O Magazine Interview
Hanh gives his thoughts on being exiled from his home country of Vietnam for 39 years after going to speak at Cornell University in 1966:
Angry, worried, sad, hurt. The practice of mindfulness helped me recognize that. In the first year, I dreamed almost every night of going home. I was climbing a beautiful hill, very green, very happily, and suddenly I woke up and found that I was in exile. So my practice was to get in touch with the trees, the birds, the flowers, the children, the people in the West—and make them my community.