Sister Chân Không, True Emptiness

Sister Chân Không (meaning True Emptiness) was born in a small Vietnamese village on the Mekong River Delta in 1938. Her family name is Cao Ngoc Phuong and many still affectionately know her as Sister Phuong – pronounced “Fong”. As a teenager she was driven by her compassion and Buddhist practice to help the poor and campaign for social change. In 1958 she enrolled in the University of Saigon to study biology but she spent much of her time helping the poor and sick in the slums of the city. She was also involved in political action, becoming the student leader at the University.

She first met Thich Nhat Hanh in 1959 and in subsequent years trained in the Dharma under his supervision. In 1963 she left for Paris to finish her degree in biology which was awarded in 1964. But her heart was in Vietnam, and that year she returned home and joined Thây in founding the School for Youth and Social Service (SYSS). She was central in many of the activities of the SYSS which organised medical, educational and agricultural facilities in rural Vietnam during the war. At one stage the SYSS involved over 10,000 young peaceworkers who rebuilt many villages ravaged by the fighting.

In 1966 Sister Chân Không was ordained as one of the first six members of the Order of Interbeing, embracing the Fourteen Tiep Hien Precepts newly formulated by Thây. She joined him in Hong Kong in 1968 and accepted his invitation to become his assistant in his international peacework.

From 1969 to 1982 she worked with Thây in Paris organising the Buddhist Peace Delegation which campaigned for peace in Vietnam. Since then she has worked with Thây establishing first the Sweet Potato community near Paris and then Plum Village in 1982. She accompanies and assists Thây when he travels. In addition, she has continued to organise relief work for those in need in Vietnam, coordinating relief food parcels for poor children and medicine for the sick.

Sister Chân Không ordained as a nun by Thây in 1988 on Vultures Peak, in India, receiving the name Chân Không. She is central to the organisation of the activities of Plum Village and continues to be an inspiration to many in the Sangha.

Click here for words to a song sung by Sister Chân Không.

Click here for an mp3 file ofSister Chân Không singing: "Please call me by my true names"

Learning True Love – How I Learned & Practiced Social Change in Vietnam by Sister Chân Không. Parallax (1993). A remarkable autobiographical account of Sr Chân Không's life and work. One day, seeing how absorbed I was in wrapping parcels for hungry children in Vietnam, Thây Nhat Hanh asked me, "If you were to die tonight, are you prepared?" He said that we must live our lives so that even if we die suddenly, we will have nothing to regret. "Chân Không, you have to learn how to live as freely as the clouds or the rain. If you die tonight, you should not feel any fear or regret. You will become something else, as wonderful as you are now. But if you regret losing your present form, you are not liberated. To be liberated means to realize that nothing can hinder you, even while crossing the ocean of birth and death. "