[Craic] FW: Thich Nhat Hanh dies at 95

[David Walsh]

You would appreciate these remembrances of Thich Nhat Han – see links below

During his 1966 trip to the U.S., Nhất Hạnh also traveled to Kentucky, where he met Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani, near Louisville. The monks found immediate mutual sympathy. After the visit, Merton told his students, "Just the way he opens the door and enters a room demonstrates his understanding. He is a true monk."
At the time, interreligious dialogue was a relatively new development, making Merton's remarks all the more notable.
Indeed, this monk-to-monk dialogue represented an early breakthrough in interreligious dialogue. The Second Vatican Council had recently issued one of its major documents, Nostra Aetate<https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html>, calling for such dialogue. The Nhất Hạnh-Merton bonds were further cemented in an essay<https://justluckie.typepad.com/justluckie/2014/11/nhat-hanh-is-my-brother.html> Merton wrote for Jubilee magazine, published in August 1966 and titled "Nhất Hạnh Is My Brother."
Wrote Merton, in words that shocked some Catholics at the time: "I have far more in common with Nhất Hạnh than I have with many Americans, and I do not hesitate to say it. It is vitally important that such bonds be admitted. They are the bonds of a new solidarity ... which is beginning to be evident on all five continents and which cuts across all political, religious and cultural lines to unite young men and women in every country in something that is more concrete than an ideal and more alive than a program."
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Nhất Hạnh's mindfulness taught<https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness-practice/> that one generates energy when bringing the mind back to the body, getting in touch with the present moment. It requires breath awareness and focusing on what is going on around you. Through this focusing and by slowing down one's state of mind, awareness is deepened and healing takes place.
He invited practitioners to employ mindfulness throughout the day, while doing the simplest of tasks: brushing one's teeth, washing dishes, walking, eating, speaking or listening. Mindful eating might require chewing each morsel of food for a minute or more, focusing on the source of the food and the meaning of the act.

Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, teacher of mindfulness and nonviolence, dies at age 95 | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)<https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/buddhist-monk-thich-nhat-hanh-teacher-mindfulness-and-nonviolence-dies-age-95>
NCR Publisher Emeritus Tom Fox remembers Thich Nhat Hanh<https://NCRonline.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4c29a3eb94b5f54c4f08ee01e&id=3b9493669a&e=3fec633006>
by Thomas C. Fox
once told me that Buddhism is not the answer to what the American young are searching for. That answer, he said, must come from within Western traditions. At best, Buddhism can only help point a way.
Thich Nhat Hanh Read more here »<https://NCRonline.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4c29a3eb94b5f54c4f08ee01e&id=e6ddaca269&e=3fec633006>


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