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SÁCH AMAZON


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If we talk about the study and practice of Buddhist monks and nuns, since ancient times, the Buddha has been a great Teacher responsible for being a Guide for everyone to follow. From the monks to the kings, officials and commoners, everyone wholeheartedly takes refuge in that profound and wonderful teaching. The main purpose of practice is to escape from this realm of suffering, to return to the original pure and liberated face of each person. The Buddha also said: "I am only a Teacher", meaning a guide. That guide is our Teacher and anyone in this life who can lead us into Life or into the Dharma is our Teacher.

First, we should analyze what is education and what is pedagogy? Are these two words similar or different in any way, so that we can have a more practical view of the path of propagating the Dharma as well as how Buddhist education is appropriate to the reason and the situation of everyone, so that we can consume and refine what we have practiced and learned to sublimate our spiritual life. That is the key to open the door to each of our souls. The word "giao" means to teach, to show; the word "duc" means to nurture, to want to grow. If we generally define both words "giao" in the position of a Teacher, it means: To teach, to want (the student) to become (a useful person) through our instruction and teaching. As a Teacher, we must have those duties, otherwise it will be like the ancients often say: "If the teaching is not strict, the teacher will fail." That is, if the teaching is not strict, the teacher will fail. If the Teacher fails, how can the student succeed? Therefore, a monk or a professor in the world is not much different in this purpose.

Pedagogy means a teacher who is exemplary, teaches with a curriculum and does what is right with his professional conscience. Teaching students not for the salary earned but teaching is a manifestation of a person's exemplary spirit in school as well as in the temple. There are many teachers who teach very well, but after listening to that lecture, Buddhists say to each other: "That teacher has no pedagogy." So pedagogy also means that you teach so that others can understand what you say, not what you understand. What you understand and what your students understand are not the same. That means: The teacher is too absorbed in teaching about Emptiness, while Buddhists also listen with an empty mind. That is, they do not understand anything. So, is that sermon or teaching of any benefit to the listeners and students? There are also many teachers who start the lecture very well, but the end of the lecture is off-topic. Even the lecturer himself does not know what he has taught, so how can the students grasp what he has taught? This is the key issue of pedagogy.

The propagation of Dharma by monks and nuns overseas or in the country today requires the lecturer to be fluent in many foreign languages and especially the practice of Dharma is more important than the study of Dharma. If the lecturer only talks endlessly about a certain topic, but in terms of practice, this lecturer lacks, the result will not be very effective, if any, it will be like a professor in the school of life, not a lecturer of Buddhism.

Thus, there are many similarities and also many differences between education and pedagogy. In foreign countries like Germany, at universities, people often divide education into many different types such as: Youth education, adult education, special education, etc., and from there they divide into majors as well as many other specialized areas. Meanwhile, in Vietnam in the past, all students were concentrated in one school or one class, there were no special schools for the gifted or special schools for vocational students or disabled children. In Germany, from primary school, the school had already determined that the child would be oriented towards literacy or vocational training. From there, students, and later university students, could easily take control of their own educational path. In our country, right now, the journey of Buddhist education and even secular education has not yet been clearly defined in this aspect, so it is difficult to know the abilities of each student, and the education sector must know how to predict the future of those students. Most of the monastic class and the class of worldly students are grouped together, those who are good will improve themselves, those who are bad will die, drowning in the sea of words or mathematical equations, etc.

There are many teachers with university degrees, but their learning and practice have not gone anywhere, yet they hastily conclude: Buddha said this, Buddha did not say that, etc. They say that to prove that they are educated, but in the end it proves that they have not read all of the Tripitaka of Mahayana and the Southern Canon, so how can they say it is correct, no matter what degree the teacher has. If the teacher says: I think it is like this, like this... then it is okay, but we should not attribute it to the Buddha or the Patriarchs. The Buddha did not say it like that, the Patriarchs did not teach it like that, only that Lecturer said it like that. No one here has read or listened to all 25,000 pages of Southern Buddhist scriptures including: Long Collection, Middle Collection, Samyutta Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya and Khuddaka Nikaya with 13 volumes, so how can they dare to conclude like that? As for Mahayana! It is immense and endless. 250,000 pages of scriptures were translated into Vietnamese from the Taisho Tripitaka with 203 volumes, each volume is about 1,000 pages such as: Long Collection, Middle Collection, Samyutta Nikaya, Miscellaneous Collection and other sutras such as Avatamsaka, Prajnaparamita, Lotus, Nirvana. And then there are this law, that treatise, etc. Therefore, no one who is cultured, has a teacher, has been trained through education can dare to affirm that he has understood all the Buddha's teachings in those hundreds of thousands of pages of scriptures, not to mention remembering and practicing them. It is truly an extremely difficult thing.

In the past, in the temples in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, all relied on Chinese characters to educate monks and nuns when they entered the temple to study, and it was from this Chinese knowledge that many teachers who came from peasant or lower social classes became famous Patriarchs in many periods. So, Chinese characters are not guilty, if there is any sin, it is only because of what people use this language for. Many people think that: Vietnam needs to use the Roman alphabet absolutely for society to progress. Is this right or wrong, after 400 years of the national language, we can answer that question. Meanwhile, Japan and Korea still use Chinese characters to read according to Japanese and Korean sounds, in addition, they also created many new sounds as well as innovative ways of writing from Chinese characters to Japanize and Koreaize, and today these two countries have progressed even further than Western industrialized countries such as England, France, Germany or even America. So language itself is not guilty at all, if anything, it is only because of the people who use it.

Before 1975 in South Vietnam, regarding Buddhist educational institutions, we had places such as Ky Nhi Vien, Co Nhan, Vuon Tre, Primary School, Bo De High School, Van Hanh University, etc. In just over 20 years (1954-1975), our Church trained countless talented monks and lay people to take on the responsibilities of life and religion. Meanwhile, from 1975 until now, more than 40 years have passed, and in terms of Buddhist Universities alone, we have almost no place that trains PhDs or Masters in Buddhist Studies. If that is the case, where will the educational path as well as the propagation of the Dharma of the Church and of Buddhism go? In 1972, when I came to Japan to study, there were nearly 1,000 universities in Japan, and Buddhism occupied nearly 100 schools, and today there are countless. If we want to see the progress of a nation or a religion, we must look at the education of that country. If the education and training system does not develop but only focuses on economic development and national defense, when will that country be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the modern world outside today?

To conclude this article, in my humble opinion on the issue of the journey for the educational path of Buddhism both at home and abroad, we must have a specific, effective and productive educational program right now, and the issue of education must be put first. Because investing in education requires more time and money than any other type of investment, even investment in economic issues. Therefore, the scientist Albert Einstein once said: "Do not expect to become a successful person, but become a valuable person." Our value is: True practice and true study, not the value of degrees or social standing. Therefore, I often tell my disciples with degrees: "Learning does not liberate people, but if you want to open the door to liberation, you cannot do without practice and study."

Our Vietnamese Buddhism in the present, both inside and outside the country, needs more practice than study. If there is study without practice, the path to enlightenment leading to liberation from the cycle of birth and death is still far away. I hope that this is just a small contribution of my opinion to the important work of Vietnamese Buddhist education, both inside and outside the country, and now or in the future, many years from now.

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