I. Vinītaruci (越南禅宗祖师)
The initial Patriarch of Vietnamese Zen Sect /Thiền:Vinītaruci (毘尼多流支, ?–594) means subdued pleasure (滅喜). He was born in the sixth century, in southern India. In 574, the sixth year of the Taijian (太建) years of the Chen Dynasty (557–89, the last of the four Southern Dynasties), he went to Chang-an (長安), China, in search of the Dharma. He met the third patriarch Sengcan (僧璨, dates unknown) of the Chan School, in Ye County (鄴縣), Hunan Province, who transmitted to him the Mind Seal and commanded him to go to southern China to deliver the multitudes.
He then went down south to Guangdong Province and became the abbot of the Zhizhie Temple (制止寺) in Guangzhou (廣州), Guangdong Province. There he translated, from Sanskrit into Chinese, the Mahāyāna Vaipulya Sūtra of Total Retention (T09n0275) and the Buddha Pronounces the Sūtra of the Elephant Head Ashram (T14n0466).
In 580, the twelfth year of the Taijian years, Vinītaruci went to northern Vietnam and became the abbot of the Fayun Temple (法雲寺). He started his Vinītaruci Chan School and propogated the Dharma in Vietnam for over ten years until his death in 594, during the Sui Dynasty (581–619). His teachings included that true suchness and Buddha nature are never born and never die and that all sentient beings have the same nature of true suchness. The Vinītaruci Chan School prospered in Vietnam for over six hundred years. His disciple Faxian (法賢, ?–626) was the first patriarch, who successively passed the lineage down to Yishan (依山, ?–1216). Then this Chan School declined into obscurity.
II. Vietnamese Zen = Thiền
1- The Patriarchs of Truc Lam Sect
3- Vietnamese ZEN Temples: (Truc Lam School)
- Grand Venerable Zen Master Thích Thanh Từ
III.《Thiền〉in North America》:
1- Mindessence Zen Center (USA) Thiền Viện Chơn Tâm
2- Đại Đăng Zen Temple (USA)
3- Tuệ Viên Zen Temple (St. Albert, Ontario, CDA)
4- Thiền Tự Đạo Viên (Montreal, CDA)
5- Trúc Lâm Zen Temple (Edmonton, CDA)
