Dear friends,
Please find letter from Thay to members of the Sangha going to
Vietnam in English, French, and German. Thay and the monastic
Sangha will arrive in Hanoi at 7:00 A.M. (Vietnamese time)
January 12, 2005.
Sincerely,
Br. Phap Kham
English
When I left Vietnam 39 years ago to come to the West to call
for a cessation of the hostilities in my country, I was like a
cell of the Sangha body, taken out of that body. If I did
not dry up after a few years of being in exile, that is because
my practice was to carry the Sangha body in myself. And
there was not one day when I did not try to build a Sangha.
While talking and working with friends in Europe and America, I
naturally shared the practice, and we always tried to incorporate
the practice of mindfulness in our work. I have been able
to regenerate a full fourfold Sangha from a single cell. I
am therefore coming home not as a Sangha cell any more, but as a
whole Sangha body. And you are my body.
Vietnam is a beautiful land and a beautiful people, and we shall
have the opportunity to contemplate many beautiful things.
These will include walking meditation by the Ho Guom lake (Lake
of the Returning Sword), climbing Yen Tu Mountain where King Nhan
Tong practiced as a monk, and visiting Halong Bay which is
considered to be the most fantastic landscape in Asia.
Wherever we go, we will practice dwelling happily in the present
moment, radiating peace and loving kindness around us.
Those of us who stay in hotels will consider our hotel as a
practice center, walking, talking, sitting, and eating in
mindfulness. All of us will be closely observed, especially
by secret agents, who will be able to appreciate our wholesome
energy and certainly will profit from it.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings are the most concrete
expression of our practice. There will be no consumption of
tobacco, meat,fish or alcohol; no talking while walking;
etc. As we practice to be the Sangha body of the Buddha, we
are also the body of Thay at the same time. Those of us who
are Dharma teachers or Dharma teachers in training will make sure
that the practice of the Sangha body is solid, fresh and
joyful. We shall certainly make many people happy with our
presence and practice.
We will be together in a few days.
Thay nh
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the sangha has been in saigon for three days now. there was
another enormous welcoming party waiting at the airport in saigon
on sunday. the weather down here is hot and humid and many of us
are wilting under the heat and the intense pace of the schedule.
on monday there were visits to SIX temples in saigon; a lot to
pack into a single day. especially navigating through the
mind-numbing saigon traffic on a caravan of four tour buses. thay
is conserving his energy and took a rest instead of going to the
last temple of the day yesterday. even so he is probably as tired
as the rest of us.
there was a day of mindfulness today at Vinh Nghiem Temple.
approaching the temple, we can see that it is an enormous, modern
place with a grand staircase like the steps of the capital
building and an impossibly huge buddha statue on the top tier.
the predictions people were making up north about how the turnout
in the south would be even bigger proved to be true. for this day
of mindfulness at the crowd was about 70% monastics. but since
the crowd was so big, that means there were a LOT of lay people
too. in the main dharma hall -- i dont know how to quantify
how big the hall as; maybe three times the size of the hall at
upper hamlet -- there was a sea of grey robes and bare scalps,
packed in knee to knee. there was no room at the back of the hall
for the lay people who had come to hear the talk, but there were
doors on three sides of the hall and people sat and stood tightly
around the doors, and anywhere else they could find outside that
was within range of the sound system. our group listening to the
translation was sandwiched in too. some ladies behind us kept
waving us with their fans to make it more bearable.
thays tone today was very light hearted and informal, he
said a few times: today we just play; this is no dharma talk. . .
as he invited an abbot to come sit on the stage next to him. he
was addressing the vietnamese monastics again, telling about many
of the practices at plum village, such as shining light, using
the sangha eye, not going out alone (including not going out on
the internet alone), doing everything together, and a democratic
system of organizations. our abbots are not so busy; mostly
what they do is drink tea, he said, illustrating the way
decision making is done by the consensus, by the caretaking
committee, and not by any individual.
i also had the impression that thay was being slightly more
provocative today. as if he had warmed up after the talks in the
north; or perhaps he sensed he could take more liberties here. he
raised some topics that would strike a nerve with the monastics
here. such as the practice they do in plum village every year at
tet, where the brothers touch the earth before the sisters,
acknowledging the spirit of avalokiteshvara in them and promising
to nurture and protect it. thay acknowledges that it may be years
-- perhaps ten years before such a thing could happen in vietnam
-- monks touching the earth before nuns, that is. but he is
watering the seed. he also talked about how a nun handles
receiving a phonecall from an ex-boyfriend, and resurfaced a
question from a previous talk: what to do when there is an
attachment between two sisters.
just in the act of surfacing these topics, there is daring. he
encouraged the monastics to be courageous, and just as his own
master did when he was young, he encouraged them to revolutionize
buddhism. i am a very young student in the subject of vietnamese
society, but as i learn more about the atmosphere here, i wonder
how bold thays words come across. here, in a place where
conversations about politics do not come up between strangers and
where some people are do not feel that they can show their faces
at these public talks. surely the crowds that keep showing up are
helping.
someone wrote to me and asked about the grey temple robes. part
of registering for this trip involved sending in our measurements
for a custom-made grey robe. it is traditional to wear them in
many vietnamese temples, but a first for many plum village
practitioners. we put them on the first morning; the robe fits
loosely and is held on by two tiny button-like nubs that slip
into a cloth loop. the first time we put them on the loops were
so tight someone else has to attach the one up by the armpit. in
the beginning i wondered why we wore them: is this is just to
make sure there that no stowaways get on the bus? is this so the
secret police can identify us more easily? it felt awkward
wearing it, like i was wearing some tribal costume from a clan I
didnt belong to. but then once we got used to wearing them
every day, i started to like the fact that i didnt have to
worry too much about wearing the same clothes underneath for days
at a time. no one would notice, afterall. once i relaxed about
it, i started noticing the reactions of people seeing westerners
in the grey robes. at the temples, it is well appreciated and a
simple way to communicate between people who do not have a common
language. but out on the street one day, someone took the robe to
mean i was a nun and asked my friend: how come she doesnt
shave her head? he just answered: shes a different kind.
thay always says that when a monastic takes the robe for the
first time, they must learn that when people bow to you, they are
not bowing to you as an individual, they are bowing to what you
represent. i think of that sometimes when i watch these huge
crowds of people waiting to greet thay. they line up, sometimes
for hours, straining to catch a glimpse of him. after taking in
the scene a number of times, i realize they are focusing all
their attention that way, and looking, waiting, looking -- not to
see the man, but they want to see what it looks like to have
something to believe in again. they want what we all do: to see
how to live in harmony with each other and love each other. they
want to see the way. growing up in this country, at school for
example, you are constantly fed a line about what it takes to be
a good citizen. but once you get out into the world, where the
gears of capitalism are grinding, you find that the moral lessons
youve learned dont really serve you. and that the
chase for money doesnt bring any happiness either.
thays arrival here in vietnam represents so many things to
so many people; when we take part in it, when we wait for him to
enter, and when we watch him finally step through the temple
gate, what are we witnessing? what holds our interest so
strongly? what does it all mean for you?
that is my question to you.
here is a picture series of a temple visit in hanoi, beginning
with the gathering crowd, the camera crew, and then the
procession.
if the technology cooperates i'll post more pictures as the trip goes on. if there's anything in particular you'd like to know about the trip, you can email me at: alissafleet@yahoo.com.
it's hard to know where to begin, or who i'm writing to, but
i'll just start here, at this internet cafe in hanoi. i think
everyone here that is part of the delegation realizes what an
honor it is to witness what is happening here, thay returning
home after 40 years, and we all want to tell about it.
photos by xuong.
posted on thurs., jan 20th by alissa.
together again
Saturday, January 22, 2005
streams of consciousness.
By alissa Fleet
we have been here for about a week and a half already. there is
thay, the monastic sangha of about 100, and about 50 lay people
who are traveling with him. more lay people will be coming from
america, europe, australia, and beyond, in the coming weeks. for
most of the trip there will be about 90 people in the lay
delegation. tonight the sangha is packing up to leave for an
early morning flight to saigon in the morning. the crowds there
are expected to be even larger than here in the north.
this afternoon (saturday) thay gave a dharma talk at a temple in
hanoi. we had visited there several times already. this is the
central temple for the city of hanoi and there is a monastic
training school connected with the temple. thay gave a talk
earlier in the week for the monastics studying there. now that
the sangha has been here for 10 days, word has gotten out and the
temple was much more full than any other public talk yet -- there
must have been 2,000 people there. including the older
grandmothers that we tend to see at all the temples we visit, and
also, middle aged and young people. it was very very crowded;
when the western delegation arrived we could barely find a place
close enough to the translation boxes to sit and listen to the
talk.
how has word been getting out? news of thay's arrival has been in
the newspapers and on tv. in fact i was eating dinner at a
friend's house when her sister called up and said: hey, quick,
turn on the tv; thay is on tv. and there we were, wathcing our
visit from earlier in the day on the evening news.
it seems that people are very interested in what they are hearing
and want to learn more. thay's style and message is so different
than the experience vietnamese people have of buddhism.
after the talk today two professors came up to one of the people
in our group, very excited. they had listened very closely to the
talk and they wanted to know: how do we do it! how do we
practice?! they wanted to know details. about how to form a
sangha, and what to do at the sangha meeting. the two professors
took notes from the person in our delegation. they even asked for
her address so they could write to her if they had questions
about how to practice.
we are learning a lot about the buddhism that is already here and
how thay's message sounds so different to what people are
accustomed to hearing from a monk at a temple. the common person
may think of buddhism as something very high that you worship,
and thay has been telling about how to integrate it into daily
life. he has been talking about how to invite the bell, the
"listening room: each family should have a listening
room" where they can invite the bell and calm themselves. in
vietnam, it is very unlikely that a family would have enough
space for a separate room, so instead they can make it a space in
front of the ancestral altar. he has also been talking about the
sutra on conscious breathing, and the practice of walking in such
a way that with each step you know: "i have arrived, i am
home."
as westerners, we are surprised to learn about the vietnamese
buddhism that is part of our root tradition. some of us came on
this trip, perhaps expecting the experience to be similar to a
retreat at plum village. "should i bring my chanting
book," some wondered beforehand. (no.) in particular, some
are missing doing sitting meditation in the morning. the way it
works on this trip, some people sit in their rooms before the day
begins, but it is not part of the program. the idea is that we
are practicing all day long, in everything we do. and given that
the schedule is so packed, a formal mediation and service in the
morning is dropped. some of the westerners were talking about how
they missed it, how they saw sitting as an importnant a
cornerstone of their own practice. so we organized to sit
together in the temple this morning. we were struck that in the
temple, there not even any meditation cushions; the space does
not naturally lend itself to a big group of people to sit and
meditate. so we just sat on the straw mats. this is one thing
that has struck us about the difference in the buddhism we see
here in vietnam, and what we have practiced in plum village.
everyone has different impressions they take from the talks, but
what i see is that thay is doing intensive flower watering of
vietnamese buddhism. and he is clearly proud of the the
international sangha and all the practitioners in the west too.
as part of the talks, he often introduces some of the monastics,
a strong theme being how international the sangha is
(representing 20+ countries), and well educated they are. there
are two former doctors who have been introduced frequently; one a
former heart surgeon, who wanted to learn a different kind of
healing the heart. he keeps noting that the plum village practice
has been presented in a way that is appropriate for the young and
the intellectuals of the west. as he said: "we have a
practice center in the west but its ROOT is in vietnam."
he has been showing off the beauty of vietnamese buddhism, the
ancestor worship, for example, and how this practice has been
translated for the westerners. he also talked about how
vietnamese buddhism naturally lends itself to being an
"enagaged buddhism."
you can actually listen to and see transcripts of the talk on the
plum village website:
http://www.plumvillage.org
i posted some pictures of thay's arrival in vietnam and the
first week and a half here in hanoi and the surrounding area:
http://www.geocities.com/alissafleet/
together again at 7:30 a.m. on january 12th, there were hundreds of people waiting at the hanoi airport to greet thay. even the 98-year old abbess from hue made the long trip to hanoi to greet her former student. there was so much excitement when he arrived, thay could barely make his way through the sea of people -- yellow and brown robes, flowers everywhere, and cameras held high over the crowd; everyone trying to get a glimpse of the happiness on thay's face. he finally did take a step outside, and up onto the bus. in the past week, the sangha -- including 100 monastics and 100 lay friends -- has been traveling throughout hanoi and surrounding provinces... each time we visit a new temple -- someones 3 or 4 in a day -- the reception is overwhelmingly warm and sincere. we have also been visiting historic sites, training schools, and the city markets... making new friend everywhere we go... and sharing our practice in more ways than one. we will be in hanoi for the next few days, and then the whole sangha is traveling down to the saigon on sun, jan 23rd. if the technology cooperates i'll post more pictures as the trip goes on. if there's anything in particular you'd like to know about the trip, you can email me at: alissafleet@yahoo.com.
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Thiền sư Thích Nhất Hạnh ngắm nhìn bức tượng vị thiền sư đầu tiên ở Việt Nam ở chùa Dâu. Trụ trì chùa Bút Tháp chào đón Thiền sư Thích Nhất Hạnh.
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Asia Pacific News » |
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Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 12 January 2005 0420 hrs Buddhist monk heads home to Vietnam after 38 years in exile |
PARIS : Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who has built an international following during 38 years in exile, left France to return to his home country for the first time since 1967. Thich Nhat Hanh, who hailed what he called the
Vietnamese government's "effort at opening up"
before boarding an Air France flight from Paris to Hanoi,
said he hoped to teach across Vietnam for the next three
months. ******************************************************************************************************** |
Just a note...***Viet
Kieu for the Vietnamese means returnees. In the States the Vietnamese refer to the name as "VQ" |
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Vietnam Buddhist Churchy welcomes visit from monk | |
14:18 12/01/2005 (GMT+7) | |
A private Buddhist
delegation headed by a Vietnamese-French monk arrived in
Vietnam this morning and the Vietnam Buddhist
Church (VNBC) has promised to facilitate the visit and
help the visitors get first-hand knowledge of the renewal
process and Buddhism in the country.
Most Venerable Thich Gia Quang, deputy head of the International Buddhism Board under the VNBC's Executive Council said he hoped the 190 monks and nuns led by Monk Thich Nhat Hanh would recognise Vietnam's policy of respecting religious freedom and promoting national unity. The VNBC has co-ordinated with agencies concerned to ensure highest safety for the delegation in every aspect - transport, food, health care, security...," Thich Gia Quang said. "The VNBC has made all preparations in co-ordination with not only the central government and localities the delegation is expected to stay in Hanoi, HCM City, Hue and Binh Dinh, but also in provinces where it will only go for short visits, like Quang Ninh, Phu Tho, Bac Ninh, and Ha Tay." Monk Thich Nhat Hanh and his delegation, comprising 100 monks and nuns, and 90 followers, most of them overseas Vietnamese, will be in Vietnam for over three months - until April 14, to be exact. Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, aged 82, is French of Vietnamese origin. He now practices at the Lang Mai Pagoda, or Mai Village Pagoda, in France. He is a world-renowned religious figure who is making his first visit to his homeland in 40 years. The group will meet with leaders of the VNBC, hold discourses and meet with Buddhists in Hanoi, HCM City, and Hue City and Binh Dinh Province in the central region. They will also visit many pagodas across, the country. Monk Thich Nhat Hanh and his entourage visited the Bo De Pagoda in Ai Mo in Hanoi's suburban district of Gia Lam this morning, where they stay during their time in the capital. "It is said that every monk arriving at the pagoda is a Buddha, but it is our karma [a Sanskrit word meaning destiny] that we have the chance to receive such a special delegation." Nun Thich Dam Lan, who belongs to Bo De Pagoda said. Nun Thich Dam Lan said the pagoda was making preparations for the visit for the past month, refurbishing rooms and stocking up on food and blankets. She said the pagoda was used to hosting up to 3,000 visitors during annual celebrations to mark Buddha's birthday and delegations of up to 150 monks and nuns every summer. (Source: Viet Nam News) |
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