This Is, Actually, Your Moment - a Beautiful Dharma Talk By Sister Boi Nghiem

Sister Boi Nghiem, www.vivrdespiertos2014.blogspot.com.

On May 21, 2020, the Thich Nhat Hanh community shared a a recording of a beautiful heartfelt Dharma talk and commencement speech given by Sister Boi Nghiem.

The talk is addressed to the graduating high school seniors of 2020 - the class "with perfect vision" - but I think it's really for anyone facing challenges in these difficult times.

This Is, Actually, Your Moment

Sister Boi Nghiem says, "We can only have insight and wisdom when our vision is clear. 2020 is the year for that vision. For generations into the future, people will remember you as heroes and sheroes for your sacrifice and your vision."

Watch "Class of 2020, This Is, Actually, Your Moment | Sr. Boi Nghiem, 2020-04-19 Magnolia Grove Monastery" on the Plum Village YouTube channel.



Sister Boi Nghiem

Sister Boi Nghiem lives at Magnolia Grove Monastery one hour from Memphis, Tennessee. Magnolia Grove Monastery is a Buddhist monastery in the Plum Village Tradition in Batesville, Mississippi.

She said in an 2014 interview, "I’m twenty-seven years old. I’ve been ordained for five and a half years. I was born in Vietnam, and when I was eleven, my family moved to the United States. I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and then I went to Plum Village when I was twenty-one years old. It was the legal age for people to go clubbing, but I chose to go to Plum Village instead.

"My sister is also a nun. She’s now at Blue Cliff Monastery. She has been a nun for ten years. That was one of the main reasons that I know the practice, because of my sister. When I was a teenager, I was not so interested in the practice. I was just like any typical Vietnamese American teenager. I liked to listen to music and do other things that were quite fast-paced. I listened to ‘Nsync and Backstreet Boys. Whenever my sister sent videos of Plum Village to my house, especially performances of the monastics, I couldn’t sit and watch because everything was so slow. I would fast forward it. It made me so sleepy.

"When I was nineteen, I started to go online and research and read Buddhism. The first book that I read was Thay’s Being Peace. I went to Deer Park for two weeks during a fall break in August 2004. I was able to see the simplicity of the monastics—to see them practice, and how happy they were, and the harmony they had. A beautiful image that I will always remember from Deer Park was that one time, I saw a young sister helping an elder sister to put on her shoes. The younger sister took the pair of shoes and placed it in front of the elder sister’s feet. How often do you see this kind of image in America? It’s very rare. When I saw that image, I was like, 'Wow! It’s so beautiful how we can take care of each other in this simple and gentle way, with so much love.'

"On October 20, I went to Plum Village. I only bought a oneway ticket, because I didn’t have enough money to buy a two-way ticket. Some Vietnamese people believed that one of the main reasons why you became a monastic was because your heart was broken or you had difficulties in your family. I didn’t have either of those, so I thought, 'This is a great time for me to go, because if I wait until I’m older, I might suffer and it would be difficult for me to have a monastic life.'"

Continue reading the interview "Lightness in My Heart - An Interview with Sister Boi Nghiem" by Natascha Bruckner.

The Raft

I learned about this talk through reading "The Raft," a special weekly series during the pandemic, assembled by the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, Plum Village Monastery, Parallax Press, and the Plum Village App team to help keep people grounded and connected during these challenging times.

Read old issues of "The Raft" and subscribe on the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation website.