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Early 1960s, VietnamPrimary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Thich Nhat Hanh Founds Engaged Buddhism

A Vietnamese monk decides meditation and social action cannot be separate practices

On the timeline · around Early 1960s, Vietnam · Modern BuddhismModern BuddhismThich Nhat Hanh Founds Engaged Buddhism187519001925195019752000

Quick facts

Term coined in
Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire
Relief organization founded
School of Youth and Social Service, early 1960s
Volunteers
c. 10,000
Core principle
Meditation and social action as inseparable practices

What happened

As war engulfed Vietnam, Buddhist monks and nuns faced a choice between the traditional contemplative life inside the monastery and the urgent, immediate suffering of civilians around them. The monk Thich Nhat Hanh chose to do both. In the early 1960s he founded the School of Youth and Social Service, a grassroots relief organization that grew to some 10,000 volunteers, built explicitly on Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action, and he coined the term "Engaged Buddhism" in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. He would later describe the movement's origin directly: "When I was a novice in Vietnam, we young monks witnessed the suffering caused by the war...That was not easy because the tradition does not directly offer Engaged Buddhism. So we had to do it by ourselves. That was the birth of Engaged Buddhism."

Why it matters

Engaged Buddhism reframed meditation practice as inseparable from social and political action rather than a retreat from the world, and the movement Thich Nhat Hanh founded in wartime Vietnam went on to influence Buddhist-inspired peace, environmental, and social justice movements internationally over the following decades.

How we know

Thich Nhat Hanh documented the movement's founding and rationale in his own writing, and the School of Youth and Social Service's activities during the Vietnam War are corroborated by the historical record of its relief work and by his own monastic community's biographical archive.

Sources

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