He has been called one of the world's foremost spiritual leaders: Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh will give a public talk in Pasadena on Sept. 19.

Nhat Hanh is the author of more than 100 books on Buddhism, which have sold more than a million copies worldwide.

The talk at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, titled "Our True Agenda -- Tending to the Space Inside," will explore how mindfulness practice and meditation can bring about inner peace and affect the people around you, the environment, and the caffeinated, multi-tasking world of our times.

The monk sat cross-legged in the Manhattan hotel room in augbergine robes on an aubergine prayer mat, a thermos of tea, his reading glasses and a book, Mindfulness in the Marketplace, arranged neatly by his side. Thich Nhat Hanh took time out from a U.S. tour to speak briefly with TIME about the monastic uprising in Burma.

Nhat Hanh has a long history as one of Buddhism's truly international spokespeople. ["Thich" is a name adopted by all Vietnamese monks and nuns upon ordination.] He first came to global attention in the early 1960s, when he led fellow monks in his native Vietnam to oppose the prosecution of the war there by either side — a position that eventually led to the deaths of several of his followers and his own exile. He continued his opposition from the United States, where his counsel was influential in convincing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to announce his own opposition to the conflict. King subsequently nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize. He continued speaking and writing (in a variety of languages — he is a polyglot), working out a theory of "engaged buddhism," exploring the commonalities between his philosophy and other world faiths, attaining a popularity (and book sales) in the U.S. second only to that of the Dalai Lama, and lending his opposition to a series of world conflicts, including America's involvement in Iraq. He now lives in a monastic community he founded in France.