Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh: A Biography PDF

This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh: A Biography CONTENTS Early Life Monastic training: traditional roots Monastic training: seeking a new path Creating a renewed, engaged Buddhism Experimental community 1957-61 Princeton Theological Seminary and Co...

This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh: A Biography CONTENTS Early Life Monastic training: traditional roots Monastic training: seeking a new path Creating a renewed, engaged Buddhism Experimental community 1957-61 Princeton Theological Seminary and Columbia 1961-63 Leader in the Buddhist peace and social work movements 1963-66 Leaving Vietnam to call for peace 1966- Brotherhood: friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Paris Peace Talks 1968-73 Engaging new elements in the West Miracle of mindfulness: cultivating peace and healing 1975-82 Pioneering communities of mindfulness and peace 1982- Renewing Buddhism: deepening roots, extending branches Buddhism without borders Return to Vietnam 2005-8 Global spiritual leader and “Father of Mindfulness” A cloud never dies Acknowledgements Endnotes Appendix 1: EARLY BOOKS BY THICH NHAT HANH Appendix 2: BUDDHIST TEACHINGS GIVEN BY THICH NHAT HANH Copyright © 2020 Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism 1  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 All rights reserved 2  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Editor’s note on names: Thích Nhất Hạnh (pronounced Tik - N'yat - Haan), is a religious name (or “Dharma title”) that our teacher has gone by since his early twenties, and the name by which he is known worldwide to millions as a writer, teacher, poet, and peace activist. It is not his only name. As a boy, he received a formal family name (Nguyễn Đình Lang) to register for school, but was known by his nickname (Bé Em). When he first entered the temple he received a spiritual name as an aspirant for the monkhood (Sung); when he received the Five Precepts and formally became a lay Buddhist he received a Lineage name (Trừng Quang); and when he ordained as a monk he received a Dharma name (Phùng Xuân). When he later needed to register himself legally, he did so with the name Nguyễn Xuân Bảo. He took a new Dharma title (Nhất Hạnh) when he moved to Saigon from Hue in 1949. In the great political turbulence and upheaval of Vietnam in the 1950s and '60s, he used Nhất Hạnh and over a dozen other pen names for his articles and books. For simplicity and ease of reading, this biography refers to Thích Nhất Hạnh simply as Thầy. It is the informal Vietnamese word for “teacher” and the name by which he is known to his students. 3  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh: A Biography Early Life Thầy was born on October 11, 1926, into a large family in the ancient imperial capital of Huế in central Vietnam.1 His father Nguyễn Đình Phúc was from Thành Trung village in the province of Thừa Thiên, Huế, and was an official for land reform in the Imperial Administration under the French.2 His mother, Trần Thị Dĩ, was from Gio Linh District in the neighboring province of Quảng Trị.3 He was the second-youngest of their six children, with three older brothers, an elder sister, and a younger brother born soon after him. He lived until aged five with his extended family, including uncles, aunts, and cousins, at the home of his paternal grandmother—a large house with a traditional courtyard and garden, with a lotus pond and bamboo grove, within the old imperial city walls. When Thầy was four, his father was assigned to work in Thanh Hóa, about 500 kilometers north in the mountains, to oversee work to clear forest and prepare agricultural land for poor villagers to cultivate. A year later, the family moved up to join him in the Nông Cống district, about 100km from the town of Thanh Hóa. Thầy went to elementary school there, and in the summer holidays attended an informal homeschool. He was registered for school with the family name “Nguyễn Đình Lang”. Thầy was a curious student and keen to learn, yet also very shy. At school and in his free time at home he studied Vietnamese and French, and began to teach himself classical Chinese. He also eagerly read the Buddhist books and magazines brought home by his elder brother Nho, whom Thầy loved and admired. Nho also taught Thầy how to draw portraits, and even how to take photographs and develop them from a do-it-yourself machine. In his later talks and lectures, Thầy often recalled a pivotal moment when, perhaps as early as age nine, he was captivated by a peaceful image of the Buddha on the cover of one of Nho’s Buddhist magazines. The illustration of the Buddha sitting on the grass, naturally at ease and smiling, captured his imagination and left a lasting impression of peace and tranquility. It was a stark contrast to the injustice and suffering he saw around him. Vietnam at the time was still under French colonial rule. The image of the Buddha awakened a clear and strong desire in Thầy to become just like that Buddha: someone who embodied calm, peace, and ease, and who could help others around him also be calm, peaceful and at ease. 4 Two years later, Thầy and his brothers and friends were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up. One said doctor, another said lawyer. His elder brother Nho was the first to say he wanted to become a monk. At first it sounded very new and original. But after talking more, finally all the boys agreed they wanted to become monks. Thay later said, “During that discussion, it was clear that some decision or some aspiration was there very strong in me already. Inside, I knew that I wanted to be a monk.”5 1 Thầy is the 15th generation in the “Nguyễn Đình” line. The most distinguished poet in 19th Century Vietnam, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, author of the epic poem Lục Vân Tiên was Thầy’s ancestor, belonging to the 9th generation of the Nguyễn Đình” line. Note: It is customary in Vietnam (as in France) to write the family names first (Nguyễn Đình) before the given name. 2 Land reform: di dân lập ấp. 3 Thầy’s mother’s Dharma name (her spiritual name as a Buddhist) was Trừng Thính. She received this name and the Five Precepts from Thầy’s teacher (together with Thầy’s father) at Từ Hiếu Temple when they came to visit their son right after Tết (Lunar New Year) 1947. 4 The magazine was called Đuốc Tuệ (“Torch of Wisdom”). This story is told in Thich Nhat Hanh, A Pebble for Your Pocket (2001). 5 See Thich Nhat Hanh Dharma Talk, June 8, 1992: “When I was eleven, one day we discussed among ourselves—three brothers and two friends, five boys—after dinner we talked about this and that, and finally we asked ourselves the question, “What do we want to be in the future?” Someone said, “I want to be a doctor.” “I want to become a lawyer.” We talked a lot about that. Finally my big brother said, “I want to become a monk.” This was original and new. I don’t know why but we 4  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 About six months later, on a school trip to a nearby sacred mountain, Thầy had what he would later describe as his first spiritual experience.6 As his fellow schoolmates sat down to eat, he slipped away to explore alone, eager to find the old hermit rumored to live there.7 He didn’t find the hermit but, hot and thirsty, came upon a natural well of fresh, pure water. He drank his fill before falling into a deep sleep on the nearby rocks. The experience created a profound feeling of satisfaction in the young boy. Having found the water, he felt completely fulfilled. He felt that he had somehow met the hermit in the form of the well, and found the best possible water to quench his thirst.8 A sentence came to his mind in French: J’ai gouté l’eau la plus délicieuse du monde (I have tasted the most delicious water in the world).9 The wish to become a monk continued to grow in Thầy’s heart, and a few years later that dream would be realized. Thầy’s beloved elder brother Nho ordained when Thầy was twelve, and entered the Great Compassion Temple in Thanh Hóa, 15km from their home.10 At the time, it was difficult for their parents to accept Nho’s choice, as they knew the life of a monk could be very hard. Even so, Thầy wanted to ordain with his elder brother, but waited until he was a few years older to obtain his parents’ permission. Although Thầy was still young, the Buddhist articles and stories he had been reading inspired Thầy with ideas of how Buddhism could help nurture a more just, free and prosperous society in Vietnam.11 Soon, Nho was sent to Huế by the Abbot of the Great Compassion Temple, Zen Master Trừng Pháp Chân Không, to continue his training at Từ Hiếu Temple. Thầy was eager to go with him. When his parents finally agreed to let him follow his dream, Thầy accompanied Nho on the long journey 500km south. In 1942, at the age of 16, Thầy began his novice training at Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, under Zen Master Thích Chân Thật (1884-1968), entering the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist tradition in the lineage of the renowned Master Linji (Rinzai) and Master Liễu Quán.12 Thầy was initially given the aspirant name “Sung.”13 After three years of instruction, he formally received the novice precepts in the early morning of the full came to the conclusion that five of us would become monks. For me it was easy, because I had that kind of something like “falling in love with the Buddha.” Just by seeing the image of a person sitting quietly and calmly like that. So that seed had been growing. During that discussion, it was clear that some decision or some aspiration was there very strong in me already. Inside, I knew that I wanted to be a monk. How? We did not know at all. Being a monk was a vague idea. It meant to follow the path of the Buddha—that’s all. But to follow in what way? We did not know.” 6 Thich Nhat Hanh, Q&A at Brock University, Toronto, 15 August 2013. See also Thich Nhat Hanh, Q&A in Plum Village, July 19, 2009. It was “a kind of deep, deep spiritual experience.” 7 The mountain in Thanh Hóa is known as Núi Na (“Na Mountain”). The story of the Núi Na hermit appears in the writings of Nguyễn Du renowned 16th Century Vietnamese poet, and may have been based on the true story of a royal official in the Tran Dynasty, who retreated up into the mountain in the 14th Century. More information here. 8 This story is told in Thich Nhat Hanh, The Hermit and the Well (2001). 9 Thich Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), pp.11-13. 10 Nho ordained with Zen Master Trừng Pháp Chơn Không at the Great Compassion Temple (Chùa Đại Bi) in Thanh Hóa. Nho received the monastic name Thích Giải Thích. Many decades later, in 2010, Thầy named the nuns’ residence at his European Institute of Applied Buddhism Great Compassion Temple (Chùa Đại Bi). 11 The magazines Thầy read from as early as age nine included Đuốc Tuệ (“Torch of Wisdom”). There were many articles about Buddhism in service of society and engaged in social issues (Nhân gian Phật giáo). Thich Nhat Hanh, “Cultivating our Deepest Desire”, Mindfulness Bell #08, Spring 1993: “I remember a series of articles in that magazine on “Buddhism in the World,” about practicing in society and in the family, not just in temples. Reading articles like that sparked in me the desire for awakening.” 12 Thầy’s teacher, Thích Chân Thật, belonged to the 41st generation of the Linji School (臨濟宗, Vietnamese: Tông Lâm Tế, Japanese: Rinzai) and seventh generation of the Liễu Quán Dharma line. Zen Master Thích Chân Thật had the Lineage name Thanh Quý 清季; Dharma name Cứu Cánh 究竟; and Dharma title Chân Thật 真寔. According to Vietnamese Buddhist tradition every practitioner receives a lineage name when first committing to practice the Five Precepts; on becoming a monk they receive a monastic Dharma name. Later, monks may take or be given by their teacher or community one or many Dharma titles, marking the development of their career. Every monastic member in the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition has a name which begins with Thích, which represents the Buddha’s family name “Shakya” (釋迦). It can be considered a family name or surname for Buddhist monastics in Vietnam. 13 Điệu means “aspirant” and Sung comes from the words sung túc, meaning “prosperity” or “to prosper.” 5  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 moon of the ninth lunar month of 1945.14 When he received the Five Precepts he was given the Lineage name Trừng Quang (澄光, “Calm Light”), marking his generation in this particular Buddhist school; and when he received the Ten Novice Precepts, he was given the monastic Dharma name Phùng Xuân (逢 春, "Meeting Spring"), the name by which was known in the temple. Monastic training: traditional roots Despite the tension beyond the temple walls, with the Japanese occupation of Vietnam (1940-45), and the scarcity of food during the catastrophic 1945 famine, a warm atmosphere of brotherhood and peace prevailed, and Thầy recalled his novicehood as a happy time.15 He had a close relationship with his teacher, who loved him very much.16 His years at Từ Hiếu Temple were a time of rustic simplicity.17 There was no electricity or running water, and no toilets. As a young novice in training, his daily tasks included chopping wood, carrying water from the well, sweeping the courtyard, working in the garden, tending the cows, and, when the season came, helping to harvest, thresh, and mill the rice. The temple followed the Zen principle of “no work, no food,” which applied to everyone from the highest monk to the newest member.18 Whenever he had a chance to be his teacher’s attendant, he would wake before dawn to light a fire and boil water to prepare his tea.19 Thầy was taught to be concentrated in every task, whether washing the dishes, closing the door, sounding the temple bell, or offering incense at the altar. He was given a little book, Essential Vinaya for Daily Use—forty-five short verses in Sino-Vietnamese which he had to memorize and recite silently during every act of daily life to maintain concentration.20 His training was practical and down-to-earth. He learned how a monk should sit, walk, eat, and chant with peace and compassion. He participated in the morning and evening liturgy in Sino-Vietnamese, and the ceremony to offer rice to the Buddha every day at noon.21 He found the chanting powerful, uplifting, inspiring, and comforting. Thầy recalled one time as a novice when he accompanied his Teacher to visit Hải Đức Temple in Huế, and he saw a Zen master sitting on his wooden platform. “He was not doing sitting meditation. He was not in the meditation hall. He was simply sitting in front of a low table, very beautifully, very straight. And I was very impressed. He looked so peaceful, natural, relaxed. And in my heart as a novice, there came a vow, a longing, to sit like that. How could I sit like that? I would not need to do anything. I would not need to say anything. I would just need to sit.”22 In the temple, Thầy received traditional Buddhist training in the monastic code and developed his knowledge of classical Chinese. He found time while tending the cows to continue his reading and 14 The full moon of 21 October 1945. See Thich Nhat Hanh, My Master’s Robe (2002): “In our first year we studied the daily liturgy and precepts of novices. In our second year we studied the commentaries on the precepts and well-known sutras. By the third year, of the four of us, Brother Man and I had excelled in our studies and we had great hopes of being the first to have novice ordination. Novice ordination meant to officially take the vows of a monk. We awaited this moment as though we were waiting for some great success. For me, I yearned for this moment even more than a scholar might yearn for the announcement of the results of an exam taken after many years of study.” 15 Thich Nhat Hanh, Q&A session, Plum Village, 24 July 2012 (Question no.4), and “The Little Buffalo in Pursuit of the Sun,” a chapter on his novicehood memories in Thich Nhat Hanh, Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh (1999) pp.103-115. 16 Thich Nhat Hanh, Q&A session, Plum Village, 18 July 2012 (Question no.2). 17 Nhat Hanh, My Master’s Robe (2002). 18 ibid., p.9. 19 Nhat Hanh, Call Me By My True Names (1999) p.111. 20 Essential Vinaya for Daily Use (毗尼日用切要) compiled by Vinaya Master Duti (讀體, 1601-1679), also known as Jianyue Lüshi (見月律師). Thầy also studied the Ten Novice Precepts and the Twenty-Four Chapters of Mindful Manners by Master Zhuhong, and the Encouraging Words of Master Guishan. The meditation he learned as a novice in Từ Hiếu Temple was from the Tiantai school. 21 Chanting was of sutras in Sino-Vietnamese, including the Śūraṅgama Sutra, the Sukhāvatī Sutra, and dhāraṇi incantations. 22 Thich Nhat Hanh Dharma Talk, December 4, 2011. 6  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 studying, and was the only one in the temple who could speak French. He was inspired by the writings of Zen Master Thích Mật Thể (1912-1961) and the author Nguyễn Trọng Thuật (1883–1940). 23 Both figures saw the deep riches in Vietnamese Zen history and the capacity of Buddhism to bring about “a new spring” for Vietnam, the kind of Buddhist renewal also being proposed by other reformers and modernists elsewhere.24 Yet in the first half of the twentieth century, there were those in Vietnam who still saw Buddhism as outdated and archaic, not fit to respond to the challenges of modernity and the dominating forces of colonialism. Catholicism was advanced and promoted, while Buddhist “shrine monks” (or “bonzes”) were considered old-fashioned, superstitious, heathen, and uneducated. Thầy witnessed at close hand the Japanese occupation and Great Famine of 1945. Stepping out of the temple he saw bodies out in the streets of those who had died of hunger, and witnessed trucks carrying away dozens of corpses.25 He and his fellow monks were desperate to help. “The situation of suffering impels young men and women to go out and join the revolution. As a young person in such a situation, you have to do something for your country.”26 Although many young monks were tempted by the Marxist pamphlets’ call to arms, Thầy was convinced that Buddhism, if updated and restored to its core teachings and practices, could truly help relieve suffering in society, and offer a nonviolent path to peace, prosperity, and independence from colonising powers, just as it had during the renowned Ly and Tran dynasties in medieval Vietnam.27 In 1947, soon after receiving the novice precepts, Thầy’s teacher sent him to study and live at the nearby Báo Quốc Institute of Buddhist Studies in Huế.28 There, he followed a foundational Buddhist curriculum including new Buddhist textbooks being published by monastic and lay teachers seeking to renew Buddhism in China. Thầy studied key Mahayana sutras, including the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings (八大人覺經), the Sutra on Impermanence (無常經), the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters (四 十二章經), the Sutra of the Buddha’s Last Teachings (the Bequeathed Teachings Sutra, 遺教經), and Buddhist psychology (including the 51 Mental Formations). In the second year, he studied the novice monastic code (vinaya), the Amitabha Sutra, and the key texts of the Yogācāra School, including the Thirty Verses and the One Hundred Dharmas—many of which he memorised by heart in Sino-Vietnamese.29 The curriculum also included Confucian literature, for example The Four Books and Five Classics (四書五經). His studies continued with Buddhist logic (hetu-vidya, 因明), the Śūraṅgama Sutra, and teachings of the Tiantai School, including the Greater and Lesser Treatises on Concentration and Insight by Master Zhiyi (智顗). There was a culture of poetry at Báo Quốc, and teachers and students often exchanged insights and reflections in poems. Thầy had begun to write poetry when he was twelve and he continued at Từ Hiếu Temple. He later said that, experiencing so many beautiful moments at Từ Hiếu, “it was impossible for me not to become a poet.” At Báo Quốc his talents in poetry were nurtured and encouraged.30 23 Thich Nhat Hanh, Inside the Now: Meditations on Time (2015). 24 For example, the Chinese Master Taixu (1890-1947). Thích Mật Thể studied with Master Tinh Nghiêm (Qing Yan) in China, and brought back his ideas to Huế. 25 Thầy described what he saw in an interview with Don Lattin for The San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 1997: “There was a time when every morning when I got up I saw many dead bodies on the street, because people did not have anything to eat. [We] Young students had to go and beg for rice. And at lunch, we went into each house and asked for a rice bowl. We collected this rice and then we divided it into a smaller rice bowl and distributed it to the dying people. They were dying of hunger...I never can forget such an experience.” 26 Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk at Plum Village in Vietnamese, February 11, 2002 (Lunar New Year Eve) 27 Nhat Hanh, My Master’s Robe (2002) 28 Unfortunately the Báo Quốc Institute’s records are no longer extant. They were deliberately burned in 1975 and what remained was lost in a later accidental fire. 29 Thầy’s private papers; and Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk of February 15, 2009. Thầy did so well in his first year that the Director of the Institute, Venerable Trí Thủ, let Thầy attend his intermediate classes on the novice vinaya and contemporary Vietnamese literature. 30 Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk of June 9, 2013 and his private memoirs. 7  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Thầy’s studies took place against the backdrop of the First Indochina War (1946-54). Following the withdrawal of the Japanese, a violent struggle emerged between the French forces and the nationalist Việt Minh engaging in guerrilla warfare to end colonial rule.31 Over 50,000 people would die in the fighting, as the Vietnamese fought for the kind of independence India would win from the British. The skirmishes and violence did not spare the monks or temples. They became a place of sanctuary and refuge for revolutionaries fleeing the French.32 Although unarmed and nonviolent, many monks, including some of Thầy’s close friends, were shot and killed.33 French soldiers frequently raided the temples, searching for resistance fighters or food. Thầy vividly recalled one raid where soldiers demanded the last of their rice. It was during this unsettled time that Thầy had an unexpected chance to befriend a young French soldier stationed at the water plant near Từ Hiếu.34 Thầy later said that, like many young men and monks his age at the time, he was very tempted by Marxism, and the promise of taking action to improve the situation.35 But he was confident that the Buddhist path could also offer a non-violent way forward. At Báo Quốc, Thầy and his fellow seminarians started their own little magazine, called Lotus. After a few issues, Thầy felt the content was too theoretical, so they tried again, with another magazine they called Tiếng Sóng (“Sound of the Waves”). But it was seen as too provocative by the elders in the institute, and they had to stop.36 Meanwhile, Thầy continued to read progressive Buddhist magazines such as Tiến Hóa, which explored ideas for a “socially conscious” Buddhism that was concerned not only with transforming the mind, but also the wider environment and conditions in society, including the economic and political roots of poverty, oppression, and war.37 Tiến Hóa published articles on the importance of studying science and economics, in order to understand the actual roots of suffering, and not rely only on chanting and prayer. Thầy and his fellow young monks, keen to expand their horizons, still had a thirst for books on science, philosophy, and foreign literature beginning to be published in Vietnam. Yet the kind of Buddhism taught at Báo Quốc was still very traditional, with a strong emphasis on rituals and chanting, and it did not yet directly address the problems going on around them. In their second year, Thầy and his friends petitioned their teachers for changes to the curriculum, so they could study Buddhism in a way that was more relevant to the contemporary situation. They felt the old way of teaching and learning did not respond to their own needs or the needs of the country struggling for independence from colonial oppression. Although the director listened deeply and understood their concerns, the conservative teachers were not ready to make changes, and the students’ requests were declined.38 Monastic training: seeking a new path 31 The First Indochina War lasted eight years, from 1946-54, as the French fought to reclaim their colony after the Japanese withdrew in 1945, against a growing Vietnamese resistance. 32 Thầy recalls sheltering revolutionaries in his letter, Nhat Hanh, “The Magical Sound of the Sitar,” October 13, 2009. 33 Thích Tâm Thường, a very close friend was among those killed. See Nhat Hanh, Inside the Now (2015), p.15. 34 Nhat Hanh, Inside the Now (2015); see also “The Last Sack of Rice” and “A French Soldier” in Thich Nhat Hanh, At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life (2016); and “Humanity” in Nhat Hanh, My Master’s Robe (2002) 35 Mindfulness Bell, issue #34, Autumn 2003 36 Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk in Plum Village, April 17, 2014. 37 Nhat Hanh, unpublished private papers. 38 Nhat Hanh, unpublished private papers. The Director of the institute at the time was Thích Trí Thủ 8  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 In late spring 1949, after two years at the Báo Quốc Institute, 23-year-old Thầy left Huế with his friends who had been creating Tiếng Sóng magazine, to further their studies in Saigon.39 As battles were still raging, they took a long route, and in parts travelled by boat to avoid the military roadblocks.40 Along the way, the young monks decided to affirm their deep aspiration to become bodhisattvas of action by taking new names. They all took the name Hạnh, meaning “action.” In this way, Thầy (Phùng Xuân) became Nhất Hạnh (“One Action”), and the two other monks became Đường Hạnh (“Great Action”) and Chánh Hạnh (“Right Action”). 41 As the name of every Vietnamese Buddhist begins with Thích, so it was that, from this time, Thầy became known as Thích Nhất Hạnh. 42 When they arrived in Saigon, the war with the French was still going on. Thầy and his friends stayed and studied at a number of other different temples, for weeks or months at a time, while they pursued their self-directed studies. Thầy soon published his first books of poetry. Reed Flute in the Autumn Twilight, a collection of about fifty poems, including a play in verse, was printed in autumn 1949. His poetry collection in a radical new “free” form, The Golden Light of Spring, followed in 1951.43 Capturing his experiences of war and loss, his poetry was well received, and quickly sold out. Thầy and his friends became some of the first Buddhist monks in Vietnam to find ways to study a more western-style curriculum, making use of the Saigon National Library. Traditional Buddhism in Vietnam did not allow monks to study “worldly” subjects but, as well as studying the Tripiṭaka—the Buddhist canon— Thầy and his friends also eagerly studied science, world literature, foreign languages (in particular French), philosophy, and psychology. As he reflected later, “we were convinced that these subjects could help us infuse life into the practice of Buddhism in our country. You have to speak the language of your time to express the Buddha’s teachings in ways people can understand.”44 In autumn 1950, Thầy helped Thích Trí Hữu co-found Ấn Quang Pagoda, a new temple built of bamboo and thatch. It would later host a reformist Buddhist institute where he would become one of the youngest teachers, and is today one of the most prominent temples in the city.45 Thầy continued his research in the library, publishing in spring 1951 his first book on Buddhism, Oriental Logic, a discussion of Eastern logic in the light of Aristotle, Hegel, Marx and Engels. 46 It was during this time that Thầy and his friends delighted in breaking with monastic convention, and were among the first to dare to ride bicycles out in the streets.47 Thầy also took the bold step of 39 Thich Nhat Hanh, Creating True Peace: Ending Conflict in Yourself, Your Community and the World (2001) p.22, “I left the Buddhist Institute because I did not find an appropriate teaching and practice there for responding to the reality of life in Vietnam, but I did not leave monastic life.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996) p.21, “We left the Buddhist Institute in Hue because we felt we weren’t getting the teachings we needed.” 40 From Đà Nẵng they took the boat to Saigon. 41 Thầy’s private papers. With the name “Hạnh,” they may have been evoking the name of Zen Master Vạn Hạnh, an eminent Vietnamese monk from the 10-11thC., who was a master of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and who served as adviser to the King. The name Vạn Hạnh means “ten thousand actions,” whereas Nhất Hạnh means “one action.” Speaking later about his name, Thầy said that he, unlike his eminent predecessor, needed to concentrate on one thing. Source: Sallie B. King, “Thich Nhat Hanh and the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam: Nondualism in Action,” in Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King (Eds.) Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia (1996), Ch.9. 42 See footnote 11, above. 43 Tiếng Địch Chiều Thu (“Reed Flute in the Autumn Twilight”) published under the name Nhất Hạnh by Dragon River Press in 1949. This was followed by Thơ Ngụ Ngôn (“Fables”), published under the pen name “Hoàng Hoa” by Đuốc Tuệ publishing house in 1950. Ánh Xuân Vàng (“The Golden Light of Spring”), was published soon after, in 1950. 44 Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), p.22. 45 Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk in Hanoi, May 6, 2008. They founded the temple in 1949 together with the Brother Trí Hữu. At first they called it Ứng Quang. It became known as the South Vietnam Buddhist Institute (Phật học đường Nam Việt) in 1950. Today Ấn Quang temple is one of the most well-known temples in the city. 46 Đông Phương Luận Lý Học (“Oriental Logic”) was published by Hương Quê publishing house in 1950. 47 Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk in Plum Village, May 10, 2014. While visiting the coastal town of Nha Trang several hundred kilometers northeast of Saigon. 9  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 enrolling, in September 1951, for the baccalauréat exams in Saigon to get the certificate he needed to enter secular higher education.48 In October 1951, at the age of 25, Thầy formally received full ordination as a bhikshu at Ấn Quang Temple, with Venerable Thích Đôn Hậu as his Ordination Master. 49 In many respects, this step to receive bhikshu ordination was long overdue. Thầy had already been a monk for nine years, had made his name as a poet and Buddhist scholar and commentator. Following the publication of Oriental Logic, Thầy was invited to Đà Lạt, up in the Central Highlands, 200 kilometers northeast of Saigon, to edit Hướng Thiện Buddhist magazine and train the young aspirants at one of the temples. They established a community of monastics studying at the Spiritual Light Pagoda (Chùa Linh Quang).50 Eager to explore new horizons, Thầy wrote articles on Buddhist philosophy and the renewal of Buddhism, wrote a Vietnamese play adaptation of Molière’s Le Tartuffe.51 For the Lunar New Year in February 1952, Thầy directed his students to perform the play. 52 Reflecting later on this time, Thầy wrote, “I was full of creative energy, an artist, and a poet. More than anything else, I wanted to help renew Buddhism in my country, to make it relevant to the needs of the young people.”53 Despite the tension and instability of the French Indochina War, in which Catholic colonial forces engaged in a bitter struggle to reassert dominance, the French intellectuals living in Đà Lạt were unusually curious about and respectful towards Buddhism, and Thầy met them at weekly lectures at Chùa Linh Sơn. At that time, French journals such as La Pensée Bouddhique, edited by Mme. Marguerite La Fuente in Paris, could be bought in Saigon, and provided a rich resource for Thầy’s academic research. Soon, he updated Hướng Thiện magazine to a smaller format, and changed its name to Liên Hoa, inspired by the French Buddhist magazine, Le Lotus Bleu. During the early 1950s, Thầy divided his time between Đà Lạt and Saigon where he was teaching, publishing articles, and completing his baccalauréat. Thầy gave a series of talks on the meditation practices of śamatha and vipaśyanā at Phước Hải Temple, that would later be published.54 From time to time he was invited to lead courses in Đồng Nai Thượng. It was not easy to have enough money to live on, as, to preserve their independence, Thầy and his young monastic brothers did not cultivate individual sponsors (as was typical for monks at the time). The honorariums Thầy received for articles and books helped cover their basic needs, but they did not always have enough. Thầy sometimes lacked medicine and rest, and his health at this time was fragile and weak.55 In late 1952 in Đà Lạt, Thầy and his elder brother An (known as “Bé Anh”) set up the first Buddhist private school in Vietnam, offering for Buddhist families the kind of structured education being given by 48 At Vương Gia Cần High School in Saigon. It was considered inappropriate at the time for monks to seek “worldly” education. 49 This information is published in Tiểu sử danh tăng Việt Nam thế kỷ XX (1995) (“Biographies of Renowned Vietnamese Monks of the Twentieth Century”), Ch. 1, p. 322, compiled by Venerable Thích Đồng Bổn, published by the Buddhist Association of Hồ Chí Minh city. 50 The name of the temple (Chùa Linh Quang) can also be translated as “Miraculous Brightness Pagoda.” For more on his time in Đà Lạt in 1950, see Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996). 51 His articles and writing were published in book form in 1953, by Đuốc Tuệ publishing house, with the title Gia Đình Tin Phật (“Buddhist Families”). He developed new, concrete practices for Buddhists to incorporate the teachings into their family relationships and lifestyle, and also presented ways they could offer meaningful chants and prayers at home. 52 A translation that was later published with the title Cậu Đồng 53 Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), p.11. 54 Thich Nhat Hanh, Chỉ Quán Yếu Lược (1955) 55 In 1953 he published an article entitled, “Sickness Helps Us Practice.” 10  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 the growing number of French Catholic missionary schools in the country.56 They offered a secular elementary study program including science and French, and young monastics who couldn’t afford the fees could study for free. Thầy’s popular articles and teachings on Buddhism for lay practitioners, which he had been publishing in Hướng Thiện magazine since 1951, began to published as books. Buddhist Families and Being Buddhist came out in 1953, and were broadcast on the weekly Buddhist radio station. This new kind of very practical Buddhism for people who weren’t monks and nuns foreshadowed Thay’s later efforts to develop practices that could be effective for young people, families, relationships, and home and working life.57 At this time, he hoped that in the future he would “see monks and nuns operating high schools, taking care of kindergartens, and running healthcare centers, practicing meditation while doing the work of helping people—not just talking about compassion, but expressing compassion through action.”58 Creating a Renewed, Engaged Buddhism In July 1954, following the Geneva Accords which officially ended hostilities between the French and the Viet Minh, Vietnam was divided into two. The North became communist and the South soon became anti-communist, supported by the U.S. The separation of the country ushered in a turbulent time, with huge numbers migrating from North to South in an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty. To strengthen their voice and collect their energy, Buddhist leaders formed a National Buddhist Association (Tổng Hội Phật Giáo Việt Nam) of all the schools and lineages.59 The board of the Ấn Quang Institute invited Thầy back to Saigon to help stabilize and renew the program of studies and practice for the young generation of monks and nuns. Many students were being drawn to Marxist ideals and the struggle for freedom from foreign control, and left monastic life to join the guerrilla struggle. Thầy later said that there was a time when even he was tempted by these ideals.60 Others, feeling that Buddhist courses were neither rigorous nor relevant, were turning to secular education and training in other professions, such as medicine or engineering. Thầy created a program that could address the young monastics’ need for a more relevant kind of Buddhist study and, for the first time, offer them a diploma comparable to secular courses. And so, from summer 1954, Thầy was appointed Director of Education at the Ấn Quang Buddhist Institute.61 “I convened a series of meetings involving hundreds of young monks and nuns,” he recalled, “and we created an atmosphere of hope, trust, and love. The patriarch of the National Buddhist Association joined one of our meetings, and he listened as we young monks and nuns expressed our deepest hopes for Buddhism in our country.”62 Thầy proposed a new curriculum at Ấn Quang, for the first time combining traditional Buddhist studies with science, mathematics, Western philosophy, foreign languages, history, literature and creative writing. The new Ấn Quang diploma would now be equivalent to the diplomas of secular institutes. He helped start a Student Society for Culture and 56 Hanh, Inside the Now (2015) p.18. The school was called Tuệ Quang. By 1970 there were 72 Buddhist elementary schools and 65 high schools based on this “Bồ đề” model, teaching over 58,000 students. In 1975, all those schools became public schools under the Ministry of Education. 57 Nhất Hạnh, Là Phật Tử (“Being Buddhist,” 1953), published by Đuốc Tuệ; and Nhất Hạnh, Gia Đình Tin Phật (“Buddhist Families,” 1953), published by Đuốc Tuệ (this was a collection of articles first printed in the magazine Hướng Thiện in Đà Lạt in 1951). 58 Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), p.22. 59 On May 6, 1951, fifty-one representatives from 6 Buddhist congregations of the South, the Central and the North had a meeting at Từ Đàm temple and agreed to establish the National Buddhist Association. Source: Nguyễn Lang, Việt Nam Phật giáo Sử luận (“History of Vietnamese Buddhism”) 60 Mindfulness Bell, issue #34, Autumn 2003 61 He had begun teaching the intermediate class at Ấn Quang in 1953, as he was dividing time between Đà Lạt and Saigon. 62 Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), p.30. Note: this quote corrects a mistranslation printed in the book (it should read “National Buddhist Association” not “Unified Buddhist Church.”) 11  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Communication, which began publishing a newsletter, New Lotus Season (Sen Hái Đầu Mùa). Thầy knew that “The task of reforming Buddhism demands a revolution in the teachings and the regulations of the Buddhist institutes. When the training can form a sufficient number of good students, then there can be a real reform of Buddhism.”63 Experimenting with a new style of séminaire, Thầy began to reorganise every aspect of the monks’ studies, practice, and way of living. To enliven the lessons, he taught them folk songs and new Buddhist songs, and he even took them on a camping trip to the beach. 64 He directed them to take down the walls of the young monks’ rooms, so all forty students were living in one big, airy dorm.65 As Thầy later wrote, “It was exhilarating to be involved in what I had dreamed about for such a long time.”66 Thầy taught his students foundational Buddhism, the history of Buddhism, and Vietnamese literature, as well as creative writing and poetry. Thầy invited guest teachers to give talks, including Venerable Yan Pou (Diễn Bồi) from China and Brother Ananda Mangala from India. He taught the young monastics the poetry of Victor Hugo and encouraged them to learn French; every day at 8pm they studied the French class being broadcast on the Pháp Á (“France Asia”) radio station.67 However, he soon discovered that their French was not quite up to it, and he realised there would need to be changes to the core curriculum. Thầy also began experimenting with translating Chinese texts into poetic contemporary Vietnamese. His most popular course was on “Buddhist literature,” then a new subject he was pioneering. He gave commentary on Buddhist poetry and gathas in Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese, and presented Mahayana sutras in the light of their literary qualities.68 Thầy encouraged the students to have informal discussions on Buddhism, French literature, and the situation in Vietnam.69 He also began teaching the advanced students at Ấn Quang a few classes on western philosophy, including Hegel, Nietzsche, Sartres, and Camus, so when the monks gave teachings, they could respond to questions from contemporary intellectuals.70 For his students, this represented a new way of teaching—very different from the traditional Buddhist institutes—based on inspiration rather than authority. As one student recalls, “Thầy was youthful and bright-eyed, gentle, sensitive, calm, mature and refined. He never yelled or criticized us.”71 He still insisted, nonetheless, that they memorise by heart every sutra, poem, or text they studied, so it would enter their consciousness, and help them develop their vocabulary and writing skills. At the time, traditional Buddhism was focussed primarily on the mastery of classical Chinese and Sino-Vietnamese. But Thầy felt it was important to train the young generation of monastics in the beauties and strengths of the Vietnamese language, and to help them learn to write eloquently in contemporary Vietnamese. Many of his students from Ấn Quang later become scholars and teachers in their own right.72 63 Nhat Hanh, My Master’s Robe (2002) 64 Under the French, lay Buddhists had created a Commission d’Études Bouddhique et de Perfectionnement Moral (Thanh Niên Phật Học Đức Dục), a “Commission for Buddhist Studies and Moral Advancement.” The group sought to reinvigorate and modernise Buddhism, and respond to the advancement of Catholicism. They introduced singing to Buddhist devotees, and in 1940 created an anthem for their association. Thầy taught this anthem and other songs to his students at Ấn Quang. 65 They painted a slogan on the walls to inspire the students: “Students are the Life-force of Flourishing Buddhism” (Học tăng là sức sống của đạo pháp đang lên). See Thích Trí Không, Những Năm Tháng Theo Thầy (unpublished memoirs): “Hòa hợp chúng” và “Học tăng là sức sống của đạo pháp đang lên.” 66 Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), p.30. 67 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. Thầy wrote to the producers to get free course books for the young monks. Although at first it was a new and exciting way for them to learn French, the grammar was too difficult and many of them gave up. 68 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. They studied the insight poems of Zen Masters of the Ly and Tran dynasties, including Zen Master Vạn Hạnh. They also studied the gathas of Master Guishan. 69 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs 70 This class included Thích Huyền Vi and Thích Thanh Từ. 71 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs 72 ibid. 12  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 At the same time Thầy became Director of Education at Ấn Quang (1954), he also enrolled himself as a student at the newly-opened university Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Saigon. In order to enroll, Thầy was required to register legally. Like many others in such irregular and uncertain times, he modified his chosen name, registering as “Nguyễn Xuân Bảo.”73 The university’s first intake was a prestigious cohort, and included Doãn Quốc Sỹ and Lý Quốc Sỉnh, who went on to become leading public intellectuals. Thầy often cycled in to university from Ấn Quang, and after his classes, would cycle back to Ấn Quang to teach. He stayed silent when one day, to his surprise, his book on Buddhist logic was used as course material in one of his classes.74 Thầy completed his university studies and graduated with a BA in French and Vietnamese Literature, while also continuing to write and publish his own poems, articles and books.75 One of Thầy’s students at the time, Thích Trí Không, has written his vivid recollections of studying with Thầy at Ấn Quang in the 1950s.76 He recalls Thầy teaching them not to believe everything they heard on the radio, and never to impose their views on others. He encouraged his students to reflect on what they hear, to think critically, and contemplate with discernment. In 1955 the regime of Vietnamese Catholic leader Ngô Đình Diệm began to consolidate power, using every means possible. Catholics were explicitly favoured and Buddhists increasingly suppressed and marginalized. Hopes for democratic elections soon faded as guerrilla fighters continued to gain ground, and the government—under foreign influence—did everything they could to stymie a free ballot. Thầy was asked to write a series of ten high-profile articles for the politically-neutral daily newspaper, Democracy (Dân Chủ).77 They asked him to show the strength of Vietnam’s own Buddhist heritage, and prove that Buddhism was not irrelevant or obsolete, as many were claiming. And so, in the turmoil and pressure of the division of the country, Thầy’s vision for engaged Buddhism crystallised. Published on the front page, under the pen name Thạc Ðức, and entitled “A Fresh Look at Buddhism” (Đạo Phật Qua Nhận Thức Mới), Thầy’s daring articles proposed a new way forward in terms of democracy, freedom, human rights, religion, and education. They sent shock-waves across the country.78 The tenth and final article was a bold Buddhist critique of President Diệm’s doctrine of “personalism.”79 The official South Vietnam Buddhist Studies Association published them as a book in February 1957, and the articles became a touchstone for a truly Vietnamese and Buddhist way forward in the turmoil.80 In 1955 Thầy made his first trip back to Huế, to his home temple and family, seven years after leaving. He received a warm welcome at his Root Temple and at the Báo Quốc Institute they organized a talk for him with the students. Thầy also enjoyed a happy visit with his parents. It would be the last time he saw his mother in good health.81 Meanwhile, as Thầy’s recognition and standing grew, at the second assembly of the National Buddhist Association in 1956, Thầy was appointed Editor in Chief of Vietnamese Buddhism (Phật Giáo Việt Nam), the official magazine of the new National Buddhist Association. He used a dozen pseudonyms, and authored articles on Vietnamese history, international literature (including Tolstoy, Albert Camus, Victor Hugo), philosophy, Buddhist texts, current affairs and interviews, short stories, plays, and even folk poetry—doing everything he could to promote reconciliation and a spirit of togetherness between 73 Xuân Bảo can be translated as “Spring Treasure.” 74 Đông Phương Luận Lý Học (“Oriental Logic”), was published in 1950 (see Appendix). 75 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. 76 Thích Trí Không, Những Năm Tháng Theo Thầy (unpublished memoirs) 77 According to Thich Nhat Hanh’s private papers, they were published in 1955. 78 Thich Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk in Hanoi, May 6, 2008; Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. 79 His alternative to liberalism and communism which every government employee was required to follow 80 Thạc Ðức, Đạo Phật Qua Nhận Thức Mới (1957), published by Hội Phật Học Nam Việt. It sold 5,000 copies in the first print run. Source: Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. 81 Nhat Hanh, unpublished private papers. 13  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 the different Buddhists groups of North and South.82 He dug deep into Vietnam’s own history to propose a truly Vietnamese way out of the situation, drawing on the very “engaged” role Buddhism had played during the Trần and Lý Dynasties between the 11th and 13th Centuries, that had so inspired him as a young monk. As the leading Buddhist journal, at a time when both Catholicism and foreign influences were staking new ground, the magazine became an important voice of Vietnamese culture and spiritual tradition, and (unusually for the time) was sold in secular bookshops and at street newsstands.83 Editing this national Buddhist magazine was an opportunity for Thầy to help consolidate efforts to unify the various Buddhist branches into one congregation that could protect itself and respond with strength to the threats and challenges they were facing from political forces. With the success of the journal, Thầy became a prominent, far-sighted figure. Yet his ideas for how Vietnamese Buddhism could contribute to help the worsening situation were, in many ways, ahead of his time, and it eventually became clear that his efforts to unite the Buddhist groups could not succeed. There was resistance from the conservative Buddhist hierarchy and from laypeople who were not ready to embrace his vision of a new kind of Buddhism.84 While the situation in the country was changing rapidly, Thầy’s own mother’s health was deteriorating. Thầy and his brother An brought their mother to stay with them for treatment in Đà Lạt. Thầy’s elder brother Thích Giải Thích (Nho) came to join them, and so did their older sister. All four children were present when his mother finally passed away on the full moon day of the ninth lunar month, 1956. Thầy wrote in his journal, “The greatest misfortune of my life has come!” As he explained later, “Even an old person doesn’t feel ready when he loses his mother. He too has the impression that he is not yet ripe, that he is suddenly alone. He feels abandoned and unhappy as a young orphan.”85 Experimental community Towards the end of 1956, Thầy began to spend more time in B’lao, a remote tea-growing region in the central highlands, about two hundred kilometers north-east of Saigon en route to Đà Lạt. The division of the country, the death of his mother, and staunch resistance in the Buddhist hierarchy to his endeavors––to unify the Buddhist branches and successfully renew the Ấn Quang study program––were all taking their toll. In Công Hinh (another name for B’lao), surrounded by tea plantations, was Phước Huệ Temple, the headquarters of the local Buddhist congregation.86 There, Thầy retreated to a small thatched hut built out among the tea trees. It was a simple hut, at the end of a little path through the tea plantation, with just a bed and a table—and stacks of books. The climate in B’lao was slightly warmer and milder than in Đà Lạt and offered favourable conditions for Thầy to do his writing and research, away from the turbulence 82 His pseudonyms included Hoàng Hoa (poetry), Thạc Ðức (philosophy, Engaged Buddhism, current affairs and reconciliation), Nguyễn Lang, (history of Buddhism), Dã Thảo (renewing Buddhism, role of Buddhism in society, influence of Buddhism on Western philosophy; critique of Buddhist institutions), Tâm Kiên (modern folk poetry), Minh Hạnh (literary commentary, French literature, cultural critiques), Phương Bối (deep Buddhism, message to youth), B’su Danglu (renewed Buddhism), Tuệ Uyển (Buddhist ethics), Tâm Quán (short stories about novice monastic life), Minh Thư and Thiều Chi (Buddhism, short stories, interviews with leading monks). He edited as Nhất Hạnh, and also wrote Buddhist commentary and some poems as Nhất Hạnh. 83 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs 84 Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love (1996), p.30. 85 Thich Nhat Hanh, A Rose for Your Pocket (1987), p.28; first published in Vietnamese in the Buddhist magazine Lotus in 1962, under his own name Nhất Hạnh, with the title Look Deeply at Your Mother (Nhìn kỹ Mẹ). Published later the same year by Lá Bối publishing house, with the title Bông Hồng Cài Áo. 86 Today the village has become the large town of Bảo Lộc, and Phước Huệ Temple is a large, developed, and prestigious temple downtown. 14  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 of Saigon, and the power struggles in the Buddhist hierarchy which were obstructing the younger generation. It was very quiet in B’lao, with just the occasional sound of a car in the distance on the main road. The temple had no mains electricity, but a small generator that could provide enough power for a dozen electric bulbs for a couple of hours in the evening.87 Thầy dreamed of creating a monastic community there in the mountains and was soon joined by a number of monastic brothers from the Báo Quốc Institute and students from Ấn Quang. Thầy created a program of practice and study, and they were often joined by lay practitioners who lived nearby. They woke early for sitting and chanting at 4am, and would have classes and study time in the morning. It was from here that Thầy wrote and edited articles for the national Vietnamese Buddhism magazine over the next two years, while teaching the young monks. Early every evening, Thầy would join everyone in playing ping-pong or even soccer on the large field out back—quite radical, since at the time monks in Vietnam did not play sports.88 They finished their day with meditation and chanting in the temple. Thầy wanted to give the monks a chance to train in the spirit of self-directed study and research, in a nourishing and inspiring place close to nature. He wanted to inspire the young monks to develop their curiosity to study and research for themselves, and not just study for the sake of exams and diplomas. “We wanted to offer a new kind of Buddhism,” he said. “A Buddhism that could act as a raft, to save the whole country from the desperate situation of conflict, division, and war.”89 Thầy wanted each monastic to cultivate their own discernment, insight, and awakening, and not simply have “blind faith” in Buddhist doctrine.90 He taught the young monks how to make use of non-Buddhist subjects, such as science, history, and literature, as “tools” for further Buddhist research.91 He taught them the history of Buddhist thought; the evolution of different Buddhist schools; and key texts from the early Theravada and Sarvastivada schools.92 Professors and scholars from Saigon came up and stayed with them for a few weeks at a time, joining their discussions and walks, and savoring the peace and charm of simple living. From time to time Thầy took them to visit the elder nun Sister Diệu Âm in Djiring for lunch, or they would go for hikes into the nearby Đại Lão forest, where there were rivers and waterfalls to explore, and beautiful places to enjoy listening to the streams and birds.93 The monks would take a picnic, and after eating would lie down on the rocks by the creek to rest. Thầy encouraged them to sing songs and to enjoy the sky and clouds, to truly refresh their spirits. Sometimes they sat in the heart of the forest to listen to Thầy tell stories, recite poems, or share about his vision for the future of Vietnam. There were times he even asked them to sit in a circle and take notes. It was while staying in his little hut among the tea trees, that Thầy had a dream in which he saw his mother, and for the first time had a deep realization that “being” and “non-being” are—above all—just 87 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. Thầy had a bulb in his hut; there were others in the study room, meditation hall, kitchen, shrine hall and at the entrance gate. 88 See Nhat Hanh, “The Magical Sound of the Sitar,” a letter to his students, October 13, 2009, and Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. 89 Nhat Hanh, Inside the Now (2015) 90 It may have been in B’lao that Thầy wrote his poem, “I Want It All”—printed in Nhat Hanh, Call Me By My True Names (1993), p.177. 91 While at Ân Quang, Thầy had read the book “Looking at Buddhism Through Science” (Bản báo cáo của một nhà khoa học đã từng nghiên cứu Kinh điển Phật giáo) by Wang Zhi Biao (Uông Trí Biểu), which offered a new perspective on how the scientific method and Buddhist contemplation and practice could be complimentary. 92 For example: the “Treatise on the Wheel of Propositions of Different Schools” (samaya bhedoparacanacakra) by Vasumitra; the “Points of Controversy” (kathāvatthu) from the Theravada Abhidhamma Piṭaka; Treatise on the Twelve Doors by Nagarjuna; Abhidharmakosabhasyam by Vasubhandu; and the Nagasena Bhiksu Sutra (Nagasena’s answers to questions from the Indo-Greek King Menander I of Bactria, c. 150 BCE). Source: Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. 93 The Bobla waterfall, Liên Khàng Waterfall, Nugar Waterfall, and Pongour Waterfall. 15  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 ideas. In the dream, Thầy’s mother was “young, vivid, joyful, and beautiful, with long black hair.”94 “She looked the same as always, and I spoke to her quite naturally, without a tinge of grief… [A]t about one a.m. I awoke, and my grief was gone. I saw that the idea that I had lost my mother was only an idea. Being able to see my mother in my dream, I realized that I could see my mother everywhere. When I stepped out into the garden flooded with soft moonlight, I experienced the light as my mother’s presence. It was not just a thought. I could really see my mother everywhere, all the time.” That night, he explained, “I realized that my mother’s birth and death were concepts, not truth. The reality of my mother was beyond birth or death. She did not exist because of birth, nor cease to exist because of death...This is not philosophy. I am only speaking truth.”95 In 1957, Thầy and his friends found sixty acres of land available to buy in the heart of the Đại Lão Forest, in a quiet spot near the Montagnard village of B’su Danlu, about 10km from B’lao and Phước Huệ Temple.96 In January 1958 they began clearing the land, and that summer started erecting some simple wooden structures. Zen Master Thích Thanh Từ joined them, and built his own hut up on the hill, staying there until 1961.97 Thầy went to Saigon to seek funds, and was able to sell the manuscript for a new book on Buddhist psychology, which sold 2,000 copies and raised about twelve thousand dong.98 It was enough to build a small hut, and a long building with a corrugated iron roof, that had three rooms: a library, a meditation hall with altar, and a dining room. The new land was covered in lush vegetation and clear streams, and had beautiful paths for walking meditation. They called this new community “Phương Bối” (Fragrant Palm Leaves), after the name of Thầy’s hut in the tea field of Phước Huệ. Thầy recalled that Phương Bối “offered us her untamed hills as an enormous soft cradle, blanketed with wildflowers, grasses, and forest. Here, for the first time, we were sheltered from the harshness of worldly affairs.”99 It was a perfect refuge for the small community—a place for reading, writing, meditation and contemplation, surrounded by the peace and tranquility of the majestic forest. Phương Bối was also wild and invigorating. Thầy wrote in his journal that he could feel “the ancient tribesman in myself awakening.”100 Sometimes they would see tigers, or be battered by storms, or kept awake at night with eerie sounds from the forest depths. Sometimes Thầy would run and yell to prove to himself that he was free—to live deeply, in an authentic way, close to nature, with a powerful energy of brotherhood, togetherness, and aspiration.101 With this new dream of a “rural practice center” Thầy definitively broke free of the mould of the traditional Buddhist temple, with its ceremonies and rituals, and created an environment exclusively dedicated to spiritual practice, study, healing, music, poetry, and community-building. They enjoyed sitting meditation in the early morning, tea meditation in the afternoons, and sitting meditation in the evenings. Phương Bối was an experimental model for the renewal and reinvigoration of Buddhism. Though few may have foreseen it, Phương Bối became a prototype for Thầy’s many “mindfulness practice centers” that would flourish around the world by the end of the century. At Phương Bối, Thầy and his friends continued their activism. As well as time spent exploring the forest or sharing poetry, Thầy “devoted hours and hours to studying, discussing, and writing about a new, 94 Nhat Hanh, Call Me By My True Names, p.122, notes to a later poem about the day his mother died, “That Distant Autumn Morning.” 95 Thich Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-66 (1999), p.99-100. 96 The land was bought from K'Briu and K'Brôi on August 7, 1957. 97 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), pp.37-42. He too was forced to leave in 1961, and went on to revive the Bamboo Forest Meditation School of King Trần Nhân Tông of the 13th C. Tran Dynasty. 98 Duy Thức Học (“Vijnanavada Studies,” 1958). Published by Phật Học Đường Nam Việt, under the pen name “Professor Thạc Ðức.” 99 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.19. 100 ibid., p.23 101 ibid., p.29 16  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 “engaged” Buddhism.” As he wrote later, “I worked as hard as I could.” 102 He traveled to teach and continued to edit Vietnamese Buddhism magazine. But in 1958, after just two years of publication, its funding was discontinued. Thầy felt that it wasn’t just about a lack of funds, but also resistance in the Buddhist hierarchy to his bold articles. He felt he had failed in his effort to renew and unify Vietnamese Buddhism.103 With this setback, and still grieving his mother’s death, and enduring the painful division of the country, Thầy struggled to keep his hope alive. Thầy fell sick—so sick he almost died. 104 He spent almost a month in Grall Hospital in Saigon, where French doctors treated his insomnia.105 His student Thích Trí Không accompanied him as an attendant. Thầy’s took a long time to recuperate, and a lay friend in Saigon let Thầy rest there, so he wouldn’t be troubled by too many temple visitors.106 It was an extremely difficult time for Thầy. His body was weak and he suffered from acute insomnia. Even the doctors were at a loss as to how to help. His spirits were lower than ever. He later described this period as a time of deep depression.107 But Thầy had the intuition that, if only he could master his full awareness of breathing and walking, he would be able to truly heal. It was the very challenges of the 1950s that forged the deepening of Thầy’s personal practice, and spurred his efforts to find a way forward. As a young monk, Thầy had studied the principle of counting and following the breath, and had trained in slow walking meditation (kinh hành). But Buddhist Institutes in Vietnam did not teach an applied meditation practice for personal healing; only meditation theory. And so, faced with deep suffering, Thầy had to discover for himself a healing way to meditate. He experimented with a new method to combine his breath and steps more naturally while walking and, instead of counting only the breath, he counted the steps in harmony with the breath. With this concentration, he was able to tenderly embrace his pain and acute despair without being swept away by strong feelings. “With the practice of mindful breathing,” he said, “I got out of the situation.”108 He began this practice at Ấn Quang and continued to experiment with it in B’lao and at Phương Bối, and later at Princeton Theological Seminary in the US; and over the coming decades as his understanding of the sutras on meditation and breathing deepened.109 As Thầy wrote in his journal, “Now I understand that truth and virtue must be joined by strength… Truth without strength cannot stand firm.”110 In spring 1959, Thầy, known for his work as Editor of the Vietnamese Buddhism magazine, was invited to Japan to attend the international Vesak conference celebrating 2,500 years since the Buddha’s birth. He was asked to give one of the speeches—his first public talk in English.111 During the trip, Thầy’s 102 ibid., p.51 103 ibid., p.50. “The hierarchy did not know how to deal with us, so they silenced our voices. For eight years, we tried to speak about the need for a humanistic Buddhism and a unified Buddhist church in Vietnam that could respond to the needs of the people. We sowed those seeds against steep odds, and while waiting for them to take root, we endured false accusations, hatred, deception, and intolerance. Still we refused to give up hope.” 104 ibid., p.7 105 October 1958. Thầy’s health had also been weak the year before, in 1957, when he spent a month in Grall Hospital in Saigon to treat problems with his heart, lungs, and digestive system. At that time they were still short of money and didn’t have enough for Thầy’s medicine. What little money Thầy’s brother had, he needed to save for their mother’s tomb. 106 Trí Không, unpublished memoirs. 107 Nhat Hanh, Dharma Talk in Plum Village, June 20, 2014: “...after my mother died, and the country [had been] divided, and the war continued, I had depression… The doctors could not help. It was by the practice of mindful walking and mindful breathing that I could heal myself. [...] When you practice sitting or walking, you can know whether your breathing is healing or not. You can see the effect of healing right away when you breathe in. And when you walk, if every step brings you happiness and joy,...that is very nourishing and healing, and you know it. And with your depression, if you breathe and walk like that for one week, I know that you can transform. That is the practice of stopping and healing— stopping the running, stopping the fact that you are being carried away. You resist, you do not want to be carried away; you want to live your life, and you have your [own] insight as to how to do it.” 108 Nhat Hanh, Q&A in Plum Village, July 25, 2013. 109 Nhat Hanh, unpublished private papers. 110 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.50 111 The “Buddha Jayanti”celebrations took place in Tokyo from March 27-31, and Thầy ended up staying from March to May. 17  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 health weakened again, and he was hospitalised in Tokyo. He continued to practice full awareness of every step and breath along the corridors of the hospital, training himself to completely focus on his breathing and release his anxieties. When he finally returned to Vietnam in mid-May, he had a new resolve to travel more outside Vietnam, and set himself over the following year to become fluent in English. In Japan, he heard of the great Buddhist collections in libraries overseas and, with the help of another Vietnamese monk who had recently returned from the US, he made enquiries for scholarships at the U.S. Embassy.112 In November 1959, at a weekly lecture series for Saigon university students, at Xá Lợi Temple, Thầy met many young people eager to help him in his work. Among them was Cao Ngọc Phượng, a young biology student, who became one of his “Thirteen Cedars,” a group of passionate young activists who studied with him and supported his vision for a modernized Buddhism. Phượng was already actively leading social work programs in the Saigon slums and urged Thầy to develop spiritual practices that could support such engaged action. He accepted the challenge, and it was in the process of guiding Phượng and “the thirteen cedars,” in social work, education, and relief projects, that Thầy’s teaching found its practical application and field of action. As Thầy reflected later, “It was not easy because the tradition does not directly offer Engaged Buddhism. So we had to do it by ourselves.”113 Phượng went on to become his principal collaborator over the next six decades, later becoming known as Sister Chân Không, today a renowned and much-loved teacher in her own right. Thầy’s friend from Báo Quốc, Venerable Đức Tâm, invited him to write another series of ten articles, entitled “Buddhism Today” (Đạo Phật Ngày Nay), further developing the ideas of “Engaged Buddhism” of his series in Dân Chủ in 1955. Thầy went to stay with Venerable Đức Tâm on Cồn Hến Island in Huế, to write the articles there. Thầy later recalled that while he worked, Venerable Đức Tâm would prepare him tea made of the bark of a plum tree and offer him fresh corn, a speciality from the island. The first article was published in Dân Chủ in March 1961. Within a few years the series was translated and published in French, becoming Thầy’s first book to be published in the West, with the title Aujourd’hui le Bouddhisme.114 From 1959 onwards, U.S. intervention in Vietnam had begun to increase, and their backing for the Catholic Diệm regime became more marked. In late 1961, fighting between guerrilla fighters and the authorities reached Phương Bối, and government agents forced them to leave. A government-guarded ‘strategic hamlet’ was set up by the main road. 115 The loss touched Thầy deeply. Two years later, when he was already far away studying in the U.S., Thầy reminisced: “I mourn for Joy of Meditation Hut. I mourn for Montagnard House. I mourn for every leaf and blade of grass at Phương Bối.” And yet, he wrote, “We can never really lose Phương Bối. It is a sacred reality in our hearts. No matter where we are, just hearing the name “Phương Bối” moves us to tears.”116 Princeton Theological Seminary & Columbia In 1961, Thầy was offered a Fulbright Fellowship to broaden his experience and scholarship, and travelled to the U.S. to study Comparative Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1961-62. 112 “He had heard that there were more than one hundred libraries in the United States with great collections of religious books, including Buddhist texts in Chinese, Sanskrit, and Pali.” See Sister Chan Khong, Learning True Love: Practicing Buddhism in a time of War (2007, Rev. Ed). 113 Shambhala Sun interview, July 1, 2003. 114 Aujourd’hui le Bouddhisme: The series of articles was first printed by Vietnamese students in Paris in 1964, and subsequently published in French by La Boi Press in 1965 (trans. Lê Văn Hảo). 115 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.53 116 ibid., p.59 18  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Before leaving, Thầy paid one last visit to Phương Bối to say goodbye to Brother Thanh Từ, the last monastic remaining. At PTS, Thầy took courses on Christianity, Islam, and Chinese Buddhism. It was an inspiring, contemplative, and healing time: the atmosphere on the peaceful campus was not unlike a monastery.117 Thầy had a lot of time to practice walking meditation along the college paths. It was at Princeton that he experienced his first autumn, his first snows, and the fresh beauties of spring following winter. In the peace and calm, Thầy’s insights had a chance to ripen: “It was there that I truly tasted, for the first time, the peace of dwelling happily in the present moment” (the ancient Buddhist teaching of dṛṣṭadharmasukhavihāra).118 Thầy was able to truly arrive in the present moment and touch the spirit of aimlessness. In summer 1962, at Camp Ockanickon in Medford, New Jersey, Thầy captured these “first blossoms of awakening” in A Rose for Your Pocket. It was a simple, lyrical little book in celebration of mothers, and inspiring the reader to cherish what they have right now in the present moment (dṛṣṭadharmasukhavihāra).119 It captured the distinctively new path of practice and teaching which Thầy would develop over the coming years. Thầy sent it to one of his student “cedars” in Vietnam, who arranged for its publication right away.120 It was the first Vietnamese book to apply the insights of mindfulness into a spiritual perspective of daily life, and rapidly became a bestseller. Written in natural, poetic language that even children could understand, A Rose for Your Pocket didn’t have the form of a Buddhist teaching, but was in essence a guided meditation to help the reader to touch the wonder of their mother’s presence in the here and now. For the first time, a Buddhist monk was showing how meditative awareness could be a bright and gentle energy—a companion shedding light on daily life. The reader could touch the fruit of meditation without having to turn their heart and mind into a battlefield, in which the mind is like a warrior fighting the afflictions of anger, grief, or desire. With its publication Thầy, who hitherto had been known primarily as a poet, editor, and Buddhist scholar, became increasingly known for his deep and accessible Buddhism. Already on Mother’s Day that year (Vu Lan; on the full moon of the seventh month), Thầy’s students organised a “Rose Festival” to celebrate motherhood, centered around the text of A Rose for Your Pocket.121 From that time on, this annual celebration has become an integral part of Buddhist culture in Vietnam. The book has sold over a million copies, and can be found in every Buddhist home.122 The spirit and approach of A Rose Your Pocket broke new ground in Buddhist writing, and crystallised Thầy’s signature writing style. His intimate, authentic, lyrical, and profound voice and tone established a new approach to Buddhist writing and teaching that would become widely adopted in both East and West. Thầy later reflected on these formative years in the U.S.: “I grew up in Vietnam. I became a monk in Vietnam. I learned and practiced Buddhism in Vietnam. And before coming to the West, I taught several 117 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.61 Thầy was housed in Brown Hall, on the Theological Seminary campus. 118 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999) 119 Nhất Hạnh, Bông Hồng Cài Áo (1962) 120 He sent it to Cô Nhiên. First published in Vietnamese in the Buddhist magazine Lotus in 1962, under his own name Nhất Hạnh, with the title Seeing Your Mother Deeply (Nhìn kỹ Mẹ).It was subsequently one of the first books to be printed by Lá Bối publishing house. Venerable Thích Trí Thủ, the Director of Báo Quốc Institute, told Thầy he was moved to tears the first time he read it. Kim Cương, a well-known actor and playwright, created a play from it. And in 1965, the professional singer Phạm Thế Mỹ performed it as a modern Vietnamese song. 121 The cedars organized for 200 handwritten copies to be prepared for the first Rose Ceremony. A red rose or a white rose was attached to each copy depending to the person who received it, whose mother was still alive or deceased. 122 The “cedars” organized for the text to be published in the Buddhist magazine Lotus, and in 1964 it was published in book form by Lá Bối Press. The tradition of the Rose Ceremony for Vu Lan in Vietnam began. 19  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 generations of Buddhist students in Vietnam. But I can say now that it was in the West that I realized my path.”123 After completing his year at Princeton Theological Seminary, Thầy stayed on in the U.S. and continued his research at Columbia (1962-3).124 There, he made the most of the extensive Buddhist collection in the Butler Library, and benefited from the mentorship and support of the Professor of Religion, Anton Zigmund-Cerbu. Professor Cerbu was an eminent scholar and expert in Eastern religions, and had mastered several dozen languages, including Vietnamese and French.125 Professor Cerbu had a youthful, easy-going nature, and was a true friend and “pillar of support” for Thầy, seeing and nurturing his potential. In November and December 1962, Thầy experienced a series of deepening spiritual breakthroughs. He had been profoundly moved by the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a German pastor and theologian, and a bold, outspoken critic of the Nazi regime, who was imprisoned and later executed in 1945.126 Reading Bonhoeffer’s account of his decision to return home to Germany from the U.S., even though it put his life at risk, Thầy was struck by his description of his final days in prison:...I was awakened to the starry sky that dwells in each of us. I felt a surge of joy, accompanied by the faith that I could endure even greater suffering than I had thought possible. Bonhoeffer was the drop that made my cup overflow, the last link in a long chain, the breeze that nudged the ripened fruit to fall. After experiencing such a night, I will never complain about life again. [...] All feelings, passions, and sufferings revealed themselves as wonders, yet I remained grounded in my body. Some people might call such an experience ‘religious,’ but what I felt was totally and utterly human. I knew in that moment that there was no enlightenment outside of my own mind and the cells of my body. Life is miraculous, even in its suffering. Without suffering, life would not be possible.127 Seeing Bonhoeffer’s extraordinary bravery and virtue, Thầy realised that bodhisattvas do exist, “right here on earth.” Thầy broke free of the idea that bodhisattvas were ‘remote deities’ on pedestals, and spent the following weeks contemplating all the bodhisattvas of the Lotus Sutra. He realised he could “recognize their presence every day among those we see,” including among the young generation back in Vietnam. His friends and students had been writing to him regularly on everything that was going on, recounting their efforts and actions to relieve the suffering they saw around them. Thầy gave rise to a deep and determined aspiration to nurture them, and began to envision the kind of teachings and programs he could set up to support them on his return to Vietnam.128 It was in 1963, during the annual spring Vesak festival, that the Diệm regime’s suppression of Buddhists dramatically escalated.129 Thầy’s own teacher, Master Thích Chân Thật, whose gentleness and 123 Nhat Hanh, At Home in the World (2016), p. 87. 124 Thầy’s commentary on St Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles made a strong impression on his professors. It was at Columbia that Thầy encountered the work of the theologians Karl Bath, Paul Tillich, Martin Buber, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, read Allan Watts, and heard talks from leading theologians, including Jacques Maritain. 125 Professor Anton Zigmund-Cerbu was a specialist in Buddhism, and was said to have mastered 40 languages. Ten years older than Thầy, Prof. Cerbu passed away after undergoing heart surgery just a few months after Thầy returned to Vietnam. 126 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), pp.109-111. Bonhoeffer considered taking refuge in the U.S., but soon realised: “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” He was also critical of the Church’s response to the situation: “the Church was silent when it should have cried out, because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven.” Quoted in Franklin Sherman, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica (2019). 127 Thầy’s account of his insights on the night of November 2, 1962 (italics added). Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.85. 128 ibid., pp.109-112. 129 He submitted his documents on 8 October, 1963, the day of the U.N. debate on President Ngô Đình Diệm’s suppression of the Buddhists. 20  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 fearlessness Thầy admired deeply, joined the monks’ peaceful protests in the streets. 130 In America, Thầy found himself becoming an active spokesman for the Buddhist peace movement back home. He gave talks and media interviews, and submitted a report to the United Nations on the human rights violations. In June, Thầy learned of the self-immolation of the senior monk, Venerable Thích Quảng Đức in the The New York Times. 131 Thầy knew him well and had stayed with him in Nha Trang and Saigon. Thầy later explained: “When you commit suicide, [it’s because] you are in despair, you can no longer bear to live. But Venerable Quảng Đức was not like that. He wanted to live. He wanted his friends and other living beings to live, he loved being alive. But he was free enough to offer his body in order to get the message across that we are suffering, we need your help.”132 Before long, Thầy got news of the self-immolation of more monks and nuns.133 His poem, “The Fire That Consumes My Brother,” captured his agony and his firm resolve to continue to work for peace.134 In August, over a thousand Buddhist monks were arrested, and hundreds more “disappeared.” Thầy submitted documents concerning the persecutions to the United Nations, called a press conference, and began fasting to pray that the U.N. would send a fact-finding delegation to Vietnam.135 In summer 1963, Thầy earned a joint Master of Arts in Religion from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University; his thesis was on Buddhist psychology. Professor Horace L. Friess, an ethicist, invited him to stay on as a teaching and research assistant in the graduate school of the Department of Philosophy and Religion.136 But after the Diệm regime fell in November 1963, Thầy received an invitation from the Vietnamese Embassy to return home, and then another from the National Buddhist Association137. Professor Cerbu tried to persuade Thầy to stay on in the U.S. so they could set up a Department of Vietnamese Studies at Columbia together.138 Soon Thầy received another request, this time a cable from one of the leading monks in Vietnam Thích Trí Quang, imploring him to come back to Saigon to help once more in efforts to organize and renew Vietnamese Buddhism.139 In Vietnam, it was a time of possibility, but also great political instability and discord. Thầy still hadn’t yet accepted the invitation to return when he received a cable telling him that his ticket had been booked and was waiting for him at the airport. Thầy accepted to return, albeit with some trepidation, expressed in his poem, “Here Are My Hands.” 140 Half a century later, in 2017, Union Theological Seminary would create a “Thich Nhat Hanh Master’s Program for Engaged Buddhism” in his honor. 130 See photo of Master Thích Chân Thật participating. 131 "Man Sets Himself Afire", The New York Times, July 1, 1969, p. 14. The Most Venerable Thích Quảng Đức was 66 years old. 132 Thich Nhat Hanh Dharma Talk in Plum Village, June 7, 2002. 133 In August 1963: Br. Nguyên Hương; Br. Thanh Tuệ; Sr. Diệu Quang; and Br. Tiêu Diêu. 134 “…The fire that burns you burns my flesh with such pain, that all my tears are not enough to cool your sacred soul. Deeply wounded, I remain here keeping your hopes and promises for the young. I will not betray you-- are you listening? I remain here because your very heart is now my own.” Hanh, Call Me By My True Names (1993). 135 Chan Khong, Learning True Love (2007), Ch.5. 136 See Union Theological Seminary website, and Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.72: He received a small stipend to “teach five hours a week and have office hours as well to meet with students and assist them in their research.” 137 He also received a third invitation from the the Interdenominational Committee for Protecting Buddhism (Ủy Ban Liên Phái Bảo Vệ Phật Giáo) 138 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), pp.153-4. 139 The monk was Thích Trí Quang, a leading figure in the Buddhist hierarchy. He wrote Thầy a telegram, and then a letter saying, “I am exhausted and at my wit’s end. Please come back and help.” 140 Nhat Hanh, Call Me By My True Names (1999), pp. 46-7: “...Here are my hands / reborn once again / but still carrying old wounds. / And here is my smile / because I never hated. / And here is my heart, / my pure heart / from days gone by…” He also wrote the poem, “Butterflies Over Golden Mustard Fields,” ibid., pp.76-79: “...I hear the excited buzzing of the diligent bees / preparing to rebuild the universe./ Dear ones, the work of rebuilding / may take thousands of lifetimes, / but it has also already been completed / just that long ago.../...Don’t dip your hands into cement and sand. / The stars never build prisons for themselves...” 21  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 Leader in the Buddhist peace & social work movements Thầy left the U.S. in December 1963, travelling via France where he gave lectures in Paris. Returning to Vietnam in January 1964, Thầy entered into a leadership role in the Buddhist movement for peace and social action.141 He met with Buddhist leaders and students to hear their reports. He offered two concrete proposals for the young social workers and activists: first, to dedicate one full day every week to spend time together at the Bamboo Forest Temple, to calm body and mind, and nourish their aspiration; second, to invest in establishing pilot villages for rural reconstruction and development. In addition, Thầy made three proposals for the Unified Buddhist Congregation of Vietnam to address the violence and discord: 1. The Buddhist Congregation should publicly call for cessation of hostilities in Vietnam, and organise peace talks between North and South to this end. 2. The Buddhist Congregation should urgently establish an Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies to train a new generation in the study and practice of Buddhism, who could help guide the country in the direction of understanding, compassion, tolerance and deep listening. 3. The Buddhist Congregation should immediately develop a center for training social workers to go out to rural villages to help the poor—who are starving, who have no education, and who have no knowledge of organising village affairs—in order to help bring about nonviolent social change based on the Buddha’s teachings. The elders in the Buddhist hierarchy agreed only to point two. However, they had no finances or location to found the new institute, and so they allowed Thầy to take the lead. Within a week, Thầy met with the board of the Unified Buddhist Church, and took the first steps to establish a Institute of High Buddhist Studies of Saigon.142 The following years were a period of intense activity and engagement in teaching, publishing, public speaking, community-building, and social service, which galvanized the younger generation. Thầy finally had a free rein to put his dreams into action. The Bamboo Forest Temple became the community’s base, where young monks and lay friends spent time together as a community, the students joining them on the weekends.143 Thầy instructed his first monastic disciple, Brother Nhất Trí, a talented social worker, to be in charge of the pilot program in the village of Cầu Kinh.144 The community set up two pilot villages: Cầu Kinh and, later that summer, Thảo Điền.145 The young community of social workers, lay and monastic, helped the villagers build school huts and began teaching the children. Soon, they started to offer training in agriculture, irrigation, and sanitation. “We have no money,” Thầy wrote at the time, “but we have a plan, goodwill, and lots of energy.”146 141 This nonviolent resistance movement has been called the “Third Force” in Vietnamese politics at the time. 142 Some leaders of the Unified Buddhist Congregation met on January 30, and included the venerable monks Trí Thủ, Thiện Hoa, and Thiên Ân. 143 The sangha included monastic brothers Đồng Bổn, Thanh Văn, Thanh Tuệ, Thanh Hương, Thanh Hiện, Từ Mẫn, Châu Toàn, Nhất Trí and lay students Tâm Quang, Tâm Thái, Thu Hà, Trà Mi, Phùng Thăng. 144 Brother Nhất Trí began studying with Thầy in B’lao, where he received the Five Precepts, and Thầy ordained him as a novice in 1964. 145 The Thảo Điền village development project was started by Phượng, and it was in this village that Brother Nhất Trí lived and worked. 146 Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves (1999), p.135 and pp.155-6: “From time to time, Ly asks if I need money. I tell him that even without money, I am not poor. I paraphrase a haiku by Basho and tell him that even though the electricity has been shut off, the moon still shines in my window. Ly laughs and pulls a few bills from his pocket, which he insists is money he 22  This version last updated 21st October, 2020 In March 1964, with the wholehearted support of his students and friends, Thầy founded both the publishing house Lá Bối and the Institute of High Buddhist Studies of Saigon at Pháp Hội Temple. Thầy moved his library of almost 20,000 books from Phương Bối to the Institute. Thầy began one of the first courses on Buddhist psychology, and taught the Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom texts) and sutras from Early Buddhism.147 When Thích Minh Châu came back from India in April, Thầy invited him to become the institute’s director. The first full school year began in fall 1964, at which point the institute was renamed Vạn Hạnh University.148 The vision for Lá Bối Publishing House was to provide a platform for the new Buddhist voices proposing a way out of the violence.149 “We used literature and the arts as ‘weapons’ to challenge the oppression,” Thầy explained. “Works by anti-war writers, composers, poets, and artists, although illegal, were widely circulated. Anti-war songs were sung in the streets and classrooms, and anti-war literature became the largest category of books sold in Vietnam, even infiltrating army units.”150 Soon Thầy started and became Editor-in-Chief of the principal Buddhist weekly paper, Voice of the Rising Tide (Hải Triều Âm).151 As its readership grew, fifty thousand copies were printed every week and delivered by plane to Huế and Đà Nẵng. It was the first magazine to openly publish peace poems and songs, as well as profound Buddhist discussions and reports on the monks’ hunger strikes and protests against ongoing government oppression. Thầy’s own peace poems, written in a free form, without the classical rules, were especially popular. Although Thầy never called his poetry “free verse,” his poems were considered some of the best examples of Vietnam’s new “free verse” poetry movement. 152 For centuries, poets had been highly esteemed figures in Vietnamese culture and society, and during these fraught times the voice of poetry was as powerful as ever, touching the hearts of millions. The great flood of November 1964 in central Vietnam swept away homes and took thousands of lives. Victims in the conflict zones were the most vulnerable because no one dared to bring them aid. Thầy, Brother Nhất Trí and Phượng organized boats, hung up Buddhist flags and banners to show they were on a humanitarian aid mission, and headed up the Thu Bồn River between the lines of fire to distribute aid in the Đức Dục area of Quảng Nam Province. They encountered children bleeding from gunfire wounds, malnourished young men, and fathers whose entire families had been swept away. In a gesture of compassion and solidarity, Thầy cut his finger and let the blood fall into the river to pray for all those who had perished.153 It was extremely difficult to conduct their social work in the context of suspicion, hatred, fear and violence. Danger could come from any side, at any moment. Thầy’s friends were arrested, social owes me for printing a recent article I’d written in his paper. I never know which article he is referring to, but I don’t refuse his gesture.” 147 In Vietnamese: Pháp Tướng Duy Thức Học. 148 The official permit for Vạn Hạnh Buddhist University from the Ministry for Education was dated October 17, 1964. Note for researchers: since Thầy’s exile there are those who have sought to write his name out of the history of Vạn Hạnh University, despite him being its principle founder. 149 For example, Đạo Phật Hiện Đại Hóa (“Actualized Buddhism” or “Buddhism Updated”), and Nói Với Tuổi Hai Mươi (“Message to a Twenty-year-old”), both published in 1965. Thich Nhat Hanh spoke to the fears, hopes, and confusions of the young generation and offered a way out. 150 Thich Nhat Hanh, Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (1993), Ch.1. 151 The first issue was published on April 22, 1964. 152 Thich Nhat Hanh, Inside the Now: Meditations on Time (2015), pp.23-24. The poetry editor of Voice of the Rising Tide, Vũ Hoàng Chương told Thầy Châu Toàn how strange it was that Thầy’s peace poems “were by far the best poe