This Buddhist Monk Used His Own Practice To Make Peace With Cancer

In 2011, William Tran, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk with the honorable ranking of Highest Buddhist Master, went to the dentist for inflammation in his gums. Antibiotics did not help and when the dentist saw him again, he was so concerned that he personally took Tran to the emergency room.

There, Tran was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was told that his disease might not be cured. After chemotherapy treatment, a period of remission and then a relapse, his doctors at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, California decided that it was time to investigate transplant options. When they could not find a perfect match for him for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant, Tran’s doctors looked to a relatively new transplantation option for adults with promising results

Tran’s transplant was successful and he has been in remission from leukemia for six months. He is back home at his temple in Garden Grove, California, just three miles from Disneyland, surrounded by students, nuns and friends. The Huffington Post met with him and a translator — a longtime family friend and student by the name of Roy Le — to learn about what cancer looks like through the eyes of a Buddhist monk.

“After I got sick, my body changed a lot. I lost weight and felt weaker than before. It takes time to recover,” Tran, who is nearly 60 years old and has been studying Buddhism for over 50 years, said through a translator. “But mentally, I feel stronger. I have more confidence in my Buddhism than I did before.”

At his personal temple, where he studies and teaches Mahayana Buddhism, Tran, speaking in Vietnamese, shared six ways that he used his practice to find peace during his process of diagnosis, treatment, transplant, recovery and remission:

William Tran is a monk who lives at a personal temple in Garden Grove, California where he studies and teaches Mahayana Buddhism. Two years ago, he was promoted to the level of “Highest Master” in Buddhism.

1. As a patient, you have to let go now. Letting go means having no attachment.

2. Don’t deny the disease. Accept it as fact.

3. When you’re faced with a crisis, believe in your own religion, God or morals.

4. Believe and trust in your medical team. Follow their instructions.

5. Meditate.

Meditation also helped me psychologically through my treatment. It helped support me. It helped me accept my fate. “Accepting your fate doesn’t mean that you give up. It means facing your reality. Stand up and fight it. You don’t just give up. When we say we accept our fate that means we face the facts right now and we will deal with it.”

6. When confronting the unknown or the fear of relapse, live in the present.

As told to Sasha Bronner. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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