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Thich Nhat Hahnh Essay

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Thich Nhat Hanh...The creator of engaged Buddism Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese monk and a peace activist. Thich or Thay in Vietnamese means teacher. He is an author of more than 100 books and was nominated for the nobel prize by Martin Luther King Jr. His life has since been dedicated to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society. Nhat Hanh was born in the city of Quảng Ngãi in Central Vietnam in 1926. He was inspired to become a monk when he was seven. He saw the picture of the Buddha sitting on the grass with peace and a smile. He was impressed and had a desire to be like him. At first, his parents opposed his will because they believed that the life of a monk was difficult. When ordaining, Viemanese …show more content…

In 1967, Dr. King gave a famous speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, his first to publicly question the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. It is what led Martin Luther King Jr. to nominate Nhat Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He said, “I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of [this prize] than this gentle monk from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity" However, Although King had make a “strong requiest” to the prize committee, it was in sharp of Nobel traditions and protocol. The committee dicided to not make any award that year.

Engaged Buddhism Thich Nhat Hanh combined a variety of traditional Zen teachings with the insights from Mahayana, methods from Theravada and ideas from Western psychology to offer a modern light on meditation practice. He was inspired to create Engaged Buddhism since he witnessed the suffering caused by the war and he wanted to practice Buddhism in a way that can bring help to the society. He became a leader for the Engaged Buddhism movement and promoted the individual's active role in creating changes. Engaged Buddhism means the way that people are applying knowledge and insights from dhrama teachings and meditation practice to the situation of social,

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