This is Ko Thu, hard working Buddhist nun at Van Hanh Restaurant.

Thien Quang Temple’s Vegetarian Restaurant

A friend suggested I post my more interesting NW Dharma News articles. This will be in the December issue, a little something to chase away the doldrums:

You won’t yet find this restaurant in citysearch, nor even in the yellow pages, but you will want to find this place. Urged by my hostess in limited English to tell my friends to come eat there, I’m not sure she understood I wanted to write about her, and about Nha Hang Van Hanh Vegetarian Restaurant at SE Division and 84th in Portland.

She’s a Buddhist nun serving the best mock chicken, spring rolls, and vegetarian steamed buns I’ve ever eaten. It’s small, brightly lit, and homey. We arrived late, about twenty minutes before closing at 9 pm, and we learned that often they will close early if there are no customers. She gave me the business card of her “American friend” so I could find out more information.

Colin D was able to tell me that Nha Hang Van Hanh Restaurant does indeed exist to raise money for the Thien Quang Buddhist Temple at 6315 SE 82nd. Funds raised beyond temple operations go toward funds for a larger temple. Renowned Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hahn is the senior monk of this lineage, Thien Buddhism. A member of the temple, Colin said, “The basis of the practice is compassion. There are Chanting, meditation and Dharma talks also.”

The resident monk and teacher, Thich Huong Hue, has resided in Portland for 22 years. My friends who alerted me to the restaurant claim he was repairing the roof when they visited it. The hostess I met was the resident nun, Thich Nhat Thu, also known as Ko Thu. Most of the staff are volunteers (including Colin), and Ko Thu works very long days, 6-7 days a week. The restaurant opened in May 2004.

Closed on Mondays, open Tuesdays-Saturdays 10-9, Sundays 11:30-9. 8446 SE Division, 503-788-0825

Gloomy Day

The future does not bode well for Americans or the world. When I met my husband he had written a personal ad in which he said we could drink Pepsi and watch the Apocolypse on TV. I thought it funny then, but last night I wondered why we didn't have Pepsi in the house. I seesaw between believing more than half of those in America who bothered to vote actually think Bush is the better man for the job, or that the election was stolen all too easily through the Diebold voting machines. (I have to wonder why they think the exit polls were inaccurate.) They say people voted for him for his moral values and because he's the stronger man. A lying warmonger has better moral values. A man who went AWOL is better able to defend our country than a man who was wounded while defending others and then had the courage to say the war was wrong. This is just nuts. One person's Armageddon is another's Rapture. As someone has said to me, I hope they have it soon and leave the rest of us to live in peace. I guess it's time to remind myself there really is very little difference between Dems and Repubs.

I haven't published lately because I've been a bit discomfitted. Having got involved with an extremely narcissistic man, awareness of every little egotistical trait in myself has bubbled to the surface. So I'm just, well, embarrassed at my own narcissism. My friend the published writer advised me long ago that every writer needs a fine balance between humility and megalomania. At this rate I'll never get published...gotta get over that discomfort.