Voice: Gia Hieu - Le Tam
The West has known Buddhism since the beginning of the 19th century. But at that time, only a few scholars and philosophers discovered the attraction of an Eastern ideology that people did not know whether to call it a religion or a philosophy. Quietly, "silently, Buddhism spread into society, developing everywhere in Europe" ⁽¹⁾ from the middle of the 19th century along with the development of the evolutionary trend that we today call modernity. Quietly, silently like that until the early 60s of the 20th century, Buddhism was suddenly received enthusiastically by young people when this group arose a counter-culture movement against the culture of worshiping technology, materialism and money. Young people yearned for a new spiritual life that would help them solve psychological and existential problems, and they thought they had found it in Buddhism. That was the time when many young intellectuals came to Tibet as if they were looking for a promised land. Quickly, within twenty years, hundreds of monasteries and meditation centers sprang up all over Europe and America. Young people - educated and middle class - found a new kind of happiness that they realized through their own experiences of practicing in meditation halls. By the 90s, the press and media were abuzz with news, commentary, reports, and images full of sympathy for Buddhism. At the same time, Hollywood enthusiastically brought to the screen movies about the life of Buddha, about the Dalai Lama, about Tibet, many famous movie stars, artists, and singers became Buddhists, making public opinion and the masses even more sympathetic. Now Buddhism has taken root and developed in society and cultural life in Europe and America. Buddhism is a popular subject in prestigious American universities, attracting more and more students.
Ladies and gentlemen and dear friends, I am very honored to speak to you during this Cultural Week, and I am very happy to be especially acquainted with intellectuals and young people. In the brief introductory sentences above, you must have noticed: I emphasize the youth and intellectuals. Not because I belong to that group. But because that is the aspect that I want to limit in my topic. Europe and America are opening their hearts to receive an ideology, a religion that they consider very young and very modern. Modernity: that is the aspect of the broad topic that I will talk to you about today: why has Buddhism expanded its influence in Europe and America? My talk will include 4 points surrounding the theme of modernity. In the first point, I will explain what modernity is. In the second point, I will present: how Buddhism is suitable for modernity. In the third point, I will say: but modernity is in crisis. In the fourth point, I answer: it is because modernity is in crisis that Buddhism adapts all the more. Throughout my talk, and especially in the conclusion, you will realize that I am talking about the West, but in fact I am talking about Vietnam. Opening the door to the world is to know what we are and what we must do.
I. So, the first point: What is modernity? What is modernity?
This word has become too popular, has been diluted in everyday language, in our country as well as in Europe and America, so we must go back to history to find its essence. Normally, we use the word modernity to say what is new, implicitly praising: new is better than old, today is better than the past. That is also correct! But some people will say the opposite: new is not necessarily better than old, today is not necessarily better than the past! In every era, and in every society, two tendencies are always in conflict with each other: one wants to move forward, the other wants to retreat, one is innovative, the other is nostalgic. Each side wants to justify its tendency, and if it is systematically justified, it becomes an ideology, becomes an ism, "modernism" against "traditionalism". To avoid both extremes, the extreme of the new faction as well as the extreme of the old faction, I follow the historical trend to analyze what are the elements that make up what we call modernity.
The most important element is autonomy, the autonomous person, the person who masters himself. What is mastery? Kant explained with an immortal sentence when asked: "What is Enlightenment?" He answered: "It is a person who steps out of the state of adolescence". Before the Enlightenment idea blossomed, people were still children, had to hold on to the hands of adults to walk, now they can walk alone. French and English make that meaning clearer. Autonomie has Greek roots autos (self) and nomos (law): man governs himself according to his own laws, not laws made by others and forced to follow. And what is the law made by himself based on? Based on reason, the reason that every human being has. “Have the courage to use your own reason!”: that is the motto of the Enlightenment and also the motto of modern man. Do not rely on anything outside of man, especially on high. Stand up, do not rely on God anymore!
From that most important element, from autonomy, a whole series of other elements become clear, starting with the liberation of critical reason, because criticism is the function of reason. Nothing is free from criticism, no object is considered Absolute, taboo, including God, including the Church. Kant shouted: “Dare to think!” No field is the exclusive domain of any authority: all must pass through the “tribunal of reason”.
Before that tribunal, the defendant that modern thought aims at first is religious belief. Reason must be freed from belief. Galileo must be freed from the enslaving belief that the sun revolves around the earth. With reason, science will develop, and science has the ability to lift the veils of mystery of the universe that belief tries to block. Science, scientific thought, is the guiding light of modernity, helping people to transform the world themselves, to make it their own, to break all the chains of ignorance. Science will develop continuously, so progress will also go forward continuously, progress is like an arrow shot, only flies straight ahead, not zigzag, not roundabout.
With the autonomy of mature human beings, with reason liberated from belief, with science revealing the secret, you see the history of European thought gradually moving in the direction of consolidating the position of human beings, starting from the Renaissance (14th-16th centuries). That direction, that tendency, that climax, its name is humanism. It is impossible to understand European thought without seeing that direction of humanism, and it is also impossible to understand what modernity is without first understanding the struggle, sometimes silent, sometimes fierce, between Christianity and humanism (2). Try, try constantly to develop, develop constantly all human abilities so as not to lose anything that makes man grow, makes man exalted. How did Europe grow up in history? By diminishing and diminishing God. Until the 19th century, Nietzsche announced: “God is dead! We have killed him!”
The truth is that God is still there, but he has changed his form, he is no longer a human God. He no longer dominates the thoughts, social life, laws, politics, and daily activities of Europeans. The 20th century no longer raises the issue of killing God, because people live outside the control of God, not caring who God is, whether he exists or not, and it is this indifference that annoys God’s defenders more than the attitude of opposing God. Today’s society in Europe has entered a state that sociologists call secularization. Secularization: that is also one of the characteristic elements of modernity. In that process of modernization, the West encountered Buddhism.
II. How is modern Buddhism in the eyes of the West?
Westerners discovered that Buddhism's way of posing problems meets the needs of the new era. The West is denying God, so Buddhism explains that there is no God. The West had to rely on Darwin to explain that the universe was not created by anyone in seven days, but Buddhism said more than 2,500 years ago that time is without beginning or end, the universe is infinite. The West is always afraid of God's final judgment day, but Buddhism says: no one judges us, only humans judge humans. The West is concerned about metaphysical problems, so Buddha told the story of the arrow: when you are shot by a poisonous arrow, you must pull it out immediately or when you sing vọng cổ, ask who shot the arrow, what is your background, where is your household registration. Pulling out the arrow: that is the need to liberate people in the West and they see in Buddhism an answer that is in accordance with reason, that places emphasis on experience, on practice, and that can be verified by personal results, in this life, not waiting until going to heaven or hell.
In accordance with reason: Westerners admire that special feature of Buddhism, which makes Buddhism different from other religions. Buddhism rejects belief if it is not based on wisdom. Therefore, in Buddhism there is no dogma. The West admires the Kalama Sutra when Buddha taught: Do not rush to believe anything even if it is written in scriptures or books. Observe, think, experience, prove it and then believe. That spirit runs through Buddhist scriptures. Western intellectuals see that spirit as in accordance with science, as in accordance with the critical mind. "Buddhism is the only religion that is compatible with modern science", Einstein said.
Why is Buddhism compatible with science? Because Buddhism does not say anything without verification. Buddhism says: things are impermanent. Look around with your own eyes, your own experience: is there anything permanent? The only permanent thing is this moment. So where can we find heaven if not in this very moment? Happiness lies in every moment: that is the most valuable modern lesson that Buddhism brings to Westerners. And look further: everything is interrelated to each other and interrelated to each other. Does the pink color on that flower come into being by itself? No! If there were no sun, it would not be so bright pink? But is the sun the sole author of that pink color? No! Because if there were no rain, how could the flower live? But rain is also due to clouds, clouds are also due to water vapor. If this exists, that exists; if this does not exist, that does not exist. That is the Buddhist law of non-self and also the law of interdependence. Anyone who reads the books of cosmologist Trinh Xuan Thuan knows: those laws have many points of convergence with the science of cosmology. If you can apply those laws to your own life, family life, social life, you definitely don't need to look for paradise anywhere far away. Not to mention the law of cause and effect that anyone can easily verify. From there, Westerners come to a more modern view of the nature of life to understand the word "suffering" in Buddhism. They question God: If God is omnipotent, why did he create natural disasters, earthquakes, high tides, this epidemic and that, killing hundreds of thousands of people in an instant? If He is benevolent, why do people suffer so much? If people suffer so much, where is He? Is it true, Westerners ask, that suffering lies in the nature of life like salt in the sea, and that birth, aging, sickness, and death are just the most visible aspects? Since then, the West has understood the Buddhist word “nirvana” more correctly than in the 19th century: nirvana is the end of suffering, and the end of suffering is within oneself. Personally, whenever I hear someone pray for the dead to be liberated, I can’t help but laugh to myself, because “liberation” means to transcend, “liberation” means liberation, to transcend greed, anger, and ignorance is to be liberated, so we should pray for the living to be liberated as well. I don’t dare to joke, Westerners understand this better than us, because they understand their own humanistic ideology: humanism means that humans transcend humans, humans have the ability to transcend themselves.
But how to transcend, specifically in what way? This is the new thing that Buddhism brought to the West and brought it in a scientific spirit. Historically, the West has surpassed us for several centuries thanks to its exploration of the outside world. But at some point they suddenly realized that exploring the outside world was not enough to bring them the happiness they thought because humans also had an inner life. His Holiness the Dalai Lama reminded them: “Our problems, whether they come from the outside, like war, violence, crime, or from within in the form of psychological or emotional suffering, will not find a solution until we understand the depth of our inner self” (3). That was when he and the enlightened Tibetan monks came to Europe and America, bringing a new scientific light to shine on the inner self of humans, to make a second revolution that Westerners call “inner revolution”, complementing the “outer revolution” that the West had made and known with science. The key to happiness lies nowhere else but within each individual. But to see that key, we must look inside with meditation techniques that Tibetan monks have realized through their own experiences. In this field, do not expect charlatans to come and do fraudulent business: European and American science has laid a solid foundation for the exploration into the human brain. Tibetan monks have put themselves under the most advanced machines in the most prestigious universities in the United States to measure the effects of meditation on the brain. They do not just bring words, they bring practice, they bring specific techniques and methods for scientists to observe and judge the effectiveness of meditation, contributing greatly to the development of neurobiology. I confess: I myself am skeptical, when reading the history of Buddha, I did not understand how Buddha could meditate under the Bodhi tree for 49 days. Now I understand: each of us has a spiritual reserve that we do not know because we have never used it. I will return to this point – our journey to find ourselves to heal ourselves and to heal the times.
Now, continuing the issue of humanity and science, is the appeal of Buddhism only in its scientific nature? I am not talking about the depth of Buddhist philosophy here, nor about the wisdom that the West is finding again. I will only limit myself to one more issue: ethics. Ethics in the West are prohibitions, commands. Modern Westerners feel as if there is a finger pointing at their forehead and giving orders: you cannot do this, you cannot do that, what you do is a crime. Who is the crime against? Why is it a crime? Why must that crime be cleared by someone else to the Supreme Being? Modern people reject that morality because they feel that it is still juvenile. Buddhist morality is completely different, originating from humans. No one gives orders, no one forbids. Buddhism says: greed is suffering, anger is suffering, ignorance is suffering. Kindness is joy, compassion is joy, joy is joy, and renunciation is joy. If you practice kindness, compassion, joy, and renunciation, you will find joy. If you get caught up in greed, anger, and ignorance, you will find suffering. Do not kill, do not lie, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not get drunk: these are the five things I vow to myself, and to the extent that I can do them, I will be at ease. Buddhist ethics is empirical, aiming to make people better, of course, but most importantly, to make the mind peaceful, because peace is happiness.
Moreover, Buddhist ethics also awakens modern people in the West to extend compassion and solidarity to all around, not only between people, but also between people and animals, and with nature. Under the influence of their traditional religion, the West has encouraged and mobilized since the 17th century all efforts to conquer and rule nature. Humanity thanks that achievement. Digging rivers, filling mountains: humans can do anything, nature has been humanized. But nature has also been exploited and plundered to the point of exhaustion, with bare forests, chemical rains, and poisoned water, we know this better than anyone. And in the end, humans eat the toxins that humans themselves release. Ethics towards nature becomes the responsibility of humans themselves. Other religions say: do not kill. Buddhism says: I vow not to kill, meaning not to kill life, and that life exists in animals, in nature, in plants, in the universe, in the atmosphere, on the earth, all are related to humans, we must love each other as one in order to survive together.
I just touched on a negative modern issue: the environmental issue. Because modernity is not all good. Modernity also has many negatives. Modernity is also facing a crisis. Therefore, after praising modernity and explaining how modern Buddhism is, I will move on to the third point, presenting the crises of modernity.
III. Crisis of Modernity
The most important crisis of modernity is the concept of Progress. In the 19th century, with the miraculous development of science, everyone was optimistic about the future. The father of sociology, Auguste Comte, built a whole theoretical system explaining that the history of mankind is the history of progress, the progress of the human mind from the divine stage through the metaphysical stage to finally reach the scientific stage. It is a continuous progress and the later stages are better for humans than the previous stages in terms of welfare, material as well as spiritual. That optimism, the West saw a brutal collapse with the Second World War. A civilized country like Germany became a barbaric, inhuman country, in doctrine as well as in action. Nazi Germany presents a horrifying image of a spiritual bankruptcy, when that bankruptcy occurs in the very belief in “moral progress” that people expect in modernity. Then the atomic bomb, then Hiroshima, then the cold war, then the escalation of weapons to destroy humanity, where is Progress, where is the morality of science? “Science without conscience is the ruin of the soul”, that saying has become a current issue. Science is the goal but conscience must be the companion. That is what is said, but in reality the companion of science is war, arms trade, war develops science, science serves war.
The concept of “progress” is also warned when science does its proper job of exploring, researching, inventing, revealing the secrets of the universe and life. There is nothing more precious to humans than the ever-increasing number of inventions in medicine. The discovery of stem cells, for example, is one of the great blessings that humanity awaits. But will conscience allow us to simultaneously create countless identical people in the future? Will science also imitate Sun Wukong by plucking a hair, blowing once, to turn into hundreds of identical monkeys, not knowing which one is the original Sun monkey? Modernity is facing the problem of "bioethics", and bioethics cannot be unrelated to the view of religion.
Finally, the concept of "progress" is also re-established when material progress leads to a consumer society in which humans are degraded, meaning they lose their master status. This is the maze in which European and American people are carelessly falling into. To have economic prosperity, we must produce. To have production, we must consume. To have consumption, we must stimulate demand; if there is no demand, we must stimulate it. This need is satisfied, another need must be stimulated, the need must always be new to meet the production must always be new. Modernity requires rational people. Where is rationality left before the constant race to chase fake needs, chase ephemeral consumption? People become slaves of advertising, and advertising, propaganda, have enough tricks to remove criticism from the listener's mind. When I was young, in grade 11, 12, I learned the poem by Nguyen Cong Tru: "Tri tuc tien tuc, dai tuc ha thoi tuc". Knowing enough is enough, but seeking enough, when will I find enough? That is the poem that puts the key in our hands to open the door to escape the maze of consumption. But the talent of advertising is to enchant, to bring consumers into supermarkets and make them think they are in paradise!
Alienation: modern people escape alienation from the Above but fall into alienation on earth. Alienation from products and goods. Degeneration before the market. Because everything now becomes a market, everything is exploited by the market, including the spiritual field. Buddhism is also being destroyed, and it is being destroyed because of its own success. I will only give one example: the brand name “Nirvana” on a beauty product for ladies. Apply that cream, and immediately feel bliss! Bliss suddenly becomes a victim of degeneration. I emphasize this point to explain to you the transformation of beliefs in the West. It is true that Europeans have problems with God. It is true that churches are empty of believers. It is true that priests are scarce, and they have to resort to African priests. It is true that Europeans no longer seek in their traditional religions the great answer to their spiritual anxieties, but seek instant remedies on this earth, in this life, here and now. According to the law of the market, where there is demand, there is supply. A series of quack beliefs, mixed with good and evil, have appeared on the spiritual market, competing for customers. And the customers here are people who have a full material life, but are lost, lonely, lost the collective, lost direction, lost the meaning of life. In the past, European people were also weak before God, but they had something to believe in, they had certainty. Now they are also weak, but have nothing to believe in anymore, they lose their footing, they lose their balance, they lose both height and width, they waver. And because they waver, they think they need to strengthen their "I", the "I" that an excessive individualism has elevated to the top. You understand why psychoanalysis has developed so much in Europe and America, why psychiatrists are so popular with rich and intellectual clients: they are looking for their "I"! But where is their "I" hiding? Some people search in the mysterious depths of consciousness under the flashlight of Mr. Freud. Some, more superficially, think that their “self” is this body, they must make it strong, healthy, beautiful, and especially forever young, to be “in paradise” forever. Of course they know: providing food for the body, must also provide food for the mind, because if the mind is not at peace, the body will not be healthy. But what do they eat on their spiritual tray? Hot pot. That means a mixture. A little shrimp, a little squid, a little chicken. A little God, a little Buddha. Charity mixed with compassion. Take a little here, a little there, whatever each individual sees or thinks is suitable for them, then pick it up and put it into the spiritual soup hot pot. The French call this modern practice “bricolage” - hand-assembled.
In that direction, meditation develops everywhere in Europe and America. Of course it is good. But in that good, be careful of the bad. The bad thing is that the spiritual market hits the psychology of modern people, advertising meditation as a technique to maintain health and only as a technique. As a technique, advertising turns meditation into a kind of facial cream, when applied, the skin feels cool, looking in the mirror and seeing one's "self" like a single woman makes the eyes ache. Surely you know the Greek myth about Narcissus. He was so infatuated with himself that he was so enraptured by his reflection on the water, looking closely, very closely, lips touching lips, and he fell headfirst into the pond. Modern people in the West are also infatuated with their "self" like that, caressing it, kissing it, thinking it is real in an imaginary river. The famous Tibetan monk Chögyam Trungpa jokingly called that tendency "spiritual materialism". But that is truly a problem, a challenge for the present and future of Buddhism in Europe and America. Because meditation is not just a technique, and even less to serve the “ego”. Meditation is to see that the “ego” does not exist. And so I come to the fourth point: Buddhism in modern times is in crisis.
IV. Buddhism and the crisis of modernity
Many authors call this era “postmodern”. I do not agree with this concept, so I only mention here the phenomenon of crisis. And I would like to limit the problem to just one crisis, the crisis of the “ego”.
First of all, I do not deny the benefits of meditation, even if meditation is only to improve health. Anyone who has meditated and meditated with the right technique will say: not only is health improved, the soul is also relaxed. I myself have experienced it not just once but thousands of times: just knowing how to suppress anger for a second, not letting it explode, is enough to lock the door to hell. Moreover, meditation is not just for a second! Therefore, Westerners know how to apply meditation to many fields: hospitals, prisons, schools, offices, factories… They do it methodically, systematically, and whatever they do, they must do it thoroughly.
But meditation is not just that. Meditation is knowing yourself, and knowing yourself is to forget yourself. Forgetting yourself is to become one with all that exists. That is Dogen's definition that Zen monasteries in Europe and America apply as a daily prayer. What is self-knowledge? I don't want to take you into distant theories. I'll just talk about a small, concrete action of a European or American when entering a meditation hall for the first time. The first gesture is to take off their shoes. Take off their shoes, arrange them neatly. Step lightly into the meditation hall. Smell a faint scent, encounter a deep silence, walk on a clean wooden floor without a speck of dust, see an unobstructed space open up before their eyes. "Take off your shoes": that is their first prayer. Untie the knots, free your feet, your feet are precious, how many nerve endings are in them, your feet are precious, thanks to them you can stand firmly, your feet are precious, learn to cherish your feet like you have never cherished them before, listen to your feet being happy when meeting the coolness of the wooden floor, it and the wooden floor are melting into one, the person entering the room is becoming one with the empty room, with the immense silence. Your feet forget it. The person entering the room forgets himself, leaving his "I" outside the door, like leaving his slippers.
Since birth, I have wanted to command the whole world, to command everyone around me. When I am hungry, I cry loudly, my mother must immediately give me milk. When I crave warmth, I whine to be held. Whatever I want, I must have it immediately, otherwise I scream. I am the center of the universe, everyone must please me. Growing up, we are the same, 99% of our life is spent trying to manipulate the world, forcing the world to satisfy our desires. Even what we call “love” is ultimately just the need for a close relationship to make us feel happy. Maybe it is the same everywhere, but in the individualistic culture of Europe and America, thinking about ourselves is considered normal, of course. Whoever manipulates others well to serve themselves well is considered successful. Zen is the opposite. Not aiming to accumulate. Not aiming to conquer. The more “having” there is, the less “being”, the essence, the essence, the thing that brings happiness. And what I “am” is, right at this moment. At this moment, I am still alive, still breathing, still speaking, still have you to listen to, still have beautiful sunshine out there, cool wind blowing, boundless happiness, happiness to live with this moment, to be one with you, to be one with everything, to be one with the piece of paper before my eyes. Zen is not sitting still. Zen is not going to beg anymore, not reaching out to ask for coins from others, from outside, because Zen is knowing that a whole treasure trove of jewels lies within us, let's look in to see, and to contemplate that the more we empty the "I", the fuller that treasure trove becomes.
European and American Zen monasteries know to aim for that goal. The fuller the treasure trove within me, the sharper the ability to become one with everything around me, and then, I suffer with your suffering, I am happy with your happiness, I am no longer there, you are no longer there, only the common suffering, the common happiness remains. The definition of the word “compassion” is like that, and meditation is to expand compassion. I am one with everything, how can I not love everything, from nature to animals, from people near to people far?
I know: that is a very high theory that not everyone can achieve or understand. But, I affirm: just take each step and you will see: forgetting yourself a little more, thinking of others a little more, that is the path to happiness. And please know this: the Europeans and Americans sitting in the meditation hall are mostly intellectuals or belong to the upper class of society, have a firm grasp of Buddhist theory and have a heart that aspires to something higher than material, selfish life. I say this to think about the future of Buddhism in Europe and America. Is Buddhism limited to the intellectual class or open to the masses?
I do not have time to delve into this question. Just to say that: the human brain consists of two parts: the ability to be logical, abstract, analytical, corresponding to the left brain; the ability to recognize similarities between different things, intuition, synthesis, corresponding to the right brain (4). Author Frédéric Lenoir believes that Western civilization focuses on the impact on the universe, corresponding to the priority given to the right brain. Buddhism coming to the West has played an active role in balancing the two regions in the brain of Western people. In that sense, the famous saying of historian Arnold Toynbee has become easy to understand: "The meeting between Buddhism and the West is the most significant event of the 20th century".
I also use that idea to add that Buddhism is balance and first of all, the balance between wisdom and faith. Without wisdom, one cannot understand the Buddha. But without faith, the final door of wisdom remains unopened. Wisdom is like apricot blossoms. Faith is like the first warmth of spring. Touching just one point of that warmth, flowers bloom. “One point of spring light everywhere flowers” is like that. Just a spring breeze passing by, everywhere plum blossoms bloom. Zen is the bridge between wisdom and faith. It is the Dharma door – the door of the Dharma – open to the highest level. But not everyone is a highest level, so Buddhism says there are “forty-eight thousand Dharma doors” suitable for each person’s capacity. Those who are rich in wisdom, like intellectuals in Europe and America, enter Buddhism through the door of Zen. Those who are rich in faith… This is the future of Buddhism in the West. Because if Buddhism wants to spread here, it must know that not everyone is an intellectual. So, is there a branch of Buddhism in Europe and America that has the ability to spread to the masses? Yes. That is Tibetan Buddhism, of which His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a living image. Buddhism was able to take root in the West thanks to him and a series of outstanding Tibetan monks who came to teach there. Just the appearance of those monks stirred up the faith of the masses. Tibetan Buddhism responded to the spiritual longings of the masses better than Zen Buddhism from Japanese Zen masters. But whether it is Zen or Tibetan Buddhism, wisdom and faith must fly together like the two wings of an eagle.
Dear intellectual colleagues and students, it is because of the two wings of the eagle that I chose this topic to talk to you today. I am not talking about the West. I am talking about our side! We have forgotten the wisdom of Yen Tu Zen Buddhism. Has the wisdom of Buddhism flown to the West? Has the West inherited all the quintessence of Buddhism? Fortunately, we are very rich in faith, but sadly, sometimes, in many places, it is nonsense, it is superstition, it is not Buddhism. No, we absolutely will not let the intellectual wing of the Ly Tran eagle break. We absolutely will strengthen true faith. That is the mission of today's Cultural Week. Dear intellectuals of Nghe An, let's join the two wings of the historical eagle. Let's fly with two wings into modernity.

Cao Huy Thuan

Notes :

1. Nietzsche's saying, quoted in Frédéric Lenoir, Le bouddhisme en France, page 9.
2. Fernand Braudel: Grammaire des civilisations, Arthaud-Flammarion, 1987, page 371.
3. Quoted in Frédéric Lenoir, La rencontre du bouddhisme et de l’Occident, Albin Michel, 2001, page 318.
4. Frédéric Lenoir, as above, page 353.