ZEN MESTEREK ZEN MASTERS
« Zen főoldal
« vissza a Terebess Online nyitólapjára
Thích Thiên-Ân 釋天恩 (1926-1980)
Thích Thiên Ân. (釋天恩) (1926–1980). The first Vietnamese Buddhist monk to
spread Buddhism in the West. He was born in 1926 in Huế (Central Vietnam) in a
Buddhist family. He was ordained at age fourteen. In 1953, he went to Japan to
study and earned a doctorate in literature at Waseda University in 1963. He
returned to Vietnam and took a teaching position in the Department of Buddhist
Studies at Vạn Hạnh University in 1964. In 1966 he was invited by the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to be a visiting professor. At the urging of
American students, he founded the International Buddhist Meditation Center
(IBMC) in 1970 in Los Angeles, the first Vietnamese center to offer full monastic
ordination to Westerners. In 1973 the College of Oriental Studies was established.
After South Vietnam fell in 1975, many Vietnamese refugees relocated to
Southern California and the IBMC became a shelter and residence for many of
them. Eventually, it could no longer accommodate the increasing number of
refugees who kept arriving in Southern California. Thích Thiên Ân purchased two
houses in the same neighborhood and converted them into the Vietnamese
Buddhist Temple and Amida Temple. These were the first Vietnamese Buddhist
temples in North America. He was also the first Vietnamese monk to write books
on Chan history and practice in Japanese and English.
The Lineage of Thích Thiên-Ân:
33th generation of the Lâm Tế tông (臨濟宗 Linji school): Nguyên Thiều 元韶 (1648-1728), aka Siêu Bạch, Hoán Bích
34. Minh Hoằng 明弘 (?-?), Dharma title Tử Dung 子融
35. Thiệt Diệu / Liễu Quán 寔妙了觀 (1667-1742)
36. Tế Căn / Từ Chiếu
37. Đại Đức / Vạn Phúc
38. Đạo Viên / Tri Giám
39. Tánh Định / Long Quang
40. Thiên Ân 天恩 (1926-1980)
Books by Dr. Thich Thien-An:
PDF: Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice
Dharma Publishing, 1975PDF: Buddhism and Zen in Vietnam: In Relation to the Development of Buddhism in Asia
Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT USA and Tokyo, Japan. 1975
Kindle Edition. 2013-04-09.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Thi%C3%AAn-%C3%82n
http://www.timesquotidian.com/2009/04/17/good-luck-bad-luck/
Sư Tổ Thích Thiên-Ân (師祖釋天恩)
September 1926 - November 1980
Compiled and Edited from Vietnamese and English Sources by Ven. Dr. Thích Đức Tâm. ©2015+
http://www.unitedbuddhistchurch.org/hh-thiacutech-thiecircn-acircn.html
The Most Venerable Dr. Thích Thiên Ân was born Đoàn Văn An on September 22nd of 1926 at An Truyền village in the Phú Vang district, of Thừa Thiên province in Vietnam. The eldest of four brothers born to a father named Đoàn Mễ (who would later ordain as Thích Tiêu Diêu), Dr. Thiên Ân's mother was a devout temple maiden who cared for Báo Quốc pagoda, and Quảng Hương Già Lam monastery.
Having been raised in sincere and respected Buddhist household, Dr. Thiên Ân had shown an affinity for the practice of Thiền meditation and Buddhist liturgy from a very early age. It was thus in 1936 at just 10 years of age, that the young Đoàn Văn An followed in his father’s footsteps and requested to be ordained, becoming a disciple of the Most Venerable (Hòa Thượng) Thích Vĩnh Thừa at Châu Lâm pagoda, receiving the dharma name Thiên Ân (Heavenly Grace).
The Venerable Thiên Ân diligently served his seniors, adhering to their direction, and strictly observing his practice of the precepts and meditation, and at the age of 15 in 1941 he qualified to receive the Sramanera precepts with the permission of his original teacher from a precepts platform convened at Quốc Ân pagoda in Huế under the authority of Venerable Đắc Quang.
In 1948 at the age of 22 the then novice Thiên Ân received the Upasampada precepts of a fully ordained monk from the Hộ Quốc Đàn precepts platform convened at at Báo Quốc shrine under the authority of Venerable Tịnh Khiết. Notably it was at this same ceremony that such masters as Thích Minh Châu, Thích Đức Tâm, and Thích Minh Tánh received their full ordination alongside the Venerable Thích Thiên Ân.
By 1954, noting his exceptional learning aptitude, the Venerable Thích Thiên Ân was given a scholarship from Báo Quốc pagoda to travel and study abroad in Japan. Enrolling in Toyo University, Thiên Ân received his BA in Buddhist Studies in 1957. Looking to further his education, the Venerable Thiên Ân was given a scholarship by the Japanese government and admitted to the well-known Waseda University, where he received his MA in Oriental Studies in 1959, and the prestigious Doctor of Literature degree in the same field in 1964 (in what would be the first awarding of that degree in Japan since WWII). Returning to Vietnam following the completion of his studies, Dr. Thiên Ân was invited to frequently to lecture at numerous universities throughout the country.
By 1961, with a mind toward establishing a cutting edge Buddhist University in Vietnam, Dr. Thiên Ân was charged by his seniors with the task of further developing his knowledge base and experience in the management of academia on an international level. Whilst these efforts would eventually result in the founding of the famed Vạn Hạnh Buddhist University in Saigon, alongside his his dharma brothers the Most Venerable Thích Minh Châu, and the Most Venerable Thích Nhất Hạnh, of further note is Dr. Thiên Ân's committed study and practice under the tutelage of several Japanese Rinzai masters, having once again found himself in Japan.
In 1963 Dr. Thiên Ân's home country exploded in political turmoil under the oppression of the Diệm regime. Pained by the atrocities committed again Buddhism and in particular Buddhist monks in Vietnam, Dr. Thiên Ân returned home to assist in the fight for Buddhist freedoms. Along with numerous of the monks and nuns, Dr. Thiên Ân was arrested in a sweeping act of aggression by the Diệm regime, just before it's collapse following the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức on June 11th 1963. Dr. Thiên Ân's own father, Thượng Tọa Thích Tiêu Diêu (1892-1963) followed Thích Quảng Đức as the second monk to self-immolate to call attention to the plight of the Vietnamese people under Diệm.
Following the liberation from the oppression of the practice of Buddhism by Diệm, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was founded in 1964, and Dr. Thiên Ân was elected as a Councilor of Buddhist Studies and Sangha Affairs. Thus, 1966 Dr. Thiên Ân was invited by the Department of Asian Cultural Study of the United Nations to participate in an academic exchange program. Arriving in Southern California in the summer of 1966, Dr. Thiên Ân taught philosophy and language as an exchange professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). His students would quickly discover that Dr. Thiên Ân was not only a renowned scholar, but also a Zen Buddhist Master, and in short order, they would convince him to start teaching the practice of meditation.
Having formed a study group to offer instruction on the finer points of Buddhist practice, in addition to his continued presentation of the academic viewpoints of the tradition, by 1968 Dr. Thiên Ân's exchange program had come to an end, and he was planning to return to Vietnam. However, his now enthusiastic followers encouraged Dr. Thiên Ân to apply for permanent residence and start a full-fledged meditation center that could include a place residential practitioners.
First renting an apartment south of Vermont Highway in Los Angeles, Dr. Thiên Ân continued to instruct his American students in the practice of meditation. As his body of disciples continued to grow, Dr. Thiên Ân would eventually purchase several properties on South New Hampshire Boulevard near downtown Los Angeles, resulting in the founding of the International Buddhist Meditation Center (IBMC or Trung Tâm Thiền Học Quốc Tế) in 1970.Sư Tổ (a title meaning "First Patriarch"), as Dr. Thiên Ân's students called him, rather than establishing a remote and rural center, believed in the importance of being accessible to all those interested in the Buddhist path, and thus chose to establish his temples in the center of Los Angeles' urban core.
From the beginning of the establishment of his first center, Sư Tổ's mission in the West was to bring Buddhism fully into American culture, adapting as needed to the national values and understandings present therein. He understood the Western mindset and culture, and had a sense of how Buddhist practice needed to differ for Westerners to properly develop, and yet often mentioned how the West would eventually reintroduce true Buddhism to the East.
In October of 1973, calling on his years of training and experience as a collegiate educator and administrator, Dr. Thiên Ân, collaborating with American, Korean, Tibetan, and Sri Lankan Buddhist scholars and leaders established the University of Oriental Studies (Trường Đại Học Đông Phương) as a means to increase the educational standards of American students of the Dharma, offering advanced courses in Buddhist doctrine, canonical languages, and Eastern philosophy.
When Saigon fell in 1975, Sư Tổ perceived the needs of the myriad refugees of his homeland, and took personal responsibility to help them establish a new home in the West. He thus constructed a traditional Vietnamese temple one block away from IBMC, to serve as a place for the transplanting of Vietnamese culture, and the building of community amongst the incoming refugees. Naming this new temple Chùa Phật Giáo Việt Nam, it would become the first Vietnamese temple ever built on American soil.
Sư Tổ's Buddhist centers became a residence for as many of the displaced Vietnamese people as possible, and much networking was done to ensure help for the others to come, with the Western monks working side by side with the Vietnamese monks in the service of the incoming refugees.
When the fleeing Vietnamese people, having left all their material belongings as well as family and friends behind, got off the ships to the warm welcome of monks and laypeople from Sư Tổ's temples, many of them were so relieved that they were brought to tears.Sư Tổ's vision of Buddhism in America included a softening of the lines between different Buddhist traditions, and he went out of his way to always include teachers from the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, as well as monks and students from many different countries. He encouraged interfaith as well as inter-Buddhist activities. Uniquely, Sư Tổ provided opportunities for students who wished to become ordained while not completely relinquishing family life, showing unique insight into future of Buddhist practice in the West (1974 would see the convening of the first Grand Ordination platform organized by Dr. Thiên Ân in the West. Several students were ordained to various levels of the Buddhist presbyterate, to include the full ordination of both single and married practitioners alike). Sư Tổ ordained many American monks and nuns, a number of whom have become Masters themselves and still continue his work.
In September of 1980, the Most Venerable Dr. Thích Thiên Ân, the first Vietnamese Patriarch to the West, was diagnosed with cancer that spread rapidly from his liver to his brain. With this knowledge, Sư Tổ contined his work, propagating the Buddha Dharma in the United States.
Sư Tổ died in November of 1980 at the age of 54. In his last months, one could often find him sitting peacefully on the steps of the IBMC bell tower. His students speak of what a gift it was to be able to sit quietly next to him and feel the energy of his understanding throughout that time. He had many plans for the future of Buddhism in the West, which he had only begun to actualize and even share in lectures throughout Asia, and yet saw the reality of his situation. He smiled, as he smiled often, a smile of great compassion and loving-kindness for all world.
Sư Tổ's written legacy of the Dharma includes numerous lectures, and four masterpiece books:- Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice
- Buddhism and Zen in Vietnam- Trao đổi văn hóa Việt – Nhật
(Exchange of Culture between Vietnam and Japan)-Phật Pháp (Buddhism – One of three authors)
