He had been strenuously practicing for seven years without ever experiencing samādhi. First spiritial realizationĪt the beginning of 1982, Master Thích Thông Triệt felt at a dead end and in utter despair. He suspected that these disastrous effects on his body and mind were the result of an incorrect meditation practice, but he did not know what exactly was wrong with his practice. But the results were disappointing: he experienced poor health and often felt anxious and disheartened. For the first seven years, he took advantage of his situation to practice meditation for ten hours a day. He calls this period his “unsolicited meditation retreat”. In July 1975, several months after the fall of South Vietnam, he was taken away for what became 14 years in labor re-education camps scattered across North and South Vietnam. He started his training under Zen Master Thích Thanh Từ at his second meditation seminar organized at the Chân Không monastery in Vũng Tàu, South Vietnam.

Through the introduction of Venerable Thích Thiện Hoa, he was accepted as a disciple by pre-eminent Zen Master Thích Thanh Từ and was officially ordained at the Vesak of 1974 which fell on. Already in his youth, he was drawn towards Zen Buddhism to find answers to the many spiritual questions that he had, but it was not until the end of 1972, when he was nearly 40, that he decided to leave behind all worldly relationships to enter monastic life. Zen Master Thích Thông Triệt was born in 1929 in South Vietnam.

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