Mindfulness in America

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Brooke Schedneck, Rhodes College, Jeff Wilson (The Conversation via AFP via MSN); CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

People interested in practicing meditation didn’t need to spend days at a meditation retreat or find a teacher. Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized that mindfulness can be practiced anytime, anywhere, even when doing routine chores.

Doing the dishes, people can simply focus on the activity and be fully present for it. Peace, happiness, joy, and true love, he said, could be found only in the present moment.

Mindfulness in America

Mindful America (Jeff Wilson)

TNH’s mindfulness practices do not advocate disengagement with the world.

Rather, in his view, the practice of mindfulness could lead one toward “compassionate action,” or Engaged Buddhism, like practicing openness to others’ viewpoints and sharing material resources with those in need.

Jeff Wilson, a scholar of American Buddhism, argues in his book Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture, that it was TNH’s combination of daily mindfulness practices with action in the world that contributed to the earliest strands of the mindfulness movement.

This movement eventually became what Time magazine in 2014 called the “mindful revolution.” The article argues that the power of mindfulness lies in its universality, as the practice has entered into corporate headquarters, political offices, parenting guides, and diet plans.

For Thich Nhat Hanh, however, mindfulness was not a means to a more productive day but a way of understanding “interbeing,” the connection and interdependence of everyone and everything.

In the documentary Walk With Me, he illustrated interbeing in the following way:

You mean I inter-drink my dog as tea, Thay?

A young girl asks him how to deal with the grief of her recently deceased dog. He instructs her to look into the sky and watch a cloud disappear. The cloud has not died but has become the rain and the tea in the teacup.

Just as the cloud is alive in a new form, so is the dog. Being aware and mindful of the tea offers a reflection on the nature of reality. He believed this understanding could lead to more peace in the world.

TNH’s lasting impact

Thich Nhat Hanh prepares to die (TC)

Thich Nhat Hanh, who recently passed away at 95, will have a lasting impact through the legacy of his teachings in over 100 books, 11 global practice centers, over 1,000 global lay communities, and dozens of online community groups. 

The disciples closest to him – the 600 monks and nuns ordained in his French Plum Village tradition, along with lay teachers – have been planning to continue their teacher’s legacy for some time.

They have been writing books, offering teachings, and leading retreats for several decades now.

In March 2020, the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, along with Lion’s Roar, hosted an online summit called “In the Footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh” to make people aware of his teachings through the disciples he trained. More (The Conversation)

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