Disclaimer: I am a young person who likes to learn philosophy and religion and have a great passion for Buddhist Philosophy. I wrote this article from the objective perspective of a neutral person, with many personal views and not affiliated with any faction. Hopefully readers can also read with an investigative, polite and open mind.
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This series is divided into 2 parts.
PART I: THICH CHAN QUANG – A SOUL THAT NEVER STOPS
PART II: WHAT IS THE RIGHT WAY TO PRACTICE? HOW TO FIND NIRVANA? (Coming soon)
Table of Contents
“BUZZY” BUDDHISM 2024
It can be said that 2024 is a “busy” year for Vietnamese Buddhism with many strange events, attracting mass attention on social networks. At the same time, the online community was in an uproar because of two Buddhist monks, creating two opposing streams of thought at two sharply opposing extremes – an unprecedented phenomenon.
Near the middle of 2024, the appearance of monk Minh Tue – a true practitioner of the ascetic practices of primitive Theravada Buddhism with the ability to keep the precepts extremely disciplined – accidentally became a very different experience and a counterweight to the Buddhist Sangha alliance that has had many scandals over the years. From the Ba Vang Pagoda incident to many scandals of monks such as making careless statements, receiving offerings but not practicing the Dharma properly, sexual misconduct,… Everything is just waiting for 2024 to bear fruit, and this fruit is a bit bitter, a bit humiliating. If the name Thich Minh Tue had not appeared, perhaps the majority of Vietnamese people with Buddhist beliefs would continue to be indifferent and helpless before the noisy scandals of those who practice the monkhood, because we cannot find a suitable example of what a ‘ pure true practitioner’ is like to counterbalance.
If the right thing has not yet appeared, then the wrong thing can be considered as if it has closed its eyes.
When causes and conditions fully converge, the balance of comparison and punishment appears.
No one else, the person being put on the scale is the Venerable Thich Chan Quang – a person with a certain reputation and position in Vietnamese Buddhism – with his subjective and confusing statements, this person is being fiercely attacked by netizens. Learning about Thich Chan Quang, I feel that this is an interesting character, interesting enough to make me sit down and type out this text.
PART I: THICH CHAN QUANG – A SOUL THAT NEVER STOPS
First, let’s temporarily forget the dharma name Thich Chan Quang and the title of Venerable to look deeply into the personality and character of this person as an ordinary citizen – Mr. Vuong Tan Viet. According to solar age, Mr. Vuong Tan Viet (born in 1959) is 65 years old this year. He became a Buddhist monk at the age of 21, which means that Mr. Viet has lived and practiced Buddhism for 41 years. In 1984, Mr. Viet received the Bhikkhu ordination. In 2007, he was officially ordained as Venerable Thich Chan Quang. If we compare with the fathers and grandfathers in our family in their twilight years, we see that Mr. Viet has a much younger spiritual energy than his physical age of U70 – the age when most elderly people will slow down, be more passive, and not be interested in fame or material things. Meanwhile, Mr. Viet still has a great desire to struggle, and is still entangled with the world, with relationships, plans, material things, fame, and power.
1. What kind of person is Thich Chan Quang?
The first and most obvious characteristic that can be seen in Mr. Viet is his dynamism, progress, and diligence in developing himself and his career. Considering the productivity of an ordinary person, Mr. Viet is exceptionally active in all tasks: from running Dharma shows, filming, writing books, organizing dozens of activities each year, opening art programs, composing music, expanding the temple, opening a company, even founding his own martial arts sect… Up to now, he has given 2000 lectures, written and published more than 130 books in many different fields, composed more than 150 Buddhist songs, and founded the Phat Quang Quyen sect – under the Vietnam Traditional Martial Arts Federation. He also has a bachelor’s degree in English, a bachelor’s degree in Law, and a PhD in Law recognized by Hanoi University. More importantly, Mr. Viet has the management ability of a professional businessman, he knows how to update trends, apply technology quickly, and never let himself be left behind. Looking at the organization Thien Ton Phat Quang, we can see that this place is being operated as a systematic, modern structure:
- Mr. Viet runs an ecosystem of 40 monasteries stretching from North to South with branches abroad including Japan, Taiwan, and 33 communities of ‘Young Buddhists of Phat Quang Pagoda’ (CTNPTCPQ) with tens of thousands of people.
- The ‘customer experience’ (CX) at the temple is very good: from the food presentation, the resting place, the entrance to Phat Quang temple is equipped with a cable car to welcome Buddhists, there is even a team of motorbike drivers to take visitors to the temple.
- Regularly organize many large-scale Buddhist cultural activities.
- Temple specializes in opening Buddhist scriptures in English ( 🤔 )
- The “Media Department” of Phat Quang Pagoda is a professional department, constantly creating social media content, writing content, making TikTok and Youtube videos; hiring many KOLs to make review clips to “promote tourism” at Phat Quang Pagoda. (The statuses posted by Angela Phuong Trinh were all compiled by this department).
- Owns a Youtube channel with more than 514,000 subscribers, many personal TikTok channels managed by disciples of Chung Thanh Nien.
- There is a separate application: Phap Quang App on iOS and Android to disseminate audio lectures, videos, ebooks and register followers (disciples) of Phat Quang Pagoda.
- Mr. Viet owns 80% of shareholders of Phap Quang Company Limited with charter capital of 2.4 billion VND.
- E-commerce website of Phap Quang company sells all of Mr. Viet’s books, Buddha pictures, functional foods (“earth dragon” medicine, weight loss tea,…).
- Using the professional “online offering” method with one-touch QR code leading to more than 10 banks of Vuong Tan Viet account owner.
There would be nothing to discuss if Mr. Viet were a normal person. But things became unusual when he did these things under the guise of a monk. His dynamism and ambition far exceeded the boundaries of what a monk should have – those who, once they have shaved their heads and received the ordination of a novice monk/bhikkhu, must almost completely cut off all worldly activities such as entertainment, business, wholesale, arts, material possessions… to eliminate greed, to eliminate the ego within themselves through silence, meditation, and diligence.
Without even considering the 250 Bhikkhu precepts, just considering the 10 precepts of the novice monk, he has already broken 5 of them:
- Do not lie (say unverified, fabricated things)
- No makeup, perfume, silk clothes, gold or silver jewelry.
- No singing, dancing, or partying
- Do not sit or lie on luxurious furniture.
- Do not keep money, gold, silver or treasures.
Beyond the law, Mr. Viet has a passion for pursuing major awards and media activities:
- The Vietnam Record Organization recognized the record for ‘Buddhist monk composing the most Buddhist music’ with 150 songs. (I don’t wow with the award, I just ‘uh huh? 🤔 ‘ when a monk applies for this award)
- The first Buddhist monk in Vietnam to receive the ‘Vietnamese Talent’ award (2019).
- Received many certificates of merit from both private and public associations.
- Participate in many activities of the Party and State.
- Appeared many times on VTV, interviewed by the press, recorded many reports and major programs.
- Appeared in hundreds of online articles during his time as a monk.
The motive behind Mr. Viet’s ‘diligence in worldly affairs’ certainly comes from good intentions: the desire to contribute, the desire to bring value, to “accumulate merit”, the desire to improve people’s morality, the desire to spread Buddhism… because no selfish person can fully play the role of ‘compassionate service’ for more than 40 years.
But looking at the certificates and the hustle and bustle in the Desire Realm, one can guess where a person’s path of meditation into the Consciousness-Only Realm is.
No one can walk two rows on two forked paths and reach the destination. In Mr. Viet’s case, once he is deeply involved in religious business, politics, smuggling, and worldly relationships, it is very difficult to control the large, impure ego, and to end greed, anger, and delusion (without greed, it is difficult to climb high).
At that time, all pure motives will easily be tinged with personal interests: the desire to expand the organization to increase revenue, increase human resources to provide offerings to the temple, maintain reputation, love, and worship of the world, and strengthen the position of an influential person, a saint of society.
And the door to super meditation, to Consciousness-Only, will become narrower and disappear from sight.
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
Mary Wollstonecraft
2. Reaching the Peak and Getting Lost in the Dharma
Throughout his life, Mr. Viet has reached many milestones of achievement. He knows how to make his name famous, strive to maintain his fame and then slide down on that brilliant halo.
The talent of Thich Chan Quang
With an extroverted personality and a skillful way of speaking, Mr. Viet did not choose to follow the quiet path of academics to become a learned translator (which only serves a group of highly educated readers) like Venerable Thich Minh Chau – who translated the Nikaya Tripitaka into Vietnamese; or Venerable Thich Tue Sy – a great intellectual, who translated and annotated into Vietnamese the original Chinese version of the Abhidharmakośa-śāstra of the Great Dharma Master Xuanzang – Tang Sanzang.
Mr. Viet also did not have enough dharma power to establish a sect of practice to help him go deeper into the path of attaining enlightenment like the founder of the Vietnamese Mendicant Buddhist sect with the aspiration to ‘continue the transmission of the true dharma of Shakyamuni’ – a sect similar to the ascetic Minh Tue today.
After leaving his two masters, Venerable Thich Thanh Tu and Thich Thong Lac, in 1992, Mr. Viet went to Dinh Tu mountain to “startup” Phat Quang pagoda with his own unique steps, innovation, in step with the development of the times.
With his ingenious planning ability, he transformed Phat Quang Pagoda from a deserted valley into a scenic spot that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. And it cannot be ignored that the key point that helped his reputation spread far and wide was his talent for speaking, inspiring and persuading listeners.
During the years 2005-2009, the name Thich Chan Quang spread throughout the country by leading the movement of producing/selling CDs of Dharma sermons. Buddhists widely reproduced Mr. Viet’s CDs and DVDs to give to relatives as a form of “accumulating merit”; drivers played the CDs on long-distance trips; Buddhist youth were given CDs by their parents to listen to in order to live a more virtuous life… You yourself may have heard his teachings somewhere when you were young.
At this time, Mr. Viet had become a phenomenon, trusted, sought after, and respected by everyone (most in the Southern region).
TCQ’s main audience is middle-aged uncles, aunts, mothers; and a significant portion of them are young teenagers. The common denominator of these people is that they all tend to believe in Buddhism in a cult-like way, have high emotional thinking, and low critical thinking.
Decoding speaking techniques, Mr. Viet was endowed with a voice suitable for preaching.
Observing the way he presents, you can see that Mr. Viet is very intelligent and has an excellent memory – he never looks at a prepared text, rarely stumbles or says “uh…um” even though the lecture lasts for 1-2 hours; he speaks naturally and coherently, using concise and concise words, his arguments follow each other without any gaps; he knows how to control his speaking speed, eyes, voice and body language; especially the content of his lectures is rarely repeated even though he has given over 2000 lectures. Most importantly, Mr. Viet understands human psychology and knows how to speak to please the audience.
The main formula he used in his sermons was to transform complex and profound teachings into popular stories; he made his sermons appealing by inserting stories heavy on karma, the underworld, ‘fairy tale concepts’, and debt repayment, to appeal to people’s fears and attention.
Mr. Viet’s argument formula:
- Make an assertion
- Explanation of the assertion
- Give examples (usually made up) of stories of Mr. A, Mrs. B, and Ms. C meeting good fortune, receiving karma, and spiritual retribution.
- Lead to the next point, and repeat.
Some controversial statements:
“In this life, silently donate 50 million to the temple, in the Buddha’s mind it is 500 million, in the next life you will enjoy 500 billion”
“When young, you love to travel, when old, you will be paralyzed and bedridden.”
From the above statements, I can humorously deduce Mr. Viet’s “karma formula”:
Good fruit: a*b = a(x*10000)
Bad fruit: a*b = a/(x*1000)
(Where a is the subject, b is the action, x is the consequence)
This is an example showing that Mr. Viet talks about cause and effect in a very linear, subjective, and fabricated way because no Buddhist scriptures propagate these delusions.
In many videos, his teachings are also threatening, intimidating, forcing people to contribute, sacrifice, give up, and give everything. Mr. Viet’s manipulation of people under the name of Buddhism has unintentionally turned Buddhism into a religion of intimidation, debt repayment, worship of gods and fairies, arbitrary and seriously deviating from the Buddha’s wise Dharma.
The Origin of False Statements – The ‘Tit for Tat’ Mindset
At the age of 62, Mr. Viet reached a new peak: obtaining a Doctorate in Law.
This is a welcome achievement for the studious spirit of a person in his 70s. However, when analyzing his doctoral thesis, combining the views of many Dharma lectures, we can see the inherent characteristics of Mr. Viet – clear division in every game.
The topic of the doctoral thesis entitled ‘ Human Responsibilities in International Law and Vietnamese Law ‘ can be summarized as follows:
- International law is overemphasizing human rights without requiring obligations;
- Promoting human rights leads to consequences: ‘promoting enjoyment is also promoting selfishness, causing the degradation of moral values in society’, causing laziness and stuntedness in people’s way of life;
- It is necessary to overcome the consequences by applying the ‘Global Declaration of Human Responsibility’ – composed by author Vuong Tan Viet himself, including 31 provisions on obligations.
My article will not delve into or criticize the thesis (because many people have done this). But let me temporarily translate the more “popular” meaning of this entire thesis as:
“The biscuits must be given first, then there will be some cake to eat.”
“You have to work and contribute first, then you have the right to think about being human.”
Without discussing the rightness or wrongness of the thesis (I find this a work worth learning), we look at it to understand that: The fair sharing when describing blessings/karma is not a temporary ‘slip of the tongue’. It is an idea deeply ingrained in Mr. Viet’s subconscious and personality.
Once, Mr. Viet was invited to give a sermon at a cemetery on Vu Lan day, the first thing he said to the guests was “We are sitting here to attend the ceremony, behind it is a lot of effort from the organizing committee. The cemetery director has to spend 500 million/day to rent this awning to shade you all. “Poop”, then he presented the expenses that the organizers had to pay, in order to call on attendees to contribute more. (Excerpt from the video with the theme ‘The Underworld’ on the Youtube channel Phap Quang Sen Hong – has been hidden)
Through many videos like this, I think, if he wasn’t a monk, Mr. Viet would definitely be a… chief accountant. Not a single thousand dong escapes his eyes. Money is the focus of his attention. The ‘tit for tat’ mindset , fairness is the measure, the rule of the game for him to operate everything.
However, Mr. Viet is not always fair play, because he often asks for more.
In addition to ‘demanding’ fees for human rights, Mr. Viet’s dharma talks also regularly ‘demand’ that Buddhists know how to give away their hearts, from material things (donating land and houses, donating ‘large sums of money’) to contributing their strength and spirit – he inserted into his eloquent nationalist sermons (respecting Buddha means loving the country), advising the young generation not to spare themselves, to dare to sacrifice themselves to serve Buddhism and the Fatherland, even… to give their lives when necessary (quoted from a lecture on nationalism that has been hidden).
Adults offer money, young people offer… youth and loyalty.
More than money or material things, loyalty is the last two expensive words that Mr. Viet always craves obsessively.
The Obsession of Thich Chan Quang
Deep inside Mr. Viet always had a fear of betrayal.
I don’t know if the rumor about a group of disciples denouncing wrongdoings and bribing Mr. Viet with a lot of material assets in 2009 is true or not, but certainly his psychology was heavily affected by some event in the past, the obsession was big enough for him to write a book called ‘ No Betrayal ‘ – to warn and teach disciples not to betray their teacher.
Mr. Viet once confided to his disciples during a sermon that “Do you love me? There are always people who want to harm me and destroy this monastery. You must have faith and be of one mind, and not be tempted. ”.
Saying is doing, in a very… Chan Quang way – he even changed the 5th precept of the 5 precepts of taking refuge in the Three Jewels: from “ No sexual misconduct ” to “ No betrayal ”.
When I looked at this Refuge certificate, I paid special attention to the last two of the Nine Vows:
8. Be loyal and obedient to your teachers and build a foundation of discipline.
9. I vow not to practice alone but to participate in practicing with the Lay Self-Contemplation Monastery.
Even Gautama Buddha never encouraged his disciples to be loyal to him or to any religion, but Thich Chan Quang – the successor of Buddha – arbitrarily changed the scriptures to manipulate and determine the thoughts of thousands of people.
The two verbs ‘with all my heart’ and ‘obey’ in article number 8 are full of the nature of slavery, servanthood, and service.
According to psychology, narcissistic dictators will be forced to end their manipulation game only when the victim realizes that he is a victim, and has the consciousness to free himself. To avoid ‘betrayal’ from happening, Mr. Viet continuously teaches that being disloyal to the master is a serious crime, losing all blessings. And more cleverly, to maintain absolute loyalty from the young disciples, he applies ‘ Herd mentality’ in point number 9 – “ I vow not to practice alone but to join a sangha “.
Herd mentality is a phenomenon when a large number of people believe or do something, causing many others to follow suit. When in a cohesive group, people will easily be assimilated, greatly reducing their ego, enhancing collective principles until it is no longer important who they are (another name is the herd effect – easily herded).
The master’s “good sheep” – the CTNPTCP Association – is like a miniature society with many activities suitable for young people. There is no need to ask why Mr. Viet has in his hands a powerful force ready to build roads, sweep trash, clean, do media seeding, attack/defend “cyber security” for the temple and many other labor tasks when needed.
More about ‘ Herd mentality’ , in a video interview about his PhD thesis with the Youtube channel of Phap Luat newspaper, when asked the question:
“Which of the 31 Universal Declaration of Human Duties that you wrote is your favorite?”
Mr. Viet replied that he liked number 30 the most:
“Everyone has the DUTY to seek happiness for each other, to help each other overcome suffering and hardship, because on the path to happiness there is no one who walks alone .”
(excerpt from PhD thesis)
Explaining this, he believes that it is very difficult for people to find happiness when working alone.. Con người cần phải ở trong môi trường tập thể mới có thể phát triển và tìm được hạnh phúc.
In my opinion this is a one-sided view.
Because people have the right to choose to live in a group or independently, separately – depending on their individual needs. And no one has the right to the obligation to make others happy, no one is born in spiritual debt to anyone; moreover, the definition of happiness is different for each person – only when each individual takes responsibility for finding their own purpose in life can they find true happiness and reach the highest level of spiritual development.
We can see that the issue of Freedom and Human Rights – something that the whole world had to go through thousands of years of painful history to eliminate (slavery in the West and feudalism in the East) to find the light of Human Rights – is something Mr. Viet takes lightly, like leaves falling in autumn.
In my opinion, if Mr. Viet becomes the leader of a country, it will be a prosperous, autocratic country, with a totalitarian monarchy.
(This article will temporarily ignore unverified information: fake diplomas, claiming to be Uncle Ho’s nephew, rumors about private scandals such as owning hundreds of billions and many real estates, houses, cars; lawsuits that were hushed up; audio recordings; accusations that he sexually abused female Buddhists and nuns,…)
Unfortunately for Thich Chan Quang, this is a soul with too much “intelligence” but not enough “wisdom”. His speaking career and great ambition have brought his name to great heights, and it is also what has pushed him to the most devastating media crisis of his life. If Mr. Viet’s extraordinary intelligence had been accompanied by a less cruel heart, perhaps he would not have gone astray as he has now.
3. Undeniable merits – The difficulties of Thich Chan Quang and Mahayana Buddhism
After a series of analyses above, you would think that I must be someone who hates Mr. Thich Chan Quang. But no, on the contrary, I am very inspired when analyzing this person.
I wonder, does Mr. Thich Chan Quang deserve to be criticized, criticized, and condemned so fiercely by the community?
In my opinion, NO. Because if we do not count the mistake of speaking carelessly, the fact that TCQ (and many other monks) are practicing incorrectly is not just a personal matter, but it is the result of many layers of deep-rooted causes in the way Buddhist organizations have been run for many generations.
But let’s linger and look at another aspect of how Mr. TCQ runs the temple.
Another perspective…
Amidst the public storm, have you wondered why there are so many young Buddhists who insist on defending and protecting Master Thich Chan Quang, like Angela Phuong Trinh, Le Be La and thousands of other young people?
Do you think because they are ignorant, brainless, because they are led by evil spirits?
Not so.
Simply because those individuals truly benefit and gain good values from the contributions that Thich Chan Quang brings to society.
The scale of the Buddhist Quang system that Mr. Viet built is not trivial. The pagoda is currently home to more than 200 monks, the spiritual support of tens of thousands of young people participating in community activities and through that, contributing their youth to the country: cleaning up trash, building roads, planting trees, etc. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people come to eat vegetarian food for free at the pagoda, participate in cultural activities, learn martial arts, learn English for free, etc.
‘The Trash Lovers Association’ was founded by Mr. Viet with more than 1,000 volunteers who regularly organize many activities to pick up trash to clean the environment in many provinces/cities in Vietnam. Buddhist Quang disciple groups also organize tree planting and afforestation, thousands of trees have been planted to cover the bare hills (3,000 trees in 2012 alone).
In addition, Mr. Viet also opened free ‘English for the elderly’ classes in many provinces and cities across the country; in Hanoi, there are 10 English classes for the elderly. On average, each class has 12-15 students, from 60 years old to nearly 90 years old.
The charity founded by Mr. Viet has carried out volunteer activities such as building houses in Truong Sa, contributing billions of VND to prevent floods, building many charity houses, supporting the care of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, etc. Charitable activities have been maintained regularly since 2013 until now, with 307 billion VND contributed by benefactors to the charity fund, contributing to social security activities for the community.
Putting ourselves in the shoes of Thich Chan Quang’s disciples, we will understand why they can fight against the whole world to protect their master.
- Imagine the feeling when you are in the depths of misery, suffering from life, there is a temple for you to take refuge in, there is a healthy community for you to lift your spirit.
- Imagine the feeling when you crave to contribute and create value for society, then there is a community that opens up opportunities for you to do meaningful things: pick up trash, plant trees, do charity work, do volunteer work,…
- Imagine the joy of living and connecting with people of the same frequency, same generation, being able to share and bond together like a family.
- Imagine the joy of coming to a well-prepared temple that always makes you feel welcome and appreciated.
We see that Mr. Viet is conservative, extreme, somewhat dictatorial, but we cannot deny that he uses his extremism very effectively and in the right way . Interestingly, he dares to live in a way that breaks away from the image of a “gentle as Buddha” Buddhist monk that everyone still stereotypes: must be introverted, gentle, meditative, inactive, let go,… He does the complete opposite .
. Và thành quả mà ông tạo ra cho xã hội Việt Nam là không hề nhỏ.
This perspective brings me to big questions:
- If Mr. Thich Chan Quang “practiced correctly”, “practiced kindly”, “practiced suffering” – completely eliminating his ego, giving up his dynamism and high ambitions, could he have created as many miracles for society as he has done?
- If Mr. Thich Chan Quang is too compassionate and does not know how to attract and fully utilize the human resources of the “flock of sheep” that he owns, will that “flock of sheep” be able to create any great value for life?
- If Thich Chan Quang were to leave this world, would society receive more benefits than if he were to continue to struggle and bombard the world as he pleases?
Confusing life path and religious path: The difficulty of a religious practitioner
Let me quote a sentence I wrote at the beginning of the article:
No one can walk two rows on two forked roads and reach the destination.
If we look deeply into the way of practicing of Thich Chan Quang (and of most monks today), we can realize that the biggest trap that a monk of the Mahayana (Northern) sect must overcome is to control his instinct/ego amidst the comfort, temptation, and innovation of a society that is constantly evolving.
How can we keep the precepts (somewhat harsh and out of date) when monks also have the same psychological structure and material conditions as a normal person: still have emotions, still have to meet many people, still have to manage money and organize a temple, still have wifi connection, have social networks, still have to continuously absorb daily information about the joys, anger, love and hate of the surrounding world, still have to worry about food and clothing every day.
So, if you do not practice carefully, you will fall into the matrix of ‘ one foot in, one foot out’.‘. Living an ambiguous life’ half life half religion
There is a paradox as follows:
To become a monk who practices and attains enlightenment according to the Buddha’s teachings (selflessness, peace of mind)
And
To be a person who makes outstanding contributions to tangible values for society…
… These two sides seem to complement each other, but are actually in conflict with each other , especially in the case of Mr. Thich Chan Quang:
- Can you be calm when you have invisible KPIs that your temple must build A and B, must organize how many programs each year, must achieve how many visits each month, must satisfy many parties at the same time (government, Buddhist followers, philanthropists, disciples and netizens)?
- Can you calm down when you are always worried about how to have enough funding to operate, how to serve the tens of thousands of people participating in the upcoming festival without any problems?
- Can you be selfless when there are thousands of people below you who need to solve problems related to administration, human resources, finance, communication, events, community… not to mention solving internal conflicts, fights, divisions…?
- Can you be selfless when your heart is always filled with plans, strategies, and fears about the long-term prosperity of your monastery?
And to achieve the highest possible results, Thich Chan Quang has leaned more towards becoming a professional social activist than a Buddhist monk.
Unlike the monks of the Southern sect of mendicant monks like Minh Tue – who completely renounce material things, cut off all relationships, limit contact with people, go against the development of science, technology and modern society, accept to live like… medieval people to end worldly life, the monks of the Northern sect who are ‘sleeping in warm blankets and soft mattresses’ also have more worries and concerns than anyone else.
Some people will worry about the temple’s budget, worry about no one visiting the temple, worry about how to avoid being forgotten, worry about organizing activities to develop the temple; more profound people will worry about their inner strength in practice, how to “transcend happiness”, how to eliminate greed, anger, ignorance and lust in the midst of a life full of conveniences and temptations.
And in 2024, they will have to bear another worry – the worry of being scrutinized, criticized, and discriminated against by others – when society tends to think that practicing according to the ascetic practice is the right practice, disregarding the middle way (with many shortcomings) of the Mahayana sect.
So if you follow Buddha, how should you practice properly?
The answer is in PART II: WHAT IS THE RIGHT WAY TO PRACTICE? HOW TO FIND NIRVANA? (Coming soon)
July 2024
Tran Khanh Vy
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Summary of sources:
Wikipedia: Link Social activities: Link 1 , Link 2
Doctoral thesis: Link Sacrifice for the country (The country is above all): Link No betrayal: Link Collection of denunciations: Link Planting trees and afforestation: Link
English class for seniors: Link
