Peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, master of mindfulness, dies at 95

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist monk, poet and peace activist who in the 1960s came to prominence as an opponent of the Vietnam War, died on Saturday aged 95 surrounded by his followers in the temple where his spiritual journey began.

“The International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism announces that our beloved teacher Thich Nhat Hanh passed away peacefully at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam,” said his official Twitter account.

“Thich Nhat Hanh will be remembered as arguably one of the most influential and prominent religious leaders in the world,” Chargé d’Affaires Marie C. Damour of US Mission to Vietnam said in a statement.

“Through his teachings and literary work, his legacy will remain for generations to come,” she said, adding that his teachings, in particular on bringing mindfulness into daily life, have enriched the lives of innumerable Americans.

In a majestic body of works and public appearances spanning decades, Thich Nhat Hanh spoke in gentle yet powerful tones of the need to “walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”

He suffered a stroke in 2014 that left him unable to speak and returned to Vietnam to live out his final days in the central city of Hue, the ancient capital and his place of birth, after spending much of his adult life in exile.

As a pioneer of Buddhism in the West, he formed the “Plum Village” monastery in France and spoke regularly on the practice of mindfulness – identifying and distancing oneself from certain thoughts without judgment – to the corporate world and his international followers.

“You learn how to suffer. If you know how to suffer, you suffer much, much less. And then you know how to make good use of suffering to create joy and happiness,” he said in a 2013 lecture.

“The art of happiness and the art of suffering always go together.”

Born Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh was ordained as a monk as modern Vietnam’s founding revolutionary Ho Chi Minh led efforts to liberate the Southeast Asian country from its French colonial rulers. (Reuters)