There was a photo which shocked the world in 1963. A Vietnamese monk, Thích Quảng Đức, burned himself to death at a busy road in Saigon. He was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese Roman Catholic Government. In the photo, Thích Quảng Đức was in a deep meditation status. He was at peace in such an overwhelmingly painful situation. One other reason that this stunned the world was that Buddhists could in fact be socially engaged.

Last week, I talked about ‘Engaged Buddhism’ and the person who coined the term It was another Vietnamese monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh. In the Vietnam War, some people supported North Vietnam (the camp of the Communist Party), some supported South Vietnam (the camp of Capitalism). Only Thích Nhất Hạnh advocated to stop the War. Naturally, he became the enemy of both camps.

At that time, Thích Nhất Hạnh set up the School for Youth and Social Service (SYSS) as he saw the suffering of the poor people and others from all walks of life in the War. This kind of community project was rather progressive in the 1960s. Thích Nhất Hạnh recruited some young volunteers to join the project. Unluckily, still, some thought these young volunteers threatened the widespread of political ideas (Thích Nhất Hạnh was not sure who did this), and therefore they killed a few of them. It’s ridiculous that a peaceful project that was nowhere near ‘political ideas’ appeared as a threat in the eyes of the fanatics. The tragedy did not stop here. After then, Sister Mui, one of the young volunteers, committed self-immolation in order to protest against the assassination. It broke everyone’s heart, especially Thích Nhất Hạnh who did not agree with self-immolation. He considered treasuring life as essential.

I learnt these stories from the mentee of Thích Nhất Hạnh, Chân Không’s autobiography, ‘Learning True Love: How I learned and Practiced Social Change in Vietnam’. Chân Không has been following Thích Nhất Hạnh since she was young. Vietnam War was also a difficult period of history. It was an age full of a plethora of crazy ideas. Nevertheless, Thích Nhất Hạnh and Chân Không held on to their belief and insisted what they thought was right. (‘Hold on to’ might not be an accurate description since Buddhism’s teaching is somehow against ‘attachment’ to anything. But for easier understanding, let’s keep it as that.)

Once Thích Nhất Hạnh advocated his idea of peace and to ‘stop the War’ in the US, he was ignored by some leftist scholars. They only supported the Communist Party and wanted it to win the War. From today’s perspective, we know that those scholars were wrong as the Vietnam Communist Party brought a lot of suffering to the people. Here, I do not try to blame the Leftists as many do nowadays. I merely want to investigate which one could last longer: a political idea or a belief in value? We should always remember what we are fighting for. Hatred is surely not our initial intention.

Thích Nhất Hạnh was exiled in 1975 after the Northern Vietnamese Army won the War. After then, he and his mentees established the Plum village Monastery in southwest France. He is one of the most influential religious figures in the world and often initiates discussion among various religions. He keeps promoting nonviolent actions and raising awareness of interbeing. From his stories, we could see so many possibilities in engaging in society, as long as we don’t forget our initial intention.

(Pat To Yan, Active in Hong Kong and German Theatre. Playwright, Director, Lecturer. Elected Council Member and the Chairman of the committee of Literary Art of Hong Kong Arts Development Council.)

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