Remembering Thay
“I may be found maybe in your way of breathing or walking.”
This week, Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hahn, 'Thay' as he was affectionately known, passed away. In hearing of his death, I am encountering an unusual experience of grief: I feel serene.
I think it’s an indication that something powerful is happening on a planetary level. Let me explain what I mean…
A few days before Thay passed away my 10-year-old daughter Kyra was given an assignment at school to make an A3 collage of someone who has inspired her in life. She chose Thay.
Kyra first met Thay when she was 6 months old – I took her to Plum Village while filming 'Walk With Me'. I took her several more times up until 8 years old - just before the Covid pandemic started. And whenever the monastics were in the UK, they made a point of coming by to visit my family.
Being in the presence of Thay and the monastics has had a great effect on Kyra. She has naturally adopted mindfulness practices in her life, and at an early stage has become aware of her emotions and her connection to spirit.
Kyra had wanted to bring her collage back home with her but she left it at school and instead made a mini-version. She rested it on an altar in our home. Two days later, Thay passed away.
I believe there are millions of people around the world, of all ages, who are feeling a deep resonance within themselves of Thay’s legacy - and his message. I feel something within us all is being released - our hearts are opening up in a collective grief full of deep love for Thay, ourselves and our planet.
Part of Kyra’s collage honouring Thay
Community as the gateway of transformation
Filming Walk With Me over 5 years, and recording the Walk With Me in Sound audiobook, I was privileged to receive many of Thay’s teachings. One of the most potent, was his teachings about the coming of the next Buddha in the form of community which he communicated through his refusal not to be the central character in Walk With Me, but rather to make his monastic community the central characters.
Thich Nhat Hahn did not want to be a hero for the people, he wanted communities to become the heroes. He believes that these communities, Sanghas, are the main gateways for transformation and change. “The next Buddha”, he said "will not take the form of any individual but may take the form of a community - a community practicing understanding, loving-kindness, and mindful living.”
He believes this to such an extent that he did not appoint a successor to continue his legacy, but has left it in the hands of the collective monastic community to move his vision forward together.
His lessons have been shared widely and his influence is vast, but he was a humble man who embodied his values.
When Thich Nhat Hanh heard that someone had built a temple in Hanoi to commemorate their life, he sent a letter to the Tu Hieu temple in central Vietnam, where he trained as a novice monk, making it clear he does not want a shrine built in his honour when he dies:
“I said, don’t waste the land of the temple in order to build me a stupha. Do not put me in a small pot and put me in there. I don’t want to continue like that. It is better to put the ash outside to help the trees to grow. That is a meditation. I recommend that they make the inscription outside on the front:
‘I am not in here’
and then if people do not understand, you add a second sentence;
‘I am not out there either’
and if still they don’t understand on the third and the last;
‘I may be found maybe in your way of breathing or walking.’”
Kyra’s image on the altar
'You carry Mother Earth with you'
Now that Thay has passed I'm serene in grief. Not because his death doesn't represent loss, but because his long life has represented so much unconditional love, joy and peace. I feel like in death his true legacy can be realised, through people like Kyra and the global Sangha who will take his teachings forward in their lives.
“You carry Mother Earth within you. When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is in you, you are the Earth, you then touch the nature of interbeing. At that moment you can have real communication with the Earth. We need a real awakening, a real enlightenment. We have to change our way of thinking and seeing things - and this is possible.”
Rest in peace Thich Nhat Hahn.