Thich Nhat Hanh

Vietnamese Zen master, poet, peace activist, and founder of the Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism. Ordained as a monk at sixteen, he founded the School of Youth for Social Service during the Vietnam War — young monks and nuns who rebuilt bombed villages on both sides. Exiled from Vietnam in 1966 for refusing to take sides, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr. the next year. He wrote more than a hundred books, including The Miracle of Mindfulness, Peace Is Every Step, and Being Peace, and taught mindfulness as a practice for ordinary life — washing dishes, walking, breathing — long before the word entered Western vocabulary. He was finally allowed home to Vietnam in his last years, and died there in 2022 at 95.