The next morning, it was little aspirant Thien Tai who went out to the thatched hut quite early and found that his father-teacher had just died. In a panic, he ran to find novice Man Tam. As Man Tam went looking for Thay Thanh Tam, Thay Chi Tam was already approaching the hermitage of Kinh Tam and also saw that his younger Dharma brother had passed away, in the lotus position, on the bamboo bed inside the hut. He had just lowered the corpse down to a lying position when Thay Thanh Tam arrived. Within minutes, the two venerables discovered that their younger Dharma brother Kinh Tam was a woman.
Thay Chi Tam told everyone present to step out of the hut and instructed all to join their palms while invoking the Buddha’s name. He was crying as he went back through the temple gates to find the abbot, who was also moved to tears upon hearing the news. The abbot instructed Thay Chi Tam to go down to the village to relay the news to the village council chairman and other members of the council. He also told him to invite several laywomen practitioners living near the temple to come up and help with the preparation of the body of novice Kinh Tam for the funeral and cremation.
Chapter Nine
LOVING HEART
News that novice Kinh Tam was a woman flashed like lightning throughout all the villages in the district. People from the village just below and various other nearby villages continually thronged around Dharma Cloud Temple. Lay Buddhists, youths, elders, steadfast supporters, erstwhile accusers—everyone was greatly moved. By noon, the temple grounds were packed full.
The abbot had read novice Kinh Tam’s letter to him and immediately gave permission for Venerable Chi Tam to go to Kinh Tam’s home village, to take little Thien Tai to be presented, and to hand-deliver the letter that Kinh Tam had written to her parents. The abbot also told novice Man Tam to deliver Kinh Tam’s letter to Thi Mau in the village below. Thi Mau was not home when the little novice came to her house. In fact, she had already heard the news and had gone up to the temple two hours earlier. Novice Man Tam had to return to the temple and, after a long search, finally found Thi Mau and gave her the letter.
The corpse of Kinh Tam was moved to the West Hall, which was brightly lit with numerous candles and richly perfumed with incense day and night. The abbot himself presided over all the chanting and praying sessions, only to be replaced by Thay Thanh Tam when the abbot got tired. The chanting echoed clearly out to the outer courtyards of the temple. So many people shed so many tears. They commented to each other, “Practicing like that is really true practice. Being able to peacefully endure things so difficult to endure is truly the practice of magnanimity—kshanti paramita. How horrible, the way Kinh Tam was treated for over six years!” Many of the men present were red-eyed, while women shamelessly sobbed and cried out loud. The chanting ceaselessly rolled out over and above all the commotion.
The casket of novice Kinh Tam was to be displayed for seven days in the West Hall before being moved to the funeral pyre in front of the temple gate, exactly on the spot of the thatched hut of the novice. Thay Chi Tam was given permission to travel on horseback in order to bring Kinh Tam’s family back in time for the cremation ser vices. The family of Thi Mau presented itself to the village council, requesting to bear all funeral costs. All members of this upper-class family heeded the advice of the abbot and came to stay in the humble accommodations at the temple for those seven days. They ate simple vegetarian meals, slept on the ground with modest bedding, read sutras, chanted texts of repentance and beginning anew, and prayed.
Mau cried herself dry. During the ceremony to receive mourning cloths, she had knelt down and asked to receive the mourning cloth of a blood sister of the novice. A marked change had come over Thi Mau. Ever since hearing the truth and then receiving the mourning cloth, her face and indeed her entire physical appearance had become completely different. All signs of melancholy and despair vanished. Her face shone brightly like that of a person who had found someone who truly loved her. Under the instruction of the abbot, copies of The Collection on the Six Paramitas collated by Master Tang Hoi were distributed for constant chanting day and night. Everyone eventually memorized the gathas on the teaching on magnanimity.
Finally Venerable Chi Tam returned. He announced that a two-horse coach was arriving shortly, carrying Kinh Tam’s parents Mr. and Mrs. Ly, Chau, Thien Si, and little Thien Tai. He relayed that Thien Tai had been fully accepted as a blood grandchild by Kinh Tam’s parents, who naturally had cried in reading the letter Kinh Tam had written to them. Eight long years they had searched and waited in vain for news of their beloved daughter, and now, when they finally received news, it was of her demise.
The coach stopped at the foot of the hills. Looking up toward the temple, Mr. and Mrs. Ly saw the red banner fluttering in the wind bearing the Dharma name of novice Kinh Tam and burst into tears once again. The cremation ceremony was planned to begin exactly at noon, but already the temple grounds were packed full with over three thousand people. The chanting continued to echo out to the outer courtyards of the temple. A bridge made out of white silk hundreds of meters long was put up to represent the path or bridge from the shore of suffering to the shore of freedom.
The abbot himself went out to greet and receive the Ly family and Thien Si. He ushered them into his quarters to comfort them in their grief, led them in to pay homage to the Buddha, and finally brought them to the West Hall to pay respects to their beloved, the novice Kinh Tam. The deceased novice’s facial expression was quite tranquil; there was still a trace of the smile from the moment of last release. Everyone knelt down in front of the altar to receive their respective mourning cloths: Chau as younger brother of the novice, Thien Si as husband, and Thien Tai as Dharma son. Everyone made the solemn vow to practice in accord with the Five Mindfulness Trainings and to diligently practice invoking the Buddha’s names and chanting the sutras.
Great rolling sounds of the giant bell and thundering rhythms of the drum announced the time to close the casket and start the procession to the funeral pyre. The crowd of devotees was told to make way. The Ly elders, Mau’s parents, Chau, Thien Si, Mau, and little Thien Tai wore their mourning cloths and walked behind the coffin. The Venerables Chi Tam and Thanh Tam headed the ceremony, leading everyone in the invocation and chanting of the sutras. Sandalwood incense permeated the air, its perfume helping everyone present to open up their hearts and embrace the entire cosmos. The deep, slow sounds of the giant bell, deliberately un-hurried, gently coaxed people to release all tension and be at peace.
At this moment, there was not a single person in the crowd whose heart held any hatred or division. At this moment, there was not a single person in the crowd still harboring any bitterness or vindictiveness. Over three thousand people were present, yet every single person’s heart was infused with the energy of true love. The heart of novice Kinh Tam had entered into the hearts of all the people. Kinh Tam was distinctly present in this earthly world, as well as on the shore of true freedom.
As flames consumed the pyre, the abbot, in ceremonial robes, pointed up at an unusually bright patch in the sky. Everyone looked up. Many saw a large area of multicolored clouds—a highly auspicious sign according to tradition. Novice Kinh Tam was a true practition er; it was evident that she had succeeded in attaining full liberation.
It was two o’clock when the fire finally died out. The Venerables Chi Tam and Thanh Tam instructed devotees to sprinkle perfumed water over the hot embers and to gather the ashes of Kinh Tam. They found in the collected ashes seventy-five relics. Some relics were the size of the knuckle of a little finger, shining like pearls, while others were the size of sesame seeds, all shimmering with the auspicious combination of five colors. The two monks gathered the relics into a white ceramic urn, to be put on the altar in the temple for veneration.
Standing on a high dais, the abbot began teaching the Dharma to the large audience. Although he was nearly seventy years old, his voice was as powerful and commanding as the sound of the great bell. He declared that although Kinh Tam was a novice an
d had not taken full vows, she had succeeded in the practice and gained full enlightenment. The novice was truly the manifestation of a great being. Kinh Tam’s full commitment to personally living a magnanimous life proved that the novice was already a true sage. Kinh Tam’s heart had become a boundless heart of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, with the capacity to embrace every living being.
The abbot paused and then continued with a new air of reverence as he told the story of a visitation. In the abbot’s sitting meditation the night before, the Buddha had appeared, holding a lotus flower in his left hand and making the great auspicious mudra gesture with his right. The Buddha told the abbot that Kinh Tam had achieved the highest attainment of a bodhisattva and was now peacefully abiding in the Dharma Cloud Realm. A beam of bright light shone forth from the little finger of the World-Honored One’s right hand, still in the position of the auspicious mudra. Looking up at the sky in the direction indicated by the beam of light, the abbot had seen a magnificently jeweled lotus dais with a thousand petals. Sitting on the lotus dais was a bodhisattva whose bearing was extremely upright and whose facial features were exactly those of novice Kinh Tam. The bodhisattva had smiled and joined her palms in respect toward the abbot, who in turn joined his palms respectfully as his heart overflowed with serene joy and admiration. Interestingly, the abbot also saw the little aspirant Thien Tai standing with palms joined behind the bodhisattva’s lotus dais. Although the apparition lasted only very briefly, the communication was quite deep and clear. At that precise moment, an extraordinary and wondrous fragrance pervaded the abbot’s room that he had never sensed before.
The abbot went on to publicly announce to the congregation that he was committed to begin building a temple where women could be ordained and practice as nuns, as Bodhisattva Kinh Tam had implored in her letter. This bodhisattva had practiced to full realization and was able to help her parents and many other people, whether closely related or not, to transcend their suffering and renew their lives. The relics of Bodhisattva Kinh Tam were to be enshrined in this temple where she had lived and practiced. The abbot went on to say that, although he was Kinh Tam’s teacher, he himself had gained many insights in observing the practice of the bodhisattva. In this way, the great attainment of one practitioner benefits countless other people. He then counseled everyone present to invoke the name of the bodhisattva: “Homage to the Bodhisattva of Deep Listening Kinh Tam, Limitless Loving-kindness and Compassion, Limitless Joy and Equanimity, Limitless Magnanimity.” Wholeheartedly, reverently, everyone chanted the invocation a hundred and eight times. The abbot also advised all to immediately invoke the bodhisattva’s name anytime they felt irritated, angry, hurt, or aggrieved. With single-minded concentration, those afflictions would be transformed within minutes of invocation.
Then the abbot concluded the talk by reading an excerpt from a sutra in which the Buddha teaches novice Rahula about ways to deal with various situations in life. At that time, Rahula had reached the age of seventeen and was capable of receiving deeper teachings. The Buddha taught:
Rahula, you should learn from the Earth. Whether people spread pure and fragrant flowers, freshwater, and sweet milk on the Earth or discard onto it things of filth and stench like blood, pus, urine, and garbage, the Earth quietly receives everything without feelings of pride, attachment, grievance, or being humiliated. Why? Because the Earth has immense embracing capacity and has the ability to receive and transform whatever it takes in. If your heart-mind, my dear disciple, is boundlessly immense like the Earth, then you will also have the ability to receive and transform all injustices and grievances. And you will no longer feel humiliated or suffer because of them.
Rahula, you should learn from water. Whether people throw into water things which are pure and pleasant or wash in it things of filth and stench, water quietly receives everything without feelings of pride, attachment, grievance, or being humiliated. Why? Because water has immense embracing capacity, is ever-flowing, and has the ability to receive and transform whatever it takes in. If your heart-mind, my dear disciple, is boundlessly immense like water, then you too will have the ability to receive and transform all injustices and grievances. And you will no longer feel humiliated or suffer because of them.
Rahula, you should learn from fire. Fire has the ability to receive and burn all things, including things of filth and stench, without grievance or feeling humiliated. Why? Because fire has immense receptivity and the ability to burn and transform whatever people bring to it. If your heart-mind, my dear disciple, is unprejudiced and vast like fire, then you too will have the ability to receive and transform all injustices and grievances. Then your inner happiness and peace will remain unaffected by them.
Rahula, you should learn from air. Air has the ability to receive, carry away, and transform all odors, sweet or foul, without pride, attachment, grievance, or feeling humiliated. Why? Because air has immense embracing capacity and has the extraordinary faculty of mobility. If your heart-mind, my dear disciple, is boundlessly immense, if your heart-mind has the ability to transform and has great mobility like the air, then you too will have the ability to receive and transform all injustice and grievances people may fling at you. Then your inner happiness and peace will remain unaffected by them.
The teachings read by the abbot were similar to the ones poetically condensed in the verses that novice Kinh Tam often chanted in early mornings and late evenings while sounding the large temple bell. The words were like drops of Dharma nectar refreshing all the listeners’ hearts. Chau, Kinh Tam’s younger brother, after hearing the sutra, knelt down at the abbot’s feet and requested to be ordained and practice as a monk in Dharma Cloud Temple. Thien Si too knelt down at his feet and requested to be ordained. Thi Mau also came over to kneel at the abbot’s feet. She affirmed to the abbot that as soon as the first temple for nuns was established, she would request to be ordained and practice there. The parents of Thi Mau and the parents of Bodhisattva Kinh Tam all knelt down, declaring their aspiration to receive and practice the Five Mindfulness Trainings. They would also wholeheartedly support the abbot in the effort to set up the first temple for nuns in the country of Giao Chau.
Dharma Cloud Temple, also known as Cloud Temple or Mulberry Temple, is the site now marking the legend of the Bodhisattva of Deep Listening Kinh Tam. And to preserve in people’s memory that the bodhisattva appeared as a young woman, the local people invoke, “Homage to the Bodhisattva of Deep Listening Thi Kinh.” (The middle name “Thi” is regularly given to women.) Let us happily join the people in respectfully reciting, “Homage to the Bodhisattva of Deep Listening Thi Kinh.”
The End
A BRIEF NOTE ON THE LEGEND OF QUAN AM THI KINH
A bodhisattva is a great being, an enlightened being who is animated by the desire to help all beings suffer less and enjoy peace and happiness. There are many bodhisattvas in Buddhism, each usually representing a specific virtue. Each bodhisattva may be seen as another hand of the Buddha.
A most important bodhisattva in Buddhism is Avalokiteshvara (or Avalokita), also known as Guan Yin in Chinese, Kannon in Japanese, and Quan Am (or Quan The Am) in Vietnamese. Quan Am is the Buddha’s hand of love and understanding. The words quan am in Vietnamese mean to observe or listen deeply to the sounds or cries of the world. Quan Am has the capacity to listen to the suffering of people, to understand, and to find those people in pain and help them.
Quan Am Thi Kinh was a real, live bodhisattva renowned in Vietnam for manifesting infinite forgiveness and endless, patient forbearance. Quan Am Thi Kinh’s life story was made into a popular folk opera centuries ago. Later, a more erudite version was composed in the form of a six-eight verse poem in 788 lines.
It is still not known who wrote the poem about Quan Am Thi Kinh, but it is a well-executed work deserving its place in the history of Vietnamese literature. The first published version in modern Vietnamese script was by Nguyen Van Vinh in the year 1911. As for written versions of the opera, one
was printed in the native script at the end of the nineteenth century, and all others were written by hand. In 1966, Vu Khac Khoan published a version in Vietnamese with the input of many operatic artists who were in Saigon with him at the time.
THI KINH’S LEGACY
SISTER CHAN KHONG
Sister Chan Khong is an expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist nun and peace activist who works closely with Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village and around the world.
Every Vietnamese person knows, often from earliest childhood, the story of Quan Am Thi Kinh, a manifestation of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion. Mothers like to tell their children the story to teach them to be strong and endure when facing great hardship.
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