Explore the Zen Master’s open letters on community-building and current affairs, including remarkable messages to Martin Luther King Jr., President G.W. Bush, and to a young man on Death Row in the U.S.
Thay’s letter to Root Temple Descendants, October 2018
This letter sets out Thay’s intention in returning to Vietnam for his final chapter. Although Thay can no longer write or dictate, he used gestures to indicate his intention, and the letter was drafted…
Thich Nhat Hanh’s statement on Climate Change for the United Nations
In 2014, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) approached Thich Nhat Hanh as an international faith leader, to request a brief statement about climate change and our relationship to one another and to…
Connecting to Our Root Teacher, the Buddha
Thay wrote this letter in autumn 2014, as his health was weakening. He teaches us how to keep our practice authentic and alive, and see the Buddha not as a God, but as our very…
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Speech at the Vatican, December 2, 2014
On December 2, 2014, a delegation of monks and nuns from Plum Village travelled to the Vatican to represent Thich Nhat Hanh at a Summit of World Faith Leaders to End Modern Slavery and…
New Designs for Monastic Robes
From the hospital in Agen, Thay writes to his monastic students recommending they design new robes for working meditation, sports and swimming, and sustainable unisex canvas shoes.
Sangha Building: our noblest career
In this teaching just before his stroke, Thay emphasises that no studies, ceremonies, or personal enlightenments are more noble than the practice of sangha-building and nurturing collective awakening.
New Heart Sutra translation by Thich Nhat Hanh
On 11th September Thay completed a profound and beautiful new English translation of the Heart Sutra, one of the most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism. This new English translation is based on the new…
Letter to a Prisoner
On March 12, Thay received a letter from Zachary Crow, who is supporting a young man called Daniel on Death Row in Jackson, Georgia in the USA. Together, Zachary and Daniel have been practising…
Message to Friends in Japan
Words of comfort from Thay to his friends in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011.
Bat Nha: a Koan
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s compassionate response to the persecution of his students in Vietnam “The koan “Bat Nha” is everyone’s koan; it is the koan of every individual and every community. The koan…
Bat Nha: The Indestructible Seed of Awakening
Fragrant Source Inner Monastery The last days of 2009 To my Bat Nha children, I know that in these moments, you have to disperse to many places, and you cannot live together to practice…
Bat Nha: Rekindling the Sacred Fire
Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha Monastics, continued. Blue Cliff MonasteryOctober 21, 2009 Yesterday, in the Great Harmony Meditation Hall of Blue Cliff Monastery, there was an ordination ceremony for two young people, one…
Bat Nha: Magical Sound of the Sitar
Thay is continuing to write a letter to you from the hermitage Thach Lang in Blue Cliff Monastery. It is October 13th, 2009. Thay just came back from New York. In New York, Thay…
Bat Nha: Diamond Body
Blue Cliff, October 7th, 2009 To my Bat Nha Children, I write “my Bat Nha children” and not “my children in Bat Nha” as I had done before, because even though you are not…
A Young Monastic’s Dream
My dear students, near and far, In the Daily Chanting book, there is a chant that I really liked when I was a novice. The prose of this piece is very beautiful, and its…
Seeing Thay in the Sangha
This letter was written by Thay in 2009, after he was urgently hospitalized with a serious lung infection, in the middle of a 3-month U.S. Tour. About 900 people had gathered in at the…
Thay Misses The Sangha
Dear Friends and Co-practitioners at the Retreat One Buddha is Not Enough, Estes Park, CO. My dear friends, I am writing to you from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. I know the Sangha…
The Mountain Cliff Robe
European Institute of Applied Buddhism Waldbroel, Germany 2009 Last night while sleeping here Thầy had a dream. He saw that he was climbing a mountain with the Buddha and with little Hải Triều Âm…
Sitting Still, Imperturbable
Sitting Still Hut, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village July 20, 2009 To my students in Bat Nha, Tu Hieu and everywhere, Thay is sitting at “Sitting Still Hut,” in the Upper Hamlet of Plum Village…
The Toadskin Hut and Paths of Legend
Thay wrote this end-of-year letter addressed to all of his students about the Toadskin Hut, the hermit of Still Sitting Hut, walking meditation paths that have become legendary, and the new young Dharma Teachers in…
Letter to the CEO of KFC
Thay wrote this letter to David Novak, the CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken, in 2008.
Letter to Tommy in Prison
Thay replies to a prisoner who wrote to him sharing about his mindfulness practice. He asked for Thay’s advice on how to handle his strong emotions when violently provoked and challenged by other prisoners.
Comments on Tibet
When the Plum Village delegation led by Thich Nhat Hanh landed in Rome in March 2008 for fourteen days of public talks, retreats, and other events, the demonstration by 600 Tibetan monks on the occasion of…
Sitting in the Autumn Breeze: Thay’s Blue Cliff Letter, 2007
In this landmark letter, Thay announces that his monastic community is turning vegan, to protect the planet and stop contributing to climate change.
Call for a Collective Awakening: Speech to UNESCO
Thich Nhat Hanh gave this speech at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, October 7, 2006 Ten years ago, I was asked by the director of UNESCO, his Excellency Federico Mayor, to write a manual…
Letter to President G.W.Bush
A handwritten letter to President Bush inviting him to open his heart to the deaths taking place in the Middle East.
Embracing our pain: comments on 2004 Asia Tsunami
Paris, France — The whole human race is in mourning … Over the past days I have offered incense and recited Buddha’s name every day to send energy to the victims and their families. The…
Thich Nhat Hanh address to US Congress, September 10, 2003
Thich Nhat Hanh gave a lecture titled Leading with Courage and Compassion at the Library of Congress on September 10, 2003. It took place in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street,…
Giving back to our motherland
Writing from exile in Paris in 1974, Thay wrote these words of encouragement and inspiration to his social workers back in Vietnam, dreaming of creating a village and practice center together.
Letter after hearing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote this letter to his friend Raphael (Ray) Gould, the morning after receiving the news of their friend’s assassination. Ray was one of the directors of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)…
A Proposal for Peace: 1 June, 1966
Published in Thich Nhat Hanh, Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (1993) This statement was read at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 1966, and reprinted in the Congressional Record…
In Search of the Enemy of Man
Thay’s first letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King, sent on June 1, 1965. This was the start of their correspondence and friendship, and they met for the first time in Chicago one year…