Định Tâm (Phan Nha Trang) — RETURNING TO THE FOUNTAINHEAD

What first brought Định Tâm to Chân Như was not painting, but questions about life and the world that she could not put aside. In him, she found answers that reached to the heart of those questions, and a way of learning to live fully in each moment of her own existence. Gradually, the world she had once experienced as small began to open into something boundless—more vivid, authentic, and alive with feeling.

Before meeting Chân Như, Định Tâm had worked across several creative fields, including photography, graphic design, and independent filmmaking. Each path brought a measure of success, yet behind those achievements she encountered limitations that seemed impossible to overcome. The stories that had once moved her no longer did. She continued searching until, in her own words, the “fountainhead” within her seemed to have run dry. Her thoughts circled endlessly, and inside there seemed to be nothing left but stones—a state approaching despair for someone whose life depended upon the ability to create.

Her encounter with Chân Như opened an entirely different path.

Định Tâm never received formal training in fine art. What she did have was an instinct for drawing that had taken root in childhood, when she would gaze with fascination at the floral embroidery patterns made by her mother. And throughout nearly a decade of studying with Chân Như, he did not teach her conventional painting techniques.

Instead, she joined her teacher and fellow students in establishing a small medicinal garden in the countryside. Once a city girl who had achieved a certain degree of recognition, she stepped away from that identity and became anonymous again, relearning the simplest things from the beginning: cooking, gardening, caring for the animals around her—and even repairing electrical and plumbing systems or putting the track back onto an excavator.

Through these experiences, Chân Như taught her to be fully present in every step she took, every task she performed, and every person she encountered. Gradually, what she describes as the “rust” within began to fall away, bringing Định Tâm closer to her authentic self. She began to open herself to the world again and to perceive more deeply the inner lives of those around her.

Her capacity to be moved returned with a new immediacy and intensity—by the changing seasons, the earth and sky, animals, plants, and the smallest expressions of life. Stories began to fill her again, along with a childlike sensitivity she had thought long lost.

Throughout this journey, Chân Như has remained in her mind like an ancient tree offering shade. What has left the deepest impression on Định Tâm is her teacher’s simplicity: his willingness to do things himself regardless of difficulty, and his ability to observe, understand, and act according to the reality of the present moment rather than remain bound by predetermined assumptions.

While assisting him in his work, Định Tâm came to understand that Chân Như’s paintings never begin with a predetermined outcome. Instead, they move freely with each unrepeatable moment of feeling, drawing upon years of technical mastery to give expression to something enduring—something permanent.

Six years ago, at the 2020 exhibition Moments, Chân Như gave Định Tâm a small corner in which to show her simple, almost childlike paintings of the cats and dogs in the garden and images of herself as a child.

Six years later, returning with Permanence, she enters a new creative space with greater confidence and freedom. This time, she presents small Thangka paintings alongside her first works in lacquer—created with reverence, gratitude, and a deep sense of appreciation after nearly a decade of practice.

Each painting represents a profound breakthrough for her, taking her beyond limitations she had once believed permanent. Within her brushstrokes are traces of her teacher’s careful guidance, memories of childhood, the scent of ripe fruit, warm and open smiles, kindness received and passed on, and love for those who are no longer here.

She paints with her whole being, wholeheartedly—as her teacher has taught her to live.

And in this way, Định Tâm returns to the “fountainhead”—a place where the heart becomes light and peaceful, and where a warm moon of wisdom remains, quietly and eternally, shining.