Thich Nhat Hanh
The Miracle Of Mindfulness
Living In The Present Moment
Thich Nhat Hanh is the living embodiment of mindfulness. His mindfulness teachings and practices have very wide appeal to people from various religious, spiritual, and political backgrounds. He is is one of the best known and most respected Zen masters in the world today, prolific author, poet, and peace and human rights activist.
Thich Nhat Hanh is totally inclusive in his outlook and his teachings and practises transcend religious traditions.
I never saw a man walk so slowly and yet be such a man of action! I have to declare a vested interest here, as Thay (as he is affectionately known in his community) is the founder and overall Zen-master/teacher of the mindfulness practise group to which I belong.
As I have written in my introductory article on Eckhart Tolle I first read Thich Nhat Hanh's book "The Miracle Of Mindfulness" some years prior to discovering Eckhart Tolle and it made a big impression on me at the time.
I then spent seveal years reading, reflecting on and applying the teachings of Eckhart Tolle.
Having spent time with several meditation groups in different buddhist traditions I realised that I needed to practise with a group who practised mindfulnes and it was then that I discovered the Plum Village UK who are a collective of about 50 different practise groups in the UK who practise the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. I practised with these groups for a number of years until I moved to South East Asia.
Over the years the practise of mindfulness has become the foundation of my whole approach to life and has helped me to navigate my way through some very stressful situations of imposed change.
Thich Nhat Hanh - Surrender Yourself to the NOW
Thich Nhat Hanh - A Life Well Lived
Born in central Vietnam in 1926 he became a monk at the age of sixteen.
During the Vietnam War the monasteries had to face the question of whether to stay meditating in the monasteries, or to go out and help the suffering villagers who were experiencing the devastation of the war.
Thich Nhat Hanh chose to do both, and helped to found the "engaged Buddhism" movement.
He has dedicated his life to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society.
In 1982 he founded Plum Village, a Buddhist community in exile in France, where he continues his work to alleviate suffering of refugees, boat people, political prisoners, and hungry families in Vietnam and throughout the Third World.
He has also received recognition for his work with Vietnam veterans, meditation retreats, and his prolific writings on meditation, mindfulness, and peace.
In September 2001, just a few days after the suicide terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, he addressed the issues of non-violence and forgiveness in a memorable speech at Riverside Church in New York City.
In September of 2003 he addressed members of the US Congress, leading them through a two-day retreat.
Following a major stroke in November 2014 Thich Nhat Hanh surprised his community in October 2018 by informing them that he would like to return home to Vietnam to pass his final days at the Tu Hieu root temple in Hue, where he became a monk in 1942 at age 16.
In this moving article Eliza Barclay shares Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully.
"A Cloud Never Dies"
Biographical documentary of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh narrated by Peter Coyote.
Thich Nhat Hanh - Mindfulness Practise For Transforming Anger
The Miracle of Mindfulness
Thich Nhat Hanh founded the "School of Youth for Social Service in South Vietnam" in the 1960s. The school was founded as a natural progression in his path of engaged Buddhism in which he and fellow monastics took their practise out of the monasteries and into the surrounding communities - who were suffering dreadfully during the Vietnam war.
The school attracted young people who were drawn to, and committed to, acting in a spirit of compassion.
After they had graduated, the students used the training they received to respond to the needs of the peasants who were caught up in the turmoil of the war. They helped rebuild bombed villages, they taught children, set up medical stations, and organised agricultural cooperatives.
However the students' efforts, and in particular their refusal to support either side, in their work for reconciliation led to the kidnap and murder of a number of students.
"The Miracle of Mindfulness" was originally written in 1974 by Thich Nhat Hanh, from exile in France, as a long letter to Brother Quang a main staff member of the School, to encourage the students during this dark time.
His intention was to remind the students of the essential discipline of following one's breath to nourish and maintain calm mindfulness, even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances...
The Miracle Of Mindfulness: The Classic Guide to Meditation
You may download a free ebook version below.
Thich Nhat Hanh - Books
Free PDF Book Downloads
Recommended Books By Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhaht Hanh has written countless books on the practise of mindfulness, and I recommend these to start with:
The Miracle Of Mindfulness: The Classic Guide to Meditation
The Blooming of a Lotus: Guided Mindfulness Meditation
Creating True Peace: Ending Conflict in Yourself, Your Community and the World
For full listings click on the links below:
"A feeling or an emotion arises, persists, and then disappears. Mindfulness enables us to be calm throughout the appearance and disappearance of feelings.
To acknowledge feelings with an even mind is the very best way; while we are acknowledging them in mindfulness, slowly, slowly we come to a deep realisation of their nature.
It is that insight which will enable us to be free and at ease as we face each feeling."
[The Blooming of a Lotus]
Thich Nhat Hanh - Teachings
The Best of Thich Nhat Hanh: Life & Teachings
Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village Winter Retreat 2010-11 [Videos]
The Plum Village Online Monastery [Videos]
Thich Nhat Hanh - Meditations
Guided Meditation For Beginners
Guided Meditation - Calm / Ease
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
"The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life."
"The ocean of suffering is immense, but if you turn around, you can see the land."
"We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."
"Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future."
"We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love."
"The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms."
Return to: Inspirational people
- What if everything we think…
LATEST ARTICLES
Everything Is Connected And Why You Don't Feel It
...And Why It Matters
As human beings we are skating on very thin ice with our sense of self and certainty about "how things are" and what we like to think of as reality:
Who Is In Charge Of Your Brain?
How Not To Be Stupid. Who is in charge of your brain? This is not a silly questions. It matters because the outcomes that you experience in your life are determined by how you respond to the events th…How To Be A Winner On A Very Large Scale
The Incredible Benefits Of Selective Attention. This is not a typical article about how to be a winner. We are not going to talk about goal setting, the importance of habits, the power of focus and al…The Metagame Approach To Life
How To Achieve Your Biggest Objectives.
The metagame approach to life is all about winning and achieving your biggest objectives by:
- Understanding the bigger picture
- Being better by doing things d…Shantideva - The Way Of The Bodhisattva
Walking The Path Of Compassion. Shantideva the 8th century Indian Buddhist sage is famous for his treatise "The Way of the Bodhisattva" delivered as an extended teaching to the monks of Nalanda monast…Reframing History - Deconstruction And Discussion Not Destruction
History is always about context, not imposing our own moral values on the past. For those of us fortunate enough to live within western democracies, we are living in an age where a vociferous and into…Tao Te Ching - Connecting To Your True Source Of Power.
How To Be Lived By The Tao. The Tao Te Ching is one of those books that many people read, few understand, and even fewer put into practice. The only way to know the Tao is to experience it, and it is…How Things Really Are - The Inbuilt Design Flaws
Chaos, Disorder And Decay Is The Natural Order Of Things. Nobody has the perfect life. We all struggle and strive to attain health, wealth and personal happiness. Yet these three big areas: our health…Intuition Or Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Crawling Here?
How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? Several months ago I was having a drink…What Is Truth - How To Tell A Partial Truth From The Whole Truth?
How the truth and nothing but the truth is often not the whole truth. My great aunty Flo broke her arm and died. It is true that she broke her arm in 1923. It is also true that she died in 1949. But t…Duality And Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind
Duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuses on the limitations of time, foreground and background, duality and "stuckness". The first aspect of duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuse…The Conscious Mind Is Limited - Be Aware And Be Prepared
Being aware is the first stage of being prepared. The conscious mind is limited in so many ways. There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as conscious thought and that it is represen…Your Inner Map Of Reality - Here's Why You Think The Way You Do
The big picture of how your inner map of reality creates your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Your inner map of reality is based on the filters of your own ethnic, national, social, family and rel…The Failure Of Cancel Culture - Suppression Not Engagement
Why we need to wear our beliefs lightly and develop negative capability. Throughout history people have campaigned to fight beliefs, ideologies, and injustices that they perceived to be oppressive, di…4 Big Reasons Why We Get Stuck In Our Attempts At Personal Change
Most People Spend Their Entire Life Imprisoned Within The Confines Of Their Own Thoughts. This first of the 4 big reasons why we get stuck is, in my view, the most important. The "self-help industry…How Do I Change And Why Is It So Hard?
We Would Rather Die Than Change, And We Usually Do In my experience, the vast majority of people who say they want to change don’t change. Most people reading this won’t change because they don’t real…The Illusion Of A Separate Self - Windows 11 With Self Awareness!
Beyond the content of your mind you are so much more than you think you are. When we talk of "myself" this is the conventional way of referring to our self image which is in fact the ego's constructio…Finite And Infinite Games - Dazed, Confused & Ultimately Transcendent
This is not an instruction manual, it is a wake up call!
Over this past week I have read Professor James Carse's highly regarded "Finite And Infinite Games - A Vision Of Life As Play And Possibility"…The Gap And The Gain - How Your Brain Sabotages Your Happiness
How Your Lizard Brain Sabotages Your Happiness We are hardwired to measure our progress in any and all areas of life where we have goals and aspirations. We can't not do it. But what we measure and ho…How To Wake Up - 4 Simple Practices To Help You Wake Up Now
So What Exactly Does It Mean to Wake Up - What Is "Enlightenment"? There is nothing magical, mystical or mysterious about waking up we’re actually having glimpses of enlightenment all the time. Enligh…Situational Communication - Different Strokes For Different Folks
Situational communication is about taking account of 3 often ignored factors about the other person. You are a situational communicator when you recognise that effective communication is not an event…How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips
The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes
Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life
Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line
In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!
To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…The Art Of Persuasion Advanced Communication Skills - Gaining Buyin
Create The Environment Where They Want To Buyin to Your Proposal In order to build the win-win you have to uncover what it is that the other person really wants or needs, and to do that you have to as…The Art Of Persuasion The One Fundamental Principle - Create A Win-Win
The art of persuasion is based on the simple idea that you get what you want by enabling the other party to get what they want. Being a nice friendly person with good inter-personal skills may be a go…Communication Persuasion And Change - Key Skills To Survive & Succeed
It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change, the most persuasive, and the best communicators. We are living in an age of unprecedented ch…The Eisenhower Box - What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent
What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent And What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. The Eisenhower Box is a time management and decision-making model devised by President Dwight Eisenhower to help him prioriti…