Learning True Love: Book Club reflections celebrating Sister Chân Không

Today, April 9, 2025, we honor the Continuation Day of Sister Chân Không—beloved elder in the Plum Village tradition and a lifelong companion to Thích Nhất Hạnh.

Sister Chân Không’s life is a shining example of engaged mindfulness in action. Through decades of tireless service, she has shown how love, courage, and understanding can be powerful forces for peace and transformation.

You can explore her teachings through three beautiful books:

We are currently reading Learning True Love in community through our book club (learn more here!) and several members have special offerings for our dear elder sister on this day. Please enjoy their sharings below. We invite you to offer your own reflections in the comments.

Dear Sister Chân Không – True Emptiness

The Aspiration of generosity and compassionate fearlessness,

The Aspiration of dedication to the path and practice,

Overcoming all obstacles and embracing great suffering,

The Aspiration of tenderness and true love,

Lullabying all beings with your gentle song,

The Aspiration of a True Bodhisattva,

May we all continue to water the seeds you have planted on this Earth.

Blessings and Deep Gratitude on your Continuation Day.

—Silvana, Inspired Generosity of the Heart, Italy

If I have to put everything in a short sentence I would simply write that: “Sister Chân Không is a hero of mine, a humble hero.”

Thích Nhất Hạnh has written a commentary on the Mettā Sutta (Discourse on Love) of the Buddha, published in a recent edition of The Mindfulness Bell. In one of the last sentences he writes:

“Practicing love meditation is like digging deep into the ground until we reach the purest water. We look deeply into ourselves until insight arises and our love flows to the surface. Joy and happiness radiate from our eyes, and everyone around us benefits from our smile and our presence. If you take good care of yourself, you help everyone. You stop being a source of suffering to the world, and you become a reservoir of joy and freshness. Here and there are people who know how to take good care of themselves, who live joyfully and happily. They are our strongest support. Everything they do, they do for everyone.”

The sentences that I have underlined in bold, exemplify what I think of Sister Chân Không. She is one of those people, a true, candid source of inspiration.

She embodies, like very few people I have met personally or read about, the highest human qualities of unconditional love and generosity.

In a world which constantly pushes us to consider our own interests above all else, to seek advantage in situations and relationships, and to be alert to others who might do the same, Sister Chân Không’s life shows the exact contrary: she applies perfectly the Buddhist teachings, in which generosity is a quality available precisely in our reality of uncertainty and impermanence and that by cultivating it with the actions of the body, with words, and with thoughts, we discover firsthand how generosity can be a precious resource in our journey.

She reminds me of Samantabhadra acting with the eyes and heart of compassion, to bring joy to one person in the morning and to ease the pain of one person in the afternoon. Sister Chân Không has become an inexhaustible source of peace and joy for me and for so many other people.

—Marco Liguori (he/him), Sereno Abbraccio della Fonte, Montepulciano, Italy

I read the book in January after facilitating for the “Who Is Thich Nhat Hanh” course and loved her even more after doing so. She has been so kind to me from the very beginning. She invited me to have breakfast with Thầay in New Hamlet in 2006 when I was in Plum Village, France. We talked about my insight that “Healthy cells grow all by themselves.” When I recited my cancer gatha from 1997, she thought very highly about it.

During the spring equinox, I often think of this poem:

Sitting quietly,

Doing nothing,

Spring comes

And the grass grows all by itself.

My gatha, inspired by the onset of spring in 1997 and continues to inspire me, goes like this:

Lying still

Breathing in, breathing out

Healthy cells grow all by themselves

I am free of cancer.

Her courage and dedication are the attributes I admire most. I especially remember how she took rice into the poverty zone wearing rags and setting up Plum Village. Her voice rings out to me whenever I think of her and the beautiful songs she sings. She is honored by me as a bodhisattva and I love her very much.

—Jerome Freedman (he/him), True Precious Light, Founder and guiding teacher of Mindfulness In Healing Sangha in Marin County, California

I feel very close to Vietnamese culture and tradition. Growing up, I share a lot of similarities.

The book has been heartbreaking and encouraging. It’s still one of the most difficult readings for me to start and to finish. Confronts too many deep things passed down from generations before me: my family’s fear, difficulties, hardships, wrong doings, etc. 

When Sister Chân Không talked about her beloved sister, Sương, who didn’t attend higher education just because she’s born female, I see Sương in everyday life around me; and I see she continues to live in Sister Chân Không, so brilliantly. 

Vietnamese ancestors have planted good seeds that help the war end. Sister Chân Không’s Learning True Love encapsules love so beautifully in all forms. 

It’s love against wrong actions. Love against ill-thoughts that led to unspeakable suffering among the people. Fear and trauma that are still engraved deeply behind cheerful smiles.

I sometimes think that the work of non-violence in Vietnam has offered our modern world a model of love that could win against tyranny. A model for our collective current situation. 

One that our predecessors have worked so hard for us to reap the fruit: Gandhi, Dr. King, Thay Nhất Hạnh. The work of bodhisattvas who have seen deeply into the nature of people hence have compassion for each, even for the other party that is considered as enemies.

My question now is, now that my country is facing a dispersion as well, how to begin to love? Where to put a wake-up call that anger and hatred will never win against anger and hatred?

What I know for sure is one person’s work is not enough.

Sister Chân Không, maybe one day I’ll be fortunate enough to greet you in person. 

Until then, I’d like to thank you also for your message regarding the earth in the Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (ZASP) course. “You take gasoline here…you take gasoline there… Please protect the earth.”

I now believe that the greatest present is our presence.

To you Sister, much love,

—Emilia (she/her/any), Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Island Within Sangha

Thank you, Sister Chân Không, for demonstrating how to love during times of war and peace. Your life exemplifies how to love. You embody virtues we’d like to emulate: maitri, karuna, mudita, and upeksha in every action. Thank you for showing us that compassion and acceptance of others don’t require sainthood or superhuman abilities. Your life underscores the profound impact that small acts can have on those in need. You teach us that while perfection isn’t necessary, we need to be disciplined in our practice to act mindfully and love all beings, even those that do not look or act like us. 

From Bogotá, Colombia, with love: “We are connected. We inter-are.”

—Jairo Munoz, Colombia

I have listened to Sister Chân Không’s Deep Relaxation: Coming Home to Your Body so many times I feel like I know her.

The songs she sings are lullabies that wake the soul while putting me to sleep.

—Tony Maimone

Let’s celebrate Sister Chân Không’s boundless heart and wisdom. Feel free to leave a message of gratitude or a kind memory in the comments.

🌻