As though on cue to prove the Bolsavik‘s point that nobody is above suspicion of being a communist, an email arrived yesterday from one of those right-wing listservs, with the subject line ”Zen Cobra Monk.”
No, it’s not the title of a Jackie Chan movie. The email contains a number of photos accusing a Buddhist monk of — really, what else? – being a communist.
After puzzling over the subject line for a while, the Bolsavik finally realized that it was a literal translation of a Vietnamese phrase (“su ho mang”), meaning a false monk. A snake in monk’s clothing, so to speak.
The subject of the accusation is Thich Nhat Hanh, a world-renowned anti-war activist and Zen author who runs the Deer Park Buddhist monastery in San Diego County, as well as other Zen centers.
Earlier this month Nhat Hanh led a delegation of his disciples (many from Little Saigon) to a celebration of the Buddha’s birthday in Hanoi. The celebration, sponsored by the United Nations, was organized by the government-sanctioned Buddhist church of Vietnam. Many took Nhat Hanh’s participation as a betrayal of dissident Buddhists who resist merging their church into the communist government’s.
Anyway, the email contains the picture above. In suit is Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, and Thich Nhat Hanh is to his right (your left).
That’s the same President Triet whose last year’s visit to Orange County is now an issue in the supervisor’s race. Supervisor Janet Nguyen was participating in the protest against Triet outside the St Regis in Dana Point. She paid for a bus that drove protesters down from Little Saigon.
If all that didn’t stop the Trannies from calling her a commie, then (of course!) Thich Nhat Hanh must be some sort of hard core communist.
The “cobra monk” email has this photo too:
That’s the famous General Giap and his wife; Thich Nhat Hanh is seated to the general’s right.
Nhat Hanh, however, is no stranger to controversies. During the Vietnam War, he criss-crossed the United States appealling for peace – the kind of activities that many people blame for losing the war. Remember John Kerry.
In 2001, criticisms of Thich Nhat Hanh flared up when he ran an ad (right; click to enlarge) in the New York Times on September 24, less than two weeks after the September 11 terrorist attack.
The ad contains this quote from the Zen master:
“I wrote this poem during the Vietnam war after I heard about the bombing of Ben Tre city. The city of 300,000 was destroyed because seven guerrillas shot several rounds of unsuccessful anti-aircraft gunfire and then left. My pain was profound.”
That story had been repeated several times by anti-war activists, but it never happened. Ben Tre was never destroyed, nor was any other city like it. The ad provided fodder for Nhat Hanh’s detractors to claim that he was a left-wing radical. (Although, if you don’t feel profound pain when you hear a city of 300,000 was destroyed, then something’s wrong with you.)
Since Nhat Hanh is a Zen master, though, the Bolsavik suspects that none of this makes any difference to him.
I don’t see why taking a photo with Nguyen Minh Triet would make you a communist. I took a photo with an elephant in Thailand last summer, would that make me an elephant too? LOL Now, tell me, if you visit a country and gets invited to a meeting with the country’s President, will you turn it down if you think that would be a great chance to raise your concerns or request?
Regarding the second photo, Vo Nguyen Giap, although closely allied with the communist party, has been a national hero for being the mastermind behind the victory in Dien Bien Phu against the French. He has also been speaking out against injustice on behalf of the poor of Vietnam. If that is not enough to make him a good man, I don’t know what else will. Or it is all about vandalizing the present to get even for the past?