Coming & Going in Freedom: Casting Thich Nhat Hanh’s Ashes

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Coming & Going in Freedom: Casting Thich Nhat Hanh’s Ashes

By Craig C Lewis
March 14, 2022

Thay’s ashes arrive at Plum Village Monastery in France. From plum village.org

The community of Plum Village in southwestern France has shared a collection of intimate photographs from the weekend, when the sangha held a short ceremony to mark 49 days since the passing of Thich Nhat Hanh (know affectionately as Thay). The ceremony was held ahead of the casting of Thay’s ashes on Upper Hamlet Buddha Hill by members of the community.

“On 13 March 2022, the Sangha offered its collective energy of peace and compassion at the Ceremony for the Scattering of Thay’s Ashes.” he monks and nuns of Plum Village shared. “For three full days we practiced sitting meditation, walking meditation, deep relaxation, mindful meals, dharma sharing, and listened wonderfully insightful teachings from our Senior Dharma Teachers.” (Plum Village)

*Coming & Going in Freedom*. From plumvillage.org

The ceremony and casting of the ashes in southwestern France was echoed at Thich Nhat Hanh’s monasteries, communities, and centers around the world, many of which were live-streamed.

Click here to view the full collection of images from Plum Village

Born in 1926 in Hue, central Vietnam, and ordained as a monk at the age of 16, Thich Nhat Hanh achieved global recognition for teaching the practice of mindfulness in the West and for propagating the philosophy and practice of engaged Buddhism, founded on the concept of interbeing. Over a lifetime dedicated to working for peace, the revered master succeeded in distilling the Buddhist teachings on compassion and the cessation of suffering for new generations of Buddhist practitioners. After suffering a severe stroke in 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam in 2018 to live out his final days at his root temple, of which he remained the abbot. He died on 22 January at the age of 95.

This body is not me. I am not limited by this body. I am life without boundaries.I have never been born, and I have never died.
— Thich Nhat Hanh

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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