Nhất Định

Nhất Định (1784–1847) was the founder of Từ Hiếu Temple and the first ancestor of the Từ Hiếu lineage within the Liễu Quán school. Born in Trung Kiên village, Quảng Trị province, he entered Thiên Thọ Temple on Hàm Long Mountain in Huế at age seven, where he trained under Meditation Master Phổ Tịnh. At age thirty, his teacher transmitted the dharma lamp to him with the verse: "Samadhi illuminates the skies / As in space, the full moon is beautiful and complete."

Nhất Định rose to become an eminent figure during the Nguyễn dynasty, serving as a revered monk under the first four reigns and as abbot of Bảo Quốc Pagoda. In 1843, at age fifty-nine, he retired and relocated to Dương Xuân mountain with his elderly mother and three students, constructing a modest hermitage called An Dưỡng Am ("Peaceful Nurturing Hut"). The most famous story of his life concerns his devotion to his ailing mother: when a physician recommended fish for her recovery, the vegetarian monk walked to the market every morning to buy fish for her, enduring gossip from those who assumed he had abandoned his precepts. When Emperor Tự Đức investigated the rumors, he discovered the true motivation — profound filial piety. Deeply moved, the emperor ordered the construction of a substantial monastery at the hermitage site following Nhất Định's death in 1847, naming it Từ Hiếu ("Merciful Filial Piety"). Từ Hiếu would become the root temple of the Plum Village tradition and the place where Thích Nhất Hạnh ordained, lived in his final years, and died.