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In Love and Trust

Letters from a Zen Master

Author Thich Nhat Hanh

Paperback

$19.95 US

| $25.95 CAN

Parallax Press

On sale Oct 22, 2024 | 128 Pages | 9781952692826

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Experience Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s expressions of love, connection, and wisdom through deep and personal letters—now published in English for the very first time.

Widely recognized for his profound yet accessible teachings on the art of mindful living, Thich Nhat Hanh lived a rich life dedicated to fostering community and connection within and outside of the monastery walls. In Love and Trust offers a striking look at Thich Nhat Hanh as seen through his intimate letters to monastics, lay practitioners, allies in the peace movement, and other friends on the path. Through these touching pieces of correspondence, we see Thich Nhat Hanh at his warmest and most inspirational, at his most candid and direct. These personal messages of love and trust demonstrate the deeply human origins of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings—and his own deeply human expression of them.

In Love and Trust is composed primarily of newly translated letters, presented here in English for the first time. The book features images of archival, hand-written letters throughout.

Students and Teacher Practicing Together

March 16, 2010

To my students from all of the Plum Village meditation centers and sanghas,

Tomorrow morning, I will be heading to Italy and will stay there for two weeks. The spring there is undoubtedly as beautiful as the spring in France. When you hear the first call of the cuckoo bird there, please respond to it for me. The orchid tree near Phương Khê will bloom within a week, so please remember to admire it.* Countless other kinds of flowers, birds, and butterflies will also make their appearance. I wish you all a joyful practice during these spring days and the ability to recognize all the subtle expressions of the season.

In the recent monastic retreat, we committed diligently to perfecting our walking meditation, aiming for 100 percent practice and no less. During my time in Italy, the delegation and I will
be working on that; I trust that you, my students, wherever you may be, will do the same. I believe that by the opening day of the French-language retreat, the monastic community’s practice of meditation will be quite powerful. This practice is an offering on our journey to the Triple Gem and the ancestors. It will also be a gift we give to each other and to our loved ones. I am confident that we can achieve this.

When walking, we must be aware of the contact of the sole of our feet with the ground, immediately establishing mindfulness and concentration. With mindfulness and concentration, insight arises right away. Insight here is just to be aware that we are present and that the wonders of life are also present for us, within and around us. That kind of insight is already valuable. It brings joy and happiness, nourishment, and healing. In just three or four seconds, we can easily generate mindfulness, concentration, and insight. In those moments, the Triple Gem is present within us; these are moments of surrender, moments of refuge. Our mind is full of the joy generated by those three sources of energy.

For this reason, we must invest 100 percent of our mind in each step, without thinking or speaking. Of course, we have many joyful stories to share, but if we do not think or talk while walking, then mindfulness, concentration, and insight can arise in abundance. If we need to talk, we stop to speak and listen attentively—speak completely and listen completely before moving on. But as soon as we start walking again, we must return to mindfulness; we must put our entire mind into each step. Remember to walk for your father, your mother, the Buddha, your teacher, and your loved ones.

We often fill the emptiness in our hearts by listening to music,reading newspapers, watching movies, talking, etc. But we must know how to fill that emptiness instead with mindfulness, con-centration, and insight. The moment mindfulness, concentration, and insight are present is a sacred moment in which we are trulya monastic. In our hearts, there is gratitude, joy, nourishment,and healing. Knowing how to create happiness, we no longerneed to consume to fill the “emptiness.” When the “emptiness” isfull, it is no longer empty.

I only go to the internet when I need practice materials. Please don’t go online “to see if there’s anything new or interesting.” I also must remind myself of that, to make that vow. As older brothers and sisters, we must set an example for the younger ones. If any of you experiences an insight while practicing, writea letter to share it with me! Now, I will go to sleep so that I’m fresh for tomorrow’s journey.

Your teacher,

Thầy

“The monk who taught the world mindfulness.”
—TIME

“Thich Nhat Hanh shows us the connection between personal inner peace and peace on earth.”
—His Holiness the Dalai Lama

“Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Thich Nhat Hanh’s work, on and off the page, has proven to be the antidote to our modern pain and sorrows. Here is a monumental, life-giving mind, preserved as textual force. And that's what I feel reading and practicing his teachings: that I am being acted on by a compassion equal to and pervasive as gravity itself. His books help me be more human, more me than I was before.”
—Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

“Thich Nhat Hanh is a great teacher. I have studied him, his work, his passage through life, with gratitude and joy. Through his writings, his public offerings, his insights, I’ve gained vision and clarity; I’ve often felt it would be impossible to find a more lucid, determined, and courageous soul.”
—Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

“Thich Nhat Hanh is among the most revered leaders in the world. His teachings and mindfulness practices have deeply influenced my journey through life. He is a torch of wisdom lighting the path ahead, generating the compassion, love, and understanding we need to create peace for ourselves and the world.”
—Marc Benioff, chair and CEO, Salesforce

“Thich Nhat Hanh's words are like water. Simple, pure, transparent, and absolutely indispensable for life.”
—Alejandro Iñárritu, director of Birdman and The Revenant

“I first met Thich Nhat Hanh in 1968 in Paris. That was the time of rising counter culture, protest against the Vietnam war and student uprising. At that time his presence in Paris was like a soothing rain in dry heat. Ever since, for more than fifty years, he has been the conscience of humanity. He has been a compassionate catalyst of spiritual awakening, social harmony and ecological awareness. He has nurtured the human spirit with dedication, determination and delight. He is humble and gentle yet powerfully persuasive and strong willed. It has been a joy of my life to know him and follow his teachings.”
—Satish Kumar, author of Soil, Soul, Society and founder of Schumacher College

Thich Nhat Hanh, a world-renowned spiritual teacher and peace activist, was born in Vietnam in 1926 and became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of sixteen. Over seven decades of teaching, he published more than one hundred books, which have sold millions of copies. Exiled from Vietnam in 1966 for promoting peace, his teachings on Buddhism as a path to social and political transformation are responsible for bringing the mindfulness movement to the West. He established the international Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism in France, now the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe and the heart of a growing community of mindfulness practice centers around the world. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh passed away in 2022 at the age of ninety-five at his root temple, Tu Hieu, in Hue, Vietnam, surrounded by his beloved community.