<\/span><\/h2>\nIt 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.<\/p>\n
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’<\/em> is like to counterbalance. <\/p>\nIf the right thing has not yet appeared, then the wrong thing can be considered as if it has closed its eyes.<\/p>\n
When causes and conditions fully converge, the balance of comparison and punishment appears.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/span>PART I: THICH CHAN QUANG – A SOUL THAT NEVER STOPS<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\nFirst, 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.<\/p>\n
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<\/span>1. What kind of person is Thich Chan Quang?<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\nThe 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:<\/p>\n
\n- 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.<\/span><\/li>\n
- 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.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Regularly organize many large-scale Buddhist cultural activities.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Temple specializes in opening Buddhist scriptures in English ( \ud83e\udd14 )<\/span><\/li>\n
- The \u201cMedia Department\u201d 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 \u201cpromote tourism\u201d at Phat Quang Pagoda. (The statuses posted by Angela Phuong Trinh were all compiled by this department). <\/span><\/li>\n
- Owns a Youtube channel with more than 514,000 subscribers, many personal TikTok channels managed by disciples of Chung Thanh Nien.<\/span><\/li>\n
- 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.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Mr. Viet owns 80% of shareholders of Phap Quang Company Limited with charter capital of 2.4 billion VND.<\/span><\/li>\n
- E-commerce website of Phap Quang company sells all of Mr. Viet’s books, Buddha pictures, functional foods (“earth dragon” medicine, weight loss tea,…).<\/span><\/li>\n
- Using the professional “online offering” method with one-touch QR code leading to more than 10 banks of Vuong Tan Viet account owner.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nThere 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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nWithout even considering the 250 Bhikkhu precepts, just considering the 10 precepts of the novice monk, he has already broken 5 of them:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Do not lie (say unverified, fabricated things)<\/span><\/li>\n
- No makeup, perfume, silk clothes, gold or silver jewelry.<\/span><\/li>\n
- No singing, dancing, or partying<\/span><\/li>\n
- Do not sit or lie on luxurious furniture.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Do not keep money, gold, silver or treasures.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nBeyond the law, Mr. Viet has a passion for pursuing major awards and media activities:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- 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? \ud83e\udd14 ‘ when a monk applies for this award) <\/span><\/li>\n
- The first Buddhist monk in Vietnam to receive the ‘Vietnamese Talent’ award (2019).<\/span><\/li>\n
- Received many certificates of merit from both private and public associations.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Participate in many activities of the Party and State.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Appeared many times on VTV, interviewed by the press, recorded many reports and major programs.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Appeared in hundreds of online articles during his time as a monk.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nThe 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.<\/span><\/p>\nBut 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.<\/span><\/p>\nNo 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). <\/span><\/p>\nAt 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.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd the door to super meditation, to Consciousness-Only, will become narrower and disappear from sight.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cNo man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nMary Wollstonecraft<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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<\/span>2. Reaching the Peak and Getting Lost in the Dharma<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n <\/span><\/p>\nThroughout 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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>The talent of Thich Chan Quang<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nWith 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 Abhidharmako\u015ba-\u015b\u0101stra of the Great Dharma Master Xuanzang – Tang Sanzang.<\/span><\/p>\nMr. 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.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter 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.<\/span><\/p>\nWith 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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nDuring 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. <\/span><\/p>\nAt this time, Mr. Viet had become a phenomenon, trusted, sought after, and respected by everyone (most in the Southern region).<\/span><\/p>\nTCQ’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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nDecoding speaking techniques, Mr. Viet was endowed with a voice suitable for preaching.<\/span><\/p>\nObserving 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. <\/span><\/p>\nThe 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.<\/span><\/p>\nMr. Viet’s argument formula: <\/span><\/p>\n\n- Make an assertion <\/span><\/li>\n
- Explanation of the assertion<\/span><\/li>\n
- Give examples (usually made up) of stories of Mr. A, Mrs. B, and Ms. C meeting good fortune, receiving karma, and spiritual retribution.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Lead to the next point, and repeat.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nSome controversial statements: <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIn 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\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cWhen young, you love to travel, when old, you will be paralyzed and bedridden.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nFrom the above statements, I can humorously deduce Mr. Viet’s “karma formula”:<\/span><\/p>\nGood fruit: a*b = a(x*10000)<\/span><\/p>\nBad fruit: a*b = a\/(x*1000)<\/span><\/p>\n(Where a is the subject, b is the action, x is the consequence)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nThis 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.<\/span><\/p>\nIn 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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>The Origin of False Statements – The ‘Tit for Tat’ Mindset<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n <\/span><\/p>\nAt the age of 62, Mr. Viet reached a new peak: obtaining a Doctorate in Law.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nThis 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 – <\/span>clear division in every game.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nThe topic of the doctoral thesis entitled ‘<\/span> Human Responsibilities in International Law and Vietnamese Law<\/i><\/b> ‘<\/span><\/i> can<\/span> be summarized as follows:<\/span> <\/p>\n\n- International law is overemphasizing human rights without requiring obligations;<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- 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;<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- 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.<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nMy article will not delve into or criticize the thesis (because many people have done this). But let me temporarily translate the more \u201cpopular\u201d meaning of this entire thesis as: <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe biscuits must be given first, then there will be some cake to eat.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to work and contribute first, then you have the right to think about being human.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nWithout 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. <\/span><\/p>\nOnce, Mr. Viet was invited to give a sermon at a cemetery on Vu Lan day, the first thing he said to the guests was “<\/span>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. <\/span><\/i>“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) <\/span><\/p>\nThrough many videos like this, I think, if he wasn\u2019t a monk, Mr. Viet would definitely be a\u2026 chief accountant. Not a single thousand dong escapes his eyes. Money is the focus of his attention. <\/span>The ‘tit for tat’ mindset<\/b> ,<\/span> fairness<\/b> is the measure, the rule of the game for him to operate everything.<\/span><\/p>\nHowever, Mr. Viet is not always fair play, because he often asks for more.<\/span><\/p>\nIn 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).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n