Meditating with Thich Nhat Hanh at Copley Square

11.32    

International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh held a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013.



Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker


International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh held a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

When the 86-year-old Thich Nhat Hanh was introduced to his audience in Copley Square on Sunday afternoon, he began by saying nothing for 25 minutes.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

The event, which took place in front of Trinity Church, was billed as a “seated meditation,” and lasted for about one hour, the silence interrupted only when Hanh would encourage the audience to breathe in and out and meditate on a feeling.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. Front, left to right are: Carol Hudgins (cq) (Cincinnati, OH), Jim Piermarini Jr. (cq) (Amesbury, MA) and Drew Amabile (cq) (Cambridge). Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

Among those who flocked to Copley Square on Sunday to hear Thich Nhat Hanh were, from left, Carol Hudgins of Cincinnati, Jim Piermarini Jr. of Amesbury, and Drew Amabile of Cambridge.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. Lisa Campbell (cq), of Ashland, sits with her 10-year-old son Zane (cq). Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

“We breathe in and breathe out, and in that way we can stop the thinking, because the thinking can take us away from the here and now,” he said.


Lisa Campbell, of Ashland, sat with her 10-year-old son Zane.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

Hanh’s appearance in Boston was a major occasion for the local Buddhist community; it is the only New England stop on his US tour. On Saturday, he did a ticketed event inside the church, but asked to be able to do something free for the public as well.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. An unidentified woman documents the event. Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

Running a massive event that is built largely around silence proved to be an interesting challenge for the volunteers, who wore “Sit in Peace” T-shirts and worked quietly along the periphery to turn down the volume of the city noises around the seated meditators, who filled the square from the church to the flower beds along Dartmouth Street. At one point, volunteers had to bribe a street performer with cash after he refused to stop playing music on Boylston Street.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA
Boston, MA--9/15/2013--International peace activist, author and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (cq) holds a guided sitting meditation in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square, on Sunday, September 15, 2013. When the the wind interfered with the microphone as Hanh was speaking, Brother Phap Nguyen (cq) (his attendant from the Plum Village Monastery in France) held his cone hat up to shield it. Photos by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Topic: 16buddhist Reporter: Billy Baker

When the the wind interfered with the microphone as Hanh was speaking, Brother Phap Nguyen (his attendant from the Plum Village Monastery in France) held his cone hat up to shield it.


Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff


AAA