Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's compassionate response
to the persecution of his students in Vietnam

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"The koan “Bat Nha” is everyone’s koan; it is the koan of every individual and every community. The koan can be practiced by a Bat Nha monastic, by a monk or nun studying at a Buddhist Institute in Vietnam, a Venerable in the Buddhist Church of Vietnam, a police officer, a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, a Politburo member, a member of the Central Committee, a newspaper or magazine editor, an intellectual, an artist, a businessman, a teacher, a journalist, an abbot or abbess, an international political leader or ambassador. Bat Nha is an opportunity, because Bat Nha can help you see clearly what you couldn't – or didn't want – to see before."

 

(translated from Vietnamese)

• Diamond Body: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 1)
• Magical Sound of the Sitar: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 2)
• Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 3)
• The Indestructible Seed of Awakening: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 4)

Fragrant Source Inner Monastery                                                                                                                                                             
The last days of 2009

To my Bat Nha children,

I know that in these moments, you have to disperse to many places, and you cannot live together to practice as a monastic community anymore, but I trust that my letter will still reach you.

On Sunday 20th, 2009, brothers and sisters from the four Plum Village monasteries gathered to have a Day of Mindfulness.  It had been six months that we had to organize days of mindfulness outdoor in the Dharma Cloud Temple of Upper Hamlet, because the meditation hall was under construction.  Last Sunday, the meditation hall Still Water had been finished, and thus this was the first time that the community could use the meditation hall again.  The new meditation hall is very large and beautiful, a lot larger and more beautiful than the old meditation hall.

Translated from phapnanbatnha.net
(original in Vietnamese)

• Diamond Body: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 1)
• Magical Sound of the Sitar: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 2)
• Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 3)
  The Indestructible Seed of Awakening: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 4)

Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha Monastics, continued.

Blue Cliff Monastery
October 21, 2009

Yesterday, in the Great Harmony Meditation Hall of Blue Cliff Monastery, there was an ordination ceremony for two young people, one who had already graduated from Dental School and the other, from Business School. They are sisters Chan Lan Nghiem (True Adornment of Love) and Chan Manh Nghiem (True Adornment of Beginning, i.e. in Beginner’s Mind). These two sisters had the opportunity to learn the precepts and mindful manners from Thay for a whole week before the ordination date. They have been accepted as permanent residents in the White Crane Hamlet at Blue Cliff Monastery.

Translated from phapnanbatnha.net
(original in Vietnamese)

• Diamond Body: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 1)
• Magical Sound of the Sitar: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 2)
• Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 3)
  The Indestructible Seed of Awakening: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 4)

Thay is continuing to write a letter to you from the hermitage Thach Lang in Blue Cliff Monastery.  It is October 13th, 2009.  Thay just came back from New York.  In New York, Thay and the Sangha guided two days of practice for over 2000 American practitioners in the Northeast.  It took place in the Beacon Theatre on Broadway Street, and the topic for the two practice days was “Building a Peaceful and Compassionate Society.”  At 12:30 p.m. on October 10th, 2009, over 2000 people did walking meditation on Broadway to send energy to Thay’s “Bat Nha Children” who are residing in Phuoc Hue temple.

Thay recalls that during his stay in Phuoc Hue, Thay lived with two monastic brothers – Thay Tam Cat and Thay Duc Tram, who were also around Thay’s age.  Back in the 1940’s, the three of us had studied together at the Buddhist Institute Bao Quoc in Hue.  Thay Tam Cat’s lay name was Huyen Ton Vien Lau.  Thay Duc Tram was one of the elder disciples of the Most Venerable Tri Thu at Paramita Temple.  The three of us lived in Phuoc Hue and guided lay friends in their practice.  Every early evening, we went out to a large field behind the temple to play soccer.  Back then, no one in the monastic circle knew how to play soccer.  The Most Venerable Thien Minh (Thay Tri Nghiem) was young back then, about 25 years old and was the first monk to play soccer together with the novices in Linh Son Temple in Da Lat.  After a few years, other monks such as Thay Nhu Tram, Tri Khong, Long Nguyet and a number of other monastic students from the Buddhist Institute An Quang also came to Phuoc Hue to study and practice with Thay.  At Phuoc Hue Temple, Thay also organized middle school and high school classes for children in the village.  Your eldest brother, Nhat Tri, was ordained in this temple.  On that same day, another child’s head was shaven and he received three precepts (equivalent to the first, second, and fourth of the Five Mindfulness Trainings).  He only received the three precepts because he was too young – only six or seven years old.  This little boy later became the Most Venerable Nguyen Hanh, who is now the Abbot of Viet Nam Temple in Houston, which is one of the largest temples in the United States.

• Diamond Body: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 1)
• Magical Sound of the Sitar: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 2)
• Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 3)
  The Indestructible Seed of Awakening: Thay’s letter to the Bat Nha monastic brothers and sisters (part 4)

Blue Cliff, October 7th, 2009

To my Bat Nha Children,

I wrote “my Bat Nha children” and not “my children in Bat Nha” as I had done before, because even though you are not living in Bat Nha anymore, you continue to carry the name of the Bat Nha Sangha.  You and Bat Nha are one.  Wherever you go, you carry Bat Nha with you, and Bat Nha has become an indestructible diamond body.  In the opening gatha, which we recite before reading the Diamond Sutra, there is the term “diamond body” as follows:

How may we transcend birth and death
And attain the indestructible diamond body?
How do we practice
So that it may sweep away all illusions?
We ask the Buddha, out of compassion for us,
To open up the treasure store.
For all of us,
Please expound your wonderful teachings!

Phương Khê, Spring 2009

My dear students, near and far,

In the Daily Chanting book, there is a chant that I really liked when I was a novice. The prose of this piece is very beautiful, and its content has a great capacity to nourish the aspiration of monastics. Every time the novice Phùng Xuân [Thầy’s earlier name] chanted that piece, he allowed the words to embrace him and penetrate deeply into his blood vessels and into every cell of his body. This chant is a monastic’s beautiful dream, and I have a lot of gratitude to the Zen master who wrote it. You already know that chant, it is the Beginning Anew and Refuge Chant for Life. Its original title is The Vow Chant. Zen master Jiao Ran (皎 然) wrote it during the Tang dynasty. He was very famous as a poet and writer. He was the one who wrote the epitaphs for the first Zen masters. Yí Shan (怡山) is the mountain where he lived. People called him Zen master Yí Shan (怡山) instead of Zen master Jiao Ran (皎 然), out of respect. Before becoming a monk, his last name was Xie (谢) and his first name was Qing Zhou (请 晝). The famous work he transmitted to us is the Collection of the Storage Mountain, Chu Shan Ji (儲 山 集), a collection of ten volumes.

To Friends and Co-practitioners at the “One Buddha is Not Enough” Retreat

Dear Friends,

This is Thay again writing to you from the Massachusetts General Hospital. The treatment is going well and we have noticed several aspects of the improvement of Thay’s conditions after the first week. Thank you for having sent your loving energy to Thay. I learned that you all, both monastic and lay members of the Sangha, have practiced beautifully with all your hearts in the retreat. And that makes Thay very happy. The most wonderful thing is that after a few moments of sadness, worry and disappointment, all of us have settled down to practice and conduct the retreat the most wonderful way a Sangha could. The transformation and the joy you feel presently at the retreat is very nourishing and encouraging for Thay and for everyone of us. By now all of us have already seen the talent and the miracle of the Sangha. We have to acknowledge the fact that the Sangha has embodied the continuation of Thay in a beautiful way, and there is no reason for anyone of us to worry about the future of our practice. King Prasenajit of Shravasti one day told the Buddha that when he observed the Sangha, he could truly see the Buddha. One of the achievements of this retreat is that everyone can see Thay in the Sangha, including those who come to the retreat for the first time.

Boston - August 2009

click here to read Thay's letter in pdf format...

"Dear Friends and Co-practitioners at the Retreat One Buddha is not enough, Estes Park, CO.

My dear friends,
I am writing to you from the Massachusettes General Hospital in Boston.  I know the Sangha has manifested today in Estes Park.  I miss the Reterat.  I miss the beautiful setting of the REtreat.  Especially I miss the Sangha, I miss you.  I always enjoy sitting with the Sangha, walking with the Sangha, breathing with the Sangha.  The joy of being together, sharing the Dharma and the practice together is always very nourishing and healing...

But I do not suffer, because I know I am taking care of myself.  And taking care of myself is to take care of you.  The doctors here decided that I should stay 14 days here for the treatment of a lung infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.  Please do not worry.  It is only an infection.  But it has to be treated right away.  My kidneys, my liver, my heart, my digestive tract all function well.  I am given two strong anti-biotics, from I.V. injections per day.  And the clinicians here are monitoring closely the process of treatment.  I am allowed to go out of the hospital to the park nearby one hour per day to do walking meditation.

“Thay is not worried about you, but it does not mean that Thay is not paying attention to you. Thay is not worried about you because Thay has confidence in you. Thay has the confidence that you can behave true to the Dharma in challenging and difficult circumstances. And you have proven that you can do it. And because of that, Thay’s confidence in you has grown quickly. This brings so much happiness both to Thay and to you.”

Sitting Still Hut, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village
July 20, 2009

To my students in Bat Nha, Tu Hieu and everywhere,

Thay is sitting at “Sitting Still Hut,” in the Upper Hamlet of Plum Village while writing this letter to you.  The Summer Retreat in Plum Village is very joyful and peaceful.  There is economic difficulty in the world, but the number of people coming to Plum Village during the four weeks is still very high, and perhaps it is higher than the previous years.  Not only are there many children, but the teenagers from age 13 to 18 are also numerous.  The number of young adults from 18 to 25 is also quite high.  Each age group practices together, having Dharma discussions and eating dinner together, in order to share their practice experiences with each other and to build brotherhood and sisterhood.  The Wake Up movement for the young Western friends is also growing quickly.  Have you seen the Wake Up T-shirts?  There are many young people coming to Plum Village yearly; they are used to the way of life and practice in Plum Village, so they are able to help those who just come for the first time.  On the morning of July 16th, 2009, in the New Hamlet, Brother Phap Trien displayed for the first time the wrist-watch bearing the sign of the present moment. This watch was designed by our young monks in the Upper Hamlet, with Thay’s calligraphy:  ”It’s now.”  Anytime we raise our hands to look at our watch, it will let us know that this is the present moment.  There is a design for men and a design for women.  That same day, 150 people came to the bookshop to buy the watch.  One lay practitioner clicked his tongue and said, “This is really a brilliant idea.”  We call it “the watch of the present moment.”  Brother Phap Trien was one of the two young monks who helped Thay to design this watch.  The other was Brother Phap Chieu, who is also very young, and who will receive the lamp transmission at the end of this year!  This watch is made in the United States.

New Year's Letter by Thay from Plum Village
A letter to all my spiritual children, as the year comes to an end.

Thay has written a letter addressed to all of his students about the Toadskin Hut, the hermit of Still Sitting Hut, walking meditation paths that have become legendary, and the new young Dharma Teachers in Plum Village.

Still Sitting Hut, December 5, 2008

There is sunshine in Upper Hamlet today. I went for walking meditation down to the Lower Mountain Temple, along the pathway of pines. From the Still Sitting Hut to the pathway of pines, I passed by fields of grass that were covered with oak leaves, especially around Thầy Giác Thanh’s Floating Cloud hut. The carpet of oak leaves was very thick. There were leaves that are still fresh, the color of the robes of the Theravada monks. The trees shed their leaves, making the earth richer; the earth and the tree nurture each other – I saw this very clearly. I walked very slowly, so that I could be in touch with the ultimate dimension with every step, which means to be in touch with limitless time and infinite space.