014, Nhat Hanh, who is now 92 years old, had a stroke at Plum Village, the monastery and retreat center in southwest France he founded in 1982 that was also his home base. Though he was unable to speak after the stroke, he continued to lead the community, using his left arm and facial expressions to communicate.

In October 2018, Nhat Hanh stunned his disciples by informing them that he would like to return home to Vietnam to pass his final days at the Tu Hieu root temple in Hue, where he became a monk in 1942 at age 16.

As Time’s Liam Fitzpatrick wrote, Nhat Hanh was exiled from Vietnam for his antiwar activism from 1966 until he was finally invited back in 2005. But his return to his homeland is less about political reconciliation than something much deeper. And it contains lessons for all of us about how to die peacefully and how to let go of the people we love.

When I heard that Nhat Hanh had returned to Vietnam, I wanted to learn more about the decision. So I called up Brother Phap Dung, a senior disciple and monk who is helping to run Plum Village in Nhat Hanh’s absence. (I spoke to Br. Phap Dung in 2016 right after Donald Trump won the presidential election, about how we can use mindfulness in times of conflict.)

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Brother Phap Dung, a senior disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh, leading a meditation on a trip to Uganda in early 2019.

Eliza Barclay
Tell me about your teacher’s decision to go to Vietnam and how you interpret the meaning of it.

Phap Dung
He’s definitely coming back to his roots.

He has come back to the place where he grew up as a monk. The message is to remember we don’t come from nowhere. We have roots. We have ancestors. We are part of a lineage or stream.

It’s a beautiful message, to see ourselves as a stream, as a lineage, and it is the deepest teaching in Buddhism: non-self. We are empty of a separate self, and yet at the same time, we are full of our ancestors.

He has emphasized this Vietnamese tradition of ancestral worship as a practice in our community. Worship here means to remember. For him to return to Vietnam is to point out that we are a stream that runs way back to the time of the Buddha in India, beyond even Vietnam and China.

Eliza Barclay
So he is reconnecting to the stream that came before him. And that suggests the larger community he has built is connected to that stream too. The stream will continue flowing after him.


Phap Dung
It’s like the circle that he often draws with the calligraphy brush. He’s returned to Vietnam after 50 years of being in the West. When he first left to call for peace during the Vietnam War was the start of the circle; slowly, he traveled to other countries to do the teaching, making the rounds. And then slowly he returned to Asia, to Indonesia, Hong Kong, China. Eventually, Vietnam opened up to allow him to return three other times. This return now is kind of like a closing of the circle.

It’s also like the light of the candle being transferred, to the next candle, to many other candles, for us to continue to live and practice and to continue his work. For me, it feels like that, like the light is lit in each one of us.

Eliza Barclay
And as one of his senior monks, do you feel like you are passing the candle too?

Phap Dung
Before I met Thay in 1992, I was not aware, I was running busy and doing my architectural, ambitious things in the US. But he taught me to really enjoy living in the present moment, that it is something that we can train in.

Now as I practice, I am keeping the candlelight illuminated, and I can also share the practice with others. Now I’m teaching and caring for the monks, nuns, and lay friends who come to our community just as our teacher did.

Eliza Barclay
So he is 92 and his health is fragile, but he is not bedridden. What is he up to in Vietnam?

Phap Dung
The first thing he did when he got there was to go to the stupa [shrine], light a candle, and touch the earth. Paying respect like that — it’s like plugging in. You can get so much energy when you can remember your teacher.

He’s not sitting around waiting. He is doing his best to enjoy the rest of his life. He is eating regularly. He even can now drink tea and invite his students to enjoy a cup with him. And his actions are very deliberate.

Once, the attendants took him out to visit before the lunar new year to enjoy the flower market. On their way back, he directed the entourage to change course and to go to a few particular temples. At first, everyone was confused, until they found out that these temples had an affiliation to our community. He remembered the exact location of these temples and the direction to get there. The attendants realized that he wanted to visit the temple of a monk who had lived a long time in Plum Village, France; and another one where he studied as a young monk. It’s very clear that although he’s physically limited, and in a wheelchair, he is still living his life, doing what his body and health allows.

Anytime he’s healthy enough, he shows up for sangha gatherings and community gatherings. Even though he doesn’t have to do anything. For him, there is no such thing as retirement.

Eliza Barclay
But you are also in this process of letting him go, right?

Phap Dung
Of course, letting go is one of our main practices. It goes along with recognizing the impermanent nature of things, of the world, and of our loved ones.

This transition period is his last and deepest teaching to our community. He is showing us how to make the transition gracefully, even after the stroke and being limited physically. He still enjoys his day every chance he gets.

My practice is not to wait for the moment when he takes his last breath. Each day I practice to let him go, by letting him be with me, within me, and with each of my conscious breaths. He is alive in my breath, in my awareness.

Breathing in, I breathe with my teacher within me; breathing out, I see him smiling with me. When we make a step with gentleness, we let him walk with us, and we allow him to continue within our steps. Letting go is also the practice of letting in, letting your teacher be alive in you, and to see that he is more than just a physical body now in Vietnam.

Eliza Barclay
What have you learned about dying from your teacher?

Phap Dung
There is dying in the sense of letting this body go, letting go of feelings, emotions, these things we call our identity, and practicing to let those go.

The trouble is, we don’t let ourselves die day by day. Instead, we carry ideas about each other and ourselves. Sometimes it’s good, but sometimes it’s detrimental to our growth. We brand ourselves and imprison ourselves to an idea.

Letting go is a practice not only when you reach 90. It’s one of the highest practices. This can move you toward equanimity, a state of freedom, a form of peace. Waking up each day as a rebirth, now that is a practice.

In the historical dimension, we practice to accept that we will get to a point where the body will be limited and we will be sick. There is birth, old age, sickness, and death. How will we deal with it?

Thich Nhat Hanh leading a walking meditation at the Plum Village practice center in France in 2014.

Eliza Barclay
What are some of the most important teachings from Buddhism about dying?

Phap Dung
We are aware that one day we are all going to deteriorate and die — our neurons, our arms, our flesh and bones. But if our practice and our awareness is strong enough, we can see beyond the dying body and pay attention also to the spiritual body. We continue through the spirit of our speech, our thinking, and our actions. These three aspects of body, speech, and mind continues.

In Buddhism, we call this the nature of no birth and no death. It is the other dimension of the ultimate. It’s not something idealized, or clean. The body has to do what it does, and the mind as well.

But in the ultimate dimension, there is continuation. We can cultivate this awareness of this nature of no birth and no death, this way of living in the ultimate dimension; then slowly our fear of death will lessen.

This awareness also helps us be more mindful in our daily life, to cherish every moment and everyone in our life.

One of the most powerful teachings that he shared with us before he got sick was about not building a stupa [shrine for his remains] for him and putting his ashes in an urn for us to pray to. He strongly commanded us not to do this. 

I will paraphrase his message:

“Please do not build a stupa for me. Please do not put my ashes in a vase, lock me inside and limit who I am. I know this will be difficult for some of you. If you must build a stupa though, please make sure that you put a sign on it that says, ‘I am not in here.’ In addition, you can also put another sign that says, ‘I am not out there either,’ and a third sign that says, ‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’”

Keep Reading

Shambhala Sun, 1996: profile of Thich Nhat Hanh

An Autumn to Remember Interbeing

Plum Village Lineage / Stories of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teacher

A Day of Mindfulness With Thich Nhat Hanh

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"틱낫한 스님의 열반 소식을 듣고" - 법륜스님의하루

"틱낫한 스님의 열반 소식을 듣고" - 스님의하루

2022.1.20

"틱낫한 스님의 열반 소식을 듣고"

2022.01.23. 5,445 읽음

오늘 스님은 세계적인 명상가이자 평화운동가인 틱낫한 스님이 베트남 중부 도시 후에의 뚜 히에우 사원에서 입적했다는 소식을 듣고 고인의 뜻을 기렸습니다. 그리고 고인이 평생 전념해 온 비폭력 평화운동을 계속 이어 나갈 것을 다짐했습니다. 스님이 직접 쓰신 추모글을 전합니다.

22일 입적한 틱낫한 스님

▲ 22일 입적한 틱낫한 스님

틱낫한 스님의 열반 소식을 듣고!

오늘(1월 22일) 새벽 틱낫한 스님의 열반 소식을 접하고 먼저 고인의 명복을 빕니다.

편안히 열반에 드시옵소서!

평소 스님을 존경하는 저로서는, 스님의 열반 소식을 듣고 아쉬움이 많이 남습니다. 고통받는 세상 사람들을 위해서는 스님께서 이 세상에 더 머물러 주셨으면 하는 마음이었기 때문입니다. 프랑스의 식민 지배 하의 베트남에 태어나 독립전쟁, 남북 베트남 전쟁, 미·베트남 전쟁을 겪으며 살생·파괴·난민의 참상을 경험하셨습니다.

그런 악조건 속에서도 위험을 무릅쓰고, 화해와 평화의 정신으로 사회정의 실현을 위해 자신의 희생도 마다하지 않으셨습니다. 나아가 이러한 화해와 평화의 사상을 베트남을 넘어 전 세계로 널리 전파하셨습니다. 수행자로서 분노 없이 비폭력 평화운동을 선도하셨습니다.

오늘 우리 후배 수행자들도 국가·이념·종교를 넘어 스님의 비폭력 평화운동을 계속 이어 나갈 것을 다짐하오니 남은 일들은 저희에게 맡기시고, 부디! 영면에 드시옵소서!

나무불. 나무법. 나무승.

2022.1.22 한국에서 비구 법륜 합장

Upon Hearing the News of Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh’s Passing

Today, in the early morning of January 22, 2022, I heard of Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh’s passing. May he rest in peace.

May he come to eternal rest from samsara and reach nirvana!

As one who has always had great respect for Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, I am deeply saddened by the news of his passing. I would have liked him to stay with us a little longer for those who are suffering in this world.

Born in Vietnam during the French colonial rule, he experienced the Vietnam War and witnessed the atrocities of mass killing and destruction, which led to a refugee crisis in Vietnam.

Despite all the adversity and danger, he did not hesitate to sacrifice himself in realizing social justice based on the spirit of peace and reconciliation. Furthermore, he spread his philosophy of peace and reconciliation beyond Vietnam to the entire world.

He led a peace movement based on nonviolence and compassion.

We, the practitioners around the world, regardless of nationality, ideology, and religion, vow to continue the nonviolent peace movement you have led. Please entrust us with the task.

May you rest in eternal peace!

I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

Bhikkhu Pomnyun

From South Korea on January 22, 2022

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Ludrup Yongsoo

위대한 스승, 틱낫한 스님, 오늘(1.22) 만95세 입적하셨어요. 

🙏🙏🙏

"이 몸은 내가 아니다. 이 몸은 나를 갇힐 수 없다. 나는 경계가 없는 생명이다. 나는 태어난 적도 죽은 적도 없다. 저 넓은 바다와 하늘, 수많은 우주는 다 의식에 의하여 나타난다. 나는 시초부터 자유 그 자체였다. 생사는 오고가는 출입문일 뿐이다. 태어나고 죽는 것은 숨바꼭질의 놀이에 불과하다. 그리하여 내 손을 잡고 웃으면서 잘 가라고 인사하자. 내일, 어쩌면 그 전에 다시 만날 것이다. 근본자리에서 항상 다시 만날 것이다. 삶의 수많은 길에서 항상 다시 만난다."

~틱낫한 스님

오늘 스님을 생각하며 기도합니다. 🙏

"This body is not me; I am not caught in this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died. 

Over there, the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies all manifests from the basis of consciousness. 

Since beginningless time I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. 

Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek. 

So smile to me and take my hand and wave good-bye.

 Tomorrow we shall meet again or even before. 

We shall always be meeting again at the true source. 

Always meeting again on the myriad paths of life."

 ~Thích Nhất Hạnh

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希修

< Thich Nhat Hanh’s Final Message on His Death >

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틱낫한 스님께서 아직 건강하실 때 본인의 죽음에 대해 미리 당부해 놓으셨던 말씀:

"나를 화장하여 탑을 세우거나 병 안에 담지 말아 달라. 그것은 나를 제한하는 행동이니. 이런 일을 하지 않기가 당신들 중 일부에게는 어렵게 느껴지겠지만. 꼭 탑을 세워야 한다면 반드시 이 메세지를 적어 달라. '나는 이 안에 있지 않다.' '나는 밖에 있지도 않다'와 '내가 어딘가에 있다면 그건 당신의 호흡 속의 알아차림, 그리고 평화를 위해 내딛는 한 걸음 한 걸음 속에 있을 것이다'라는 메세지도 함께." 

“Please do not build a stupa for me. Please do not put my ashes in a vase, lock me inside and limit who I am. I know this will be difficult for some of you. If you must build a stupa though, please make sure that you put a sign on it that says, ‘I am not in here.’ In addition, you can also put another sign that says, ‘I am not out there either,’ and a third sign that says, ‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’”

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평소 죽음을 두려워 하지 않던 사람이라 해도 죽음이 닥치면 생에 집착이 생긴다고 합니다. (본능이겠죠.) 남겨진 이들이 계속 슬퍼하고 그리워 하는 것은 혹시라도 있을지 모르는 그 집착을 아예 이승에 붙잡아 주저앉히는 일입니다. 그러므로 내가 사랑하고 존경했던 분일수록 놓아보내 드리는 것이 맞습니다. 특히, 남은 이들의 정치적 이해 때문에 돌아가신 정치인의 이름을 현실정치의 장으로 계속 불러내 자의적으로 사용하는 행동이야말로 고인의 평화를 방해하는 가장 큰 무례라고 저는 생각합니다. 고인의 유지의 대변자라도 되는 양 행동하는 이가 있다면, 고인을 존경하는 분일수록 그런 이들을 멀리해야 하리라고 생각됩니다. 한풀이 정치는 이제 그만.

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From MLK to Silicon Valley, how the world fell for ‘father of mindfulness’ | Vietnam | The Guardian

From MLK to Silicon Valley, how the world fell for ‘father of mindfulness’ | Vietnam | The Guardian

From MLK to Silicon Valley, how the world fell for ‘father of mindfulness’

Thich Nhat Hahn leading people in a walking meditation in 2013. Photograph: Zuma Press/Alamy


The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who has died at 95, gave his movement a global reach and influence

Miranda Bryant

Sun 23 Jan 2022 06.32 AEDT

Before he got sick, Thich Nhat Hanh urged his followers not to put his ashes in a vase, lock him inside and “limit who I am”. Instead, the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, poet and peace activist apparently told them: “If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.”

And after the 95-year-old’s death on Saturday, the breadth of the legacy of his extraordinary life was laid bare as news of his death reverberated around the world, drawing tributes from leading figures from across psychology, religion and social justice.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said he lived “a truly meaningful life”, adding: “I have no doubt the best way we can pay tribute to him is to continue his work to promote peace in the world.”

Hanh, known as the “father of mindfulness” and a leading advocate of “engaged Buddhism”, rose to prominence and was exiled from his home country over his opposition to the Vietnam war. After persuading Martin Luther King to speak out against it, the civil rights leader nominated him for the Nobel peace prize in 1967, writing that he did not know of anyone more worthy “than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam”.

‘Thay’ with Martin Luther King Jr at a press conference in Chicago in 1966. Photograph: Edward Kitch/AP

Hanh’s influence even reached the tech world. In 2013 he spoke at Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, telling workers: “We have the feeling that we are overwhelmed by information. We don’t need that much information.”His influence also spanned clinical psychology, with his 1975 book The Miracle of Mindfulness laying the foundations for what would later be used to treat depression and described as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

“He was there at the very start of bringing mindfulness from east to west,” said Mark Williams, emeritus professor of clinical psychology at Oxford University and founding director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Williams first heard about mindfulness from Marsha Linehan, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Washington, who he said kept Hanh’s book in her pocket and referred to it as her “bible”.

He said: “I first met her in the late 80s but this was published in 1975 so she had been using that book to influence her, and it was her work and her advice that influenced us in seeking to incorporate mindfulness into our approach to preventing depression, which then became known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.”

Buddhist monks and nuns greet Thich Nhat Hanh (centre) at a temple in Hue, Vietnam, in 2020. Photograph: Linh Pham/Getty Images

Today, mindfulness is a ubiquitous term of modern life, but without Hanh’s influence western mindfulness would not, he believes, be what it is today.

Williams said: “What he was able to do was to communicate the essentials of Buddhist wisdom and make it accessible to people all over the world, and build that bridge between the modern world of psychological science and the modern healthcare system and these ancient wisdom practices – and then he continued to do that in his teaching.”

Those who met Hanh said his presence was unlike anything else they had encountered.

Anabel Temple, a member of Heart of London Sangha, part of Hanh’s monastery network, first came across his teachings in his book Being Peace 30 years ago. She travelled with him in China and Vietnam in 2005, when he returned after four decades of exile, and has been to his Plum Village monastery in France many times. Scrolling through her phone, she shows dozens of photos of Hanh – also known as “Thay”, or teacher – travelling.

“He had that sort of way. You go into a room and there were hundreds of people there in a Dharma talk, but he had that ability to feel he was singling you out personally in that room, speaking directly to you,” she said.

The last time Temple saw him was at Plum Village before a stroke, which left him unable to speak, in 2014. Four years later he returned to Vietnam and because of his ill health was permitted by the authorities to spend his final days at the Tu Hieu temple.

It is not yet clear how the government of one-party Vietnam, which is wary of organised religion, will react to his funeral, which began yesterday and will last five days.

“Thay was such humility, such dignity, such presence,” said Temple. “He was funny, angry, sad. He took childlike delight in things and also a profound peace and calmness and an extraordinary humanity.”

Suryagupta, chair of the London Buddhist Centre, first encountered him at a retreat in England about 25 years ago. “He is definitely a giant of a man and I had the good fortune to be on retreat with him in my early days of exploring Buddhism,” she said.

“What was so striking was, whenever he walked into a space, sometimes there would be hundreds of people there, without saying a word literally as soon as he walked in his presence would instil this sort of stillness and quietness in the crowd… and a softness, you felt yourself relax and be alert somehow in his presence.” Suryagupta said his inclusivity was a central feature of his teaching. “He showed that Buddhism was really available for everybody and as a Black woman that was really important to me.”

He died peacefully surrounded by his followers in Tu Hieu temple – the same temple that his spiritual journey started – where they will hold a week-long funeral.

Marianne Williamson, author and former US presidential candidate, said: “He was a great spiritual teacher obviously who brought millions of people around the world into a deeper understanding of the tenets of Buddhism and how to apply them in our daily lives.”

But she is certain that his legacy will live on. “His gift to the planet was so significant I don’t think it will in any way lessen with his death. With some people, and certainly there are those we all know of today, their negativity permeates the consciousness of the planet,” she said. “With Thich Nhat Hanh, his love and compassion permeated the consciousnesses of the planet and now it’s our responsibility to carry it forward from here.”