All the Trần Kings from Trần Thái Tông, to Trần Nhân Tông, and later Anh Tông,etc., understood Buddhism profoundly. They never used Buddhism to harm the nation and the people. When they have time, they practiced the Dharma, and taught Buddhism to the multitude. When the country was in danger, as leaders, they led the people in the fight against aggressors out of their responsibilities to the nation, not in the name of Buddhism. The picture of the Thiền school under the Trần dynasty is a very beautiful one. After selecting the name, I continued my task in restoring the Thiền school from the Trần dynasty. There are many related issues, which I will talk about later.
First, issues related to Buddhist Dharma, and the Tripitaka. The Tripitaka includes the Sutras, the Vinaya, and the Abhidhamma [please read Notes]. Of these I focus more on the Sutras and the Adhidhamma than on the Vinaya. You may have found something different (from other sects). Why did I choose to be so different? Actually, from my perspective it is essential to have such a focus.
The reason is that the Buddha’s teachings are medicines for sentient beings’ mind diseases. As many diseases there are, so many medicines He used to teach sentient beings. Thus, the Sutras are to teach us how to eliminate our sufferings, and they contain the gist of His teachings. The Vinaya, which most dignities in our Sangha have considered important, should definitely be respected. However, I emphasize only the basic, or the core, in the Vinaya. As for the details and the formalities in the Vinaya I think there must be more flexibilities and modifications, depending on the time and place, and there should be no fixed and rigid rule. If you examine the Vinaya carefully, you will find that, in terms of formalities, it is closely related to the customs and traditions of ancient India. For example, there are 250 precepts for monks. I selected only two parts from it (The Four Paaraajika/Tứ ba la di, and the Thirteen Sanghaadisesa/Thập tam tăng tang), and put aside the others, which are no longer possible for us to follow. The Buddha gave a number of the precepts to those living in His time, so that contemporaries would not argue and complain. This I noticed clearly.
I often tell monks and nuns that the reason the Buddha came into this life was to help sentient beings. How to help? By teaching them the Dharma, so that they can practice the Dharma, eliminate their own sufferings, and put and end to their sufferings. The Buddha wished to help every sentient being, not only the Indians, nor any particular people or country in the world. His teachings are medicines to cure all beings’ mind diseases. It is essential that we learn His teachings, and take the medicine He gave us to put an end to our sufferings. This is the most important.
Another issue, Buddhism in the world now has two main schools: the Theravada annd the Mahayana. I follow the Mahayana, there is no doubt about this. As I mentioned before, the Buddha’s teachings are medicines, and wherever we live, and whoever we are, we should take whatever medicine that is the most appropriate and the most effective to us.
First, there is no need for discrimination. Although Buddhism originated in India, it is not necessary that the Vietnamese Buddhist have to follow the Indian traditions and customs and rituals when they follow Buddhism. The truth is that Buddhist teachings are medicines for all of us sentient beings.
In the Vinaya there are many sections about the alms bowl and robes. Nowadays most of us monks and nuns no longer go on alms rounds. How can such precepts be observed?
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The Mahayana (or the Developed Buddhism) is more open and flexible. When Buddhism entered China,it was adapted to fit in the local life. Monks and nuns only wear long robes in ceremonies. Otherwise, they wear daily clothing appropriate to their daily activities. The only difference is the color that is appropriate to monastic life.
The Mahayana has modified what it deemed as not fundamental to the roots of Buddhism, The roots are Buddhist Dharma. As for the robe, the bowl… these are formalities. Therefore, in my view, Mahayana Buddhism is appropriate for us to practice in Vietnam. Again this is only my personal view.
Secondly, another more profound reason is that what the Buddha taught in the Agama (A Hàm) is about how to practice. Once we are no longer attached to the self and the dharma/phenomena, we then attain Arahathood and Nirvana. Nirvana means no birth-death; in other words, once we have attained Arahathood, we are no longer in the samsara. Here my question is: if a person is tied to a tree or some place, and however hard he tries, he cannot set himself free. If somebody comes and helps that person to untie the rope, and set him free, we call the helper the liberator. Thus, what does “liberate” mean? Who liberates what/whom?
The Buddha said once sufferings end, there is liberation from brth and death, but He did not mention who liberates what. He remained silent. He just mention liberation from birth and death. For example, once an Arahat passed away, and the monks asked the Buddha, “Where is this Arahat after he passed away?” The Buddha aasnwered, “The wood is finished; the fire dies out.” The answer about liberation seems to be incomplete as explained in the Agama.
In the Mahayana sutras, on the other hand, the answer about liberation is very clear. Once we put an end to sufferings and attain liberation from birth and death, our Buddha Nature is shining Our Buddha Nature is free from birth and death. Once we get rid of the ignorance veil and fetters that trap us in the samsara, we are free from birth and death. It is our Buddha Nature that shines and ends our sufferings. So obvious! There is no more doubt. We must think through to understand why the Buddha did not say so. In ancient India, the Buddha’s time, Hinduism was dominant. So the Buddha had to be cautious (please read Notes).
Later His disciples who had attained arahathood or Bodhisattvahood explained clearly in the Mahayana sutras and the Abhidhamma, so that later Buddhist followers would underststand and practice accordingly. They just helped make Buddhist teachings more lucid, and easier to understand. There is nothing wrong about this development. Thanks to their explanations, we now have no doubt about the Buddha’s teachings.
(to be continued)
Notes:
1.Abhidharma (Sanskrit) or Abhidhamma (Pāli) are ancient (3rd century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications.
2.The practices and goals of Buddhism and Hinduism have similarities and differences. The Theravada Buddhism is relatively conservative, and generally closest to the early form of Buddhism. The Mahayana and Vajrayana beliefs developed later. It appears that later schools of Buddhism developed a variety of other rituals and devotional practices that were inspired or influenced by existing religions and cultures of India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Tibet. However, the more historical or beginning forms of Hinduism and the teachings of Buddha have pronounced differences, as evident in the recorded materials of the Pali Canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism.
The Vedic, the Buddhist, the Jain, and the later more modern versions the Buddha and the Mahavira (the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism), and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is considered among the very earliest Upanishads,(the Upanishad text was compiled under King Janaka of Mithila) all share a common cultural theme influenced by the north eastern areas of India, modern day eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Nepal.
Ancient India had two philosophical streams of religious thoughts: the Shramana and the Vedic. These two religions have shared paralleled beliefs and have existed side by side for thousands of years. Both Buddhism and Jainism are continuations of the Shramana belief while modern Hinduism is a continuation of the Vedic belief with considerable admixture of Sramanic, folk and tribal traditions of India. The similarities between the Shramana and the Vedic religions were influenced by the Vedic priests called the Brahmins who also followed some of the Shramana teachings thus incorporating some of the Shramana beliefs into the Vedic's religious philosophy.
The Buddha rejected various religions' path to salvation. He teaches that to achieve salvation one does not have to accept the authority of the scriptures or the existence of God, which was regarded as an Advaita Vedanta view. (At the time of the early Buddhists there was no independent Vedanta school with a developed and organized philosophical system; the various philosophical theories of the pre-Buddhist Upanishads were quite widely disseminated.) In Buddhist texts he is presented as rejecting such avenues of salvation as "pernicious views". Later Indian religious thoughts were influenced by this interpretation and novel ideas of the Buddhist tradition of beliefs.
Buddhism attained prominence in the Indian subcontinent, but was ultimately eclipsed in the 11th century CE at its point of origin by Hinduism and Islam. While Buddhism declined in India, Buddhism continued outside of India. Tibetan Buddhism is the predominant religion in the Himalayan region while Theravada Buddhism continues in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and Mahayana Buddhism continues in India, East Asia and among the Chinese diaspora.
Source:
Most Venerable Thích Thanh Từ. All My Life(Tron Mot Doi Toi)
http://www.thientongvietnam.net/kinhsach-thike/dirs/tmdoitoi/index.pdf
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Hinduism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Hinduism
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/ariyesako/layguide.html#vinaya
