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Among the people Martin Luther King Jr. invited to help build what he called the “beloved community” was the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, poet and mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh.
As Jeremy David Engels, scholar at Penn State, explains, this extraordinary friendship began on June 1, 1965, when Hanh wrote to King to raise awareness of the suffering of the Vietnamese people and to correct common misunderstandings about Buddhism.
Hanh wanted Americans to understand that Vietnamese Buddhists did not hate them. Their aim was not vengeance but an end to war and to the delusions that sustained it. Deeply moved by Hanh’s message, King later nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Devastated by King’s assassination in 1968, Hanh vowed to continue building communities committed to practicing peace, nonviolence, freedom, love and justice − a pledge that became central to Hahn’s life and teaching.
As Engels writes, “These two men bonded over the shared insight that how we show up for each other matters.” And on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, their friendship reminds us that becoming a “beloved community” requires learning to be more loving and more peaceful even as we continue to advocate for change.
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The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., left, appears at a Chicago news conference with Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh on May 31, 1966.
AP Photo/Edward Kitch, File
Jeremy David Engels, Penn State
Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh shared a vision of ‘beloved community’ that shows how democracy begins not with power, but with how we live together.
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