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Hand in Hand on the Same Path
With hearts established in mindfulness, the English rendition of “Chúng con hiện tiền tâm thanh tịnh” was chanted to invoke support from the fourfold Sangha, the Three Jewels, holy beings, and protection from eight misfortunes and three paths of suffering. Two couplets were composed for Bat Nha Monastery to remind practitioners that
- The Pure Land is a place of leisurely wandering, where one no longer seeks anything
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Dwelling peacefully in the present moment, what more is there to pursue?
expressing that each walking step, each of the twenty-four hours, can already be Pure Land practice, free of seeking and fully present.
Further inscriptions propose that individual effort creates collective refuge:
- A drop of water becomes a river / At ease, one returns to play in the great ocean
- Each step creates the Pure Land / Leisurely, we ascend to stroll the high hills
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A single parasol leaf falls / A thousand daffodils bloom, the earth follows the sky singing the song of no-birth
these six lines evoke a body of practice that, like a Bose-Einstein condensate or a laser, transforms the many into one unified field of energy capable of cutting through afflictions.
The passing of Sister My Nghiem at age twenty—after just over one year of monastic life—illustrated the power of Sangha care and practice: daily visits, healing chants, meals, gentle massage, and joint meditation helped her meet death with ease and a final smile. Her departure became both a testament to genuine brotherhood and sisterhood, and an inspiration for living each moment fully in the refuge of the Three Jewels.
The Beauty of a Simple Life