Stepping into Freedom

Foreword by Translator Sister Annabel Laity

When we step into the monastery, we feel right away a sense of harmonious order: a peaceful, serene atmosphere far from the chaotic busyness of life outside. Where does this order and peace come from? Monastic culture, transmitted from the time of the Buddha through more than a hundred generations, creates conditions for this peace. The instructions in this little book that you hold in your hands contain the essence of this monastic culture.

In the 1980s, when I asked our teacher, Thích Nh t H nh, to allow me to ordain as a Buddhist nun, he did not give his consent right away. In fact, I had to ask many times before I received it. My father had told me once that when he asked my mother if she would marry him, she said she needed time to think about it. Our teacher needed time to think about starting a monastic order in Plum Village; I also needed time to see if I had the capacity to be a nun. The commitment to monastic life is not a light one; it is a lifelong commitment to a way of living very different from the one we knew before. We commit ourselves because we know that this is the way to freedom a deep inner freedom that is not possible without discipline and a Sangha. Our teacher and I did not yet know if I would be able to keep that commitment or whether I would be happy as a nun. So, I needed to wait two more years for ordination.

After I ordained, I was given a copy of the twenty-four chapters on fine manners compiled by Master Zhuhong in the sixteenth century, which had been translated into Vietnamese. As soon as my Vietnamese was proficient enough, I did my best to translate it into English, and, soon afterwards, I wrote a commentary on it. Some points of the commentary were matters of etiquette, hygiene, or common sense. Some resembled the table manners I had learnt from my parents and school teachers.

Much of this traditional content was new to me. I needed to train not to leave my socks

Thich Nhat Hanh was a world-renowned spiritual teacher and peace activist. Born in Vietnam in 1926, he became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of sixteen. Over seven decades of teaching, he published more than 100 books, which have sold more than four million copies in the United States alone. Exiled from Vietnam in 1966 for promoting peace, his teachings on Buddhism as a path to social and political transformation are responsible for bringing the mindfulness movement to Western culture. He established the international Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism in France, now the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe and the heart of a growing community of mindfulness practice centers around the world. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 95 at his root temple, Tu Hieu, in Hue, Vietnam.