Mt. Airy resident David Dimmack never met Mahatma Gandhi, one of the world’s most influential spiritual leaders of the 20th century, but Dimmack, 76, came close in a way.

For 40 years, Dimmack was an aide to Thich Nhat Hanh, who is revered by millions of followers around the world. Hanh, a native of Vietnam who died at the age of 95 in 2022, was a Buddhist monk, Zen master, peace activist and author of many books who is widely regarded as the “father of mindfulness” and who helped introduce meditation and “engaged Buddhism” to the West. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. nominated Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize.

“I am very lucky to have known the person I regard as the greatest spiritual leader of our time,” Dimmack told the Local last week. I put him in the same category as Gandhi and Dr. King.”

Dimmack, who has a master’s degree in counseling from Edinboro University, has been practicing holistic healing and mindfulness meditation for more than 30 years. He is one of the few Westerners to be ordained as a “lay dharma teacher” by Hanh in 2003. (A lay dharma teacher is an authorized spiritual guide who maintains a secular lifestyle. They lead meditation, offer spiritual counseling and facilitate “sanghas,” communities of Buddhist practitioners.)

Dimmack grew up near Pittsburgh but came to Philadelphia in 1975 for a job as a recreational therapist at Byberry (Philadelphia State Hospital), a psychiatric facility in Northeast Philadelphia that housed thousands of mental patients from 1911 to 1990. It was ordered closed by then-Gov. Robert Casey because of the widespread abuse of patients.

Dimmack also studied with George Leonard, a well known writer and educator at the Esalen Institute, a retreat center in Big Sur, California, that focuses on “humanistic alternative education.”

“George Leonard was a giant intellect,” said Dimmack. “I had seen an interview with Leonard, and I was hooked. He gave a seminar on human potential. He led me to Thich in 1989. Today, Thich still has millions of students, even though he is deceased. At first there were only a handful of us. If you knew his life story, you would not believe it.

“Thich said we have to protest violence in the streets. He spoke five languages. He translated the original Buddhist documents from Sanskrit. He built the international community we have now. He asked me to work with Vietnam veterans in order to help heal the wounds of war. So I did go to retreats and worked with the veterans, and it was so rewarding.

“I became close with several Vietnam vets and still am. Thich would get Maxine Hong Kingston, a famous novelist, to write their stories. On the last day of the retreat, the vets would read their stories. There would not be a dry eye in the house. For example, one veteran had killed a child and carried around the child’s ashes. He never forgave himself. I had a team of people there, but I was in charge of Thich’s child programs and listening to the veterans.”

Thich made friends with Quakers in Vietnam, but he left Vietnam because of so many threats and assassination attempts and protested against the Vietnam War in Philadelphia. When asked whose side he was on in the war, he would say, “I’m in the middle. I just want peace.”

According to Dimmack, “Our style of meditation is slow motion. Thich asked us to meditate 24 hours a day. I never saw him hurry. I did see him upset only once in 40 years when the Berrigan brothers (anti-war protesters) could not come to Philly. He had a brother living in Camden, so he had a reason to come here often. He became friendly with Father Michael Doyle (later Monsignor Doyle) in Camden, and I set up Thich for talk shows at local TV and radio stations.”

Hanh wrote dozens of books, all handwritten. According to biographies, he never touched a typewriter or computer and never had a cellphone. He only talked on a telephone once or twice in his life and never drove a car. He was one of the first Vietnamese monks to ride a bicycle.

“He paved the way for Buddhist monks to be relevant in the modern world,” said Dimmack, “not secluded, not in caves. He studied religious studies at Columbia University. During the period of French colonialism he had to hide food underground because he said the French would steal it. I was fortunate to be around him. Thich said if you want to be my student and devotee, you have to be a vegetarian, so I’ve been a vegetarian ever since. … If it weren’t for my relationship with Buddhism, my divorce after 25 years of marriage would have been unbearable.”

After Byberry closed in 1990, Dimmack trained to be a “Trager massage therapist.” He had an office in Fort Washington for 20 years and closed it during the pandemic but still makes house calls, Dimmack had two children with his first wife, the daughter of former Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Joe Rizzo and niece of former Mayor Frank Rizzo, two children with his second wife and six granddaughters.

For more information, email davedimmack@gmail.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.