Yes or Nhat?

Excerpts from Tricycle Blog post by James Shaheen:

The current issues of two Buddhist publications contain articles about the eminent Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. The Shambhala Sun, founded by the pioneering Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (his son and heir is now the publication’s president), devotes sixteen pages to Nhat Hanh and features his photo on the cover. Inquiring Mind, “a journal of the vipassana community,” which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary, has an intriguing piece by Arnie Kotler, once Nhat Hanh’s editor, publisher, disciple, and assistant, that discusses the painful dissolution of their long and close relationship. (...)

The Shambhala Sun’s Thich Nhat Hanh section comprises two articles and a teaching with a mix of excerpts. The picture that emerges is one of a Buddhist master steeped in the wisdom, compassion, and virtue of the tradition he represents and which we, the readers, seek to learn. It is a heroic picture of an exemplary figure, and to readers of Buddhist publications, including Tricycle and Inquiring Mind, it is a familiar one.

The Thich Nhat Hanh in the Inquiring Mind essay is very different indeed. Alongside his virtues as a Buddhist master, a poet, and a peace worker, this Thich Nhat Hanh is manipulative, hypocritical, and even litigious. He takes Kotler under his wing as a student and the two form a close working partnership—out of which come the books and teaching tours that formed the basis for Nhat Hanh’s current popularity—then, suddenly and for no clearly stated reason, he dumps Kotler(...).

Will the real Thich Nhat Hanh please stand up? Or peel a tangerine?

Read the whole Tricycle thing.