The
Vietnamese Buddhism is witnessing a myriad of disturbing changes and
unexpected altercations that have never been seen before in history.
From organizational structure, to sangha’s ritual activities, to death
and wedding ceremonies, etc… the movement nowadays is to endeavor
hastily western features and values,
consequently surrendering beautiful traditions of old. Additionally, the
influence of a social consumerism and the constraining political
dominance give rise to numerous social ailments due to the lack of
foundational morality among people of worldly supremacy and religious
authority. This sickening condition in society no doubt affects the
formal education of the young generation nationwide as well as in
Buddhism, in a very negative way.
When
we talk about today’s youth of Vietnam, we invariably have to visualize
two straight lines that coincide and meet at the specific point in the
world of consumeralism. Although these two groups of young Vietnamese
people – one in Vietnam, the other abroad – are both subjected to a
schooling model equivalently patterned after the western world, but
because of their socio-economic difference based on political power
preference instead of a naturally developed tendency, they are quite
dissimilar. This distinction is so phony that it is like someone
submerged in a muddy pond without knowing where to hang on for escape.
The young generation of Vietnam seems to be uprooted, and has potential
of loosing its foundation and its direction if really deracinated. The
young Vietnamese Buddhists are of no exception; they’re faced with
difficulty in overcoming this trend.
I
want to stress one point – when I spoke of loosing direction, I mainly
concentrate on the national and ethnic standpoint. The young
Vietnamese’s who live abroad only need to momentarily forget their
originality, or rather just set aside this distinction, can definitely
find their personal direction the moment they set foot into higher
education – at colleges and universities. In another word, the young
generation of Vietnamese who live elsewhere outside of Vietnam is not
quite uprooted, just acclimatized to it. For example if one to grow the
tangerines that are native of the south, in the northern region - who
knows what luck one gets; the fruits might be sweeter and edible, or
more sour and sickly looking because they aren’t in their natural
habitat. The young people in Vietnam are like tangible trees that still
attached firmly on their country roots. But they are eager to change, to
move, to fly away because of external attraction and influence, so more
than likely they are easily snapped and lost footing. The majority of
the young’s know very little about our history, about our ancestral
founding fathers, how they love, what they think, what they do to assert
valuable equality in spiritual essence with the world.
The
young Buddhists on the other hand, still try hard – or so we think - to
connect to their roots of traditions throughout their years of growing
up, but because of the lack of responsibility and negligent leadership
from their superiors, they are subjected to unintentional misdirection;
just like a physician, for lack of knowledge to correct treatment, would
prescribe sleeping pills to just temporarily pacify his patients… They –
the superiors - incidentally cause the young individuals to set aside
their provisional pain and bitterness which in fact should be guiding
them in choosing their direction in life. Outside of this calamity,
there is also the power of politics and the necessity required of the
young’s to serve their country in avant-garde collaboration for
protection of the regime. Because of it, no formal religious instruction
is possible and permitted for the young people anywhere outside of the
temples’ main gates. Meanwhile, even insides the temples, the learning
process is also limited with the teaching of impermanence and non-self
as not survival means, nor as natural and social development or
destruction; but as a grayish panorama of life because their despondent
and aging superiors, forlorn and tired from victories and defeats, have
lost all sense of purpose in life.
In
a society where most of the spiritual values are being squashed and
destroyed, some of the young people find themselves opportune on the
governmental powers or corruption moneys of their families to perversely
behave and follow in the same footsteps of their elders in most large
cities; others bury themselves in books to earn their rudimental
education so that they can be turned into loyal slaves to the already
filthy rich bosses; the rest might just accept their fate, their
poverty, their illiteracy and consent with resignation to the disgrace
of the whole backward and poor country. In this situation, any organized
groups of young people who thirst for a direction and ideals in life-
such as the Young Buddhist Association – tend to be flagged as social
challenge, and considered as potential threat or menace to the regime.
If such administrative regime cannot control these groups in favor of
its own dark and sinuous ambition, it might as well be inclined to
misuse them to benefit from “selling one’s country for seeking one’s
honors.” So could it be just a dreaming fantasy when we try to gather up
our own young people for the purpose of teaching them the Dharma and
nothing else? Because, what we have done, nonetheless, would be like
rounding up the fawns into one place for ferocious tigers to easily
manipulate their grips.
Of
course in order to continuously develop, a nation needs its youth.
Buddhism also needs the young people to carry on its accountability in
helping all sentient beings. According to this task at hand, the
Buddhist education geared toward the youth doesn’t mean bringing them
insides the temple walls in order to segregate them from bars and
nightclubs, and all the rest of temptations and debauches. But the basic
principle of a Buddhist education is to teach a way to morality and a
method to enhance one’s own spirituality.
Applied Morality
First
of all we will discuss the need to train one’s morality. There is no
pushing and cramming in the moral codes, no prohibition or banning any
actions such as ‘you got to do this…’, ‘you can’t do that’, etc… The
young people tend to do whatever the social trend and peer pressure of
the moment suggests. The challenge here is to guide them and help them
avoid the harmful elements of the era, and not mistaken on errand
directions and wrong movements. Therefore, there is a need to establish a
safe mobile environment for them to belong. What could be a safer and
better environment than their established bodhi mind? And its mobility
is the “non-attached, un-pillared” characteristic of a Bodhisattava. We
will discuss more on these two issues shortly.
In
this day and age, some individuals grow up in a peaceful nation, get
acquainted with luxurious and prosperous life of large cities and
metropolitans; they are free to acquire a good social education and
eventually settle in stable lifestyle. The majority of them does not
experience or never face indigence and disadvantage as those in their
age groups in less developed areas. When they have no chance to cope
with destitute or confront hardship, it would be hard for them to
recognize the substance of life; they would not comprehend the true
meaning of the ability and the need to survive. So bringing Buddhism to
the young’s also means introducing them to the reality of survival. And
that is the true sense of Bodhi mind: “wherever there is danger, I vow
to be there as a bridge; wherever there is darkness, I vow to come as a
torch.” It might be just a far-fetched promise, even rather impractical
to some. But it sure is the diamond ground on which young people can
settle their foundation and assert their direction as concrete values
for their individual life.
As
far as the mobility aspect of this, it got to be wide open and not
bound and restricted inside narrow spatial societies, so that young
people can expand their gaze far into the distant horizon, further out
then their prejudice and traditional self-contained world they live in.
They need to be taught to always stay prepared and ready to take off and
move on. Turn up anywhere in this universe, maybe to the inner world of
real sufferings, or to places where true happiness can be tested.
Mobility also equates adventure. When modern societies construct so many
large cities out of necessity, modern life might be more stable, but
the adventurous attribute of all young people is also stamped out. When
they are older, the need to venture out to seek new pleasure and replace
their daily monotone is inevitable.
The
so-called characteristic of ‘non-pillared’ or ‘non-attached’ of a
bodhisattva has some difference. It is neither anchored down on birth
and death cycle (samsara), nor affixed in nirvana. It is a
feature of liberal-mind, and of not being tied down on any tradition or
value. Young people truly need to have access to this liberal-mind and
generosity. They should have the ability to evaluate the significance of
world civilization, and choose for themselves the appropriate direction
and path within the harmonious development of all the civilizations,
despite their difference in religion, belief, tradition, perspective,
opinion, and even in the manner in which they carry their daily lives.
Develop Spirituality Recognition
Now
we reach the second item of our discussion: how to develop and enhance
the ability to recognize and maintain spirituality. Here we talk about
the learning experience through traditional dharma teaching and
research. The holy Three Baskets (Tripitakas) of Buddhist
doctrine are an cosmically vast treasure of knowledge, based on the
basic teachings of the Buddha about the value of life, the nature of
suffering and happiness, upon which numerous laws and regulations were
devised, mostly pertaining to nature and ecology, but also to social,
psychological, mental, linguistic aspects, spanning through many epochs
and geographical spaces with diverse historical and traditional
backgrounds.
Of
course we all know that throughout the entire history of all world
civilizations, still presently existing or already eradicated, there is
not a single original doctrine that was not somewhat over-turned or
altered by later generations. Some doctrines were formed, then overcome,
and extinct for good. Others were over-turned but survived the
altercation and revived. But none can maintain their original aspects
without modifications; some were severely changed to the point that if
compared to their origins, they would look rather like monstrosity. Only
the Buddha teachings, which based on the law of impermanence –
everything changes - so the matter is now stands on the suitability to
the truth and to the individual level of understanding, and not on the
subject of overturn or extinction.
Young
people, following in the Buddhist traditions and learning the Dharma,
should not become just researchers and readers of the Buddha’s
teachings. They ought to practice and live these teachings themselves in
order to be able to use their acute and skillful thinking process to
evaluate and directly assess the nature of life. Dharma learning should
not in anyway interfere with world studying, and Buddhist wisdom should
never infringe and conflict with worldly knowledge. The only difference
is learning the Dharma begins from the true nature of human sufferings
from which genuine happiness can be derived. Compassion and wisdom are
the two features – like a pair of wings – that are able to carry the
young individuals through limitless spatial freedom of life.
Viên Minh (The Buddhist Translation Group)