Sister Chân Hiến Nghiêm

True Dedication

Sister True Dedication (the translation of her Vietnamese monastic name, “Chân Hiến Nghiêm”) is from the U.K. She was ordained in 2008 at the age of 27, and became a Dharma Teacher in 2016.

Before entering the monastery, Sister True Dedication studied History & Political Thought at Cambridge University and worked as a journalist for BBC News in London. In the early years of her monastic training, she assisted Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Chan Khong in their engaged Buddhist actions for human rights, religious freedom, applied ethics, and ecology. She helped to found the international Wake Up Movement, a community of young meditators who are finding new ways to combine mindfulness and engaged Buddhism.

Today, she contributes her time and energy to guiding young monastics and editing Thich Nhat Hanh’s writings, in particular his recent books on Buddhism and ecology, including Love Letter to the Earth (2013), The Art of Living (2017), and Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (2021). She helps the community with external communications and media liaison, and can occasionally be found on twitter and instagram. At home in the monastery Sister True Dedication enjoys relaxing with her monastic siblings, drinking coffee, community-building, savoring silence in nature, and (when it’s appropriate) acting in comedy skits.

Sister True Dedication’s TED Talk, “3 Questions to Build Resilience and Change the World” was published on December 6, 2021.

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