Many of us were born and raised after the days when the world was reviving from a threat of global destruction, but the greatest scientists of the century, after witnessing the destructive power of two atomic bombs, the product of intelligence, had to speak out together, "We, the scientists, have committed a crime against humanity." Many generations later are still grateful to them, for what they have contributed to alleviating the physical suffering of mankind; those who spent their whole lives buried in pages of paper, scribbling with numbers, square and round shapes, straight and curved, not caring about all the world's disputes of fame and profit; calculations on extremely small particles of matter, the wonderful discoveries that bring to mankind inspiration and hope for a safe world protected by material molecules, at the same time also haunting by those extremely small objects, which one day can explode the earth by the crazy ambition of humans.

The majority of us were raised and raised in a small country, experienced more than a thousand years of slavery to the Northern dynasties, more than a hundred years of having to bow our heads and accept a distant France as our motherland in order to be a member of a strange civilization. Until the day national independence was declared, the belief in national sovereignty and the right to self-determination before the world's superpowers was aroused. Then, a new, seemingly peaceful but fierce power struggle, dividing the world map, began with the Cold War, which soon pushed Vietnam into a new war, fratricidal, as a place where the superpowers "who wins who" competed.

Faced with the constant dangers that threatened the fragile peace of the world, and directly threatened the lives of the Vietnamese people in a context of division not only geographically but also ideologically, the generation that grew up after the World War era, although still hearing stories from their fathers and brothers about the world war battlefields, witnessed the heartbreaking scenes of relatives being separated from the North and the South, was still innocent in the protection of family and society; during the Mid-Autumn Festival, they still carefreely lit lanterns and strolled around the streets. The next generations, their childhoods were still carefree during the Mid-Autumn Festival, lighting lanterns and strolling around the streets; At the same time, childhood in war zones, night after night, looked at the flares instead of lanterns and the full moon, also carefree in the protection of parents and relatives.

Up to adulthood, some of us had to rush into life to find a way to make a living not only under the erratic rain and sunshine, but also through unpredictable bombs and bullets, with weak knowledge and simple experience as provisions; others, luckier, entered the University gates to prepare for life before the vague prospect of a future in war or peace. The next generations of children, still grew up with smiles and innocent eyes, then fell or continued to move towards an uncertain future. Until the day peace and unification were announced, children still innocently carried the victory flag throughout the streets and alleys of the villages, denouncing the decadent culture, denying and destroying what their fathers and brothers had built with blood and tears for their children with the hope of a bright future in a country of national peace. The cultural and educational work of Vietnamese Buddhism from primary school to university level during 20 years of war, which contributed significantly to the progress of the South in the common progress of the peoples of Southeast Asia, was simultaneously wiped out. Generations growing up in peace could mostly hear about the society of the South with the splendid capital Saigon, the pearl of the Far East, as if hearing stories about a strange country.

The merits of Buddhist laymen who contributed to that cultural and educational work were not small, in wartime as well as peacetime.

The position of lay people, called by the Buddha as male attendants (upasoka) and female attendants (upasikā), in the early days of propagating the Dharma seemed to be limited to the merits of "offering the four requisites" for the ordained people to have enough necessities for daily life to practice. However, in the original or near-original Sutras, there are relatively many passages where the Buddha taught lay people about the four ways of winning people over and the four immeasurable minds, which later developed into the foundation of practicing and practicing the Bodhisattva path of Mahayana. It was not until the appearance of three lay figures, half fictional and half historical, in the orthodox literature of Mahāyāna - Vimalakīrti, Śrī-Mālā-devī and Sudhana-kumāra - that the place of the lay people with three generations of a large family was confirmed in an Indian society that developed diversely with religious forms, philosophical ideologies, either favorable or unfavorable, along with the development of knowledge of sophisticated linguistics, methods of introspection that delved into the mysteries of psychological functioning, scientific observations of the physical world and material existence. In that social context, the appearance of the Lay People who had enough leisure time to delve into the sources of thought from the Holy Scriptures which were previously reserved for the ordained people who had abandoned all worldly ties and devoted themselves to the Holy Path.

Lay people study and practice the Dharma not only for their own benefit and happiness in this life and the next. They study the Dharma, but cannot give up everything to concentrate on the Holy Path because they are bound by worldly fame and wealth, but a large number of them cannot easily give up the burden of family and duty to the country and society. The main duty is to educate their own children and grandchildren to grow up with a good personality not only for the good of themselves and their families, but also, to the extent possible, for the good of the country and society. A semi-legendary personality like Vimalakīrti, not only rich enough to occupy a superior position in society, prestigious enough to be able to educate as a teacher of princes and nobles, guiding them to practice moral qualities and socio-political knowledge, will be worthy of being a monarch leading an orderly, peaceful, and happy country. Having enough wealth to help the poor and the suffering. Having enough moral qualities to be able to enter brothels and awaken depraved souls. These are not unrealistic exaggerations. An Aśoka the Great of India. An Emperor Nhan Ton of Dai Viet. A Prince Shotoku of Japan. Those Buddhist monarchs left an indelible mark in the national history of these countries. Although the dynasties have changed, their later generations can bend the flow of history, but they still cannot erase the national pride of a time.

Looking beyond historical facts or fictional legends, the role of intellectuals in any society is still primarily to inherit and preserve the legacy of their ancestors, while educating the following generations to continue the legacy, preservation and development. Buddhist intellectuals, a part of the four groups of disciples, as citizens of the country and society, participate in the national cause, educate young generations to grow up worthy of the stature to contribute to leadership from poor villages to prosperous cities in a prosperous nation; and at the same time, be the link, the bridge for the monks from the deep mountains and valleys, from Zen temples and quiet monasteries, thereby bringing the light of the Dharma to illuminate the most suffering places of human life. That is the mission, the duty, towards the nation, the aspiration of Bodhisattva practice, the ideal of Bodhisattva path, in the ideal of serving the nation and Dharma.

That aspiration, that practice, that noble ideal, however, cannot overcome the limits of history, in the causal relationship between humans and nature, and from there, between technical invention and social progress. In a society dominated by patriarchal customs, educating children is the absolute right of the fathers; especially in a society heavily influenced by Confucianism, with the principle of loyalty and filial piety "if the king uses his subjects, the subjects will not be disloyal; if the father uses his subjects, the children will not be filial", the right to direct the future of the next generations absolutely belongs to the fathers, the children do not have the right to decide their own future career. In Buddhism, young novices who "cut off all love from their bodies" are not rare, but can only join the Sangha when their bodies and minds are determined to be fully developed, so that they can comprehend and practice the Buddha's teachings. Buddhism is called the religion of wisdom, children who do not have enough intelligence to distinguish between good and evil are not qualified to receive the Three Refuges and Five Precepts, except in cases where they are considered to want to sow the seeds of Bodhi and pray for blessings; or are considered to have sold their contracts to the Buddha to be protected from being harassed by demons, because they are "children of the Buddha". Of course, it is impossible to explain to children what the Three Refuges are, what the Five Precepts are; but it is also rare to find a place that teaches children what the Noble Truth of Suffering is, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering is the Noble Truth of the Path. It is even more difficult to explain, even though it is only a technical matter, what the peace of silence and tranquility is. Throughout the two thousand years of history, Vietnamese Buddhism has been almost exclusively for adults, even just a religion for the dead, popular with rituals for praying for the dead and offering sacrifices to wandering souls. Childhood is absent.

This situation has begun to change, since the premonition not only that the country could become a French province in the far West; but also at the same time threatening to destroy the source of faith that has accompanied the nation through two thousand years of ups and downs, glory and shame; Buddhist associations with the new structure of the Sangha, and at the same time lay associations have also appeared one after another, in the period called "Buddhism's Revival". One of the steps forward in that period was the establishment of a Buddhist youth organization, initially with the Universal Buddhist Family, later renamed the Vietnamese Buddhist Family, and later, as a loyal follower of the Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam.

A temporary look at the West. Buddhism was only known, officially in the academic world, also from the 17th century; until the end of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century, it was also partly limited to the scope of research, with much praise, but also a lot of criticism. It was difficult for the general public of the West to accept a religious ideology that did not believe in a Supreme Being to create.

Until the last few decades of the 20th century, and the early years of the 21st century, Buddhism, like an oil stain, was slowly, peacefully and humbly accepted by generations of the masses in Western societies as a source of inspiration to supplement spiritual activities. Although the faith in Buddhism here has not been around for as long as in Vietnam, and cannot be said to be deep or shallow; but educating children in the direction of Buddhism has become a concern of parents who have just learned about and believed in Buddhism, and the number of books teaching children about Buddhist teachings far exceeds that of Vietnamese Buddhism, which is proud to have about two thousand years of history. Small books, with small numbers, are not rare on topics here, but are rare in Vietnam: Buddhism for Kids, Meditation for Kids, to Buddhism for Young Mothers...; also trying to explain to children, using the cat scene, understanding what suffering is, to what the path is; things that even the elderly temple-goers in Vietnam find difficult to understand.

According to current unofficial statistics, there are many large and small groups organized to practice and study Buddhism for young people and their peers in all three regions of the South, North and Central; The total number of youth and youth members is estimated at about 102,000, belonging to the Churches or sects within this Church or other Churches. On the other hand, the number of young people and young adults participating in summer retreats several times a year in independent groups or monasteries is estimated at about 166,000. This is a truly encouraging number for those interested in Buddhist education for future generations. But compared to the number of more than 6 million members of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, that number is just like a pebble rolling under a large rock.

Looking at the context of the activities of these organizations, large and small, spontaneously affiliated or not affiliated with any Church or sect; the diverse doctrinal lectures, preaching styles or basic doctrines that are heard and seen popularly on media websites, there are many things that are rarely found in the sacred scriptures that have been passed down to this day. This cannot really be said to be a phenomenon of a hundred flowers blooming in the Zen garden; it should be said that the torrents can destroy the Vietnamese Buddhist castle built over a thousand years of history.

Here we are not talking about the need for an orthodox development stream, to eliminate development streams considered unorthodox, but the confluence of spontaneous and diverse developments, suitable for many foundations in a diversely developed society in the future. To do this, it is necessary to have academic knowledge activities from universities following the direction of humanistic and liberal education, such as the educational orientation of Van Hanh University in the past, which gathered leading Buddhist intellectuals not only in the Buddhist community but also in the whole country, from which not only education and training of employees serving in large and small corporations, but also the ability to lead the country, build society, and when necessary, in a society in danger of degeneration, with a number of students with enough awareness to create a movement to promote society forward in the spirit of tolerance and harmony. Such an academic structure can be a threat to power-hungry politicians, so a university operating in humanistic and liberal education according to the principle of autonomy will find it difficult to overcome the obstacle of political power. Therefore, until now, the country has been at peace for nearly half a century, a university mechanism has never been accepted for Buddhism. The higher educational institutions that the State allows are only Buddhist Higher Schools exclusively for monks and nuns, not recognized as equivalent to the College education system, let alone Universities that convey Buddhist knowledge as well as worldly knowledge.

According to the population statistics of the General Statistics Office, "2019 Population and Housing Census", announced on December 19, 2019 at 2:33:35 PM, on the global media website: the total population of Vietnam is 96,208,984. Among them, the largest number are Catholics, 5.9 million people. Next, 4.6 million people follow Buddhism, accounting for 4.8% of the total population of the country. Looking at this figure, the number of so-called Buddhist Intellectuals among 4.6 million Buddhists is indeed too small, compared to more than 5 million party members and over 6 million Communist Youth Union members, if we do just a simple calculation. Obviously, these are numbers controlled by political and economic pressure in the direction of socialism. That number is not enough to form a regular stream that harmonizes many streams into a confluence, so as not to become fierce conflicts that can lead to damage to society, not only in terms of negative beliefs, but also harm educational, cultural, economic and social orientations for future generations.

Today, in the fluctuations from natural disasters to man-made disasters, fierce internal power struggles and international conflicts between powers, signs or predictions of an international division of power are taking place or may take place; Things that may not have a big impact on those who have left home to practice in quiet rooms or meditation monasteries, but have a big impact on the lay community, basically the issue of social security, and economic conditions, thereby affecting educational and cultural activities. In such a situation, Buddhist intellectuals equip themselves with a basic doctrine to be able to observe social changes, orient themselves and at the same time, relying on the basic doctrine learned and practiced to help their children have the ability to orient themselves for the future, contributing to orienting the development of society, of the nation.

However, lay Buddhists who constantly live in a turbulent society can only calmly orient themselves and help their children orient themselves for the future, if they have a solid foundation. The Triple Gem that the Buddha established for the world is the basis for the four groups to practice together in harmony, in which the pure and harmonious Sangha is the embodiment in the heart of the world, which is the solid basis for the harmony of the four groups. The breakdown of the Sangha mechanism will lead to division, conflict and contradiction among the four groups, as has happened in reality.

In short, the prestige of the pure and harmonious Sangha is the basis for the harmony of the four groups of disciples. The gathering of the four groups in harmony is the basis for building a Church, in which religious and secular laws are not contradictory, with enough qualities and abilities to contribute to the causes of education, culture, society, and economy, leading the country into a period of order, peace and happiness. This is also the ideal Bodhisattva vow and Bodhisattva practice of the four groups of disciples of the Buddha, for the happiness of themselves, their families, and society.

Mid-Autumn Festival, the joy of children, is also a source of inspiration and hope for the future of the four groups of Buddhist disciples.