A Personal Obituary of Thich Nhat Hanh

by Tony White

Thich Nhat Hanh died on January 22, 2022, at the age of 95. His teachings and example have been very significant in my life, and I reacted emotionally to his death. Reading his biography,[1] it’s hard to even believe that he was a real person, that one person could do so much good. Einstein said about Gandhi, “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.” This is how I feel about Thich Nhat Hanh. Here are some examples …

Thich Nhat Hanh is from Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, he started the School of Youth for Social Service, where young volunteers practiced mindfulness and did war relief, such as medical care and rebuilding bombed villages. For this he was exiled from Vietnam.

Nhat Hanh wrote a letter to Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965, saying “The world’s greatest humanists would not remain silent. You yourself cannot remain silent.” They met one year later, and 10 months after that, King came out against the war with a speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break the Silence,” and quoted Nhat Hanh in the speech. King nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, but broke the rules by publicly announcing it, and the award wasn’t given out that year.

There were refugees from Vietnam who just got on boats and hoped to end up somewhere. Sometimes even when they did, they’d be turned away and have to go back out on the boat. Nhat Hanh organized an operation that saved over 800 boat people. After a few months, it was shut down by the United Nations, and Nhat Hanh was kicked out of Singapore, where he was at the time, because of it. (Why does the world have to be so messed up?) I think if I saved 800 people, I would be pretty satisfied with my life, but this barely makes it into his life story.

Nhat Hanh helped convene the first European conference on the environment, in 1970 in Menton, France. You’ve likely heard of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Here’s an article about it: “This Buddhist Monk Is An Unsung Hero In The World's Climate Fight: The architect of the historic Paris climate negotiations [Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres] credits the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh with helping broker the deal.”

The crazy thing is, these are just a few things that Thich Nhat Hanh did. He was still founding new organizations in 2009. He has meditation centers around the world, associated with his Order of Interbeing and with his Plum Village monastery in France. He’s written over 100 books that sold over 10 million copies (ironically, many of them say we need to slow down). His 1975 book, The Miracle of Mindfulness, according to well-known American meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, was “The first book to awaken a mainstream readership to the subject of mindfulness.” According to Buddhist scholar Jeff Wilson, Nhat Hanh is “the most important figure in Western Buddhism… in terms of direct influence through number of students taught and the degree to which terms and concepts he has coined or emphasized (‘engaged Buddhism,’ ‘interbeing,’ ‘mindfulness,’ etc.) impact the very language of contemporary Western Buddhism itself.” The Irish Times called him “The Father of Mindfulness.”

Many people with a peaceful disposition are complacent about the suffering in the world. Many people trying to make a positive difference are overcome with anger, exhaustion, and despair. Somehow Thich Nhat Hanh was able to combine a deep spiritual grounding with effective social action. His writings also balance intellectual astuteness with an extremely accessible style.

Thich Nhat Hanh had a stroke in 2014 leaving him unable to speak. I imagine this was less of an obstacle to his teaching than it would be for others. He returned to Vietnam, where he was banned for decades, to the temple where he was ordained at 16 years old. Before the stroke, he had told Plum Village: “Please do not build a stupa [shrine] for me. Please do not put my ashes in a vase, lock me inside and limit who I am. I know this will be difficult for some of you. If you must build a stupa though, please make sure that you put a sign on it that says, ‘I am not in here.’ In addition, you can also put another sign that says, ‘I am not out there either,’ and a third sign that says, ‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’”  

Similarly, Thich Nhat Hanh writes: “When we say, ‘I take refuge in the Buddha’ we should also understand that ‘The Buddha takes refuge in me,’ because … The Buddha needs us for awakening, understanding, and love to be real things and not just concepts. They must be real things that have real effects on life.” … “the Buddha entrusts himself or herself to us for understanding, love, and compassion to be alive in the world.”[2]