Dharma Talk by Ven. Thich Hanh Tan

Ven. THÍCH HẠNH TẤN

FOUNDER AND ABBOT of Amitayus Buddhist Retreat Center, Schönfeld , Germany

Ven. Thích Hạnh Tấn was born in 1964 in Viet Nam and came to Germany   in 1979 as a refugee. He left home and entered the Vien Giac Monastery –   Hannover in 1986 after graduating from high school. In 1987, he was offically   ordained to be Novice monk. He receieved the full  ordaination as a Bhikkhu in 1993. In the   same year, he finnished his Master Degree on Religion Study and left Germany   to come to India requesting Dharma. In 2000,  he came back to Germany and three year later, he has been promoted to   be the abbot of Vien Giac Monastery. Five year later, he   transferred the abbot position to Master Hanh Gioi and returned to Asia   finding a place with his disciples to retreat to and meditate over a long   period of time. But he didn’t expect the resistance of the   authorities in Laos, who did not see themselves in the position to issue the   Venerable a several-year visa. After he remembered a prophecy of a monk back   in his home country Vietnam, who had told him that his future would not be in   Asia, he decided to realize his wish for a place of intense meditation   practice in his second homeland, Germany.    At the end of 2010 he came back to Germany and founded the Amitayus   Buddhist Retreat Center in Schönfeld.

Ven. Thích Hạnh Tấn is one of the new generation   monk who not only being trained firmly with his own Buddhist tradition but   also following the education of the Western, graduated from School,   University, etc. Beside his main dharma door: Tibetan Tantric Budhdism and   his own tradition Vietnam/China Mahayana, he also study and cultivate with   other dharma doors from other Buddhist tradition like Vipassana Meditation of   Thailand and Myanmar.

“ Cutivator is transform the mind. Bring back the contaminated mind of   the ordinary world to the pure Buddha mind ”