Individual and Collective Karma in the Works of Thích Nhất Hạnh

Abstract

The version of Buddhism put forward by Thích Nhất Hạnh in his writing and teaching has led some scholars and Buddhist practitioners to question whether he is representative of Vietnamese Buddhism. This essay asserts that while Thích Nhất Hạnh’s framing of Buddhist doctrine was highly influenced by globalized Buddhist currents, it cannot be separated from the Vietnamese context from which he emerged. Through an examination of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s writings about collective karma [cộng nghiệp], this essay shows that his ideas of karma overlap with common understandings of karma in Vietnam, which see karma as being shared in the community and especially in the family. This view of karma stands in contrast to the individualism that is central to the modernist framing of Buddhism.