Thich Nhat Hanh, a prominent Buddhist monk, dies at the age of 95 | Obituaries Issues

Poet and peacemaker, Thich Nhat Hanh was banished for almost 40 years and became one of the most influential figures in Buddhism.

One of the world’s most famous Buddhist monks, Thich Nhat Hanh, has died in Vietnam at the age of 95, according to his Zen organization.

The meditative master “died peacefully” at the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue – where his spiritual journey began with the Vietnamese Buddhist heart – Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism said.

“We call on our beloved worldwide spiritual family to be silent, to return to our rest, as we hold Thay in our hearts,” the council said on Twitter by Nhat Hanh, using the Vietnamese voice of a teacher. .

The poet and peacemaker spent almost 40 years in exile after calling for an end to the Vietnam War, but he became very powerful in Buddhism and was considered the second most powerful person in the Dalai Lama.

In gentle and powerful words he speaks of the need to “walk as if you were kissing the earth with your feet” and is said to bring ideas to the West, and to establish a place of global return. He was the author of more than 100 books on meditation and meditation.

Born Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh was ordained a monk while Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese reformer, spearheaded efforts to liberate Southeast Asia from French colonial rulers.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a bilingual speaker, was educated at Princeton and Columbia universities in the United States in the early 1960’s. He returned to Vietnam in 1963 to join a US-Vietnamese anti-Semitic rebel group, sponsored by self-destructive protests by several monks.

“I saw communists and anti-communists killing and destroying each other because each side believes it is independent of the truth,” he wrote in 1975.

“My words were muffled by bombs, mud and shouts.”

Toward the end of the Vietnam War in the 1960’s, he met with the United States human rights leader Martin Luther King, who had forced him to speak out against the conflict.

While in the US to meet with the Emperor, the South Vietnamese government banned Thich Nhat Hanh from returning home.

The emperor called Thich Nhat Hanh “an apostle of peace and non-violence” and nominated him the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I know of no one who has deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more than the gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam,” King wrote in his chosen letter.

One of the monks Haenim Sunim, who once translated Thich Nhat Hanh on a trip to South Korea, said the Zen master was calm, attentive and loving.

“He was like a big pine tree, allowing many people to rest under its branches and its wonderful teaching of thought and compassion,” Haemin Sunim told Reuters.

“He was one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.”

Thich Nhat Hanh had a stroke in 2014 and his health began to decline.

He was allowed to return to Vietnam in 2018 and spent his final days at the Tu Hieu temple, where he was supervised by plainclothes police.

Hundreds of people flocked to the temple to join the monks as they marched around the temple’s lush garden.

“He taught us to love people, to love ourselves, to love nature,” said Tran Thi My Thanh, who traveled to Hue with friends from Ho Chi Minh City.