One of the last projects of the late Thích Nhất Hạnh was to offer to the world a new translation of the Heart Sutra: The Other Shore. Completed in 2014, and published in 2017, the presentation of a new translation, new language, as well as new concepts and categories, implies a new interpretation, new understandings and new insights. "The Heart Sutra is recited daily in Mahayana temples and practice centres throughout the world. This new translation came about because Thích Nhất Hạnh believes that the patriarch who originally compiled the Heart Sutra was not sufficiently skillful with his use of language to capture the intention of the Buddha's teachings—and has resulted in fundamental misunderstandings of the central tenets of Buddhism for almost 2,000 years." Hahn has written over 100 books, including Anger, Fear, How to Fight, Being Peace, True Love and No Mud, No Lotus.
The commentaries that accompany this new translation "makes clear what it means to transcend duality and pairs of opposites, such as birth and death, and to touch the ultimate reality and the wisdom of nondiscrimination. By helping to demystify the term "emptiness," the Heart Sutra is made more accessible and understandable." Click here to listen to the forward to The Other Shore read out loud. Zen master, poet, teacher, and a prolific and accessible author, Nhất Hạnh was exiled from Vietnam in 1968 after advocating for peace, for which Dr. MLK Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
While still in Vietnam Nhất Hạnh created "The Order for Interbeing". The stories goes: "On the full moon day of February 1966, Zen Master Nhất Hạnh ordained six members into the Order—three men and three women ranging in age from twenty-two to thirty-two. All were board members of the School of Youth for Social Service, which he had helped found the year before. During the ceremony, the six ordainees vowed to study, practice, and observe the Fourteen Precepts of the Order of Interbeing, a wonderful blend of traditional Buddhist morality and contemporary social concerns." In 1982, Nhất Hạnh founded Plum Village Monastery in France in 1982, as a continuation of the work of "engaged Buddhism" he had begun in Vietnam. Nhất Hạnh passed to another shore in January 22, 2022.
