Thich Nhat Hanh

Hello friends, Thich Nhat Hanh has died, age 95. His teachings have been very much a part of my spiritual journey. I called my fourth book of poetry “Interbeing,” his own term of inter-connectedness, to honor Thich Nhat Hanh’s lifetime of work. It was during a 1966 trip that he first met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Here is a quote from a 1995 interview in Tricycle magaine. Best, Gene

“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong. They do not touch enough on what is not wrong—it’s the same as some psychotherapists. Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and to see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

Waking up in the morning, you can recognize “I’m alive” and that there are twenty-four hours for me to live, to learn how to look at living beings with the eyes of compassion. If you are aware that you are alive, that you have twenty-four hours to create new joy, this would be enough to make yourself happy and the people around you happy. This is a practice of happiness.”