Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh

In the same week that Americans and people around the world honoured the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King another exemplary spiritual figure has died. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist who began life in Viet Nam and lived to the remarkable age of 95. While Nhat Hanh is best recognized today as a mindfulness teacher who wrote a number of books on the subject he was a contemporary of MLK  and during the 1960's they developed a common purpose and friendship. Both men opposed the war in Viet Nam from different perspectives and in that respect Nhat Hanh was also an activist. They met on a couple of occasions and corresponded through the years Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and he nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the prize in 1967 calling him "an Apostle of peace and nonviolence." However, no Nobel Peace Prize was awarded that year because there was supposedly no suitable candidate. 

I have long admired Thich Nhat Hanh and I have his book called Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames. I have mentioned him in blog entries several times, I actually explored visiting Plum Village, the community for contemplation and mindfulness which he began 40 years ago in France https://plumvillage.org/

Thich Nhat Hanh also visited the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, at Gethsemane Monastery in Kentucky because of their shared interest in interfaith conversation. King was asssassinated in 1968 and Thomas Merton died accidentally the same year. What might have flowered if those two lives hadn't been cut short? 

What if the discussion regarding climate change involved a spectrum of outlooks rather than the simplistic "believers" and "deniers" It does, and I write about it in today's Groundling blog

https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2022/01/from-alarm-to-dismissal-and-everything.html