Upon the ideal of education and ways of its realization, obviously, it would be a long history from Buddhism. Its activities have not been limited only to and around archives or conference facilities in its monasteries but also spread to royal courts, official establishments, and everywhere there be gatherings of at least two persons and up in any people’s everyday living. Besides it must be added up with events and changes through ages, dissimilarities between nations… All could be collected in a huge series of Buddhist history on education. Unfortunately, nowadays, it still is a topic too fresh for Buddhist studies. Clashes between Oriental and Western civilizations, in comparison with efforts of over ten centuries of contact among civilized Indo-China worlds which lasted from late CE I century to XI or XII, in particular throughout Tang and Song dynasties, clashes which we are witnessing today would not be anything. Our present trouble would not be a problem with the method as most part of people still believed in it.
Contributions from Buddhist Studies experts in European languages have proved so. Fond and Form of creative works from thinking and literature in different Buddhist orientations cease to be an impenetrable labyrinth. In the very old days, the Chinese knew how to seize the “hidden source’ of Buddhism in order to realize it along with their national racial and traditional philosophy and literature, it should be a resourceful experience. Despite many hinders between these two countries, an immense desert in High Asia and the Himalayas cold mountainous range that become a very dangerous natural frontier and overrun any capability of any ordinary man who would use only his or her bare feet, these two nations had some times arrived to their mutual understanding. Our East and West have no such damned borders, so why it is so difficult to establish an understanding? Does it mean that difficulties Buddhism has encountered, particularly in education, would not be “science and technologies” or “spiritual traditions” between the Orient and the Occident? However, if thrown out, we should be inclined to go deep into metaphysics, like told by an anecdote of Tchuoang Tseu (Trang Tử) “You are not fish, how can you know it be cheerful?”
As we had known in discussions at many Asian Universities, “Western technologies and science” and “Oriental Spiritual traditions” are regularly mentioned. And based on this sticker, Asian Universities have taken it as their mission to strain all their efforts to realize it to its “fullest implementation”. Considering the contents and intentions, that would be nothing less than a mere slogan. We are not here obliged to examine its effectiveness.
Obviously, we have to accept as a truth that technologies and science are exceptional products and nearly exclusive ones in Western hands. Western philosophers in particular in this century, have understood very much in depth about their quintessence. Supposedly we had understood profoundly one of the indispensable statements or propositions of Phenomenology, by which existence precedes essence. From here a deduction could follow that the inner utmost nature of a specific phenomenon should be realized even in the means or manner of existing as its own individuality. That would be a concept in general. As exemplars, if we take some philosophers, in the context of their contribution to the Western contemporary philosophical lingual world, we should decipher what would be the essence of Western “technologies and science” from one of the “spiritual traditions”.
Wittgenstein should be a typical one whose main leading ideas were recorded in Tractatus: Language is the molded form of the world. Hence, the limits of our language should be limits for our world. This would state that all the ways by which our language is motivated should form a point of view on the universe or on any human living. All utopias unearthed from any philosopher, are not derived from the utopian characteristics of his thoughts, but his language and his method of motivating it had imprisoned him in an ivory tower of some utopian thinking. Language is no longer an outside and universal entity that anyone could use accordingly to express what is hidden inside his or her inner. In everyday life the question “What’s this?”, we would think that if the “what” were satisfied, the problem would be solved, based on universal standards of language (x,y) or E (x,y). Nevertheless, solutions would be found only by exerting logical possibilities depending on relationships between universal quantities and specific ones. However, when these quantities are scrutinized thoroughly, they show off their “illusionary” characteristics and in the end, linguistic universal standards are truly false statements. Such analysis will create feelings of desperation toward regulations of any language classified as “truthful or accurate”; and there would be only one language remaining is the language of poetry. Though not truthful or accurate as in ‘technologies and science’, its capability of describing realities is plentiful. Therefore, logic experimentalists in modern Western philosophy accept only the language of music rather than any philosophical or scientific statements.
Here we are not forgetting contributions from Michel Foucault to modern philosophical language. Language order should be world order. That should be the main important point. He had named his contribution archeology; because, through the development of language syntaxes, traces of human civilization through eras could be found; and by these discoveries, characteristics of differential schools of thought. For example, one among many troubles for teachers of philosophy in Vietnam in the present time when they’re trying to present the concept of L’être or Being or Sein, Philosophy students could feel very confused, because the list of Vietnamese in usage does not contain these words, intrinsic existence, existential being, essence, quintessence, etc.; because Vietnamese structural syntax does not have these opera. European languages had been incapable of l’Être et le Temps (Being and Time), so if based solely on the structure of Vietnamese syntax, we could not figure out the limit of this incapability. When a philosopher said; “the question on essence is the most generally universal one, the emptiest one among possible questions, but at the same time it could be condensed, realized concretely to become the clearest one in any specific actual present quintessence”. They are statements very strange to the structure of Vietnamese syntax. “Essence is the most generally universal question …” In reality, l’Être or Être should be “generally universal” in the French language, except the quintessence, it isn’t. The insurmountable trouble is to take Être(Vietnamese Là) in place of essence. So when it said it’s a tragedy for Vietnam in the present time to record its existence with plenty of blood and tears, it would reveal with bitter mockery the condemned fate of this nation obsessed with the slogan “to develop Western science and technologies and preserve Oriental spiritual traditions”. To develop in a way as such would be to change its essence and to self-destroy and not to preserve a thing.
However, as said before, because it is not to try to implement that slogan, activities of Buddhist thoughts in education had to cope with immense difficulties. In the past, Buddhism had to get rid of specific characters for its clergy so far dedicated to hidden residences in deep remote forestry to attend where blood and tears were shed for human beings; and it had to give up Indian traits to move to where there would be life and aspirations for enlightenment of causes of living. Anyway, Holy Sakya is still a real or earthy human being with bones and blood, He is yet never a sublime god; therefore, the development or preservation of any cultural products or works should not be an important burden to mislead concerned people when being a slogan or bearing a label. It should be fire and it is only possible to post a banner from a distance and not right in the eye of it. That blade of fire when motivated will shine blazingly upon aspirations the most ardent in the depth of a person’s fundaments, and so indeed a person would see clearly what he or she does want in this living.
Anyway, nobody could overlook fantastic achievements brought in by Western technologies and science that have spread great influences on every field of this modern world. Particularly in structures of society, even in Vietnam in recent years, the Buddhist Church of Vietnam has run into insurmountable crises. It should be widely accepted the main reason that this is the messy bottleneck when principles of social organizations and spiritual traditions are entwined together; that means under any circumstances, we are outcasts under the pressure of the slogan of Development and Preservation between scientific technologies and spiritual traditions. The traditions, of course at this point, have been changed dramatically and fundamentally as when being inserted into principles of organizing that take roots in cosmic and human points of view of the West; or more clearly in sciences and scientific pragmatism. When studying ways of organizing among Buddhist clerical groups, some Western Buddhist scholars were amazed that by some unknown principles, clerical groups had overcome crises, otherwise discordant and disbanded; because dissidence happened and created over 20 factions of church. Then came Mahayana (Đại Thừa) on the stage, the conflicts on thoughts and precepts are detached. But one thing should be recognized the activities of churches’ clergies were not different, the Church was still embodied in a unique form namely pure form or original. Here came the Mahayana trend of thoughts but there was no Mahayana Church. The clergy still observes Serene Rules. Naturally, some differ in some details due to geographical locations or eras. For example, in cold weather zones like in China, walking for food is difficult to carry out according to pure original rules, or it is impossible to prohibit food storage overnight. Nowadays, the Church in Vietnam no longer sticks to serene rules as directive principles but follows sharing power principles as in the West. This form is transfixing “spiritual traditions” in some aspects. For example, 4 baladi so far regarded as irreplaceable maintenance of clerical organization are losing their momentum. Before, some clergy, under the influence of Psycho-analysis, explained baladi or serious violations along with some strange accents. This incident is becoming a reality and to some extent de facto events must be accepted. In this sphere, the inner situation could be more complicated and could overflow our present capability, so we dare not go into further details.
Above all, it is the achievements of Western scientific technologies that with stresses upon their pragmatism toward necessary needs in real life have haunted the minds of those who are trying to preserve the “Effectiveness” of spiritual traditions. It will follow that the method of meditation for example should be required to be effective like any implements that come from science. So, if science could prevent or decrease damages in everyday life, meditation would be also required to have that effectiveness, at the same level at least, if not to say far better. In the old days, a meditation apprentice would demand from his or her teacher to abandon “practical” aspirations in meditative sessions. If everyday life thanks to meditation practice could avoid some troubles, for example, disease, it should be regarded as an “obvious” result, bearing attribute traits, not aiming at it as purpose. Meditation practice is not for gaining or earning or passing days, months, or years of living or living his or her whole life without disasters. To make statements like that could be considered illusionary, and utopian. An interesting anecdote tells that when His Holiness Buddha preparing to cross the river by boat, he met a hermit; this man challenged Him, with the effectiveness of meditation merits, if He had any, He could try crossing the river without means of a boat, by this He could prove his spiritual advance. His Holy Buddha said He needs only some cents, is easy to collect and He would easily cross the river, He does not need to waste a life for meditation practice. Indeed, when wishing to evaluate spiritual advance on practical effectiveness, an illusion or utopia is created upon utopia; and it is still considered as an interesting thing!
Our trouble must be found here. Today or a long time ago, it is still recommended that the Truth must be assessed by its practical effectiveness. Therefore, an ideal and perfect education has to prove its effects it would bring about could meet the practitioner’s needs. By this momentum, instead of opening paths into a lively spiritual world, it is done otherwise to return to the mean needs of the practitioner. Fear, and anxiety in front of some undefined future are sowed. “Survival”, “destruction” etc… are false statements but instill, and aggravate fear. They are also powerful stimulants and put forward directives to be observed. Like an election candidate who would threaten the constituency with a darkened description of the future, if not chosen. With the same image, for us, an educational direction to be selected must include development and preservation, advance, and at the same time not lose roots. In an extreme case, if it must be chosen either way, or development, or preservation, so far Buddhism has chosen the former. The origin of man resides in his/her mind, when pushing development any further from the bottom of his/her heart, nothing would be lost. Old familiar sayings state that “Put down your sword, and you can become Buddha” or “After a sea of sufferings, return to happiness”.
Above some ideals were mentioned, but out of its perimeter of the topic, because its center of interest, with 4 words Duy Tuệ Thị Nghiệp, has been depleted, changed, so that Intelligence would become educational knowledge, comprising “technologies”, “methods”, reserved solely for the slogan of development of technologies, science, and preservation of spiritual traditions.