Instagram story viewer> @an.is.your.comrade> Posts

An Tran

@an.is.your.comrade

214

followers

200

following

writer • author of Meditations on the Mother Tongue • Thiền (Zen) Buddhist • lineage: Liễu Quán • dharma name: Nguyên Ngộ (“Primordial Awakening”)

POSTS STORIES REELS

I got the chance recently to review a new translation of Nguyễn Đổng Chi’s TREASURY OF VIETNAMESE FOLK TALES, VOL I (translators: Nguyễn Bình & Lan Võ) for @tricyclemag .

Really grateful for this opportunity to share these stories, the thoughtful translations, and the spectacular illustrations by Jeet ZDũng that’re based in traditional Vietnamese art forms to a wider audience. This work represents a major step in preserving the cultural heritage of the Vietnamese diaspora in the Anglosphere as we enter our third, fourth, and subsequent generations as displaced peoples. Read the review here: https://bit.ly/47BkqaQ

Jeet ZDũng, Bà chúa Liễu Hạnh – Liễu Hạnh trừng trị hoàng tử (Mother Liễu Hạnh – Liễu Hạnh punishes the Crown Prince). Artwork courtesy Major Books.

Jeet ZDũng, Tấm Cám – Tấm trảy hội (Tấm Cám – Tấm joins the festival). Artwork courtesy Major Books. by @an.is.your.comrade

Thich Nhat Hanh—the world-renowned Zen teacher, author, poet, and peace activist—was born on October 11, 1926, in central Vietnam. Today marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, or what the Plum Village tradition calls his “continuation day” in recognition of the Zen teaching on no birth and no death.

Widely considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary Buddhism, Nhat Hanh, known to his followers as Thầy (Vietnamese for “teacher”), is best known for founding the Plum Village tradition and Order of Interbeing, authoring more than one hundred books, and pioneering the concept of “engaged Buddhism,” which revolutionized how Buddhist communities engage with social, political, and environmental crises.

In honor of his centennial, Tricycle reached out to a handful of teachers, writers, and students to share memories of the beloved teacher and peace activist and to reflect on how he transformed the landscape of contemporary Buddhism.
🔸
Comment "CONTINUATION" for a link to the piece. by @an.is.your.comrade

This month in Cha Journal, I engage in a delightful conversation with fellow Vietnamese American writer Kathy Ngoc Nguyen to discuss her (incredible!) forthcoming chapbook, NONFLUENT BODIES, SWITCHABLE TONGUES.

We talk in-depth about the intricacies and issues in translating between languages, as well as between generations, about our common experiences of being 2nd-gen Vietnamese American, how Buddhism informs our writing, wuxia and the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, and other topics. Read our discussion here: https://bit.ly/3Rjlg7z by @an.is.your.comrade

New article up at Tricycle where I write about the social media phenomenon surrounding an ascetic called Thich Minh Tue, taking a detailed look at the political controversy and the burgeoning folklore of his celebrity. Read more here: http://bit.ly/4oS3eG1 by @an.is.your.comrade

Camping on an island with wild horses = most magical vacation ever ✨ by @an.is.your.comrade

Attending to Ven. Sư cô Viên Huệ at San Francisco’s Walk for Peace-in-Solidarity today, joining alongside so many other venerable ones and devotees. by @an.is.your.comrade

Been really happy with the new translations coming out of Palm Leaves Press. This was always one of my favorite Vietnamese series of talks by Thich Nhat Hanh, and one I would reference regularly in vociferously defending Thich Nhat Hanh as a teacher of traditional Buddhist exegesis and not a secular revisionist. Now I finally have English quotes to back up my claims.

Thich Nhat Hanh believed in and taught the Yogacara model of consciousness, and in this text explicates that his “continuation and manifestation” description refers to karmic imprints in the storehouse consciousness manifesting new body-mind composites in sequence, as we come in and out of birth and death, until we attain the liberating rest of nirvana. He also criticizes the secular materialism of western ontology in this book—a really great read. by @an.is.your.comrade

Today, Tricycle published my article detailing the incredible life and deeds of the most venerable Buddha-Emperor (Phật hoàng) Trần Nhân Tông, who founded the Trúc Lâm school of Thiền, and was the first to establish a systematized philosophical approach interfusing secular ethics and sociopolitical activism with the bodhisattva path. He called it the "Buddhism that enters the world," and it served as the foundation of what we today call Engaged Buddhism. You can read the article here: https://tinyurl.com/nhdf68fd by @an.is.your.comrade

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

Brian Hoang’s accompanying illustration is just beautiful—I’m blown away.

You can read the story here: https://tricycle.org/article/a-battle-in-the-bardo/?utm_campaign=3604b9da-bad2-4654-8c9d-91063d5f2fd3&utm_source=p3s4h3r3s by @an.is.your.comrade

We went to see The Monkey King at SFOpera tonight. A beautiful adaptation, interfused with segments of Guanyin chanting the Diamond Sutra. Was a really great and visually stunning production, and showcased some of this cool local Sun Wukong art. by @an.is.your.comrade

Happy Vesak! Kính mừng Phật đản! 🙏🏼

I feel very fortunate this year that I’m able to honor the birth, awakening, and parinirvana of our Buddha Sakyamuni through sharing a piece of writing about the dharma and about Vietnamese Buddhist history, featured in the latest issue of Tricycle (and now online), where I discuss the Thiền-Pure Land Dual Cultivation (Vn: Thiền Tịnh song tu) tradition, translating excerpts of the Buddha-mindfulness chapter in Emperor-Monk Trần Thái Tông‘s INSTRUCTIONS ON EMPTINESS (Vn: KHÓA HƯ LỤC). You can read it here: https://tricycle.org/magazine/an-tran-dual-cultivation/

May the merit of this act be shared with all sentient beings in the ten directions.

Nam mô Bổn sư Thích Ca Mâu Ni Phật 🙏🏼🙇🏻‍♂️ by @an.is.your.comrade

Hiromi’s Sonicwonder. Absolutely incredible. Hiromi is such an absolutely joyful musician and her chemistry with this new band is phenomenal. by @an.is.your.comrade