RELIGION : Zen Master’s Quest for Home : After 32 years of exile from Vietnam, internationally known monk wants to minister to his native land’s spiritual needs.

Renowned Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s latest book is called “Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers,” in which he urges people to return to their spiritual traditions.

Now Nhat Hanh--after more than 30 years in exile from his homeland for antiwar activities, teaching tours in 35 countries, a slew of international bestsellers and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize--wants to go home too.

In an interview this week, the frail, soft-spoken monk disclosed that he has enlisted a phalanx of supporters--from UNESCO officials to the American ambassador to Vietnam to Congress--in his quest to win permission from the Vietnamese government for a visit.

Nhat Hanh was in Santa Barbara this week to lead two week-long retreats of mindfulness, the Buddhist practice of slowing down and cherishing each moment in the present to transform suffering, improve health and find calm.

“People don’t have anything to believe in,” he said of Vietnam. “The economic situation is very bad and now social ills are increasing. How can the country have any chance of success if they don’t allow the rebuilding of the spirit?”

During a three-year campaign of quiet diplomacy, Vietnam has gradually warmed to the idea of a visit but is still placing conditions on it that Nhat Hanh says he finds unacceptable. Vietnamese officials are insisting, for instance, that the visit be sponsored by the official Buddhist church, considered by many to be an organ of the Communist government and opposed by many overseas Vietnamese. Nhat Hanh said it was time to speak publicly about his quest to nudge forward the government and rally support from Americans.

Supporting the Community

The Buddhist master, who lives in France, has no plans to abandon his followers in the West. Even as he lays plans for a return to his homeland, his followers disclosed plans to raise money for a permanent monastery and retreat center in Southern California to support the broader community’s pressing needs and Nhat Hanh’s rapidly growing number of lay Buddhist sangha, or communities, in the West. The center, which is projected to break ground next year, could be used by youth groups, senior citizens and others in need of healing from depression, drugs, violence and despair, said Sister Chan Kong, Nhat Hanh’s associate of 40 years.

“In the last two years at our retreats in California, I have seen so many suffering families,” Sister Chan Kong said. “This center will be for the lost father whose son killed himself, the young man on drugs, the elderly people with no place to go.”

The wide appeal of Nhat Hanh’s teachings was apparent at his Santa Barbara retreat this week, which drew nearly 1,000 people of all faiths. As the crowds waited for their teacher, some sat silently on Zen pillows, while others shuffled about slowly and silently in walking meditation.

At 10 a.m., the deep tones of a brass bell announced the arrival of the teacher affectionately known as “Thay.” Twenty-eight monks and nuns offered a song in Vietnamese. Nhat Hanh arose, bowed to his sangha, and they to him.

“Breathing in, I feel calm with myself. Breathing out, I feel ease with myself,” he said, leading the group in one of his core practices. Meditation, he says, isn’t just for nuns and monks, but for anyone, to be done anywhere--at home, in the vegetable garden, waiting in line. Mindfulness is to recognize things as they are, without judging or interfering. The all-important practice of breathing links the body and mind and creates inner harmony that can heal sickness and lift depression.

Suffering must be recognized and embraced in order to alleviate it, he says.

“For many of us, our practice is running away from our pain and sorrow, or covering it up with consumption,” he said, in soft and calming tones. “Dear friends, let us embrace our pain and sorrow with tenderness to find out what is the deep source. Then comes the insight that will liberate you from suffering.”

In his last two books, Nhat Hanh has also focused on themes of reconciliation, drawing on common spiritual ground between the Buddha and Christ. Although there are obvious differences between the two traditions--he demurs from dogma and assertions that Christ is the only door to salvation--the Buddhist energy of mindfulness, he says, is similar to the Holy Spirit.

‘Emphasizes the Here and Now’

The lessons seem to strike deep chords. John Carnes, who traveled to the retreat from Colorado, began meditating last year after retirement from his job as a university philosophy professor confronted him with questions about the deeper purpose of life.

“You can only paint the house so many times,” said Carnes, who moved from the Methodist Church to the Episcopalians to “nothing.”

The appeal of Nhat Hanh’s teachings? “It’s simple. It’s not heavily laden with a lot of theology. It speaks to people’s immediate concerns. It emphasizes the here and now. The problem with Christianity is that it always looks back 2000 years or forward to some future state, but somehow the here and now gets slid over.”

The idea of living deeply in the moment is captured by one of the organization’s mottoes--prominently displayed, along with sunflowers and red candles, behind the platform where Nhat Hanh spoke: “You have arrived. You are home.”

It’s a concept the master himself had to struggle to embrace after he was exiled from Vietnam in 1967, after he traveled abroad to urge an end to U.S. bombing campaigns he saw ravaging his country and solidifying support for the Communists. Cast out by the governments of both North and South Vietnam, he was, at first, devastated at the separation from his family, his Buddhist community and his many projects--he was editor of a leading Buddhist magazine and led a social work group that rebuilt ravaged villages, fed the poor and performed other charitable acts, said Sister Chan Kong.

For weeks, he would have a recurring dream of walking up the green hill of his home temple in central Vietnam, only to wake up in the middle. He realized he himself had to master the key Buddhist practice of aimlessness--learning to live in the moment.

“The most essential teaching is that wherever you are, even in the midst of suffering, you have to be at home, in peace,” Sister Chan Kong said.

After several months, the dreams stopped. Nhat Hanh had finally learned to make the apple tree of the West his, not just the guava or star fruit trees of Vietnam, the sister said.

Now, at the age of 73, the monk wants to make a trip home. The campaign on behalf of his visit and the publication of his books, which are still banned in Vietnam, has been spearheaded by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.). In an interview, Boucher said the Vietnamese have become more receptive to the idea because of the teacher’s successful trip this year to China, where he lectured hundreds of monastics with the support of the Communist government.

Other factors include dogged work on the issue by Pete Peterson, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, ever-improving relations with the United States, which recently concluded a bilateral trade agreement, and the Communist government’s growing self-confidence, Boucher said.

“The Chinese government and Vietnamese government are similar in that they are concerned about forces in their society that they can’t control,” Boucher said. “There is concern that even if he doesn’t have a political agenda, giving people an organizing principle could produce unforeseen social consequences.”

Nhat Hanh doesn’t refrain from voicing his views on the Vietnamese government. A new decree against any action that “sabotages the unity of the people,” he fears, could be used to prosecute him or others for humanitarian actions outside the official Buddhist church. “There are a lot of human rights violations here,” he says, pointing to copies of the decree.

But he vows his sole aim in returning home is to minister to his people.

“I won’t suffer terribly if I don’t go home, because I have a transcendent frontier,” he said. “But people want my physical presence. There are so many spiritual needs in Vietnam.”

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