Ethics and morals are a means for people to organise their ideas concerning concepts like right and wrong. In this sense, ethics and morals have been at the forefront of religious and philosophical thinking for as long as human beings have been interacting with one another. Various traditions of ethics and morals exist, including Greek, Egyptian, Islamic and Thomist, to name just a few. The questions relating to the topic have been posed – and, sometimes, answered – by some of the biggest names in the history of human thought including the Buddha, Confucius and Immanuel Kant, among others. Although the way in which moral philosophy is dealt with within each of these traditions differs, the focus on ethical behaviour tends to highlight issues like crime, justice, truth, virtue, good and evil.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk who was born in October 1926. He has written extensively and taught pupils from all over the globe in what is known as the Plum Village Tradition of Buddhist thought, of which he is a leading exponent. Originally from Vietnam, he entered his local monastery at the age of 16, where he studied Mahayana Buddhism as well as the Vietnamese Thien tradition. In 1961, he moved to the United States to teach Buddhist principles at the universities of Princeton and, later, Columbia. He learned several European languages and began to get involved in various peace movements associated with the growing war in his home country. By 1966, he had helped to set up the so-called Order of Interbeing, a community of monks, nuns and laypeople drawn from all over the world, much of which was devoted to teaching mindfulness training. After Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces, Thich Nhat Hanh was not permitted to return to his homeland, and he settled in France, living at the Plum Village Monastery, a place which was in alignment with his ideas of Engaged Buddhism.