11 October marked 100 years since the birth of Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022), a Vietnamese Zen master.
There are many different ways of describing Thich Nhat Hanh.
Living Buddha, human rights activist, poet, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, bestselling author — seeing all these descriptions makes you realise just how much he accomplished.
Born in central Vietnam in 1926, he became a monk at 16. In 1961, he travelled to the United States, where he studied comparative religion at Princeton and Columbia universities. After the Vietnam War began, he held gatherings opposing the war and led a peace movement. Martin Luther King’s recommendation helped secure his nomination for the Nobel Prize. He published more than 100 books, many of which also became bestsellers in South Korea.
What were the two ways of washing up that the master described?
One of his books recounts a conversation with his American friend Jim Forest. The master said there were two ways to wash the dishes. One was to wash them in order to have clean dishes. The other was “to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes”.
It sounds like wordplay, but the point is simple. The first person’s mind is already on the next thing: the tea they will have after washing up, or tomorrow’s tasks. The second person is aware of their hands washing the dishes right now.
Mindfulness refers to this second state: knowing that you are doing what you are doing in the present moment. The master explained this difficult idea through dishes and water.
The master did not always enjoy washing up. According to a recollection shared by Plum Village, as a young monk he sometimes had to share the task of preparing meals and washing up for more than 100 monks with just one other person. With no soap, they scrubbed with ash, rice husks and coconut shells; in winter, they had to heat cold water in a large pot. The task he had once disliked so much later became one of his best-known examples for explaining meditation.
Why did he send young people in a war zone meditation exercises by letter?
The book that brought the dishwashing story to a wide audience was The Miracle of Mindfulness, published in English in 1975. It began as a letter. In exile, the master wrote a long letter in 1974 to a colleague at the School of Youth for Social Service in Vietnam. The school was a relief organisation he had co-founded, where young people helping war victims came together.
What young people working amid the chaos of war needed was not difficult theory. The letter offered practical exercises they could try straight away, such as washing the dishes, answering the telephone and peeling an orange. For people facing the urgent demands of each day, being told to find a separate place to meditate would probably have been hard to accept.
The master himself combined meditation with relief work during the war. He believed that meditation was not a way of escaping society. In 1966, he travelled around the United States and Europe to appeal for peace. After that, he was unable to return to his homeland and lived in exile for 39 years. Martin Luther King, whom he met that same year, nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the father of mindfulness
In 2022, Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, told The Guardian that the master was there at the very beginning of bringing mindfulness from East to West. He also said that Western mindfulness would be different today without the master’s influence. Professor Williams is a psychologist who founded the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.
The Guardian also described how that influence travelled. American psychologist Marsha Linehan carried the master’s book in her pocket and drew on it in her own research. Linehan’s research and advice influenced Professor Williams’s team as they incorporated mindfulness into a programme to prevent depression from recurring. A letter sent to young people had made its way into psychology research laboratories.
That said, this development cannot be credited to one person alone. It was researchers who created and tested the programme. The master’s contribution was closer to translating meditation into everyday language and putting it into the hands of more people. Religious studies scholar Jeff Wilson also considered that bringing together mindfulness in daily life and action in the world had influenced the early mindfulness movement.
These days, meditation is also presented as a tool for doing your job better. The master took a somewhat different approach. Professor Brooke Schedneck of Rhodes College explained that, for him, mindfulness was not a way to make the day more productive.
What did the master say to Google employees?
In 1982, the master opened the Plum Village meditation community in south-west France. According to its official introduction, more than 10,000 people still visit each year. It is a place where people meditate together regardless of their religion or denomination.
Meditation also reached beyond the monastery. The master’s community has provided mindfulness training for schoolteachers in Europe, the United States and Asia. The master also led sessions for members of the US Congress and for parliamentarians in the UK, Ireland, India and Thailand.
In 2013, he visited Google’s headquarters in the United States. According to The Guardian, he told employees that we feel overwhelmed by information, but do not need so much of it. That was 13 years ago. The words resonate even more today, when AI produces answers without pause.
In an age of information overload and less physical activity, many people may find the idea of beginning with long, silent meditation daunting. The master’s meditation starts with the hands, feet and breath. That is why it remains a relevant gateway into meditation for people today.
The master lost the ability to speak after a stroke in November 2014. He returned to Vietnam in 2018 and died on 22 January 2022 at the monastery where he had been ordained.
Why did people gather outside Seoul City Hall to walk slowly together?
His name is familiar to South Korean readers, too. His book Anger, translated in 2002, became a bestseller and brought his name to a wide audience. On 22 March 2003, he led a walking meditation with members of the public at the plaza outside Seoul City Hall, praying for peace. The event was organised by civic groups including the Korea Green Foundation and People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. It was meditation with the public in a city-centre plaza, not inside a temple. Some have said that his visit to South Korea at the time sparked a wave of interest in walking meditation. He also visited South Korea in May 2013, giving public talks and leading a retreat at Woljeongsa Temple.
This is what South Korea’s meditation community can learn from the master: the importance of turning difficult ideas into simple language and sharing them in ways anyone can try today. For South Korea’s diverse forms of meditation to reach the world under the name K-meditation, this attitude must come first. That is what I hope will happen.
How can you start a dishwashing meditation this evening?
Here is a version of the master’s instructions adapted for beginners. Three minutes is enough.
1. Turn off your phone and music, and roll up your sleeves. If the water is cold, warm it up.
2. Put your hands in the water and notice its temperature.
3. Wash one dish slowly. Notice its weight and the movement of your hands.
4. As you breathe in, know that you are breathing in; as you breathe out, know that you are breathing out. Do not deliberately control your breathing.
5. If your mind wanders, do not scold yourself. Simply return your attention to your hands and breath.
There is no guarantee that this meditation will eliminate anxiety or stress. Nor is it the right answer for everyone. If you find washing up a chore, you can try brushing your teeth or walking instead. Give it a go and choose a kind of meditation that suits you.
Why not start with three dishes this evening?
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