He landed in Da Nang City on a flight from Bangkok. The Buddhist monk, 92, was in stable health and waved to followers as he left the airport, said Nguyen Van Sum, a follower. His stay in Vietnam this time will include several days in Da Nang and a trip to his birthplace in nearby Thua Thien-Hue Province. He will visit the Tu Hieu Pagoda, where he studied and practiced Zen Buddhism from 1942. He visited the pagoda during a private trip late August last year. Born in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh became a monk at the age of 23 after studying Buddhism for seven years. He is considered the second most influential Buddhist leader in the world after the Dalai Lama. In the 1960s he spearheaded a movement of Buddhists in South Vietnam that called for a negotiated end to the Vietnam War. He left the country in 1966 and has lived in Plum Village in southern France for decades, traveling regularly throughout North America and Europe to give lectures on mindfulness and peace. His key teaching is that through mindfulness, people can learn to live happily in the present moment, which is the only way to truly develop peace, both within oneself and in the world outside. This is his fifth return to Vietnam, the others being in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2017. During his earlier visits, he met with devout Buddhists and offered prayers for war victims. In late 2014, he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized… [Read full story]
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