Sitting
with Thay
I have long been planning to interview our teacher, Thay. With impermanence in mind, I wanted to learn about
the formation of this man who has influenced my life in such a profound way,
and share what I learn with all of you. While I know most of you know his
“credentials” and his history as it relates to his path of “monkdom,”
my intention for this interview was to learn more about the human development
within the teacher. I had actually planned this project some 3 years ago, while
going through my Residency. However, the conditions were not ripe to bring it
to fruition. But now, as we are on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the
Dharma Teacher Order, I visited this project with much more vigor and resolve.
Thay
was born Trương Văn Bình in Quáng Nam, Vietnam on May
2, 1949. His family of origin consisted of 9 children, his parents and
grandmother. His father was a truck driver. His mother was described as his
“most influential person” in his young life. His home also included a furry friend,
a nameless dog that his mother doted on. Thay’s nickname
as a child was “Bình Móm.”
He recalls being a mostly sad child, due to his fears of the sounds of war,
ever present in his childhood. Thay attended Phan Chu
Trinh High School in Da Nang and his best friend was Lý. Thay
had the good fortune to reconnect with Lý, some 30 years later when he learned
Lý lived only a few miles away from Thay in Texas. Thay admits that initially his favorite subject to study in
school was Christianity, which he learned through a 7 th Day Adventist’s correspondence course. He then became
interested in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.
When asked when he first recalled seeing the Buddha,
he stated as a child, while going to Temple with my grandmother. Thay’s extracurricular activity that he enjoyed as a child
was the five years he was a part of the Boy Scouts, from age 9 to 14 years. He
further cited his most influential novice friend as “Sa” of Pho Da Temple in Da
Nang. He recalled his school years with great fondness, citing 50+ students in
each class. Thay also shared the story of his “secret”
mala he always had in his pocket as a student. He would use the mala to
silently chant the Amitabha Buddha, until one day when
his friend pulled his hand out of his pocket, with the mala clasped tightly in
his hand, as his friends laughed. Thay’s favorite
musician was Trịnh Công Sơn, who was a very influential composer as well as an
activist. Thay described his older sister as the one
who he was closest to within his large family. When asked about a story that
might surprise others, he stated that he began asking to ordain as a novice monk
at 12 years of age. His parents were not in agreement, believing that this was
a phase that he would grow out of. However, after converting to a vegetarian at
that young age in his family of meat-eaters, his family finally relented,
realizing his commitment to his aspiration.
Thay’s
description of his life within his family of origin, he stated proudly, “my family
were all very supportive of one another, and I cannot imagine being born in a different
culture, or within a different family” When recalling a “significant story”
from his childhood, Thay reminisced about a maternal
uncle that had worked for the Independent movement in war-torn Vietnam, then
finding himself incarcerated as a result. Thay stated
that when he was 6 years old, he vividly remembers the uncle returning after
his release from prison. Thay did not know who the
man was, but recalls his mother crying in joy at the uncle’s return. Thay was told the story of this uncle and states that it
was the happiest moment celebrated by his entire family. He sadly reports that
he has already lost 8 family members to death.
When Thay was looking for a
way to further immerse himself in the study of Buddhism, he saw a sign for just
such an opportunity in India wherein a scholarship was being offered. He was
granted that opportunity when he learned that no one else had applied, as most
of the Vietnamese population considered India ‘too poor’ to visit. Thay then spent the next year in India pursuing that
education opportunity. Thay’s secondary education
culminated in a double major Bachelor of Arts in Letters 1971 and Buddhism 1972.
He received his “Doctorandus” in Sinology 1984 in
Leiden, The Netherlands. His most memorable college experience was his assistance
in the anti-war movement. Through this educational experience, Thay also became fluent in English, Mandarin and Dutch in
addition to his native tongue of Vietnamese. During this time period, Thay was being supported by a Christian community, however Thay was becoming more and more solid in his Buddhist foundation,
and wanted to leave the Christian community, however he felt obligated to them
for their support. He said this was the most difficult time in his life,
feeling alone and cut off from his native land and peoples. He then wrote to
his teacher, Thich Tri Thu, and asked for advice. His
teacher told him to follow his heart and spread the Dharma wherever he went. Thay then struck a deal with his benefactors, agreeing to give
them one year of labor to repay them for their kindness. Thay
was convinced that his journey was to study Chinese so that he could work on
translating the Tripitaka.
In 1994 Thay joined Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village
Community for a period of one year. During that monumental year, Thich Nhat Hanh had written 3
volumes of the history of Buddhism (from 1965 to the present), and asked our Thay to write the 4th volume, however Thay left Plum Village prior to that being realized. Thich Tri Thu was Thay’s mentor
and hero. Thich Tri Thu happened to also be Thich Nhat Hanh’s teacher. Six of
Thay’s siblings and his father moved to Texas (Dallas
and Wichita Falls area) in 1980. In 1995 Thay first
arrived in the United States. However, Thay did not
go to Texas initially, as he was invited to join a temple in Connecticut, where
Thay remained for the next 12 years. This is also
where the Dharma Teacher Order (DTO) was conceived and born. After Connecticut,
Chuang Yen Temple in New York State invited Thay and Bhikkhu Bodhi to come to stay in their temple. While Thay’s time in Chuang Yen was eventful, due to a
disagreement over whether lay persons could be ordained as priests, Thay left Chuang Yen, moving to a temple in Boston prior to
arriving in Pearland, Texas in 2009.
Thay’s
biological sister, Phap Nghiem together with the
Buddhist community in Texas had purchased property in the area and requested Thay come to build the Phap
Nguyen Temple and preside as Abbot there. Thay has
remained in Pearland since that time, however he has remain connected to all of
the other American temples he has lived, leaving his footprint in each place
through the DTO seeds he has scattered. When asked where Thay
feels most at home, he stated ‘it doesn’t matter where I am. Wherever the
Temple is, that’s home to me”. He also confessed that without the war in
Vietnam, he would never have left his homeland.
Thay
also credits President Bill Clinton as probably the most influential figure in helping
to end the embargo in Vietnam. He said that both the President and 1st Lady,
Hillary, fought tirelessly for the National Health Care in America, and he
suspects that the Vietnamese people will mourn the death of the Clintons,
whenever that time comes, as staunch supporters of this highly political
couple.
Thay’s
first job was writing a Vietnamese-Dutch dictionary for Refugees, a project that
took him 2 years to complete, however this compilation can be found online at https://www.bol.com/nl/f/vietnamees-nederlands-nederlands-vietnamees-woordenboek-
tu-dien-viet-hoa-hoa-viet/37720938. However, Thay’s “favorite” job he recalls was working in the refugee
camps in The Netherlands and Hong Kong. He replied that his ”worst”
job, was the one year labor job, cited above, for that religious group.
Thay
defines his happiness as “living without desire, hatred or ignorance”. He cites
reading and writing as his favorite pastimes and would like to write another
book one day. He names his teacher, Thich Tri Thu, as
the single biggest influence on his life as a Buddhist monk, and his greatest
fear as the sounds and experiences of war, which took him more than 10 years to
free himself of.
Thay
envisioned the creation of the DTO as a result of his students, Richard Zipoli, Richard and Adrienne Baksa
and Noble Silence, desire to “deep dive” into the study of Buddhism, back in
1996. This dream was realized in 2000 at the formation of the DTO as it is
known today. Thay’s proudest creation and hope is for
the sustenance of the DTO, and the Prison Project (including the Buddhist
Correspondence Course, the traveling prison ministry created as a result, as
well as all of the mentors and participants in these projects). Thay’s vision for the continuation of the DTO, simply stated,
is the continuation of spreading the Dharma and including lay people in the propagation
of same. Thay also announced that he wrote an article
on the occasion of Thich Tri Thu’s death, summarizing
Thay’s work in America and with the DTO. He has since
learned that this article has inspired similar work of spreading the Dharma in Vietnam
as well.
Lastly, when asked what legacy he would like to leave
to all of his students, he simply stated, “try your best to share the Dharma”. And, when asked if he could meet the Buddha
today, what question would he pose to him, he laughed and stated “how is that
it took you 49 days to achieve Enlightenment, yet I have been meditating for
more than 49 years and still have yet to reach Nirvana!”.
Sondra Kaighen, 2020