An Tran

BREAKING — 51 Iranian children are dead after a strike hits Minab girls elementary school in Iran.

Wonderful! So heartening to hear how our master’s teachings have resonated with you. 🙏🏼

But just a quick correction, in all kindness: “teacher” or “master” is spelled “Thầy”, not “Thây.” Very different words! “Thây” means “corpse” or “zombie.” 🙃

Really interesting read! Thanks for sharing. 🙏🏼

San Francisco’s Solidarity Walk-for-Peace earlier today around the Presidio. 🙏🏼

#Buddhism #EngagedBuddhism #WalkForPeace

Such a great interview and book.

[The cycle of] birth and death is samsara (literally "wandering through"); nirvana means we no longer wander-we have arrived, we are home. We wander because we still depend on conditions. Once we no longer depend on conditions, we rest in nirvana... The original Sanskrit is ajavamjavi, which means coming and going - or to go in and out of birth and death. We depend on conditions, and this is why we come and go in the realm of samsara. Once we no longer depend on conditions, then we are in nirvana. The nature of birth and death is dependence, while the nature of nirvana is independence. We thirst for existence, a long-lasting existence, or many existences... Existence (bhava) and [non-Jexistence (vibhava) are both objects of our thirst. The Buddha said that neither of them should be followed and taught us what we should do to transcend them both. This is not a theory, but a practice to avoid being caught in becoming or non-becoming. -Thich Nhat Hanh, Cracking the Walnut: Understanding the Dialectics of Nagarjuna, translator: Annabel Laity (pp.339-340)

Finally have some proof in English that Thich Nhat Hanh did not deviate from traditional exegesis—his model of “continuation and manifestation”was just his way of describing Yogacara’s alaya-vijnana as being the basis for a new body-mind composite of aggregates based on past karmic imprints.

What Do Buddhists Think of Fort Worth’s “Walk for Peace” Monks? Three months into the historic journey, Tricycle talks with teachers and authors about the significance of Walk for Peace 2026.

I share some words—alongside an incredible selection of Buddhist teachers, writers, and venerable masters—on and honoring the pilgriming monks and their Walk for Peace. 🙏🏼

#buddhism #engagedbuddhism #WalkForPeace

The Engaged Buddha of Vietnam How one Tran dynasty emperor combined secular ethics with dharmic practice, ushering in a “Buddhism that enters the world”

So grateful to share this piece I wrote honoring the Buddha-Emperor Trần Nhân Tông, founder of the philosophical tradition that would become #EngagedBuddhism, who taught how secular ethics & sociopolitical activism can be praxis for bodhisattvas who enter & remain in the mundane world. #Buddhism

I just found out, this Sunday, the Walk for Peace will be stopping at the temple I attended as a child, Chùa Hoa Nghiêm in Ft. Belvoir.

How cool to have a connection to this historic pilgrimage even when I’m now living on the other side of the country!

#Buddhism #EngagedBuddhism #WalkForPeace

pacifist “monk militia” led by Thich Tri Quang during the VN war that ambushed US soldiers with industrial pesticide sprayers full of chili oil, and all activism from Buddhists during the 1963 Buddhist Crisis.

Our history is RICH with resistance against tyranny—we just need be grounded in it. ✊🏼🙏🏼

Buddhism has a long history of revolutionary praxis and theory—check out the thought of Kawakami Hajime in Japan, a Pure Lander and anti-fascist activist in the early 20th century, or Ven. Zhengfeng in Taiwan, a revolutionary monk resisting imperial Japanese occupation, and especially look at the

The other night, I participated in a Sa Jing Purification
ritual in the Chinese Mahayana tradition, led by Venerable De Hong, for the opening of a new zendo for the formerly incarcerated to practice dharma. So grateful for the opportunity share in such wondrous merit. 🙏🏼

#EngagedBuddhism #Buddhism

Those looking to support the #WalkForPeace can go here to look for details on making donations directly to the temple where the monks reside.

Nam mô Bổn sư Thích ca mâu ni Phật 🙏🏼🙇🏻‍♂️

#Buddhism #EngagedBuddhism

How incredible! Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s THE LIGHT THAT SHINES THROUGH THE UNIVERSE has beens elected as the next Plinth Commission--a 27-ft homage to one of the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas.

A giant Buddha-rupa in New York to perfume the minds of the masses there. 🙏🏼 Link: tinyurl.com/2m4nd7az

Mao used to practice Buddhism under Master Xu Yun in his earlier years, of whom Premier Zhou Enlai was a devout disciple and had convinced Mao to join along. Huayan Buddhism’s approach to dialectics influenced Mao’s take on Marxist dialectics, which is most evident in his essay “On Contradictions”.

A Battle in the Bardo The legendary life and rebirth of sorcerer-monk Tu Dao Hanh

I’m incredibly grateful to Tricycle for the opportunity to share this adapted short story of the Từ Đạo Hạnh legend from folklore tradition of Vietnamese #Buddhism, which (afaik) has never appeared in English before. 🙏🏼

Brian Hoang provided a beautiful accompanying illustration—I’m blown away.

He saw Buddhism as the means to spiritual liberation & Marxism as the means to material liberation, spreading this teaching to the masses, & embodying it in his own life & conduct.

A really remarkable and admirable figure in histories of Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism that does not get his due. 6/6

He was the first Buddhist monk to become a member of the Communist Party of Indochina, and used the language of Buddhism to awaken class consciousness in the masses—a true forefather of Buddhist-Marxist apologetics, who provided the opening for Buddhists en masse to lend support to the Marxists. 5/

In 1928, Sư Thiện Chiếu organized a series of mass protests in Vietnam, demanding basic rights for Buddhists under French occupation. His efficacy as a leader at generating mass movements routinely caused issues for the French colonizers, and he was arrested multiple times for being a dissident. 4/

He opened up monasteries across Viet Nam to serve as orphanages to raise the children left orphaned from the war, and encouraged monks and nuns to use their education and social privilege to lend support to and shelter revolutionaries. 3/

Sư Thiện Chiếu argued that Buddhism was not compatible with colonial exploitation and worked hard to both spread literacy among the masses while simultaneously publishing literature that skillfully re-expressed Marxist revolutionary ideas in Buddhist language, using Buddhist doctrinal defenses. 2/

Lately I’ve been learning about Ven. Thích Thiện Chiếu (1898-1974), an exemplar of the Vietnamese #EngagedBuddhism tradition and an important revolutionary figure in Sài Gòn's colonial resistance. He published many commentaries that connected ideas of Buddhist liberation to national liberation. 1/

YouTube video by Fearless Wisdom FW Chats: Ẩn Trần and Vietnamese Buddhism

I was interviewed by the Fearless Wisdom podcast on the history of Vietnamese #Buddhism! Grateful for the opportunity to share some of my experience with the tradition & shine light on its rich history. 🙏🏼

(You’ll have to forgive how horribly I butcher some of the pronunciations of terms here.. 😅)

Has anyone else ever noticed how often Sakyamuni Buddha in his past lives slanders the dharma? 😅

In MN81, he had to be dragged by the hair to go see the Buddha after disparaging him. In T09, he insults the past life of Amitabha as a fraud. Just going around talking smack bout the Buddha and sangha.

San Francisco’s Tu Quang Temple: Vietnamese Buddhism and Regeneration in the Heart of the City - Buddha Weekly: Buddhist Practices, Mindfulness, Meditation Down the hill from the San Francisco Mint towards a bustling intersection at Duboce Avenue and Market Street, the beautiful blue and white sculptural relief

A great write-up about the beautiful little temple in the Mission serving San Francisco’s Vietnamese Buddhist community.

Okay—took me a few days to get myself to the bookstore, but I cannot tell you how excited I am to crack into Ocean Vuong’s latest novel!

#booksky #oceanvuong #emperorofgladness

I’m so very grateful to @tricyclemag.bsky.social for the opportunity to share more about Vietnamese #Buddhism and some of the history the oft-overlooked Thien-Pure Land Dual Cultivation tradition. It’s a true blessing to write about and share the dharma w/ others.

Nam mô A di đà Phật
🙏🏼🙇🏻‍♂️🙏🏼🙇🏻‍♂️🙏🏼🙇🏻‍♂️

Auction of ancient Indian gems ‘imbued with presence of Buddha’ condemned Sotheby’s sale of Piprahwa gems, excavated after burial with Buddha’s remains, denounced as perpetuating colonial violence

Absolutely. Vile. 😡

Sotheby’s to auction off a collection of STOLEN gems that had been found in India alongside the relics of the Buddha as an offering, known to have been excavated and taken by British colonists.

Imperial violence against #buddhism still going strong in 2025.

At that time, Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva emerged from his seat. Pressing his palms in reverence, he addressed the Buddha saying, “Bhagavan, I have made up my mind to become a Buddha. I have long seen the beings of the human realm toiling in the fields. With their ten fingers, they claw at the mud until blood flows. “For this reason, I vow to be reborn in the body of the ox. I vow to save the toiling masses. With the two horns on my head, I will pull the plough, break up the earth, and turn over the soil.” ~Sutra on the Ox-King Mahasthamaprapta

Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva is a comrade—confirmed. ✊🏼

Honestly, I'm really moved by how pro-labor this #Buddhist scripture seems—like, it appears to argue/imply that the primary duty of both divine and stately power is improving the well-being of the working masses.

🙏🏼 Nam mô Đại thế chi Bồ tát 🙇🏻‍♂️