For Thich Nhat Hanh, the late Vietnamese monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, walking was not simply a way to get from one place to another, or an activity to be reserved for a perfect forest path. It could be a profound contemplative practice putting people in touch with their breath, their bodies, the Earth – and an awareness of what he called “interbeing.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, who was one of the most influential Buddhist leaders in the world when he died Jan. 22, created the term to describe “our deep interconnection with everything else.” “Everything relies on everything else in the cosmos in order to manifest – whether a star, a cloud, a flower, a tree, or you and me,” he explained.
