VENERABLE BHIKKHUNĪ THIỀN TUỆ
- MANY HONORLY REWARDS
The Abbess of Phổ Linh Temple (Southern California)
When talking about the dedication to cooking vegetarian food to offer to the masses of the retreats, charitable and social activities of the USA Vietnamese community, one cannot go without mentioning Venerable Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ of Phổ Linh Temple in southern California.
The young nun from Quảng Nam is very compassionate and friendly, not only to the monastics, the Buddhist compatriots, but she also engages with representatives of local and state government. She is one of the special nuns to receive many awards from the United States Buddhist Congregation of Vietnam and local leaders.
She comes from a moral family with a grandfather and two uncles who are teachers. The family has four renunciants: Ven. Bhikkhunī Hạnh Minh (Head of Trà Kiều Pagoda, Duy Xuyên District, Quảng Nam), Ven. Bhikkhunī Hanh Mãn (Bảo Thắng Pagoda, Hội An), Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ and Ven. Bhikkhu Thích Khải Định. Her mother and younger brother are both devout Buddhists, always upholding the Triple Gem.
Venerable Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ became a novice in 1980 under the master, the head of Phổ Chiếu Meditation Center (Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu) of the Zen branch of the Most Venerable Trúc Lâm Thanh Từ.
* From 1990 to 2001, her master sent her to stay and study at Kim Liên Pagoda, District 4,
Sàigòn, under the guidance and teaching of the chief nun, Abbess Khiết Minh.
* In 1993, she was ordained at the great Bhikkhunī Ceremony at Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu.
* In 1993 (in the summer retreat), she passed at the top of the Dhamma lecture exam and won
over all contestants from seventeen districts (held two days at Ấn Quang Pagoda in the
10th District, Sàigòn).
* In 1997, she graduated with honors, Basic Buddhist School at Vĩnh Nghiêm Pagoda, Sàigòn.
* In 2001, she graduated with a bachelor’s of Buddhist studies, Vietnam Buddhist Institute at
Vạn Hanh Zen Monastery (Course 4), Sàigòn.
* In 2001, she studied abroad in China and graduated with a master's degree in psychology in
2006.
* In 2008, she settled down the United States with the sponsorship of the Most Venerable
Nguyên Trí (Bát Nhã Pagoda, Santa Ana).
* In 2014, she founded Phổ Linh Temple in Garden Grove, California.
Phổ Linh Temple
Abbess: Venerable Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ
11612 Dale Street
Garden Grove, CA 92841
Phone: (714) 204-8933
* In 2015, during the retreat season when 200 monastics atttended, Vietnamese American
United Buddhist Congregation at Phật Học Viện Quốc Tế Monastery (International
Buddhist Institute) promoted her to the position of Venerable Bhikkhunī.
Regarding the schedule of Phổ linh Temple: Every Sunday morning, from 10–12, Ven. Thiền Tuệ, Ven. Đức Huy and Ven. Tịnh Vân instruct Buddhists to recite the Great Compassion Mantra, the penitent Hồng Danh and to meditate. Every Sunday, there are about thirty fellow Buddhists come to chant and practice. On festive days such as Vesak or Vu Lan, 200 people attend.
Especially during the Buddha's Birthday season or the Vu Lan ceremony, she often organizes almsround as the ancient image of the Buddha and the Sangha, so that Buddhists can make offerings of good seeds to the Sangha.
Vu Lan is a celebration of gratitude to parents. Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ always creates opportunities for children to offer marigold flowers to their parents and elders with the meaning of wishing the elderly and parents good health and long life as a marigold flower as in the ancient proverb, “Much merit as the East ocean, long life as the high moutain.”
At the Thanksgiving Season each year (beginning in 2013), Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ organizes a Thanksgiving ceremony at major restaurants with the purpose of expressing gratitude: Grateful for the United States of America, the Buddhist Masters, the benefactors, the martyrs, local congressmen, and deceased heroes. Each year, elder monks such as the Most Venerable Thích Nguyên Trí (abbot of Bát Nhã pagoda), the Most Venerable Thích Nguyên Siêu (abbot of Phật Đà Temple and Pháp Vương, San Diego), the Most Most Venerable Thích Minh Mẫn (abbot of Huệ Quang Temple, Santa Ana), monks and nuns and government representatives, such as Representative Alan Lenthenthal, Representative Senator Janet Nguyễn, Representative Supervisor Andreu Đổ, mayor of the city of Westminster, Tạ Đức Trí, mayor of Garden Grove City, Steven R. Jones, Deputy Mayor Bùi Phát, Councilman Kimberly Hồ, lawyer Dr. Hùynh Tấn Lê, and many others.
In 2019, she successfully organized the Thanksgiving ceremony at the Diamond Seafood Palace Restaurant in the city of Westminster with 800 guests attending.
Since the establishment of Phổ Linh Pagoda, she has fulfilled her wish to cook vegetarian food (sometimes with ten thousand servings) to offer to retreats, Dharma assemblies, the summer retreat, and Buddha's birthday ceremonies of the Vietnamese American United Buddhist Congregation (in 2016, 2018, and 2019 it was held at Mile Square Park, Fountain Valley). Every two weeks, she and Buddhists of Phổ Linh Pagoda donated food to the homeless in Santa Ana, continuously in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ is one of the young nuns who have received eighteen awards and many praises from elder renunciates, Representatives Loretta Sanchez and Alan Loenthal, Senators Lou Correa and Janet Nguyen, Supervisor Andrew Đ), mayors, deputy mayors, and council members in Garden Grove and Westminster.
The Most Venerable Thích Nguyên Siêu praised the merit of Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ, “On behalf of the Vietnamese American United Buddhist Congregation, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ and Buddhists at Phổ Linh Pagoda for donating ten thousand vegetarian meals on the Buddha's Birthday, Buddhist calendar 2560” (May 2, 2016).
Mayor Tạ Đức Trí noted, “Westminster City Council respectfully acknowledges Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ and Phổ Linh Pagoda for merit and sharing Buddhism with sentient beings” (October 3, 2015).
Senator Thomas J. Umberg (34th Senate District of California) recognized that “We would like to thank you, Senior Nun Thiền Tuệ of Phổ Linh Temple in Garden Grove for your effort to serve more than ten thousand people during Buddha’s Birthday Festival every year” (April 14, 2019).
Dr. Hùynh Tấn Lê is a well-known attorney in the maintenance of Three Jewels and specializes in the field of paperwork sponsoring numerous monks and nuns to obtain legal papers in the United States, as well as the lawyer who is the connection between Buddhism, government, media and fellow Buddhists through Vesak celebrations and church retreats. Dr. Hùynh Tấn Lê also praised the merits of Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ, “Venerable Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ is a passionate young nun capable of carrying many great Buddhas during Vesak and Thanksgiving ceremonies, regularly taking part in religious activities, as well as in the community.”
Not only in southern California has her heart and compassionate hands reached out to support retreats and charitable activities in other countries, such as Homeland Vietnam (almost every year), Australia (2016), India (2017, 2018), Burma (2018, 2019) and Canada (2018, 2019).
In Vietnam since 2008, every month she has steadily given two pots of rice soup to patients at the hospital at Duy Xuyên District (Quảng Nam); on the seventeenth of each month, she prepares luncheon for 200 lay Buddhists studying Buddhism at Trà Kiều Pagoda; she made offerings to a thousand student monks and nuns at Đại Tòng Lâm (Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province in 2018) to build the charitable house and drill wells in her homeland. She also gives gifts to poor families, the elderly, the sick, orphans in the provinces of Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Thanh Hóa, Thái Nguyên, and other ethnic minority regions. Every year there are 700 gifts sponsored by Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ and Buddhists of Phổ Linh Pagoda. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Phổ Linh Pagoda donated 300 gifts on June 1, 2020, including a well drilled 100 meters deep in Mộ Đức District, Quảng Ngãi Province.
In 2018, Ven. Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ and eight Buddhists of Phổ Linh Pagoda cooked food offerings for the last two days of the retreat at Tây Thiên Pagoda in Edmonton City, Canada, organized by Venerable Thích Pháp Hòa. That afternoon, she prepared the dish “bún mắm,” the vegetarian vermicelli soup with special sauce. It was so tasty that a young boy about thirteen did not know how to be a vegetarian, but on that day, he ate three bowls of soup at one sitting, complimenting the food. Ever since then, Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ has the nickname. “Ni sư bún mắm” (the vegetarian vermicelli soup nun).
Her conduct and commitment to serve and contribute to religion and life is an exemplary example. She built a beautiful image of the nun sangha and Buddhism abroad. How admirable is her reputation! She made the American and Vietnamese-American community appreciate Vietnamese nuns in the United States, as the words of journalist Bình Sa (Việt Báo News) described:
With mercifulness, she brings happiness to life,
PHỔ LINH a peaceful sky corner,
She shares the grace with an immense world,
The echoes of generous offering throughout the regions.
Hương Sen Temple, July 02 , 2020
A Buddha to be,
Bhikkhunī Thích Nữ Giới Hương
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Sign of Phổ Linh Temple
The Most Venerable Nguyên Trí and the Most Venerable Nguyên Siêu
and monastics attend the Vu Lan ceremony at Phổ Linh Pagoda in 2017
Offering to thousands of monks at Đại Tùng Lâm, Bà Rịa, Vũng Tàu in 2018
She smiled when the practitioners enjoyed their meal
at the retreat in Australia in 2016
Venerable Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ (left) and MC Bhikkhu Khải Định
(her younger brother)
Venerable Thiền Tuệ (grey hat, middle) and cooking group for 10,000 meals on the
Buddha's Birthday in 2018
From left: Venerable Bhikkhunī Thiền Tuệ, Venerable Pháp Hòa
at the retreat of Tây Thiên Pagoda, Canada in 2018
The award to Ven. Thiền Tuệ from the mayor of Garden Grove City, Steven R. Jones
Please kindly read this article and view all photos: 2.33._Ven._Thien_Tue_-_Pho_Linh_Temple.pdf
