At Home in the World by Thich Nhat Hanh

I have been a student of Thich Nhat Hanh for 30 years. I’ve not had the opportunity to meet him in person, but he has been an old friend, mentor and guide for most of my adult life. This is what makes one of his final books At Home in the World so precious to me as he is reflecting on various events of his life now that he is in his 90s.

Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay as he is known by his students, is a Zen Buddhist monk from Vietnam who rose to prominence in the 1960s for speaking out against the war in his country. His community did not take sides in the war but insisted that all war should be abandoned. He traveled around the world and especially throughout the United States since most of the money and weapons were provided by this country. He became close friends with The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Vietnamese government would not allow him to return home and he spent most of his life in exile in the community he founded in France. He continued to travel all over the world to teach and he published over 130 books. He is also well-known for his poetry and calligraphy. In 2014 he suffered a severe stroke and can no longer speak. In recent years the Vietnamese government allowed him to return home to the monastery where he was ordained a monk to live out the rest of his days.

I love Thay’s teachings because they are so accessible to everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, for those who are drawn to the deep philosophical levels of Buddhism, and those who want to keep their practice simple. His style makes me think of the original Buddha who was such a popular teacher because he could explain the most complex teachings through stories and allusions to everyday life.

If Nhat Hanh is new to you, this would be a lovely book to read to get to know him better. The stories are short and they follow the main outline of his life from childhood to the last years of his life. He tells a story then he reflects on the deeper meaning of that story. It’s amazing how many layers there are to each one, kind of like finding the sliced strawberries under the whipped cream of a chocolate layer cake. Surprise!

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Drawing of the Buddha: He remembers seeing a drawing of the Buddha when he was just seven or eight years old. The Buddha looked so peaceful and calm and he decided that he wanted to be like that too. He invites us to adopt this same way of being when he writes “Anyone who is peaceful, loving and understanding can be called a buddha.” This is a primary teaching of Buddhism and one that can support us during these difficult days of dissension.

Drops of Compassion: This story is set just days after the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. He was in Berkeley, California set to give a lecture to 4000 people. Wow, what a challenging time this must have been! He writes “I reminded everyone that responding to hatred with hatred will only cause hatred to multiply a thousandfold, and that only with compassion can we transform hatred and anger.” He shared the practice of mindful breathing to calm the body and embrace the fear everyone was feeling. Twenty years later his words are prophetic and the teachings still resonate in response to the challenges of the pandemic.

I know that many more generations will read Thay’s words, practice mindfulness in retreat centers, and study with the many monks and nuns ordained in the Order of Interbeing. Truly, “there is no way to peace; peace is the way” in our world, in our communities and in our hearts.

Nhat Hanh, Thich. At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life. Parallax Press, 2019.