The last of the three Trúc Lâm patriarchs was Huyền Quang, who was 30 years older than Pháp Loa, and who became a monk much later, for he had served as a royal court subject for some time. Huyền Quang left about 20 poems in Chinese Vietnamese, a prose essay about Vân Yên Temple in old Vietnamese, and a story related to Ðiểm Bích and contemporary events. Many of his poems were about flowers and scenery of temples. His prose essay about Vân Yên Temple (Vịnh Vân Yên tự phú) showed that he had mastered the art of using the ancient Vietnamese language (Nôm), making his work simple and easy to understand. In A Record of the Three Patriarchs (Tam tổ thực lục) there were King Trần Nhân Tông's compliments on Huyền Quang's writings and language capacity: "Any work that he wrote or edited is complete; and there is no need to add or delete anything in it."
With the presence of the first three patriarchs Trần Nhân Tông - Pháp Loa - Huyền Quang over thirty years of popularity and success, Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Thiền School has been a spiritual symbol for the Vietnamese people. Culturally, the artifacts, the relics or vestiges of its old temples, stupas, meditation huts, its pine trees and bamboo woods, the Giải Oan Spring, the Garden of Medicinal Herbs (Ngự Dược), the An Kỳ Sinh Statue, and Ðồng Temple on top of the mountain....all these vividly cluster among high mountains and thick forests.
The name Trúc Lâm Yên Tử gives us a hint of the ancient and the depth of the Vietnamese people's spiritual life. It refers to the place where the people's ancestors practiced and disseminated Buddhism in the past, and where everybody can come and admire its beautiful scenery at present.
The three patriarchs' works have become national spiritual treasures, for they are our ancestors' humanistic and literary heritage of long-lasting values, and are topics to study and research for many social and humanistic sciences.
More importantly, the birth of Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Thiền School has helped to develop nationalism among the Vietnamese, for it encouraged Vietnamese indigenous cultural values, and met the spiritual needs of the people locally and in various specific period of times. With this School many temples have been built, following the monastic rules and characteristics of genuinely Vietnamese Buddhism. In those temples there are shrines to worship the three patriarchs about whom there have been quite a few works of arts (paintings, statues...), folk tales and legends. The patriarchs' poems and Dharma teachings found in many artifacts and Vietnamese literature have been studied for generations. Even though at the end of the Trần dynasty, Buddhism was no longer as popular as it had been in the earlier period, the influence of Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Thiền School had permeated in the people's spiritual life with its long-lasting cultural values. In spite of all the vicissitudes of life, its heritage has been preserved and shining bright as "the Trúc Lâm mind" among generations of Vietnamese all over the country. All these proves the solidity and survival capacity of this Thiền School.
Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Cultural Values in Vietnamese Society and in the World
It is true that Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Thiền School is part of Vietnamese culture. It is genuinely Vietnamese, for its founding patriarchs had selectively learned what was the best from Chinese and Indian Buddhism, and developed it in its unique Vietnamese ways. The greatest contribution of this School has always been its companionship with the nation, and its supporting and mobilizing role in times when national independence faced historical challenges from foreign aggressors. That is why its cultural values survived over 700 years, and have well developed for generations, and is now spreading beyond national borders.
There are two historic temples related to the Trúc Lâm School in Đông Triều (Quảng Ninh): Ngoạ Vân Temple and Hồ Thiên Temple. Ngoạ Vân Temple was the place where the first patriarch of the School, King Trần Nhân Tông, entered Nirvana (demised). After his cremation, 3,000 pearl relics were found in his ashes. These were collected and distributed to 8 stupas in 7 locations, two of which are Phật Hoàng Stupa (Ngoạ Vân Temple) and the Stone Stupa (Quỳnh Temple) in Đông Triều. Yên Tử - Ngoạ Vân - Hồ Thiên are well-known places (considered as "Buddhas' realm in the South"/“cõi Phật trời Nam”) where one can find evidences about ascetic Buddhist disciples in this School.
Regarding vestiges of the Trần dynasty, Đông
Triều is the place where systematic remnants of the early periods of this dynasty have been found, and recognized as national historic sites. For example the Thái Shrine was one among the earliest built under the Trần dynasty. It is located in the area where there used to be several shrines on a surface constructed in the shape of the word "Vương" (meaning "King"). It is the only well-preserved shrine among the vestiges of the three dynasties of Lý, Trần, Lê. Also in Đông
Triều 5 tombs of the Trần kings and queens were found. Thái Tomb (Thái Lăng) has a unique structure with a roof to cover on top and decorated with dragons, symbols of monarchic power. Currently, there are many national projects to rebuild An
Sinh, the birthplace of the Trần, together with other plans to educate and mobilize local people to protect the relics in the area. Local leaders and politicians are working with central government agencies to develop the 9,000-haYên Tử Heritage Reserve to preserve the historic area. It is true that Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Thiền School is part of Vietnamese culture. It is genuinely Vietnamese, for its founding patriarchs had selectively learned what was the best from Chinese and Indian Buddhism, and developed it in its unique Vietnamese ways. The greatest contribution of this School has always been its companionship with the nation, and its supporting and mobilizing role in times when national independence faced historical challenges from foreign aggressors. That is why its cultural values survived over 700 years, and have well developed for generations, and is now spreading beyond national borders.
There are two historic temples related to the Trúc Lâm School in Đông Triều (Quảng Ninh): Ngoạ Vân Temple and Hồ Thiên Temple. Ngoạ Vân Temple was the place where the first patriarch of the School, King Trần Nhân Tông, entered Nirvana (demised). After his cremation, 3,000 pearl relics were found in his ashes. These were collected and distributed to 8 stupas in 7 locations, two of which are Phật Hoàng Stupa (Ngoạ Vân Temple) and the Stone Stupa (Quỳnh Temple) in Đông Triều. Yên Tử - Ngoạ Vân - Hồ Thiên are well-known places (considered as "Buddhas' realm in the South"/“cõi Phật trời Nam”) where one can find evidences about ascetic Buddhist disciples in this School.
In recent years many monasteries of Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Thiền School have been built in Đà Lạt, Yên Tử (Quảng Ninh), Tây Thiên (Vĩnh Phúc)... under the guidance of Most Venerable Thích Thanh Từ. These monasteries help introduce this Thiền practice into people's daily life and society. Visitors to those monasteries feel pleased and happy with monastic rules, practice and Buddhist activities there, because of the School's simple and well-organized methods of disseminating and practice the Dharma, which is also unique and close to Vietnamese culture. On the other hand, the architectural structures of those monasteries, which bring out the harmony between nature and Thiền, and between modern and traditional features, satisfy the aesthetic and spiritual needs of not only Buddhists' learning and practice, but also native and foreign visitors and tourists.
Source:
Most Ven.Thích Gia Quang's paper presented at the Conference of 705th Anniversary of King Trần Nhân Tông's Demise (Entering Nirvana). Available at www.thuvienhoasen.org.
