SharePublic Statement

Contact: 760‐741‐2256 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hello Dear Friends and greetings to you all from the YMCA of the Rockies next door to Rocky Mountain National Park. We are now enjoying our “One Buddha is not Enough” Mindfulness Retreat here with a few white clouds floating lazily through a radiant blue sky.

Dear Friends, we have some news to share with all of you. During our recent retreat at Stonehill College outside of Boston, Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) had a flare‐up of a chronic lung infection. After finishing the retreat, as scheduled, the monastic delegation supporting him at the retreat flew to Colorado. Thay stayed behind for medical testing.

Initially, it was thought that Thay would be able to join us all here in Colorado, both for the retreat and the Public Talk, ‘Daily Enlightenment, Waking Up to Life’ at downtown Denver’s Buell Theater. However, once the results were in, the doctors recommended that Thay receive a full course of antibiotics administered intravenously in a hospital. Fortunately, his overall health remains strong. We are all very thankful for that.

We are also very thankful that Thay has this opportunity to heal his pulmonary infection. He has already begun treatment and the latest reports say that he is responding favorably to it. For the retreat here at the YMCA, we currently have almost 900 retreatants and we are practicing with much peace and solidity as a spiritual community. This has turned out to be the best gift to everyone and to Thay. As to the Public Talk in Denver, we have decided to cancel it so that Thay may have the time he truly needs to heal physically.

At the end of August, as planned, Thay will rejoin us at Deer Park Monastery in California to continue on with all the tour related activities there as well as those in October at Blue Cliff Monastery and at the Beacon Theater in New York City.

We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment any of this news may have caused you. If you would like to continue to send Thay some healing energy in your meditations and prayers, that would be truly wonderful. We sincerely hope that Thay and the monastic Sangha will have another opportunity to practice with you all here in Colorado in the near future.

Sending You All the Cooling and Refreshing Rocky Mountain Air,
the monastic Sangha (on behalf of our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh)