Born in 1926, Thay (as he is affectionately known)
trained as a Buddhist monk in Vietnam. He became actively engaged in seeking
peace in that war-ravaged country early on in his life. That experience enabled
him to coin the term Engaged Buddhism and develop the ideas of a
Buddhist life that not removed from the world and its sufferings.
In 1966 Thich Nhat Hanh created the Order of
Interbeing – an international community of Buddhist monks, nuns, and
laypeople. The term interbeing has come to be associated closely with Thich
Nhat Hanh’s teachings. The English word – interbeing – is an attempt to
translate the Vietnamese term tiep hien. Tiep means in touch with,
and hien can be translated as realising or making it here and
now.
Interbeing
then, can be thought of as the interconnectedness of all things.
For most of his later life, Thich Nhat Hanh lived in
the southwest of France in Plum Village Monastery, which he and another
Vietnamese monk, Chan Khong, founded in 1982.
In late 2018, Thich Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam to
spend his remaining days at his ‘root temple’ near the city of Hue in central
Vietnam.
A Meditation/Poem for Thay
I offer here, a short meditation/poem in celebration
of, and dedicated to, Thay. I have called it:
“Thay and Interbeing.”
Standing, I feel
the earth’s support
Sitting, I rest in
peace
Kneeling, I thank
the trees and birds
Lying, I wonder at
the clouds
Breathing, I
inhale the breath of life
Taste the air,
smell the flowers
Touch the earth,
hear the wind
See the world as a
whole
I inter-am
I live because you
all give.
Excellent blog Bruce! Mindful Love & Gratitude Always!
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