Living Buddha, living Christ

Buddha and Christ, perhaps the two most pivotal figures in the history of humankind, each left behind a legacy of teachings and practices that have shaped the lives of billions of people over the course of two millennia. If they were to meet on the road today, what would each think of the other's spiritual views and practices?

Thich Nhat Hanh has been part of a decades-long dialogue between the two greatest living contemplative traditions, and brings to Christianity an appreciation of its beauty that could only be conveyed by an outsider. In a lucid, meditative prose, he explores the crossroads of compassion and holiness at which the two traditions meet, and reawakens our understanding of both. "On the altar in my hermitage," he says, "are images of Buddha and Jesus, and . . . I touch both of them as my spiritual ancestors."

A rare combination of mystic, scholar, and activist, Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West.

"[Thich Nhat Hanh] is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. . . . His ideas for peace . . . would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity." —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in nominating Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967