Nowadays, it is normal for young or middle-aged people to suddenly fall in love with the temple and want to leave the world and become monks. But there was once a writer who grew up during the war against America, and also entered the literary world during those fierce years, but suddenly... became a monk, strange! That was the writer Thai Ba Loi, my friend.
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| Illustration: HOANG DANG |
If you met Thai Ba Loi and thought he was a monk, that would be an unusual thought. Because Loi did not look like someone who wanted to take refuge in Buddhism. He was very carefree... drinking and talking about things that made him laugh out loud, very nonsense. Yet he had lived in a temple for many years, a deserted and secluded temple, and certainly, he had practiced there.
About thirty years ago, on a trip to Vung Tau at the invitation of a friend, on my way back, I was invited by Thai Ba Loi to visit the hermitage in Ba Ria, where he was practicing. I stopped by to… visit, and I noticed that the hermitage was very peaceful, although small, but located in a general complex of many hermitages similar to each other, and it was true that when entering there, there was an atmosphere close to the realm of transcendence.
Actually, there was no clear reason that brought Thai Ba Loi to that hermitage, it was just because he loved the temple scenery and the Buddhist scriptures, that was all. When Thai Ba Loi wrote, I felt very much like a monk chanting sutras: leisurely, calm, slow. Later, I suddenly thought that, before coming to practice at the hermitage for a long time, Thai Ba Loi had practiced at another temple: the language temple. That was a temple for writers, and Thai Ba Loi was extremely respectful when practicing there.
Thai Ba Loi is an unexpectedly innocent writer. So when I first heard about him entering a temple, I was shocked, but then I remembered his personality and found it quite normal. But when he practiced in the “temple of language”, Loi attained enlightenment: his writing was very good. It was a kind of prose that was hesitant, boisterous, calm even when he could not keep his composure, and polished in a natural way. Van Loi wrote very carefully, contrary to his extremely frivolous personality.
In life, there are still such ironic cases. His short novels about war such as “Hai nguoi ve lai trung doan”, “Ban dao”, or “Trung tu”… are, in my opinion, among the best of contemporary Vietnamese short novels, especially novels about war. Those who have read and are truly in love with his writing will find it hard to stop. I have two friends who are very fond of Thai Ba Loi’s writing, poet Ngo The Oanh and poet Nguyen Khoa Diem. These two men truly admire Thai Ba Loi’s writing. They are both two famous poets of the generation of poets during the anti-American war.
I can add myself, because I also love Thai Ba Loi's writing, especially his calm, carefree writing style that makes me impatient. Becoming a monk in a "language temple" like Loi is worth the money (clean) and the bowl of rice (vegetarian)! But as a writer, I always crave change. After a few years of practicing in a small hermitage in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Thai Ba Loi suddenly returned to life outside the hermitage, a normal life like everyone else.
What writer Thai Ba Loi has gained after several years of practicing is that he is progressing towards a profound understanding and a way of life close to Buddhist ethics. The real thing. So, in my opinion, he has succeeded, in the common sense of the day.
THANH THAO
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