WESTERN PRAGMATISM AND THE LETTER KHÍ AT THE CAO ĐÀI HOLY TEMPLE. * Từ Chơn.

An old story

I would like to begin this article with an old story, told according to the memory of Hiền Tài Nguyễn Văn Mới, religious name Từ Huệ, a former stenographer of Tây Ninh Holy See. In 1950, when His Holiness Hộ Pháp went to Hà Nội to preach Caodaism, after a lecture at a university, a priest wrote down three questions for a student to ask His Holiness Hộ Pháp:
Dear sir, you said that the Supreme Being, that is, God, opened the Cao Đài Religion. So God is the Supreme Patriarch of Cao Đài. Can you show me the Supreme Being?
Practicing Caodaism turns one to what "Divine Being"?
If you practice Caodaism to become a "God", what is the method of practice? If we also preach love, compassion and charity and teach living beings to do good, avoid evil,  cultivate the mind and nurture nature, previous religions have been doing it for more than 2,000 years.
Faced with three questions with the intention of challenging at such a high level, His Holiness Hộ Pháp answered:
“You asked three questions which is a bit too much. Say, to answer just the first question, I need to write a book for you to understand it. We don't have time here, so when you have a chance to come to Saigon, please come to Tây Ninh and visit the Holy Temple. There will be an answer for you because the Holy Temple is the body of the Supreme Being on earth with not only  a voice but also the answer to any question."
That student's name was Nguyễn Bảo Trị, later Lieutenant General of the Republic of Vietnam Army. Around the 1960s, when he was Commander of Tactical Region III, he visited Tây Ninh Holy Temple to find the answers. The results of the visit were recounted in the book at:
If you have time, please read it. In this article, I will not repeat that story, but only focus on the point that His Holiness Hộ Pháp taught that the Holy Temple has the answer to any question.
It is true as Cao Đài Divine Messages teach: "...the Bí Pháp must be revealed, no longer hidden". All methods of practice during the third great amnesty period will be kept at the Holy Temple. Anyone, with high or low level of education and spirituality, can find a method that suits them. The problem is whether we learn and practice it thoroughly or not. So, I would like to present next a symbol that every Cao Đài follower knows.
The word "KHÍ" in the Holy Temple
One of the very visible symbols at the Holy Temple is the word KHÍ behind the statue of Hộ Pháp. Some details about the word KHÍ have been described in this article. Please read more if you have time:
In this article, I will only summarize a few main points as follows. Although this character is pronounced "qi", it is not the same as the Chinese character 氣. Some people say it is in cursive writing (a quick way of writing Chinese characters). Some people say it is a talisman. Whatever the word is, when placed behind the statue of Hộ Pháp at Hiệp Thiên Đài, it is related to two things.
[1] Esoteric Practice.
Firstly, it is related to the human brain or human spirit because Hiệp Thiên Đài represents the Qi (mind), Cửu Trùng Đài  represents the Tinh (body) and Bát Quái Đài represents Thần (soul). Second, according to the Sino-Vietnamese dictionary, this word means "air" or "breath", so it is definitely related to those two things. In short, this symbol refers to the relationship between breathing and human spirit.
This is further confirmed by the excerpt from the document explaining the word KHÍ dated April 1, 1953 by His Holiness Hộ Pháp: "Saluting the word KHÍ means greeting the entire Tam Qui Thường Bộ Pháp Giới, that is, greeting our lives, not just greeting the Hộ Pháp and Thập Nhị Thời Quân ". Obviously, our breath and mind are "our life".
In short, after bowing to the altar, that is, paying homage to the Supreme Being and the divine beings, all believers must turn around to the statue of Hộ Pháp and the word KHÍ. It is a reminder to believers: an important dharma of Caodaism is symbolized here.
Believers’ thoughts
However, that is only the minimum information that believers receive. There are even many people who still don't understand and still think that doing so is paying homage to gentlemen Phạm Công Tắc, Cao Quỳnh Cư and Cao Hoài Sang. What most of us have done for nearly a hundred years is that after the ceremony, the word KHÍ completely disappears from our minds. There are so many things that occupy the brain that no one thinks about breathing and air anymore.
Besides being too busy with daily life, there is another thing worth paying attention to. That's probably because we are used to living in Asian culture, where putting questions to superiors such as grandparents, parents, teachers, and officials is considered disrespectful. Therefore, in front of religious symbols, we only show respect and do not dare to ask any questions. I remember an American friend, who was my colleague, said: “Teaching English in Vietnam is very easy. No need to prepare the lessons”. When asked why, he said: “Vietnamese students don't ask back. They absolutely respect what you say. That’s it”. How sorry for all Vietnamese students, but I have to agree with my American colleague because for over a thousand years under Chinese rule, Vietnamese people were only taught to memorize as much as possible, not to creatively invent anything new. Although it sounds sad, now we probably understand why Westerners are thousands of times more civilized than us. They always ask questions to understand and think of ways to get things done, not easily bowing their heads to listen for fear of being rude.
[2]  the Ten Zodiac Deities, the 12 senior dignitaries of the Caodaist Judicial Body.
 
Western pragmatism
In general, among us Vietnamese, most still use the number of times we worship, chant sutras or do charity work to calculate the results of a person's practice. A monk having vegetarian meals and chanting sutras for several decades is definitely "about to become a Buddha" better than a person who has just come to the temple to sweep Bodhi leaves for some days. Rarely do we think deeply to achieve the state that the ancients called enlightenment. But what is deep thinking? Basically, ask many related questions and then find ways to answer them. Look at Western people, when they encounter difficulties, they immediately think of something and apply it to see what the results are. If this method doesn't work, they immediately change to another. After achieving results, they still look for ways to improve and are not satisfied to stop. 
The difference between the West and the East can be obviously recognized everywhere. For example, we Vietnamese are taught by the Cao Đài that the word KHÍ is important, but we only respectfully bow to it and that's it. In an opposite manner, when the COVID-19 epidemic broke out, Westerners immediately saw the core of the problem: the human respiratory system was attacked and left behind consequences. In addition to creating vaccines, they immediately researched and discovered that the way ancient Indians and Chinese people breathed was useful, not simply a religious ritual. Most recently, they discovered that breathing is related to the brain. The COVID-19 epidemic has led them closer to the meaning of the word KHÍ placed behind the statue of Hộ Pháp than us Caodaists.
Brain activities can change under the influence of breathing.
So, by the way, I would like to introduce the Vietnamese translation of an article on the Neuroscience website by Erik Driscoll. This is a website specializing in research on human nerves and cognition. This site is headquartered in Texas, USA, but does not receive sponsorship from any government or company. That helps make the scientific research posted on this site objective and trustworthy. The original can be found at this address:
How does breathing affect the brain?
“Breathe in…Breathe out…” “Breathe deeply and count to ten.” We've probably heard people tell us to do this to stay calm in stressful situations. Now Professor Micah Allen of the Clinical Department of Aarhus University (Denmark) has gone even further in understanding how breathing affects the human brain.
The professor and his colleagues took the results of more than a dozen studies on rodents, monkeys, or human brain scans to create a computer model to explain how breathing affects thinking. Professor Micah Allen explains: In many behaviors of different animals, brain rhythms are closely related to breathing. We are more responsive to the outside world when we inhale and less responsive when we exhale. People have applied this to sports that require precision, for example, professional shooters are trained to pull the trigger at the end of their exhalation. Research shows that we breathe not just to live. The brain and breathing are much more closely related, influencing our emotions, attention, and how we deal with things. Professor Allen's model shows that there is a mechanism in the brain that links breathing to everything.
Aarhus University (Denmark)

Respiration can impact mental health
Understanding how breathing affects the brain, and more specifically, how it affects mood, thinking, and behavior is an important goal in treating and preventing mental illnesses. From the fact that shortness of breath is linked to a risk of mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, we know that respiratory disease is linked to mental illness.
Professor Micah Allen explains that the research shows there is a possibility that in the future it may be possible to treat mental disorders by reorganizing brain and breathing rhythms instead of treating individual parts as currently done. Stabilizing the mind through breathing is now traditional methods such as yoga or meditation. New research clarifies the brain's role in this. It has been discovered that there are three ways the brain controls the link between breathing and its own activity. In addition, breathing methods also make the brain more sensitive, meaning nerve cells are more active during a certain period.
There will be more research
This research has outlined a new goal. It's a study of people with respiratory illnesses or mental disorders. Professor Micah Allen and his team have already begun a research project. He said they are carrying out various projects based on this model. Malthe Brændholt, a PhD student, is examining human brain scans to understand how breathing affects emotions and visual perception.
His team also collaborates with the pulmonary team at Aarhus University Hospital. Here people are using experimental equipment to find out whether people with post-Covid syndrome lose the connection between breathing and the brain. Professor Micah Allen added that there will be many more projects coming soon. Photographs of humans and animals will be used to study how breathing affects the brain and how drugs affect it. In the future, we hope to research activities such as stress, sleep, or even swimming in the winter.
 Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)

Intersection
Perhaps here, we see that the attitudes of Western and Eastern people are very different. Our believers solemnly bow to the letter "KHÍ" and then leave and forget. And Professor Micah Allen is enthusiastically starting to research how breathing and nerves are related. In the future, there will certainly be many useful discoveries and applications for humanity. Particularly Harvard Medical University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) and the prestigious Johns Hopkins University of Medicine (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) have introduced the belly breathing method to help people with post-COVID-19 symptoms, people with chronic pulmonary congestion, or people with high blood pressure.
Perhaps any family with a recovering COVID-19 patient has been instructed by doctors in this breathing method. Please read more here.
It is worth noting that these prestigious universities use terms such as deep breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal or belly breathing, among which “belly breathing” is exactly the term Bát Nương Diêu Trì Cung taught in Bí Pháp Luyện Đạo   37 years earlier. These two breathing methods of medicine and meditation are 99% similar.
[3] the Eighth Female Buddha in The Jade Pond Palace
[4] Caodaist Esoteric Practice.
 
Conclusion
The COVID-19 epidemic is another lesson for humanity about the importance of the word KHÍ. Although the situation appears to be calming down, the future remains uncertain. According to WHO (World Health Organization), by the end of 2021 the number of deaths from Covid-19 has been 14.9 million and this number is unlikely to be the last. Mutations still appear regularly and no one knows when they will stop. Let's try to imagine a little. If there is a mutation and the vaccine is no longer effective, what will be the result? So the outstanding question for us ordinary Cao Đài followers is what we should do now after we have vaguely understood the meaning of the word KHÍ behind the Hộ Pháp‘s statue. In my opinion, as an ordinary believer, the following suggestions are worth pondering.
First, we should continue to learn more about religious philosophy because our own abilities are limited but religion is endless. Especially we should learn Western research results to supplement our own shortcomings. Soon the symbols at the Holy Temple will be discovered more and more and then humanity will know more and more about Cao Đài. Only then can we save humanity for the third time according to God's will.
Second, we should apply what we learn as much as possible. For example, the word KHÍ gives us breathing exercises to regulate our minds. So every night, practice abdominal breathing and keep a diary to track our body's changes to gain experience for future generations. If you don't have enough merit to practice Bí Pháp Luyện Đạo Cao Đài, it is still beneficial for your health.
* Từ Chơn
Saigon November 22, 2022

[5] Practice Caodaist Meditation.

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