Good Citizens

April 9, 2012
The aging Zen Buddhist master offers teachings that can form the basis for a global ethic. His Buddhist teachings are familiar: breathe; pay attention to the present and whatever you are doing in order to see deeply; then breathe again. Nhat Hanh has been offering this simple yet difficult instruction in one or another way his entire career, which began in Vietnam in the 1960s during the war in that country. He has distilled Zen Buddhism to a core that can cross cultural barriers and work in making peace and globally aware citizens. It also makes virtue. For Nhat Hanh, the spiritual is also the ethical, so his vision of Buddhism is always socially engaged. If anything, his voice grows even clearer as he ages (he is 85). Next time the phone rings with a maddening robo-call between now and election day in November, stop and breathe before answering.