Order
of Interbeing Beginnings
(Sister Chân Không, Learning True Love)
I
have always lived like a nun-eating simple
foods, owning just a few changes of clothes,
wearing no cosmetics, and having no money
of my own in the bank. I even donated
the diamond necklace and diamond bracelets
my parents gave me to a project for the
poor. From the age of twenty, I knew
that someday I would shave my head and
join an order of Buddhist nuns. In 1960,
Thây Thanh Tu, Thây Tri Quang,
and Thây Nhat Hanh all advised
me to wait before being ordained, but
in 1963 Thây Tri Quang encouraged
me to become a nun. I asked Thây
Nhat Hanh, and he said that the precepts
for monks and nuns formulated 2,500 years
ago needed to be renewed. He
showed me fourteen new |
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precepts
he had written that he felt carried the deepest
teachings of the Buddha and would be fit for our
time. He said he would tell me when he thought
was the best time for me to shave my head and become
a nun. But for now, he invited six of us, the leaders
of the SYSS (School of Youth for Social Service),
to receive the Fourteen Precepts in a formal ceremony.
On
the fifth of February in 1966, a full moon
day, Thây Nhat Hanh ordained the first
six members of the Tiep Hien Order, the Order
of Interbeing. This Order was created by Thây
to help bring Buddhism directly into the arena
of social concerns during a time when the war
was escalating and the teachings of the Buddha
were most sorely needed. Thây proposed
that the Order be composed of monks, nuns,
laymen, and laywomen, and said that the six
of us first ordained were free to choose whether
we preferred to live and practice as formal
monastics or as laypersons. We three women
chose to live celibate lives like nuns, although
we didn't shave our heads, while the three
men chose to marry and practice as lay Buddhists.
Among the three women was Nhat Chi Mai, who
immolated herself for peace just a year later.
It
was a wonderful celebration! Each of us was
given a lamp with a handmade shade on which
Thây had calligraphed "Lamp of the
World," "Lamp of the Full Moon," "Lamp
of Wisdom," etc., in old-style Chinese.
During the initiation ceremony, we six ordainees
vowed to study, practice, and observe the Fourteen
Precepts of the Order of Interbeing. Since
that day, I have felt that these precepts are
my primary teacher, especially when I have
been under stress and do not know the best
way to act. These are the Fourteen Precepts:
1.
Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any
doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist
ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding
means; they are not absolute truth.
2.
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess
is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being
narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn
and practice nonattachment from views in order
to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth
is found in life and not merely in conceptual
knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your
entire life and to observe reality in yourself
and in the world at all times.
3.
Do not force others, including children, by
any means whatsoever, to adopt your views,
whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda,
or even education. However, through compassionate
dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and
narrowness.
4.
Do not avoid contact with suffering or close
your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness
of the existence of suffering in the life of
the world. Find ways to be with those who are
suffering, including personal contact, images,
and sound. By such means, awaken yourself and
others to the reality of suffering in the world.
5.
Do not accumulate wealth while millions are
hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life
fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure.
Live simply and share time, energy, and material
resources with those who are in need.
6.
Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate
and transform them when they are still seeds
in your consciousness. As soon as they arise,
turn your attention to your breath in order
to see and understand the nature of your anger
and hatred and the nature of the persons who
have caused your anger and hatred.
7.
Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your
surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to
come back to what is happening in the present
moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous,
refreshing, and healing both inside and around
you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding
in yourself in order to facilitate the work
of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
8.
Do not utter words that can create discord
and cause the community to break. Make every
effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts,
however small.
9.
Do not say untruthful things for the sake of
Personal interest or to impress people. Do
not utter words that cause division and hatred.
Do not spread news that you do not know to
be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things
of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully
and constructively. Have the courage to speak
out about situations of injustice, even when
doing so may threaten your own safety.
10.
Do not use the Buddhist community for personal
gain or profit, or transform your community
into a political party. A religious community,
however, should take a clear stand against
oppression and injustice and should strive
to change the situation without engaging in
partisan conflicts.
11.
Do not live with a vocation that is harmful
to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies
that deprive others of their chance to live.
Select a vocation that helps realize your ideal
of compassion.
12.
Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever
means possible to protect life and prevent
war.
13.
Possess nothing that should belong to others.
Respect the property of others, but prevent
others from profiting from human suffering
or the suffering of other species on Earth.
14.
Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle
it with respect, preserve vital energies (sexual,
breath, spirit) for the realization of the
Way. Be fully aware of the responsibility of
bringing new lives into the world. Meditate
on the world into which you are bringing new
beings,
The
conditions requested by Thây Nhat Hanh
to those of us who formally ordained with him
were to practice at least sixty Days of Mindfulness
a year and to practice with a community of
friends. Even though I continued to be extremely
busy, I renewed myself every week with a Day
of Mindfulness at our SYSS temple, from Saturday
noon until Sunday noon. I would always come
laden down with worries about urgent responsibilities,
but after a short while I could slowly calm
myself and stop even the most anxious thoughts.
I tried to dwell mindfully on every act, beginning
with putting my overnight bag in my room, boiling
some water for washing, and putting on my meditation
clothes. Then I practiced walking meditation
alone in the woods, picking wildflowers and
bamboo branches for arrangements for the meditation
hall. After three hours of dwelling steadily
in each mindful act and releasing all my worries,
I began to feel renewed, and we six members
of the Order gathered to recite the precepts
and chant the Heart Sutra together. Then we
shared tea and our experiences of the past
week, ate dinner silently together, and practiced
sitting meditation before bed. We meditated
together again in the early morning. During
individual time before and after evening meditation
and the next day, I sometimes had to resume
my urgent work alone in my room, but I always
did it in a mindful way.
One
day, Nhat Chi Mai said to me, "We are
such a new Order that the Buddhist Church does
not accept us as nuns." I comforted her
by saying, "Don't worry. We don't need
their acceptance. We were ordained by Thây
because we wanted to follow the Fourteen Precepts.
Others can think of us as laypersons, nuns,
or whatever they want. What is important is
that we practice the precepts as guidelines
finding our path of service and helping us
transform our negative tendencies, like fanaticism,
narrow-mindedness, anger and hatred." In
fact, as we continued to practice sincerely,
many of the high monks came to appreciate us.
Although they didn't call us nuns, they treated
us with equal respect.
Today,
thousands of friends in Europe, North America,
Australia, and Asia have come to know and practice
these Fourteen Precepts, although most have
not had the opportunity to receive them formally
from Thây. I always advise those who
wish to practice the precepts to organize a
Sangha, a community of friends, around them,
to recite the precepts every month, and share
their experiences of living the precepts. If
they do this, already they are members of the
extended community of the Order of Interbeing.
***Note: Thay means teacher in the Vietnamese language and is used as a tittle when
referring to fully ordained monks in the Vietnamese tradition, like Thay Phap
Tri or Thay Phap Dang,
much like using "Father John" or "Master Lin Chi".
Thich is a Vietnamese word transformed and shortened from the word Sakya, the clan name of the Siddhartha Gautama who became the Buddha.
We refer to Vietnamese monks simply with the word Thay for teacher. It is a sweet and intimate reference to your teacher.
Learning
True Love: How I Learned and Practiced Social
Change in Vietnam
Chân Khong (Cao Ngoc Phuong), Parallax
Press, Berkeley, California, 1993.
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