THE GREAT PURELAND MASTER

VÔ-NHẤT THÍCH THIỀN-TÂM

1925-1992

(Cultivation: 48    Lifetime: 68)

VÔ-NHẤT 

 (Lấy ý câu: Nhất sự vô thành thân tiệm lão)

 

 

 

PREFACE

 

 

At the end of 1992, The Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation was deeply saddened after hearing of the death of the late Venerable Master ĐẠI-NINH THÍCH THIỀN-TÂM. He was a high ranking, highly virtuous Buddhist Master who devoted his life to studying the philosophy of Buddhism. He was most well-known for practicing and teaching the PURELAND AND ESOTERIC traditions. Throughout his life, he worked hard to propagate and spread widely these methods to practicing Buddhists. In fact, there are not many Buddhist masters, nuns, or followers within the Vietnamese Buddhist Community who have not heard of him either in or out of Vietnam. His fame and popularity have particularly heightened since 1974. In fact, he was so loved and respected that some people look up to him as if he were a "Living Buddha". From that time, his faith, character, and relentless determination to attain enlightenment increased with each passing day. His aspiration to find enlightenment was so tenacious that it was comparable to the radiating sun at noon on a beautiful, clear day in the Sahara Desert.

 

After the service for the late Venerable Master, there were a few people who expressed interest in writing his biography. Their purpose was twofold: to praise, acclaim and glorify the life of a Buddhist Master who had achieved enlightenment by attaining a life in the AMITABHA Buddha's Western PURELAND, and secondly, to give people an opportunity to read, learn, and follow the footsteps of the late Venerable Master. They also hoped that after reading, people would find that the Venerable master's life was a guiding light for all practicing Buddhists who are searching for enlightenment.

 

However, there was one very difficult obstacle to overcome and that was throughout the Venerable master's life he had not kept any records or details regarding his life. According to the Venerable THÍCH HẢI-QUANG, a nephew and disciple of the late Venerable Master, when the Master was alive, he was a simple and uncomplicated man, devoting most of his time toward Cultivating the Way and praying that it would lead him to enlightenment. With regard to his life, the Venerable Master didn't care about fame, fortune, power, praises, insults, right, wrong, high, low etc. (Of all who knew him, almost everyone would testify that this was the way of the Venerable Master THÍCH THIỀN-TÂM).

 

Sensing his greatness, there have been a few times when some of the Venerable master's closest disciples respectfully asked him to permit them to write a few things about his life, but he firmly refused them. Unfortunately, for this reason, most of the details and information with respect to the master's life have been lost over the years.

 

As for myself, though I have not had the honor of meeting, paying respect to, or attending Dharma sessions of the late Venerable Master, my Seminal Master, Dharma Master THÍCH HẢI-QUANG, is the Venerable master's nephew and a head disciple. From my master, I have learned most of the Venerable master's teachings, therefore, in a sense I have directly learned from my Grand Master, the