With great respect Dear Su Phu,

May 2017

With great respect Dear Su Phu,

I would like to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to Su Phu who was kindly attentionate during the entire pilgrimage. I have many fond memories which I will cherish for a long time.

In my faith, I feel strongly that there was an invisible force that incited Vinh to provide me with this precious and incredible gift.

Using this opportunity with this album I would like to ask for the permission of Su Phu to share a few thoughts with my children and grand children:

In 2016 it was the fourth time I did the pilgrimage to visit the birth country of Buddha.

In 2016  I was 73 years old. However,  in my heart I wish to do more pilgrimage in the future as long as my health permits.

I would like to visit the four important places in Buddha’s life, mostly the Stupa (pictured on the album front cover). The Stupa has a profound significance to me as that is where Buddha, a real person like us and older than 2500 years, decided through his infinite compassion to find a way to alleviate the suffering of human beings.

The Buddha was a single child and Prince of a Kingdom in India. One day, his father gave him permission for the first time in his life to venture outside of the Kingdom with a servant. The Prince was astonished to discover that life outside the Kingdom was very different from the life he grew up in. The Prince asked the servant many questions: why is there sickness, aging, handicaps, death?

Once back into his Kingdom, the Prince decided to run away one day. He went into the forest to follow masters to learn ways to alleviate human sufferings. The prince was not satisfied with the teachings though. He decided to spend some time alone but to no avail neither.

Then on one very special day, he was determined to sit under a tree and meditate deeply within himself.

The Buddha, after 49 days of meditation under the tree next to the Stupa, saw an aurora. Then the superhuman Power of intellect appeared to him. The Buddha realized that all beings are capable of that Power of intellect. The following knowledge ensued:

1)      Existence of the Power

The Power will always stay inside the beings but because of the Karma (cause and effect), like the cloud covered by the Power, the beings become other species from high in the sky to low in hell. The Buddha can see everything in the Universe that holds multiple thousands of things: sun, moon, Earth, sky, hell and all life…

The Buddha gave Sutra to help beings to liberate themselves from their dire karma. The Power will be to return to the Self.

2)      The capacity of the Power

The Buddha has three capacities:

1-      See the previous lives of himself and all beings.

2-      See the future lives of himself and all beings.

3-      See ways (the Sutras of Buddha) to stop the mistakes beings make to achieve the Beatitude (Nirvana of self) like Buddha.

I have applied Sutra as much as I was able to with all my effort (it is not easy). I have tried to summarize the Sutra with the fewest words possible. The ultimate goal is to perfect one self (in thoughts, words, actions) to reach the Beatitude(the Nirvana of self) like Buddha.

I would like again to thank Su Phu infinitely…

With grandest respect,

Quang Tinh Tam (Buddhist name)

Trang Thi Hanh (Birth name)