Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s key teaching is that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live in the present moment instead of in the past and in the future. Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present and at one with those around us and with what we are doing: while we wash the dishes, drive the car or take our morning shower. Dwelling in the present moment is, according to Nhat Hanh, the only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the world.

Affectionately known as Thây (pronounced ‘tie’), Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the world’s best known Buddhist teachers. Leaving Vietnam in 1966 to call for peace, he was not allowed to return. In 1967, Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying, “this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”