Vạn Hạnh

Vạn Hạnh (萬行, 938–1018) is the twelfth-generation master of the Tỳ-ni-đa-lưu-chi (Vinītaruci) line of Vietnamese Thiền and one of the most consequential political-religious figures in Vietnamese history^[1]. Trained at Lục Tổ Temple in Bắc Ninh, he was renowned for his mastery of the three traditional 'studies' — Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism — and for what the chronicles describe as a strikingly accurate gift of prophecy^[1]. His most celebrated act was political: foreseeing the imminent fall of the Lê dynasty, he persuaded the court official Lý Công Uẩn to accept the throne in 1009, founding the Lý dynasty (1009–1225) which would shape Vietnam for two centuries and establish Buddhism as the de facto state religion. Vạn Hạnh's death-verse, recorded in the Thiền Uyển Tập Anh, articulates the impermanence at the heart of his teaching: 'The body is like a flash of lightning; here, then gone.'^[2]