Reading List

Authors Like Thích Nhất Hạnh

In 1974 Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote a long letter to Brother Quang, a staff member of the School of Youth for Social Service he had set up in South Vietnam, to help its young workers keep their balance in the middle of a war. Translated into English, it became The Miracle of Mindfulness, and its best-known instruction is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes. In 1966 he toured the United States speaking against the war: on 28 May he talked late into the night with Thomas Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, and on 31 May he met Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize the following January. Neither North nor South Vietnam would let him back, and he spent 39 years in exile, most of them at Plum Village, the community he founded in south-west France in 1982. A stroke in 2014 left him unable to speak; he returned to Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, where he had been ordained, and died there in January 2022, aged 95. What readers come to him for is a practice small enough to carry: one breath, one step, the dishes, the phone ringing, each made into a moment of attention. The writers below share that conviction that contemplation belongs inside an ordinary day — his friends in the peace movement, the meditation teachers who brought the same practice to Western readers, and a few who reach it through psychology, conversation or poetry.

By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Mindfulness · Zen · Engaged Buddhism · Updated October 2026

Quick answer

If you love Thích Nhất Hạnh, start with Pema Chödrön, whose Buddhist teaching is just as warm but goes straight to the hard days. For the same practice without the religious vocabulary, read Jon Kabat-Zinn, who counts him among his teachers. For the friendships that shaped his engaged Buddhism, read Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King Jr. And for loving speech turned into a method, Marshall Rosenberg.

10 authors like Thích Nhất Hạnh

01
Closest match · Practice for the hard days

Pema Chödrön

American · b. 1936 · Buddhist nun

Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in New York City in 1936, took novice vows from the 16th Karmapa in 1974 and studied with the Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa until his death in 1987. In 1981 she became the first American in the Vajrayana tradition to be fully ordained as a nun, and from 1986 she was the first director of Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia. When Things Fall Apart (1997) is her best-known book.

The nearest voice to his among Western Buddhist teachers: plain, kind and practical, with the doctrine kept in the background. Where Thích Nhất Hạnh writes mostly for the ordinary day — the breath, the dishes, the walk to the bus — Chödrön writes for the day the floor gives way. The aim is the same: stay present with what is here, including the pain, rather than escape it.

— Lisanne

Every book by Pema Chödrön →

02
The same practice, without the religion

Jon Kabat-Zinn

American · b. 1944 · Scientist and teacher

Kabat-Zinn was born in New York City in 1944 and took a PhD in molecular biology at MIT in 1971. In 1979 he opened the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, whose eight-week course became Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). His teachers in meditation included Thích Nhất Hạnh, Seung Sahn and Philip Kapleau. Full Catastrophe Living describes the clinic's programme; Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994) was a national bestseller.

The most direct route from Thích Nhất Hạnh's practice into medicine. The exercises are close to his — attention to the breath, the body scan, walking slowly — but Kabat-Zinn presents them as a training for stress, pain and illness rather than a spiritual path. Wherever You Go, There You Are has the same short chapters and the same patience; it simply leaves out the Buddha.

— Lisanne

Every book by Jon Kabat-Zinn →

03
His Christian brother

Thomas Merton

French-born American · b. 1915 · Monk and writer

Merton was born in Prades, France, became a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky in 1941, and published his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain in 1948, when it became an unlikely bestseller. New Seeds of Contemplation (1961) is his central book on prayer and the “true self”; his later writing turned to war, race and Eastern religion. He died in Bangkok in 1968.

Thích Nhất Hạnh visited him at Gethsemani on 28 May 1966, and soon afterwards Merton published the essay “Nhat Hanh Is My Brother”, writing that he had far more in common with him than with many Americans. Both were monks who came to see that contemplation could not be separated from the war outside the monastery wall. Merton is denser and more literary; read him for the same silence approached from the Christian side.

— Lisanne
04
The friend who nominated him

Martin Luther King Jr.

American · b. 1929 · Minister and activist

King was a Baptist minister who led the Montgomery bus boycott and became the central figure of the American civil rights movement; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and assassinated in Memphis in 1968. He met Thích Nhất Hạnh in Chicago on 31 May 1966, nominated him for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize in a letter of January 1967, and gave his speech against the Vietnam War, “Beyond Vietnam”, at Riverside Church on 4 April 1967. In 1991 a Boston University committee found that he had plagiarised parts of his doctoral dissertation; the university did not revoke the degree.

The other half of engaged Buddhism's founding friendship. Thích Nhất Hạnh's 1965 letter to King, “In Search of the Enemy of Man”, argued that the enemy is never a person but hatred and violence themselves — a conviction King shared. King writes as a preacher, with scripture and argument; Thích Nhất Hạnh writes as a monk, with breath and silence. The nonviolence is the same.

— Lisanne

Every book by Martin Luther King Jr. →

05
Zen in the West, kept simple

Shunryu Suzuki

Japanese · b. 1904 · Zen teacher

Suzuki came to San Francisco in May 1959, aged 55, as priest of the Japanese-American temple Sokoji, and stayed to teach the Americans who turned up to sit with him. His students incorporated as the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962, and in 1967 the Center bought Tassajara, the first Zen Buddhist monastery in the United States. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970), edited by Trudy Dixon from his talks, is about posture, breathing and not knowing.

The other Zen teacher who made the tradition feel light in English. Both write in short, plain talks; both put the weight on posture and breath rather than on philosophy; both are suspicious of anything that sounds like an achievement. Suzuki is drier and more paradoxical, and more focused on formal sitting, where Thích Nhất Hạnh moves the practice into the kitchen and the street.

— Lisanne

Every book by Shunryu Suzuki →

06
Loving-kindness, plainly

Sharon Salzberg

American · b. 1952 · Meditation teacher

Salzberg was born in New York City in 1952, went to India as a student and learned vipassana meditation in Bodh Gaya. In 1976 she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield. Lovingkindness (1995) is her classic on metta practice; Real Happiness (2010) became a New York Times bestseller.

Salzberg comes from the Theravada insight tradition rather than Vietnamese Zen, but she teaches the side of Thích Nhất Hạnh that readers often love most: kindness as something you practise, beginning with yourself. Her instructions are as short and usable as his, and her tone is just as encouraging. Real Happiness works as a four-week course for anyone who wants a daily practice.

— Lisanne

Every book by Sharon Salzberg →

07
After the ecstasy, the laundry

Jack Kornfield

American · b. 1945 · Meditation teacher

Kornfield graduated from Dartmouth in 1967, joined the Peace Corps, and trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, under teachers including Ajahn Chah. He co-founded the Insight Meditation Society with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and later Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, and holds a PhD in clinical psychology. A Path with Heart (1993) is his best-known book.

The title of his second book could stand over everything Thích Nhất Hạnh taught: practice is not the retreat but the dishes and the laundry afterwards. Kornfield writes as a psychologist as well as a teacher, with more case histories and more about what goes wrong on the path, but the warmth and the trust in ordinary life are the same.

— Lisanne
Every book by Jack Kornfield →
08
Presence, without a tradition

Eckhart Tolle

German-born · b. 1948 · Spiritual teacher

Tolle was born Ulrich Leonard Tölle in Lünen, Germany, in 1948, and describes an inner transformation in 1977, at 29, after years of depression. The Power of Now was first published in 1997 by Namaste Publishing, a small press in Vancouver, set out as a reader's question followed by his answer. A New Earth (2005) was Oprah Winfrey's book club pick in 2008 and again in January 2025.

Tolle makes the same central claim — that life is only ever available in the present moment, and that most suffering lives in the mind's story about past and future — with no Buddhist framework at all. He explains more and practises less: where Thích Nhất Hạnh gives you a verse for walking or answering the phone, Tolle gives you an argument about the ego. Many readers find the two work best together.

— Lisanne

Every book by Eckhart Tolle →

09
Loving speech, as a method

Marshall Rosenberg

American · b. 1934 · Psychologist

Rosenberg was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1934, and his family moved to Detroit a week before the race riot of 1943, an experience he said drove his later work. He took a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Wisconsin in 1961, studying under Carl Rogers, and founded the Center for Nonviolent Communication in 1984. Nonviolent Communication (1999) sets out his four steps: observations, feelings, needs and requests. He died in Albuquerque in 2015.

Thích Nhất Hạnh asked his students to practise deep listening and loving speech; Rosenberg turns the same idea into a procedure you can use in an argument. Both start from the belief that behind every harsh word is a need or a suffering that has not been heard. Rosenberg has no meditation and no Buddhism, but his book is the most practical companion to Thích Nhất Hạnh's writing on anger and relationships.

— Lisanne

Every book by Marshall Rosenberg →

10
Attention, in poems

Mary Oliver

American · b. 1935 · Poet · Pulitzer 1984

Oliver wrote for more than fifty years about the woods, ponds and shoreline around Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she lived for decades. American Primitive won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984 and New and Selected Poems the National Book Award in 1992. Devotions (2017) is the selection she made from her whole career.

Thích Nhất Hạnh was a poet as well as a teacher, and Oliver is the poet whose work sits most naturally beside his. Both treat close attention to something small — a grasshopper, a cup of tea — as a kind of prayer, and both are more interested in wonder than in doctrine. Oliver has no Buddhist vocabulary, which makes her a good way to carry the practice into reading.

— Lisanne

Every book by Mary Oliver →

Where to start if you loved Thích Nhất Hạnh

If you want the same warmth for a hard season, read Pema Chödrön.

When Things Fall Apart: practice for the day the ground goes.

If you want mindfulness without the Buddhism, read Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Wherever You Go, There You Are, in short chapters, one a day.

If you want the engaged Buddhism, read Martin Luther King Jr.

Strength to Love: nonviolence from the pulpit.

If you want loving speech you can use tomorrow, read Marshall Rosenberg.

Nonviolent Communication: four steps for the next difficult conversation.

Frequently asked questions about authors like Thích Nhất Hạnh

Who should I read if I love Thích Nhất Hạnh?

Pema Chödrön is the closest in voice: warm, practical Buddhist teaching for Western readers, especially about difficulty and loss. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who counts Thích Nhất Hạnh among his teachers, offers the same practice in secular, clinical form. Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King Jr. were his friends and allies in the peace movement. Shunryu Suzuki, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield are the meditation teachers closest to him, and Eckhart Tolle, Marshall Rosenberg and Mary Oliver reach the same place without the Buddhist framework.

What books are like The Miracle of Mindfulness?

Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994) is the closest: short chapters of practical mindfulness for ordinary life. Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970) is the other classic short Zen book from the same years. Jack Kornfield's After the Ecstasy, the Laundry (2000) and Sharon Salzberg's Real Happiness (2010) bring the same everyday practice to Western readers.

Which Thích Nhất Hạnh book should I read first?

The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975) is short and practical and the usual first book. Peace Is Every Step (1991) is a gentle collection of practices for daily life, and Being Peace (1987) is the classic statement of his engaged Buddhism. For the fullest account of his teaching, read The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching (1998); for the life of the Buddha told as a story, Old Path White Clouds (1991).

Were Thích Nhất Hạnh and Martin Luther King Jr. friends?

Yes. Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote to King in 1965 in a letter titled “In Search of the Enemy of Man”, and they met for the first time in Chicago on 31 May 1966. In January 1967 King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, and that April he spoke publicly against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church. They met for the last time in Geneva in May 1967; King was assassinated the following April.

Is Jon Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness based on Buddhism?

Yes. Kabat-Zinn studied with Buddhist teachers including Thích Nhất Hạnh, Seung Sahn and Philip Kapleau, and the practices in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which he founded at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979, come from that training. He deliberately presented them without religious language so they could be used in hospitals and clinics.

Why was Thích Nhất Hạnh exiled from Vietnam?

In 1966 he travelled abroad to call for an end to the Vietnam War, and neither the North nor the South Vietnamese government would let him return. He lived in exile for 39 years, mostly in France, where he founded Plum Village in 1982. He was allowed to visit Vietnam again in 2005, and spent his last years at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, where he died in January 2022.

Footnotes

  1. Thich Nhat Hanh, Influential Zen Buddhist Monk, Dies at 95 — Associated Press via NBC
  2. Thich Nhat Hanh and Thomas Merton — America Magazine, 2022
  3. Thích Nhất Hạnh and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — University of San Francisco
  4. Jon Kabat-Zinn — Wikipedia
  5. Marshall Rosenberg — Wikipedia

List last reviewed 15 October 2026.

Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021. Every comparison here is a judgement about method and subject, not an algorithmic match. See more on her personal bookshelf.

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