Eyes of Compassion: Learning from Thich Nhat Hanh

Christian theologian Forest (At Play in the Lion’s Den) takes an intimate look at peace activist and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in this series of loosely connected personal observations. Forest met Nhat Hanh in 1966 at the start of his speaking tour of the United States: “Warned by friends in Vietnam that he would be in grave danger should he return home, he found himself in exile. What was to have been a three-month absence made him an expatriate for more than forty years.” For the next two decades, Forest would be one of Nhat Hanh’s closest companions, accompanying him on antiwar speaking engagements and workshops on “engaged Buddhism.” In hopscotching vignettes, Forest chronicles Nhat Hanh’s quotidian tasks (on washing dishes: “You should wash each dish as if it were the baby Jesus”) and moments of personal success, like starting an operation to print and publish books previously banned by the Vietnamese government. Forest’s portrayal is remarkably prosaic—but that seems to be the point. As a leading proponent of “engaged Buddhism,” Nhat Hanh encourages others “simply to live attentively in the present moment, awake to suffering, awake to joy” and centers an appreciation for the interconnectedness (or “interbeing”) of all things. This appreciative portrait of a humble, devout leader should hold appeal across spiritual denominations. (May)