A recent reflection revisits the remarkable friendship between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Vietnamese Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh—and the enduring idea they shared: building a “beloved community” rooted in peace, nonviolence, justice, and human dignity.
The article highlights how King publicly supported Thích Nhất Hạnh’s moral leadership during the Vietnam War era, including King’s 1967 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for him. After King’s assassination, Thích Nhất Hạnh described making a personal vow to continue advancing King’s vision of beloved community as a real, lived practice—cultivated through local communities committed to compassion and social change.
For the Shinzo Abe Initiative, this story resonates as a leadership lesson for the AI Age: strategic strength must be paired with moral purpose, dialogue, and community-building. In a time of rising polarization and technological disruption, “beloved community” offers a practical framework for civic trust—an approach aligned with AIWS values of human-centered governance and societal resilience.
Please see full here: https://theconversation.com/building-beloved-community-remembering-the-friendship-between-martin-luther-king-jr-and-buddhist-monk-thich-nhat-hanh-272062
