DEVELOPMENT OF VIETNAMESE NUNS
IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Buddhism Is Still Young in the United States
The United States has existed for a long time and Americans lived in scattered and undeveloped areas. By the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteen century, Cristopher Columbus made four famous expeditions from Europe to the Americas in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. In the following centuries, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, as well as other European powers, competed to explore, conquer and colonize America, which in turn led to the formation of many new groups, new cultures and countries. The US was a British colony with the colonial regime established in 1607 on the James river. By July 4, 1776, the colonies declared independence and became the United States of America.
The first president of the United States was George Washington. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were American intellectual figures studying Buddhism, but Buddhism was officially considered coming to the United States through the special events on September 8, 1893, when the World Parliament of Religions opened in Chicago with the participation of delegations from ten world religious traditions. In addition to Christian and Jewish traditions, Asian religions, such as Hinduism (Brahmin, Parsis, Sikhs, Jains), Islam and Buddhism were also present. As for Asian Buddhism, there were the Sri Lanka Congregation, the Thai Sangha (Theravada delegates), the Northern Tradition Buddhism from Japan (Lin-chi Tsung, Taoist, and the Lotus sect) and Chinese Buddhism which actively participated. The Congress was described as “The greatest and most glorious achievement of the century” and was held at the Columbian Exhibition Hall.
Significant efforts to develop Buddhism in the United States include two American Dharma friends, Henry Steel Olcott and Russian Buddhist, Petrova Blavatsky. These two founded the Buddhist Theosophical Society in 1875 in New York. It was the first Buddhist organization in the United States and quickly caught the attention of American intellectuals. Along with the efforts of Olcott and Blavatsky, other important members of the early attempts to propagate Dharma in this country were R.W. Emerson, Walt Whitman (American); A. Dharmapala (Sri Lankan); Soyen Shaku (Japanese); and Paul Carus (German).
Since the World Congress in September 1893, many Buddhist missionaries and leaders have been coming to the United States establishing monasteries and temples, belonging to many different sects, transforming many people to become Buddhists, forming an increasingly strong, promising version of American Buddhism.
The first two Vietnamese monks to actively contribute to the development of Buddhism in the United States are the Most Venerable Thích Thiện Ân and Zen Master Nhất Hạnh.
In the Horse Year of 1966, the Most Venerable Thích Thiên Ân, a former teacher at the Saigon Buddhist College, was invited to teach in the professor exchange program by the Asian Cultural Department of the United Nations. That summer, he set out for the United States, teaching at the University of California and Los Angeles University, southern California as a visiting professor of languages and philosophy. Here, students were asked to teach meditation practices and then set up the first Buddhist study group. In the Goat Year of 1967, after finishing the curriculum of the university, Most Venerable Thích Thiên Ân intended to return to Vietnam, but Zen American students asked him to stay and teach. He is considered to be the first Vietnamese monk to preach in the United States.
Initially, he rented an apartment south of Vermont Boulevard in Los Angeles to guide American students to learn meditation in the Japanese tradition. Due to the increasing number of young Americans who wanted to learn, he founded the International Buddhist Meditation Center, located in southern California in Los Angeles. Right from the first days of its establishment, there were many American students asking for renunciation. Three years later, he built a temple named the Vietnamese Buddhist Temple, the first Vietnamese temple in the US for the Vietnamese community in California, where many often gather to worship and study. In October 1973, he collaborated with American, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan and Sri Lankan educators to found the University of Oriental Studies, a place that attracts a large number of American students enrolled in Buddhist studies, languages, linguistics and Eastern philosophy. The Most Venerable Thiên Ân and the Vietnamese Temple in Los Angeles sponsored many Vietnamese monks to propagate the Dharma in the United States.
There were monks studying in the United States such as Venerable Quảng Liên, Venerable Đức Nghiệp, Venerable Chơn Thiệ, and Venerable Trí Siêu (Lê Mạnh Thát). Zen Master Nhất Hạnh also studied in the United States and had a special dedication. He studied comparative religions at Princeton University in 1962, New Jersey (USA). After finishing his studies at Princeton, Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh was invited to teach at Columbia University, New York. In December 1963, he returned to his home country. In May 1966, he returned to the United States and taught at Cornell University, New York.
He called on Martin Luther King, Jr., a world-famous African American civil rights activist, as well as giving presentations in many places in the United States to find a way to end the war in Vietnam. In 1967, Pastor Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Zen Master Nhất Hạnh founded Plum Village and settled in France, but he often took many trips to the United States sharing Dharma with the American people at stadiums in major cities. He founded the Sangha according to the current lineage (Dòng Tiếp Hiện) at Deer Park Monastery (Tu Viện Lộc Uyển), northwest of Escondido in San Diego County, California.
Vietnamese Nuns Laid the First Foundation for Nuns
to Propagate Dharma in the United States
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Đàm Lựu: The first bhikkhunī to mention is the elder nun, Đàm Lựu. She was ordained as a novice at sixteen and became an orphanage director in Saigon. In 1984, she settled in the United States and founded Đức Viên Monastery in San Jose, California. She tirelessly engaged with the spirit of non-self and altruism as she organized weekly vegetarian meals and collected cans, bottles and cartons to sell to earn an income to build Đức Viên Monastery. She is a diligent, humble, virtuous nun whose life is serving religion and society by creating Đức Viên Pagoda bearing the cultural characteristics of the Vietnamese nation.
Moreover, the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Đàm Lựu also paid special attention to opening training courses to guide others in the Pure Land method so Buddhists can recite the Buddha's name. Although the Buddhist works are pluralistic, she always kept reciting the Buddha's name when walking, standing, lying down and sitting, in every time and in every situation. In 1999, she passed away, sixty-seven years old in life and forty-eight years old in Buddhism. The number of nuns and Buddhists of all ages who come to study and practice at Đức Viên Monastery is increasing. Bhikkhunī Đàm Lựu contribution is imprinted on the Buddhist history of the Tathagata’s messenger mission in the United States.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Nguyện: Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Nguyện (1947–2017) was sponsored to settle in the United States by the Most Venerable Mãn Giác, the president of the Presidium and abbot of the Vietnam Buddhist Temple in the United States in 1984. Going through the process of being the abbess and working Buddhist activities in many states in America, eventually she kept the post of abbess of Xá Lợi Pagoda. In 2008, she was promoted to be the General Director of the Nun Sangha in the Executive Council of the Vietnamese American United Buddhist Congregation until her death. With more than thirty years of practice in the United States, she has been invited many times to be a Buddhist lawyer in the great ordination ceremony at Vietnamese Buddhist Temples in the United States. She fulfilled her duty humbly and wholeheartedly for the sangha and Buddhism. She repeatedly wanted to organize a campaign to call young nuns to take refuge in the church, bringing them together to form an organized nun sangha.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Từ: The Most Venerable Diệu Từ (1943–2018) was the abbess of Diệu Quang Pagoda in California, USA. She ordained when she was thirteen years old, a disciple of the Most Venerable Thích Trí Thủ. In the United States, she had the merit of establishing two Diệu Quang Pagodas, one in the north and one in southern California to help her disciples and followers have places of worship and study. She always supported and cared for the young nuns, and wholeheartedly guides Buddhists on the path of studying according to the right Dharma.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Nguyên Thanh: The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Nguyên Thanh was born in 1944 in Phú Nhơn village, Cát Trinh Commune, Phù Cát district, Bình Định Province. She ordained at the age of fourteen (1957) with the late Bhikkhunī Master Tâm Hòa, Tâm Ấn Pagoda, Quy Nhơn. She used to be a teacher at a nunnery in Bình Định and founded Lộc Uyển Pagoda, Quy Nhơn City. In 1984, she settled down in the United States, initially arriving at Đức Viên Pagoda to study with the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Đàm Lựu for two years (1984–1986). In 1986, she founded Ưu Đàm Temple in Marina, California. In 1988, she bought a four-room house in San Jose to establish Tịnh Thất An Lạc, then gradually consolidated and developed it into the big glorious An Lạc Pagoda in San Jose, northern California.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Nguyên Thanh has been the treasurer for many years at the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam in the United States. An Lạc Pagoda is the venue for the summer retreat courses for nuns, the great ordination ceremonies (Ten Precepts, Bodhisattva precepts, samaneri), Vietnamese-language school for young Vietnamese-Americans in the United States, nuns' study activities and Buddhist retreats. An Lạc Pagoda also provides religious services praying for the those alive and those deceased at the funeral home and cremations at the cemetery of An Lac Pagoda. An Lạc Pagoda is also the place to mark the history of the church conferences. She is interested in training the sangha and called for contributions to the Nguyên Thiều Bình Định Buddhist College and many charitable programs for poor people and patients in Vietnam. She is sincerely devoted and attends many ceremonies, ordinations, and training courses to support a more stable development in Buddhism led by young abbesses.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Giác Hương: The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Giác Hương was born in 1944 and became a novice at age fifteen (in 1959) with the Dharma name, Viên Luận, under Master Thích Trí Tịnh at Vạn Đức Pagoda, Thủ Đức. She once participated in a protest and witnessed the historical moment of Thích Quãng Đức, who burned himself at the crossroads of Phan Đình Phùng, Sài gòn. In 1964, Venerable Thích Tâm Châu received her as a nun disciple and gave her the title Thích Nữ Giác Hương.
In 1972, she graduated with a bachelor of Buddhist studies at Vạn Hạnh University. In 1984, she came to settle down in the United States. Venerable Master Tâm Châu appointed her to be the abbess of Nam Quang Pagoda (Oregon) for five years, Then in 1990, she moved to be the abbess of Vạn Hạnh Pagoda (Seattle, Washington State) in the northwestern United States, and is still there. She is a humble person who lives within herself in the Dharma and Vinaya, speaks the Dharma, as silent as the Dharma, with the fragrance of virtue. Her gentle body, speech and mind are a good example for young nuns and the masses.
These five chief nuns are strong pillars of Buddhism, talented Vietnamese nuns in the early period of integration in America. Over time, the number of nuns who have come to USA has increased and can be divided into three categories:
- Nuns who have good conditions to absorb solid and intensive education: Many nuns have graduated with master’s degrees, doctorates in Buddhist studies, philosophy, religious studies, education studies and related subjects. These include Venerable Bhikkhunī Tịnh Thường, Venerable Bhikkhunī Giới Châu, Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Phương, Venerable Bhikkhunī Minh Huệ, Venerable Bhikkhunī Giới Hương, Venerable Tịnh Quang, Venerable Tiến Liên, Venerable Nguyên Hiếu, and Reverend Ngọc Liên (Miss Bích Liên).
- Nuns are only equipped with enough luggage to go to the United States: They have not been imbued as intensively as the nun predecessors who received their bachelor’s degree of Buddhist studies in Vietnam and later came to share Buddhism in America.
- 3. Young Nuns are needed to invest in the future: The young nuns who graduated from Buddhist studies intermediate level or lower from Vietnam and newly ordained, have been in the United States less than ten years.
Difficulties and Practices of Nuns in the United States
The saying, “starts out hard,” describes the early Buddhist period in the United States. Over the past forty years, the Vietnamese nuns have laid the foundation for the introduction, presence and propagation of the Dharma in the USA. Buddhist activities are invariant, flexible and suitable for each situation, psychology, with the ability of personnel to meet the need of the time, space, level and doctrine compatibility. Let us look back, contemplate and analyze the difficulties that Vietnamese nuns have when practicing Buddhism in the United States.
Integrating American language, culture and lifestyle: It is not easy to integrate the language, culture and lifestyle of any country. Particularly for languages, English, an intelligent person takes two years to master basic communication, spends five practicing communication in most cases. But the accent of a Vietnamese speaking English is often different from that of native speakers, in many cases the pronunciation is wrong. Moreover, in the professional field, there are people who have studied the Dharma English Courses, some have studied English in four years of the bachelor’s program, two years of the master’s program and five years of the doctorate program; a total of eleven years with such Dharma, and they still cannot teach the Dharma in English for children of native speakers. Language is hard. But, infiltrating into American life or culture is more difficult than language. However, if we do not understand the American inborn quality, thinking, culture, how can we share Dharma?
The main religion that influences the United States is Christianity: According to recent surveys, 76 percent of the total US population is Christian. Weddings, festivals and funerals are mostly held in churches. The talks of priests are transmitted directly via television and radio. Many schools, universities and hospitals belong to Christianity. Even when the president of the United States takes the oath of office, when he finishes the speech he always says, “God bless America.” When missionaries are evangelizing to bring Buddhism to Brazil or Africa is not easy at all! It is said the Tathagata missionaries in the United States of America are working, “Planting Bodhi on the Crosstree,” as we buy a church and turn it into a Buddhist Temple. Zen Master Nhất Hạnh points out the similarities between Buddhism and Christianity in the famous book, Living Buddha, Living Christ.
So is there any way of evangelization that helps Americans accept Buddhism, to follow and practice Dharma while their society and traditions are Christian?
Which sangha in the United States should the nuns rely on? The case in Vietnam is simpler. Currently, there is only one Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha, but in free countries, there are many Buddhist congregations coexisting, so which sangha should nuns choose to take refuge in here? The nuns who have different relationships and interests may choose to join different Buddhist sanghas. Monks and nuns in the same sangha take no action (neither one, nor the other) with close, parallel, mutual support, While nuns follow different churches, often attending activities like Uposatha days, ordinations, festivals and retreats at their own congregations. If there are many different churches that exist in the same country, will nuns be able to unify into one congregation?
A formal routine for the nun's activities has not been established: Buddhism was introduced to Vietnam over 2,000 years ago and many temples have been present in Vietnam for several hundred years. Buddhism in Asian countries has shaped certain traditional patterns. Pagodas and sects also have their own rules, regulations and ordinations. And now in the United States, the land of “a hundred blooming flowers” where each abbess chooses or sets the rules for her monastery, the difference in the rules of living is quite large. For example, how to chant and take a meal, how many chanting courses each day, in what manner, who can be receptionists to talk to guests, whether to go to college and work in society, how to accept offerings—so many differences in detail. In the context of the new environment, the abbess and nuns have to choose and build the most appropriate rules for their monastery so that the people can live peacefully, benefit and reach the sublime.
The tendencies for nuns with a temple: Activities in the pagoda are influenced by lifestyle and social law. There are four reasons why nuns want to go to a private temple to be an abbess or do not need to transplant themselves into a nun or monk sangha.
The laws of the United States allow “a hundred flowers blooming” without limitations of geographical area or the approval of the Buddhist Sangha. In Vietnam, except for the Central Highlands region, in the whole commune or the whole ward, if there is not a pagoda, it is possible to prioritize setting up a new one. Other provinces that have many temples are only allowed to restore and develop old pagodas with the permission and subject to the central administration of the Buddhist congregation. While in the United States, it is desirable to create many new temples, as long as they are qualified and do not affect residential areas and the surrounding social activities. The board management of a temple is directly involved and receives permission to conduct religious activities from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Religion without having to enter a sangha or through a sangha approval.
There is a movement that started as the nuns looked around at the sisters and Dharma friends who treasure the temple and thought, “Building temples and teaching Dharma is fulfilling the mission of the Tathagatha and we should continue with this important work.” Many temples now have been established and the community recognizes that we have considerable dedication, skill and worthiness. Sometimes the large or small size of temples and the number of lay people in the temple is considered as a measure of professional achievement and the level of dedication to the Dharma. The freedom to develop temples, if skillfully directed with the right person, the right job and the right need, there will be benefit. On the contrary, if building temples is seen as a “race or movement” focused only on improving the reputation and self, then it becomes a crisis of abundance and harm, causing more confusion in lay Buddhists.
Overseas lifestyle promotes freedom and democracy: Children are mature at age eighteen and many do not want to depend on their parents anymore and they rent a private house to live. Their rights are protected. Young nuns do not want to be dependent or submissive to the abbess anymore. Sometimes they think, "Things will be different in the future” and “Who can know who in the world.” That is, looking at a problem with many aspects, right or wrong, right or left is mainly determined by the abbess or the board of directors. Whoever follows their ideas then stays, who argues or is contrary to them, leaves, without comment. That is, in the free US, the younger generation and the members of the nun group do not have to bow to obey. They have their own ideas and in times of disagreement, they leave to build their own facilities and paths. Then, when time passes, the results will be the answer to all doubts about right, wrong, good, bad and so on.
There are young nuns in nunneries who feel crowded, although the work is divided evenly. There is no discord, but rather an underlying feeling from the young nuns that they are not put to work in the right place and are treated without respect. For these reasons, they leave nunneries to build separate temples with the aim of being able to deploy all of their unique potentials, abilities, talents and creations.
Right livelihood to survive—a real challenge: Monks in Theravāda countries like Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Cambodia receive many generous offerings. Their people respect and offer basic needs every day as the monastics go for alms. In Vietnam, there are some monastics who must earn money to maintain the temple by making incense, vegetarian food, garments, while renunciates living overseas find it difficult to take alms and rely on offerings of lay Buddhists; the monastics must go to work outside in society or inside their pagodas. The simple reason is that living abroad requires a high standard of living with a high cost. Most of the abbesses/abbots must get loans for items such as a car, air-conditioner, refrigerator, healthcare, land, house, many types of insurance and other bills. If you wish to establish a private temple, you buy a house to set up a temple, then usually you have to borrow and then worry about how to have a regular income each month to pay the mortgage which can last anywhere between fifteen years to thirty years.
It is not like Vietnam where every day, every night, Buddhists visit the pagoda to chant, pray, practice and recite the Buddha's name. Here abroad, mainly people come on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) to join the temple’s activities. Buddhists take time off from work to go to the temple. Las Vegas is an exception because people are working on the weekend, so the workers relax in the middle of the week and can come to temple then. So, the monastics are busy helping the Buddhists practice one-two days on the weekend. On the weekdays, they cannot rest if the debts or bills have not paid. That is the reason most of the young monastics (under age sixty-two) have to find work in society and consider it to be “Right Livelihood” to maintain their existence in a long-term way.
From following the “renunciate, a pagoda” movement, the nuns are busy and play many roles, such as receptionists, decorating the Buddha hall, conducting pilgrimages, secretaries, cashiers. Many work inside the temple taking care of the external economic affairs and so on. It makes an abbess tired, not having enough time and energy for cultivating, studying the scriptures in depth, practicing and transforming herself to be steady and tranquil on the Dharma path.
Lacking formal education and consideration from senior predecessors: As mentioned above, the respectful monastics and abbesses are too busy with many duties to have time and energy to take care of and nurture the younger nun generation. In Vietnam, there are Buddhist Studies Schools at the elementary, intermediate, and college level with Buddhist universities. There are the Most Venerable Hải Triều Âm, the Most Venerable Như Thanh and many others who welcome nuns to enter. Thiện Hòa Nunnery and Liên Hoa Nunnery are examples of nunneries that offer daily basic classes for young nuns. While in America, how do we find such an environment for Buddhist education? Even if the young novices want to attend the ten-day summer retreat, the abbess hesitates whether or not let them attend. The nurturing, accretion, direction and training are very necessary so that future generations can instill and maintain.
Advantages of Studying
and Sharing Dharma in the United States
The above section has pointed out seven types of challenges waiting for the Tathagata’s messengers in the United States. So why are more monastics applying for visas to come and want to permanently reside in the United States? Everything has two sides. The United States has many difficulties, but there are also many convenient ways for nuns to study and propagate the Dharma.
Religious freedom and all human rights are upheld: As mentioned above, in the USA you are eligible to build as many new pagodas as you want. If you want to establish many congregations, that is allowed too. If you desire to organize festivals, retreats, teachings, congresses and precept ordinations, you may do so without having to ask for permission. You can do whatever you want as long as there is no disturbance of the environment and if no laws are broken. Government authority venerates religious activists whom they consider the spiritual leaders of believers. In the US, there is separation of church and state and the government may not interfere with a citizen’s right to choose their own religion. American government authority respects and supports missionary activities with many policies to help the monasteries such as tax exemptions when registering as a nonprofit. In addition, individuals and businesses donate to the monastery. US law allows offerings to the temple to be written off.
The guaranteed rights: Whoever owns the land or house that turns out to be the temple, they will always be the owner until they transfer ownership to other people. The owner is not obliged to make offerings to the central sangha management, but if they do, then they will be recognized as a religious place (as in Vietnam). The policies of the US offer old-age benefits to the citizens. Monastics are allowed to work in society, including teaching in university classes with the yellow robes of Buddhist monastics (this is not possible in the public Vietnamese schools in Vietnam). Due to a clear and strict legal system, people are assured of investing in all areas, including religious activities, without fear of anyone oppressing them, causing difficulties or depriving them of their legal ownership. The dignity and values of each individual person are highly appreciated and guarantee that no one has the right to infringe upon or oppress anyone.
Healthy environment, food safety: In the Vietnamese environment, there is polluted air, unsecured public sanitation, smoke and dust. This affects health, feelings and practices. Many people want to go to heaven and to the West of Great Bliss because those places are more peaceful. In the United States, everyone enjoys clean, pleasant and safe food atmosphere.
The United States is a land of opportunity; every person can make progress in every field according to their ability and efforts in the right direction. Monastics can subsidize, borrow money to study for a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate programs, if they have the ability. Those who have professional ability in Pali, Sanskrit and English, can enter the famous universities to study, such as Berkeley, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, University of the West, University of California Los Angeles, Columbia, Cornell, Chicago and so on. Vietnamese monastics can study and become Zen masters guided by the international Zen schools in the United States. If monastics are qualified, they can teach the Dharma at many places throughout the United States, sharing Dharma with young people, students and natives. With US passports, as well as savings, monastics can freely go pilgrimage, study abroad, attend Buddhist seminars, retreats or activities in many parts of the world and Vietnam because a US passport has a number of advantages.
Gender equality and women's rights: The United States is a civilized and progressive country, so women are respected and protected. The nuns in temples are too; they are cared for, treasured and supported. With modern technology machines are applied to heavy jobs. The nuns use machines for labor, gardening and building temples. With encouragement and support from society, nuns will strive to be proactive and promote maximum creativity. They have significant achievements not inferior to the monks, as the example of the five most senior nuns, the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Hải Triều Âm, the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Thanh; learning, researching, teaching and composing as Venerable Bhikkhunī Giới Châu, Venerable Giới Hương and Venerable Tiến Liên, the social and charitable activities of Venerable Bhikkhunī Nguyên Thiện, Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Tánh and Reverend Ngọc Liên, and many others.
Nuns are proactive without dependence on the Sangha: In Vietnam, for example, nuns who wish to do anything must present it to the authority in the District, Provincial and Central Sangha Boards for permission and direction, while American Buddhist nuns are free to decide on the ceremonies, seminars, ordinations, bhikkhunī's conference and social activities. Nuns can make the great leaps without having to wait and be restricted by any particular form or outer authority.
Sustainable Development of
Vietnamese Nuns in the United States
Memorial Ceremony for the Nun Patriarch Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī and the patterns of the Nun's Congress nationwide: It is possible for the nuns to celebrate the Patriarch Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Memorial Ceremony, a model of the annual national assembly of nuns circulating through different monasteries and cities. We review what we have learned to gain new understanding and awareness. In this Memorial Ceremony, there are seminars, presentations, conferences for nuns, love and support for each other to form a harmonious block. The blessings of all the great nuns will create the infinite motivation for every nun in her temple to strive continuously on the basis of the support and expectation of the senior nuns behind her. Nuns can fully set up regional secretaries and liaison boards to create regular contacts and support Buddhist works.
Organize seminars and presentations on important and common issues: Share experiences on many subjects, such as immigration, guarantees, legal procedures, self-reliant monasteries, constructing temples, preaching arts, economic activities, social charity, key points in Dharma teachings, practice methods, Vietnamese nun patriarchs and the way to transform sentient beings and training young talented nuns. The are many challenges and opportunities for Vietnamese nuns in the United States.
Participate regularly with international Buddhist organizations such as Sakyadhita,[1] International Association of Buddhist Women, the World Buddhism Bhikkhunī Association[2], International Bhikkhunī Day, the Alliance for Bhikkhunīs, the Women's Human Rights Institute, the World Buddhist Conferences, Vesak, making pilgrimages and practice in India and being interactive sharing and helping each other in Vietnamese Nun Sangha.
Promote the culture and means of communication: The United States Nunnery Sangha Committee of the United States should make a list of bhikkhunī monasteries, addresses, emails, Facebook, Viber, Zalo, phone numbers, websites and so forth to contact. The nuns can create a website or create a category of “Vietnamese nuns in the United States” on the websites of nun temples. This new category can be available to update the activities and expand the nuns' monasteries nationwide. Reverend Ngọc Liên already has media available through television and radio. Nuns can contact and coordinate to take full advantage. In addition, nuns can publish yearbooks, special journals, Buddhist Dharma journals, linking with Zalo, Viber, Zoom groups to update daily news and share ideas.
Coordinate, organize activities with special events of the Sangha: The ten-day summer retreats, the three-day practice courses, conferences, Buddha's Birthday, Parent Day (Vu Lan), Về Nguồn (Return Source) Day, the Death Anniversaries and the predecessor commemoration are some special events. Surely the organizing committees and the leaders of the sangha are extending their hearts to welcome the participation of the nuns. The more it is crowded, the more it is fulfilling. In those days, besides the activities organized by the Organizing Committee, the nuns met and shared many necessary issues and shared interests
Aiming to take root and have lasting influence among the Americans: Although it is difficult to create a temple, many people do it. It is even more difficult to build a sangha. After finishing the construction, it must be maintained. It is not like a few of the Chinese temples where after completion, it is left empty. It is necessary to engage in activities that affect the American society and American superstructure such as: guiding and helping prisoners, the elderly in nursing homes, hospitals, people near death, Vietnamese classes, Dharma teaching in English for children and the locals, mindfulness and meditation classes. We provide Dharma talk DVDs in English or with English subtitles, so that readers can easily follow and compare the Buddhist books from Vietnamese to English, write books in English, have TV and Buddhist Dharma radio in English, Dharma website, Facebook and teaching Livestream in English.
When sponsoring a young nun to come to America from Vietnam, she must be considered in terms of aspiration, ability, age, cultural language penetration, organization and preaching. She should have deep learning and cultivation and steadily practice Dharma, aiming to influence with Dharma, not simply thinking of short-term benefits. She must be willing to accept sacrifices, creating favorable conditions to benefit the next generation. The abbess should teach these nuns what to avoid, what to focus on so they do not waste time, but focus on the most important things. They need to organize, assign, put the right people in the right jobs so that each person develops their full potential.
The Buddha taught in the Majjhima Nikaya[3] that “What belongs to the core of the tree will continue to exist.” The opposite, what belongs to forms without the content will atrophy like “an empty box with a big noise” and will be worn down and destroyed over time. Let us study the teachings of Suzuki, the Dalai Lama, Zen Master Nhất Hạnh, Korean Zen Masters, Burmese, Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai University, and so on. We can draw lessons from them on how the nuns can learn and practice. The nuns, our personnel, should think, support, guide and organize step by step such things as sharing Dharma with the masses and developing for the future.
Conclusion
Inheriting the grace of Patriarch Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī and the nun predecessors are respected senior nuns such as the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Thanh, the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Hải Triều Âm, the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Không, the Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Huỳnh Liên, the Venerable Bhikkhunī Trí Hải and so forth. The Vietnamese nuns in the United States are the Tathagata’s messengers, “bringing a bell to beat in the strange land,” propagating the Dharma, facing many difficulties and challenges. Let's join together for the sake of many. The book, Vietnamese Nuns in the United States of America of Venerable Bhikkhunī Giới Hương is to review the behavior of merit and give example of Vietnamese and modern nuns, who have been embellishing American Buddhist history.
Because of the noble cause and sincere heart, the nuns come together to understand, sympathize, create harmony, sources of love and reason, practice the Bodhisattva Way, and share the Dharma to help sentient beings, to keep the eight rules of the bhikkhuni, to practice the seven dharmas without regressing, along with the six harmonious practices that are the essential connections of Vietnamese nuns in the United States.
For the past forty years in the United States, nuns have shared their experiences to help others choose the right direction. They excel at cleverly combining the abilities and strengths of each person to make great strides for Vietnamese nuns in the United States. Buddhist nuns in the United States have made important contributions to the stability and happiness of practitioners We trust in you, the present generation of Vietnamese nuns in the United States. Your presence is like fragrant flowers of the Zen garden. They have the conditions to bloom in full, bearing the sweet fruit fragrance for life.
The US Buddhist history page has cherished all of the nuns’ great devotion, the strong women who went halfway around the earth from Vietnam to USA to bring the Dharma light to those who live here.
May the Three Jewels bless the nuns with peacefulness, goodwill, merit and wisdom dignity, and may the Bodhi mind not regress. The Buddhist Sangha in the United States achieves the goodness, often turning the Dharma wheel for the sake of life and religion.
Vesak, Buddhist Calendar 2564,
May 2020
Thích Đồng Trí (Thích Minh Tuệ)
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[1] Sakyadhita: The daughters of Buddha.
[2] The World Buddhism Bhikkhunī Association, https: //www.wbba2017.org/eng/p1_about.php
[3] Majjhima Nikaya, Vol I, 30. Cùlasàropama Sutta, Thích Minh Châu translated into Vietnamese.
https://www.budsas.org/uni/u-kinh-trungbo/trung30.htm
1.2._The_Development_of_Vietnamese_Nuns_in_xxi_century_in_USA_-_Thich_Dong_Tri.pdf
