Vạn Hạnh

Vạn Hạnh (c. 938–1018) was one of the most politically consequential Buddhist monks in Vietnamese history — the teacher and kingmaker who orchestrated the founding of the Lý dynasty, one of Vietnam's greatest and longest-ruling dynasties. Born in Cổ Pháp village, Bắc Giang Province, he mastered Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism before devoting himself to monastic life at age twenty-one. He belonged to the Vinitaruci Thiền lineage.

Vạn Hạnh became renowned for his prophetic abilities and political acumen. He served as advisor to King Lê Đại Hành and engineered the installation of his protégé Lý Công Uẩn as emperor when the brutal King Lê Long Đĩnh died in 1009. The new emperor appointed Vạn Hạnh as National Teacher. His death poem, "Advice to Disciples," is among the most famous in Vietnamese Zen literature: "The body, like lightning, here then gone / Like spring foliage that withers in fall / Don't worry about the show of rise and decline / Like dewdrops on grass, so our lives float on." This poem's profound embrace of impermanence is notable coming from a man deeply engaged with political affairs — a hallmark of Vietnamese Buddhism's integration of contemplative practice with worldly responsibility. The name "Nhất Hạnh" chosen by Thích Nhất Hạnh was a deliberate echo of "Vạn Hạnh."