The Abbot - Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh
Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh
The Dharma name of Thay is Thich Truc Thai Minh and the real name is Vu Minh Hieu. Thay was born in 1967 in Ngoc Quan village, Lam Thao commune, Luong Tai district, Bac Ninh province, Vietnam.
After graduating from high school, Thay passed the entrance exam with flying colors, got qualified for National Economics University and became an outstanding student during his study. After completing the course, Thay stayed at the university for a job and became an enthusiastic and whole-hearted lecturer in the education career, who devoted all to his students. After more than five years of lecturing at the university, Thay moved to work at the Machine Manufacturing Institute under the Ministry of Industry. It seemed like Thays life would be a plain sail until the death of Thay's cousin, which made Thay shocked by the impermanence of human life and engrossed in such questions as:
"What is death?
What do we live for?
Is death an end or not?
Who are we?"
Questions about death and life values kept arising. Such questions had no satisfying answers within the scope of science and philosophy, while accompanying confusions never ceased to cling to Thays mind.
Thus, Thay decided to find the answers himself. Luckily enough, one day, Thay went to visit a friend, who had already been a diligent Buddhist. Then, Thay came across a four-sentence verse:
“He who aspires to behold all Buddhas,
Endow countless merits,
And eradicate the sufferings of all kinds
Should develop Bodhichitta on time.”
As a predestined opportunity, this verse urged Thay to have an aspiration to develop Bodhichitta. From then on, Thay embarked on the way to learn Buddhism and Thay knew exactly this was the path that Thay would follow to the rest of his life.
