Bridging Generations, Living the Dharma

I learned to read Vietnamese as a child by
sitting next to my mother and following along
as she chanted sutras in the evenings. We
would sit on the floor of our altar room with
a book open in front of us, surrounded by
dancing shadows and the smell of incense,
under the gaze of smiling Buddhas and sternfaced portraits of grandparents I had never
met. I didn’t know it then, but those evenings
were my first steps toward mindfulness practice and the Order of Interbeing.
My ancestral heritage entered my life
through Buddhism. In my childhood, the
small yet vibrant Vietnamese temple community in Raleigh, North Carolina, US was like
my extended family, with whom I spent every
Sunday and celebrated every Vietnamese
holiday. In the summers, as a teen, I would
fly off to Deer Park Monastery in southern
California where I would work, play, study,
and meditate with monks and nuns who
shared my heritage. These communities
taught me how to embrace the things that
made me different; they showed me true
happiness and helped me to understand my
place and purpose in the world.
I am among the first generation of my
family to be born in the United States after
my parents’ uprooting from Vietnam. As the
daughter of war refugees, my very existence
is made possible by fraught histories of
violence and oppression—and also by the
miracle of survival, resettlement, and new
beginnings. The more I consider the turbulent history that brought my family—and this
practice—to US soil, the more I appreciate
how miraculous it is that I am here, continuing this spiritual tradition on the opposite
side of the planet. For me, the practice has
always been a channel through which I can
connect with my ancestors, drawing on their
centuries of experience and wisdom as I find
my way through life. 
I felt the full weight of this ancestral
connection on the day I was ordained into
the Order of Interbeing in the fall of 2017.
After the early morning ceremony at Blue
Cliff Monastery, I was given a brown jacket—
hand-sewn by an elder OI auntie—along with
little gifts from Dharma teachers expressing
their love and support: a white seashell
shaped like a heart, a bead bracelet made
of pink stones, and a small notebook with an
image of the Buddha. We walked in meditation together through the forest, enjoying the
fresh autumn air. Walking on that path, holding my parents’ hands on either side of me,
I felt more connected to the universe than
ever before. Looking at the ferns covering
the forest floor, I thought, These ferns are my
WAKE UP
What does it mean to be the Order of
Interbeing in 2026? I believe it means
being willing to evolve while staying
rooted in timeless principles. It means
creating sanghas that welcome people
of all backgrounds while honoring the
depth of Buddhist tradition.

ancestors, and tears of happiness welled up
in my eyes. Now, every time I see a fern plant,
I feel the echoes of that precious moment
and I smile to my ancestors.
My aspiration in this life is to be a healing
connection between the past and the future.
I see myself as a bridge between countless
past generations of Buddhists rooted in
Vietnam, and countless future generations
of spiritual seekers taking root in other parts
of the world. As a historian specializing in
modern Buddhism and the Vietnam War, my
work is to research and hold what has come
before us, and to write about it in a way that
helps us heal. I want my telling of history to
deepen our understanding of ourselves and
our connection to the wider world. 
This calling to serve as a bridge between
history and possibility is inspired by Buddhist
practitioners of earlier generations who
have carried the Dharma through times of
upheaval. Our spiritual ancestors held onto
the Dharma as they found their way through
colonialism, war, and the building of a new
nation. They resisted the division and violence that dominated society, running toward
the places where people suffered most and
offering aid and compassion without regard
to political affiliation. As one Buddhist social
worker wrote from the field in 1972, their
calling was simply “to be with human beings
facing this huge war machine.” That presence
in itself was a radical act of defiance; it was
the living Dharma. It was in this spirit that
Thầy founded the Order of Interbeing in 1966,
creating a formal structure for practitioners to
embody these values in community.
As I reflect on the sixtieth anniversary of
the Order of Interbeing, I see both continuity
and transformation. Thầy founded the Order
during the Vietnam War with fourteen
trainings that called for practitioners to
engage with the suffering of their time while
maintaining deep spiritual roots. Sixty years
later, we face different challenges, but the
same fundamental call remains: to be present
with suffering and to respond with wisdom
and compassion.
The Order has grown from a small group of
young Vietnamese social workers to a global
community spanning continents and cultures.
Despite our diverse backgrounds, we are
united by our commitment to The Fourteen
Mindfulness Trainings and our aspiration to
create a more compassionate world. Some
of us, as I do, carry the practice through our
ancestral heritage; others have found it while
seeking relief or meaning in life. What does it
mean to be the Order of Interbeing in 2026?
I believe it means being willing to evolve
while staying rooted in timeless principles.
It means creating sanghas that welcome
people of all backgrounds while honoring the
depth of Buddhist tradition. It means using
both ancient practices and modern means to
address today’s challenges. Most importantly,
it means embodying the teaching that we are
here not just for our own liberation, but for
the liberation of all beings.
As we look toward the future, my hope
is that the Order of Interbeing will continue
to be what it has always been: a community
that demonstrates another way of being in
the world. In a time of unprecedented global
challenges, we have the opportunity—and
responsibility—to
show
that
cultivating
wisdom, compassion, joy, and interconnection is not just a beautiful ideal but also a
practical response to the crises of our time.
May we be ancestors that future generations
will be grateful for, carrying the Dharma with
the same courage and dedication as those
who came before us.
sangha
monastic sangha
WAKE UP

WAKE UP
Adrienne Minh-Châu Lê/True Manifestation
of Goodness (she/her) is a writer and historian
based in San Francisco, California, US. Her
original research focuses on twentieth century
Vietnamese Buddhism and social movements
during the Vietnam War, including efforts that
gave rise to the Order of Interbeing and the Plum
Village community. Her scholarship has appeared
in publications including the Cambridge History of
the Vietnam War and the Journal of Vietnamese
Studies. Learn more and follow her work at
adriennemle.com.

THÍCH NHẤT HẠNH FOUNDATION
Order of Interbeing member Stephen Pradarelli
shares how a weekend retreat launched his OI journey.
Heart on Fire
People embark on the Buddhist path for many
reasons: the desire to learn practices to calm
the monkey mind, inspiration from a book,
curiosity about Eastern wisdom traditions.
Heartbreak led me to the trailhead a
decade ago, and I took my first tentative
steps on the path at an autumn retreat in the
Driftless region of Wisconsin, US.
I was still mourning the end of a long-term
relationship two years earlier and feeling
considerable tenderness around challenges
my son was navigating at the time. I had read
a few books by Thầy, but I needed more—
something embodied. The retreat, organized
by the Snowflower Sangha of Madison on the
edge of Governor Dodge State Park, seemed
promising.
Driving up the winding road to Bethel
Horizons retreat center, I encountered my
first Dharma talk in the form of hundreds of