Buddhist methods today

Let us provisionally divide Buddhism into the following periods:

• The period of Early Buddhism. This is the period when the Buddha was still alive, extending a further 100 years.

• The period of sectarian Buddhism. This is the period after those 100 years, when Buddhism split into 20 schools along two tendencies: the conservative one of the Sthavira school (Thượng tọa bộ) and the reformist one of the Mahāsāṅghika school (Đại chúng bộ). This period lasted from 100 years after the Buddha to about 600 years after the Buddha.

• The period of Mahayana Buddhism. To avoid questions of who is better, people sometimes also call it Developed Buddhism. At this time the sutras and treatises of the Mahayana appeared one after another. In fact, Mahayana Buddhism had already begun to germinate 200 years after the Buddha, but it only became a vigorous movement once Nāgārjuna (Long Thọ) appeared.

• The period of transformed Buddhism. This is when Buddhism was transmitted to the countries of the East such as Tibet and China. There, Buddhism mixed with local culture and belief and changed a great deal. Tantric Buddhism, Zen and Pure Land all belong to this stage. This period is not uniform, depending on when Buddhism entered each country, but it was roughly nearly 1,000 years after the Buddha. Even the Theravada Buddhism of the Southern tradition, once regarded as original, has not stayed pure, and has also changed greatly from Early Buddhism. And this tendency to transform seems to continue to the present day.

• The period of modern Buddhism. This is today's era, when advances in science and technology make the study of Buddhism easier. Nowadays people are less bound to a single school and instead study Buddhism from its source, learn about schools everywhere, and exchange experience of practice. It is precisely in this period that the spirit of Early Buddhism is held in honour, because it helps Buddhism rediscover its common ground and be less divided.

Today we only discuss the four most widespread approaches now: the Pure Land school, the Zen school, the Tantric school and the Southern Theravada school. In a short lesson like this, what is raised can only be an outline.

In studying this lesson, we also go beyond sectarian prejudice to look for the truth. A great obstacle for students of Buddhism is a sectarian spirit that is too heavy, so that we are no longer objective. Now, whichever school we come from, let us set it aside for the time being and be only a disciple of the Buddha in common. Our teachers and ancestors may defend their own school and method with great force, but in the spirit of objective study we must free ourselves of that influence and look more broadly. It is normal for everyone to think their own school is the truest. That is only a subjective notion, not consistent with the spirit of scientific study, and should be avoided so that we can look for a Buddhism common to all.

We will rely on a few of the most basic teachings of the Buddha to compare each method and to understand clearly the differences, so as to supplement or develop them. In the end, our dream is still to rebuild a Buddhism that is harmonious and united, no longer so seriously divided as it is today.

1. The Pure Land school

The Pure Land school appeared in the spirit of the Contemplation Sutra on Amitāyus (Quán Vô Lượng Thọ) and the Amitābha Sutra (A di đà). Masters such as Huệ Viễn, Đàm Loan and Đạo Xước… did their utmost to promote and praise the wish to be reborn in the Buddha Amitābha's realm after death, by wholeheartedly reciting the name of the Buddha Amitābha during life.

The realm of the Buddha Amitābha is called the Land of Ultimate Bliss, or the Pure Land. It is a place crowded with Bodhisattvas, where heaven and earth are solemn and beautiful, and beings are harmonious and clear-minded. There, everyone will be born from a lotus flower and then practise until they become a Buddha.

The Contemplation Sutra on Amitāyus says that before attaining the Way, when he was still the bhikkhu Dharmākara (Pháp Tạng), the Buddha Amitābha made 48 vows, with the promise that anyone who recites his name will be brought to the Land of Ultimate Bliss after death by his spiritual power. It is because of faith in this promise that the Pure Land school appeared, calling on everyone to recite the Buddha's name earnestly in order to be reborn there.

The strength of the Pure Land school is that it has no cumbersome philosophy, so it was readily accepted by ordinary people, which greatly increased the number of Buddhist followers. The goal of rebirth in the Pure Land is also simple, much like other religions that promise a heaven after death, so it competed very well with the religions of the time that advocated rebirth in heaven. The Pure Land school alone went further in also speaking of the responsibility to practise after rebirth there, since Ultimate Bliss is not yet the final goal. Wholehearted recitation of the Buddha's name is also regarded as a way of gathering the mind in meditative concentration, in which the thought of reverence for the Buddha is constantly kept.

In addition, because it does not spend much time on philosophy, the Pure Land school developed in the direction of ritual, giving Buddhism rites to meet its followers' needs for offerings and prayer, such as prayers for peace, prayers for the deceased, funerals and so on. Many people who already had morality, and who also recited the Buddha's name diligently, found peace in life and in death.

The weakness of the Pure Land school is that it moves away from the Buddha's goal of selflessness (Vô ngã), so if one is not careful, practitioners may gradually become selfish without knowing it. Because they only long for rebirth in the Pure Land, people also neglect this real world, do not join hands to build life here, and are lax about spreading the true Dharma, so Buddhist followers dwindle and leave room for other religions to move in and take their place. This is why, usually, after a period in which the Pure Land school flourishes, Buddhism then declines.

The phrase of reciting the Buddha's name can be a good initial means for settling the mind, but if one cannot let it go, the practitioner cannot go deep into absorption, since absorption requires an inner mind that is completely empty.

Faith in the wish for rebirth in the Pure Land can only be an initial means, not everything, so if practitioners refuse to learn more, they will seriously misunderstand the Buddha Dharma and may even fall into wrong view. Excessive faith in the Buddha's power destroys the doctrine of karmic cause and effect, which is an absolute foundation in Buddhism. According to cause and effect, to be born in a good place after death, one must first strive to build this present world into a Buddha-realm. Even if the building is not finished, cause and effect will still take that person to a Buddha-realm after death.

To supplement the shortcomings of the Pure Land school, many venerable teachers have added new concepts such as returning to the Sahā world, Faith, Practice and Vow, reciting the Buddha's name with the breath, reciting until no thought remains, Amitābha as one's own nature, the Pure Land as mind alone, and so on. One should practise sitting in the full lotus posture, settling the body, seeing the body as impermanent and illusory, and training physical energy to support one's practice.

2. The Zen school

The Zen school is said to have been transmitted from the patriarch Bodhidharma (Bồ đề Đạt ma) and passed down to the sixth patriarch Huệ Năng. Huệ Năng had two outstanding disciples, Thanh Nguyên and Hoài Nhượng. These two in turn produced two eminent disciples, Hy Thiên and Đạo Nhất (Mã Tổ). From then on Zen flourished brilliantly and overtook all other schools. The reason is that Zen had many Zen masters who actually reached awakening, far more than other schools.

The Zen school's way of teaching departs somewhat from the tradition of scriptural doctrine, and is affirmed in the declaration (also said to be Bodhidharma's):

Not depending on words and letters

A special transmission outside the teachings

Pointing directly at the human mind

Seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha

Zen's position is to help students awaken to the Buddha-nature already present in themselves. At first it was held that whoever awakens becomes a Buddha; later it was added that after awakening one begins to practise. Many in the Zen school had the phenomenon of sudden awakening, so they were firmly confident in their school's way. Later, in recent times, an extreme style of practice appeared in Zen, contemplating the critical phrase (tham thoại đầu), which rejected all other approaches, including the Buddha's own scriptures, and caused many people to fail. The strength of Zen is that it fosters self-reliance, so it is more practical than schools that rely on the spiritual power of the saints. In its flourishing period, Zen produced very many Zen masters with concrete awakening and clear realisation of the mind.

The wisdom of Zen produced countless texts that contributed to the treasury of Buddhist culture, with many wonderful inventions. It seems that for a long time Zen was the main face of Northern Buddhism, because it had practice and had spiritual attainments through the work of meditative concentration.

Zen also has a clarity, since it does not accept the illusions of the mind, whereas some schools find illusions interesting.

The enigmatic Zen sayings of the Zen masters in fact have meanings of great value and are not meaningless. For those with the right conditions, hearing a baffling Zen saying can sometimes bring sudden awakening. Because the Buddha is no longer here to confirm the level of practice and attainment, Zen could not set out a clear scale of realisation, so Zen masters, following their own experience, also set up their own scales of value; the Ten Ox-herding Pictures are a typical example, and in the end they match the Buddha's scale of the Four Dhyānas.

Zen also demands fierce diligence and does not accept half-hearted practice. This accords with Right Effort in the Noble Eightfold Path, and has created real spiritual strength for Buddhism as a whole. The weakness of Zen is that it pays little attention to the Buddha's goal of selflessness. The doctrine of an inherent Buddha-nature leads to a contradiction, since both ego and Buddha-nature exist in the mind at the same time. Buddha-nature also seems useless when people create karma and Buddha-nature does nothing to prevent it. Whether Buddha-nature shows itself depends on a person's effort in practice; Buddha-nature itself does not bring about awakening for one.

Since believing that they already have an exalted Buddha-nature within themselves, many people have become arrogant and eccentric. Many who were acknowledged by their teachers as having seen their nature still lacked morality, and more seriously, many went bad afterwards. Buddha-nature and seeing one's nature do not produce virtue automatically; people must train a great deal themselves to have virtue.

Of the same realm of realisation, the Buddha did not say it was an inherent Buddha-nature; he only said it belonged to the Four Dhyānas or the Four Fruits, whereas Zen explains that it is the inherent Buddha-nature. The doctrine of Buddha-nature is closer to the Great Self or True Self of the Upanishads of Indian religion.

Zen also places too much emphasis on seeking sudden awakening and too little on practice from the basics. Moreover, the effort of keeping attention on the head gradually wears away yin energy (Âm lực), so that the practitioner seems at ease at first and later declines.

Many people imitate speaking Zen sayings to appear to have awakened to the Way, not realising it is only competitiveness and showing off.

To supplement these points, we should take the goal of selflessness as the main thing, take the cultivation of morality as the foundation, and take the training of physical energy as support.

3. The Tantric school

The cradle of the Tantric school is Tibet, where Buddhism combined with the existing Bon belief to form a very peculiar Buddhism. In theory, the Tantric scriptures of Tibet are more numerous than those of Chinese Buddhism. There are texts that only Tibet has and China does not. Tantra emphasises the search for power, both of physical energy and of the spirit. Lamas have secret methods of training energy that are very special and build strength in the body. Then there are countless mantras believed to create spiritual power.

But if one needs to speak of the theory of Prajñā and emptiness, the Bodhisattva practice and so on, Tantra does not lack lofty reasoning either.

The Tantric school founded by Tsong Khapa (Tôn Khách Ba) holds the dominant position, and its two most prestigious Lamas, the Dalai and the Panchen, still have influence today. In China, when the Qing

dynasty was in power, the national teacher Ngọc Lâm created conditions for Tantra to develop by ordering that temples must chant the five sections of the Śūraṅgama Mantra (Lăng Nghiêm) in the early morning, and by bringing mantras into almost every chanting ritual. Many people who chant mantras have also gained special spiritual powers.

The strength of Tantra is that it adds a dimension of spiritual power to Buddhism. Many Tantric practitioners accomplished supernormal powers to a certain degree, which surprised everyone. Human life holds many obstacles and difficulties, and when stuck, people are driven to seek help from those with spiritual ability. Tantric practitioners met, to some extent, the people's need to resolve their difficulties, and kept followers for Buddhism. The obscure mantra, pure faith, recited with focus is also regarded as a means of gathering the mind in meditative concentration. Indians who understand Sanskrit can understand the meaning of a mantra, and nowadays mantras are also translated into Vietnamese so that many people understand their meaning. But in truth, understanding is one thing; no one knows what teaching that meaning conveys. For example, the phrase Aum mani padme hum (án ma ni bát di hồng) means "Om, the jewel in the lotus"; its meaning can be understood, but no one knows what teaching it carries. Then, depending on the teacher, the disciple is given faith in the sacredness of that mantra, and the disciple holds on to it all life long and gathers the mind in reciting it.

A notable strength of Tibetan Tantric monasteries is their very effective methods of training physical energy. Thanks to these methods, Lamas endure the terrible cold of the high mountains. It is also thanks to the support of this energy that the Lamas' spiritual practice achieves many extraordinary results. The whole Tibetan people follow Buddhism also because they have witnessed the Lamas' strange powers.

The weakness of Tantra is that the use of power fiercely increases arrogance and clinging to the self. Moreover, a fondness for spiritual power makes people deviate from the Right View of Buddhism. Many Tantric sects venerate human skulls in order to train power, just like the witchcraft religions of barbarous times. Tantric sects seldom speak of a deep and genuine teaching about how to live, and prefer to boast of power and supernormal abilities. The Dalai Lama is a rare exception.

The time just after ordination is very important for a practitioner; they need to be steeped in firm ideals about the Buddha Dharma and the ideal of spreading the true Dharma widely, but the five sections of the Śūraṅgama Mantra sow in the hearts of newcomers to the Way a vague notion without direction.

In fact it is concentration, intention and merit that create miracles, while the meaningless mantra is only a prop for faith. When we chant a mantra, we have concentration, we have an intention to gain some ability, and combined with past merit, we then have power. For example, a person who wants the ability to heal earnestly recites a mantra with faith in the Buddha. Then, after a time, they recite over a glass of water for someone else to drink and see them truly recover; so they trust more firmly in the power of the mantra, not realising that it was their own earnest concentration, intention and merit that made it so.

Many Tantric sutras even go to the extreme of claiming that reciting the mantra in them brings merit greater than leading many people to attain Arhatship. This truly dilutes Buddhism. The Buddha himself acknowledged only that he was an Arhat, although the Buddha's merit, wisdom, appearance and supernormal powers surpass theirs many times over.

To supplement Tantra, it must establish right view with the Four Noble Truths, must take the goal of selflessness as its main orientation, and must train morality as a foundation from the first day of ordination. It should develop the methods of training physical energy and not let them be lost.

4. The Southern Theravada school

Southern Theravada Buddhism spread across Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand,

Laos, Cambodia, and a small part of Vietnam. The word Theravada means the school of the Elders (Thượng tọa bộ), a school founded 100 years after the Buddha. The Southern school is faithful to and protects the original teaching from the Buddha's time, and absolutely does not accept any text that appeared in later ages. The Mahayana texts that appeared later are all classed by the Southern school as heterodox. Only the Nikāyas, spoken by the Buddha himself, together with the Abhidhamma, are the scriptures officially transmitted and revered.

Southern monks are very devoted to the practice of meditative concentration and keep many ancient precepts, and therefore permit eating meat in the three kinds of pure meat. The yellow robe wrapped around the body, both beautiful and cumbersome, is also an expression of fierce preservation of tradition.

The strength of the Southern school is that it protects a traditional Buddhism, restraining reforms that have sometimes gone too far in Northern Buddhism. The fierceness of the Southern school also makes the Northern school more cautious about its self-esteem, having called itself the Great Vehicle and dismissed the Southern school as the Small Vehicle. Its devoted practice and its spreading of methods of meditative concentration also raise the value of Buddhism in a world that is whirling and tense. Many meditation centres in the Southern Buddhist countries have attracted many people from all over the world to practise there.

The Nikāya scriptures are revered, so even though the ancient language is hard to understand and the repetition is tiresome, people patiently study them and find in them countless extremely precious teachings. The determination to maintain the ancient precepts is also a beautiful image, as we treasure what is ancient, even though many rules no longer truly suit the times.

Compared with the Northern school, the Southern school keeps uniformity everywhere, whichever country it is in. This is extremely praiseworthy. The Northern school, because it boldly reformed, also caused division, splits and transformation everywhere.

The Southern school respects the Buddha's goal of selflessness very carefully in its practice. The standards set up in the Buddha's time, such as the Four Dhyānas and Four Fruits, are still respected and pursued. The history of the Buddha and the stories of the saintly monks seem more real and clear, although details about supernormal powers are still mentioned.

The method of Insight practice (Minh sát tuệ), invented after the Buddha, with its way of following the rising and falling of the abdomen in breathing, is very beneficial for strengthening true yin (Chân âm) and building the energy for progress in meditative concentration over the long term. Many Southern monks have such convincing results in meditative concentration that people hail them as Arhats.

The weakness of the Southern school is that it does not study to see the merits of Mahayana thought, with its developments necessary to suit the age and the region. As a result the Southern school has always regarded the Northern school as heterodox, contributing to the division of Buddhism as a whole. We need to unite all who believe in the Buddha throughout the world so that Buddhism has strength, when many evil forces are now seeking to destroy it.

Many in the Southern school go to the extreme of valuing the Abhidhamma above the orthodox Nikāya scriptures. This too is a sign that the Southern school is beginning to move gradually away from its roots.

Many Southern methods of meditation practice do not unify the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, but only choose one of the four, contemplation of the body, of feelings, of the mind or of dharmas, to practise.

Most of the way of life and practice of the Southern monks is very passive, not much concerned with spreading the Buddha Dharma deeply and widely, so many Southern regions have gradually been lost to Islam or other religions. There are hamlets that followed the Buddha for generations and are now beginning to follow Protestantism when given three million. The Southern Buddhism of Thailand has not been able to preserve Thai cultural life, leaving the country dissolute and corrupted. The monks care a great deal about small details of the precepts and do not take an interest in the larger picture of developing Buddhism.

But even so, the monks find it hard to keep the precepts exactly as in the past, since sometimes they too must go on alms rounds by sitting on a motor-tricycle and receiving a whole vehicle-load of food.

The life of Burmese monks is extremely comfortable, while right outside the people are very poor and hard-pressed. This leads people to think that Buddhism benefits only the clergy. To supplement the above, we need a Southern school that is dynamic in spreading the true Dharma deeply and widely, a Southern school that is sympathetic and well disposed to the Northern school, a Southern school that engages in service rather than quietly sitting waiting to be served.

In a diverse Buddhist context such as today's, we have a duty to look for the most reasonable common ground, one that is practically effective in reaching awakening and liberation, effective in spreading the true Dharma, and that creates a common denominator for Buddhist schools to find harmony and unity with one another. That common ground is the goal of selflessness; that common ground is virtue and a complete, serious character; that common ground is the doctrine of karmic cause and effect; that common ground is an engaged Buddhism that creates much merit by benefiting the community of the Earth; that common ground is the work of meditative concentration with the most perfect method, most in accord with the Buddha's teaching.

Question: Describe your dream of a Buddhism for tomorrow's world.