Thich Nhat Hanh and engaged Buddhism
Amid the Vietnam War, Buddhist monks protest persecution and war, and Thich Nhat Hanh develops an "engaged Buddhism" that brings meditation into the work of peace and justice.
- Socially Engaged Buddhism — Sallie B. King, University of Hawai'i Press (2009)
- Thich Nhat Hanh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Making of Buddhist Modernism — David L. McMahan, Oxford University Press (2008)
In June 1963 the monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at a Saigon crossroads to protest the South Vietnamese government’s discrimination against Buddhists. The photograph went round the world, and the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem fell later that year.
- Socially Engaged Buddhism — Sallie B. King, University of Hawai'i Press (2009)
The young Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022) refused to take sides in the war. He founded the School of Youth for Social Service to rebuild bombed villages and spoke for peace in the United States, where Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Barred from returning to Vietnam, he lived in exile, founding Plum Village in France in 1982, and was only allowed home for visits from 2005. He died at his root temple in Huế in January 2022.
- Thich Nhat Hanh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Socially Engaged Buddhism — Sallie B. King, University of Hawai'i Press (2009)
His teaching of “engaged Buddhism”, that mindful breathing and service belong together, joined related movements across Asia, from Sri Lanka’s Sarvodaya to Thailand’s social-activist monks.
- Socially Engaged Buddhism — Sallie B. King, University of Hawai'i Press (2009)
- The Making of Buddhist Modernism — David L. McMahan, Oxford University Press (2008)
Why it matters today
Engaged Buddhism, the idea that mindfulness must reach into how we treat others, the poor and the planet, is now a mainstream strand of Buddhism worldwide. Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village communities and books continue to shape how millions practise.