BOB ABERNETHY: Now, our Profile: a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. Earlier this month he came to the United States for a visit. Maureen Bunyan is with us now with a look at this remarkable man and his long relationship with the United States.

MAUREEN BUNYAN: Bob, every time Thich Nhat Hanh returns to this country, more people come out to hear his message. He now has a huge American following, and many consider him to be one of the greatest Buddhist teachers of this age. Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist, and author of more than 75 books.

NORMAN FISCHER (Co-Abbot, San Francisco Zen Center): Thich Nhat Hanh has been enormously important to western Buddhism.

BUNYAN: Norman Fischer is co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center.

Mr. FISCHER: He really translates in a profound way the teachings of Buddhism for us, and the accessibility, you know. Buddhism was to some extent esoteric, you know, before him.

THICH NHAT HANH: Not only the pope and the Dalai Lama have holiness within themselves, but we have holiness within ourselves.

BUNYAN: For a decade now, Thich Nhat Hanh has come to the United States every other year. On this fall's tour, 2,500 people showed up to spend a day with him at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California. But his relationship to the U.S. goes way back, with deep and often painful roots. Thich Nhat Hanh became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of 16, and was already a well-known scholar and writer in Vietnam when war broke out.

Mr. NHAT HANH: During a time of peace, you can sit in your meditation hold, but when the bombs begin to fall on the people in the village, in the city, you become aware.

BUNYAN: Out of this awareness, Thich Nhat Hanh developed a new movement called "Engaged Buddhism," melding spiritual practice with social action. In 1966, during the Vietnam War, Thich Nhat Hanh was invited to the United States. He met with Robert McNamara, Thomas Merton, and others to urge the end of the war. Martin Luther King Jr. announced his own opposition to the Vietnam conflict with Thich Nhat Hanh at his side, and later nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. As a result of his American visit, Thich Nhat Hanh was barred from returning to Vietnam by both the communist and nonommunist government. But his healing works continued at Pwam Village, a retreat center he founded in southwestern France where he welcomes other Vietnamese exiles seeking refuge, and at retreats across the United States for Vietnam War veterans trying to put their past behind them.